Help Mastering

[AMcB]

I've been recording for about a year, and I'm only 17 so I haven't really had a chance to go to school yet. If you guys get some time go to myspace.com/sundaybutsummer and listen to the quality of the song and let me know what you think. Like I said I'm only 17 so I don't have alot of experience with it, or money to buy good things. But let me know what you think, how the guitars sound, drums vocals...ect

myspace.com/sundaybutsummer

Thanks,
Aaron

[fishkarma]

that dosnt sound too bad but mabe you would upload to a proper hosting site as my space compresses the shite outta stuff as you can hear. maybe www.soundclick.com

also did you only mix that or is it an attempt at going through the mastering process?
are you asking for help on what you should do to master it or is a question of what do you think of my mastering?
do you actually know what mastering is?


good luck either way

[AMcB]

Pretty much both, what do you think, and what should I do to make it sound better. I'm not sure if I know exactly what mastering is. I compressed it, eq, reverb all that. But I'm really just wanting some help to make it sound better.

[mrhotapples]

Mastering usually involves minor equalization between tracks and making a track louder (or a bunch of tracks on a CD about the same volume).

[AMcB]

So I guess that is my atempt at mastering. And I want to know what I could do to make it sound better.

[fishkarma]

Originally Posted by AMcB

Pretty much both, what do you think, and what should I do to make it sound better. I'm not sure if I know exactly what mastering is. I compressed it, eq, reverb all that. But I'm really just wanting some help to make it sound better.

over the entire track or just individual channels?

mastering is where you put eq campression ect over the entire track not just one channel
eg the tracks too boomy so you remove some ov the low end over the entire track as opposed to turning down individual channels to attempt to tame it

-Josh

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by AMcB

So I guess that is my atempt at mastering. And I want to know what I could do to make it sound better.

Re-mix it. When possible, re-track it.

While there is always some tweaking that happens after the mixdown is created, mastering normally should not be considered a place to fix the mix, only as the place where you prepare the mix for publication.

If you need some minor tweaking, or volume adjustment, you can do that on the mixdown.If the mix just doesn't sound good enough, though, you have a bad mix on your hands and should go back and fix it in the mix instead of trying to fix it in the master. Not only will this give you a better result than fixing in the master ever will, but it'll sharpen both your trakcing and your mixing skills faster and better than anything else will.

As far as what you actually need to do to make it sound better, let me answer that with another question:what part or parts of it sounds like it needs improving to you? Before one can suggest how to fix something they need to know what is broken first.

G.

[elicantu]

hey i think it sound good! straight up man! yeah

It'd sound a lot better if it weren't clipping throughout the whole song. Don't let the meters go into the red.

If they did while recording the tracks then there's nothing you can do. Turning down the fader on the track won't fix it. When recording tracks, keep an average level of about -18 to -12db on your software's volume meters.

Probably not as big of a deal with heavy distorted guitar songs so much as with other music, but it can still add a really 'dirty' or gritty sound to the already distorted guitars.

Other than that I don't think it sounds bad, really. I'm listening on headphones.

What parts did did you want to make sound better?

[AMcB]

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

Re-mix it. When possible, re-track it.

While there is always some tweaking that happens after the mixdown is created, mastering normally should not be considered a place to fix the mix, only as the place where you prepare the mix for publication.

If you need some minor tweaking, or volume adjustment, you can do that on the mixdown.If the mix just doesn't sound good enough, though, you have a bad mix on your hands and should go back and fix it in the mix instead of trying to fix it in the master. Not only will this give you a better result than fixing in the master ever will, but it'll sharpen both your trakcing and your mixing skills faster and better than anything else will.

As far as what you actually need to do to make it sound better, let me answer that with another question:what part or parts of it sounds like it needs improving to you? Before one can suggest how to fix something they need to know what is broken first.

G.

I really just want to know what other think, so a majority of people like it verses one person (me)

[AMcB]

Originally Posted by danny.guitar

It'd sound a lot better if it weren't clipping throughout the whole song. Don't let the meters go into the red.

If they did while recording the tracks then there's nothing you can do. Turning down the fader on the track won't fix it. When recording tracks, keep an average level of about -18 to -12db on your software's volume meters.

Probably not as big of a deal with heavy distorted guitar songs so much as with other music, but it can still add a really 'dirty' or gritty sound to the already distorted guitars.

Other than that I don't think it sounds bad, really. I'm listening on headphones.

What parts did did you want to make sound better?

The only think I really don't like it the guitar and bass. And the toms (but I only used overheard to get them) The reason it's clipping is because I want it to be loud, it never clipped during recording. I compressed it alot, and that's probably why it clips. Is there anyway to compress it and not make it clip?

Compressing shouldn't make it clip unless you have makeup gain applied.

The most basic way to make it louder is usually compression and then running it through a limiter.

I'll give it another listen tomorrow when it's not so late. You can also post it in the MP3 clinic, that's what it's there for.