Massive Master
www.massivemastering.com
I'm sure it's already been stated, but just to reinforce, that's just what happens when you make a mix louder than it wants to be. There are some "tricks" and certain pieces of gear to get around it to some extent (a Vari-Mu, for instance, tends to nicely and "softly" allow reverb trails to exist without exaggerating them like many other dynamics processors), but this is generally what the "volume wars" have thrust upon us.o0Charlie0o said:I always get some really great mixes going on during mix down but when it comes to the mastering process I find that when I get to the final hard limiting type process (using Waves L2) I loose my snare to the background and the overall reverb levels come way up. In the past I've always just gone back and changed levels to compensate but It still sacrafices the over all sound I was orginally going for with the snare.
In other words I have a great snare on a mix, but when I go for the master it goes downhill. Everything else sounds great and loud. Anyone else come across this or know some basic starting points to fixing this?
Is it something I should be doing in the mix so it won't catch in the mastering process even though it sounds great in the mix? I'm looking to get the snare pretty up front in the final master and also not have a huge reverb washout (which isn't present in the actual mix)
Thanks!
Charlie
If you want to sacrifice less during the mastering phase, you're going to have to sacrifice *more* during tracking and mixing - Using less verb, twisting a few things in the mix differently, "testing the waters" by ramming it into a limiter to see where things stand.
I really wish it would end soon...