mixing/mastering?

[boulevard]

im new, im using a basic home studio set up based around a Boss BR8 multi track recorder.
Im wondering what exactly is the difference between mixing and mastering?
at the moment im only recording lo-fi voice & guitar, which sounds great with the options on the BR8.
also would a compressor on the recording make the sound smoother or what?

boulevard

[dobro]

You know what mixing is - adjusting EQ, adding touches of effects, adjusting levels, compressing bits, panning bits - major adjustments. At the pro level, people often get different people to record and mix - it's a different set of skills and sometimes fresh ears hear it more usefully. At the home recording level, most people a) want to mix it themselves (it's more fun) and b) can't afford to hire someone else to do it anyway.

At the pro level, mastering is sort of last-stage fine-tuning mixing done by a whole other person or lab who have very expensive tools at their disposal to work with. It involves more of the same - mostly EQ and compression - in order to get the tracks all sounding good together and commercially acceptable. Ideally, it's done by an engineer who really knows what he's doing. Mastering is the final polish-and-brush-up by another set of expert ears. At the home recording level, it doesn't exist - either we don't have the tools, or we don't have the know-how, or we don't have the money to get a pro to do it.

[bvaleria]

Mixing is the process of taking individual recorded tracks and blending them into what is considered "the song". The idea is to allow all instruments, vocals, and other assorted noises to be clearly heard in accordance with the "vision" of the artist. Tonal balances (eq, volume levels) are decided at this stage to the best ability of the engineer. If the intention is to send it off for further mastering, the mixing process can end there.

The mastering process then continues where mixing left off to handle song by song compression levels, volume balances between songs, overall sweetening with additional EQ, all done by "golden eared" mastering engineers with state-of-the-art mastering equipment (and that DOESN'T necessarily mean the TC Electronic Finalizer!!!).

In short, mixing does the blending into what is considered the final song layout/structure of the tracks, mastering is the polish/waxing of the final mixes into a cohesive, professional-sounding product.
(Kinda like waxing the apples at the grocery store before selling them - the apples were good before, but they're even more appealing after a nice "sheen" has been applied!)

Regardless of the marketing hype surrounding these so-called mastering processors - simply putting them in the signal chain on your final mix doesn't mean you've "mastered" your track... the actual process is FAR MORE involved than that, bordering on being an artform in itself.

Bruce Valeriani
Blue Bear Sound

[bvaleria]

Damn Dobro... you must've replied while I was typing!!!

(anyways, Dobro's right too!!!)



Bruce