Is it soup yet?

B

borducks

New member
I'm prepping a batch of mixes to send to a mastering house and want to get a quick response from the pros here.

We're happy with the mixes and have tweaked them to death. When we test them on various stereos, etc. they're all a bit upper-mid bright, but it's uniform across the tracks. Are we basically toeing the line where mastering starts and wasting time trying to start your job? Basically, are we done yet?

Cheers.
 
borducks said:
We're happy with the mixes and have tweaked them to death. When we test them on various stereos, etc. they're all a bit upper-mid bright,.
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My question would be whether both of the highlighted phrases in the above quote are true. If you're happy with the mixes as they are, brightness and all, then you're done. If what you're really saying, however is that you *would be* happy if only they wern't so bright in the upper mids, then you're not done - in my book, anyway.

The way I personally treat it is a mix is done in one of two cases only: one, when you're happy with it, or two, when you've gotten it as good as you can get it.

If you're happy with what you got, then you're done. If you're not happy with the upper mids, but you just can't get fix that problem yourself, then you're done. If you're not happy with those upper mids, and if you can get them better, then you're not done.

Don't leave to mastering what you can do yourself in mixing. The better your mix, the better the mastering.

G.
 
Good words as usual, SSG. Thanks. I'm pretty sure it's "anything we do is probably gonna mess it up" so off it goes.

BTW, I'm borrowing some other good words of yours. Thanks for the sig material ;)
 
I would listen for sibilance or any harshness around 5 -6 k. If your getting to much sibilance, it helps to cut down on that in the mixing where it's easier to get at. It can be done in mastering but it a bit more destructive.
 
There aren't any bumps or particular freq spikes. I teased those out per track as much as possible since I figured one of those against a master limiter could smash the whole mix. What I was talking about is probably something that a small, well placed bit of master EQ will tame. And a mastering eng. should have better gear & ears for that than me.
 
Interesting, reading and coming in late here, I was thinking along the same lines -as in before sending it why not try said 'upper mid cut' on the two-tracks, see how they fair.
 
Thx, Tom. No doubt more kick. I cut it back a bit much last time trying to give more room for the upper end. Not sure what to try on the bass, as far as individual track treatment. Any thoughts?
 
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