Would anyone be prepared to take a look at this for me? Noob recorder needs some help

T

TheAquired

New member
Hi everyone,
So I have recently discovered that mastering is not the same as mixing, and that especially for mastering, it is important to have someone different take a listen etc. So i was wondering, I have tried to "master" my first ever recording myself, but I don't really know what I'm doing at all.

I was hoping I would be lucky enough to find some kind hearted individual who would take a listen to my song, maybe download it and even if they only spent 5 - 10 minutes (hopefully a bit more) in their own DAW just messing around, in an attempt to master it.

It would help me tremendously cause then I would know what kind of sound a mastered track has, compared to the original! I know each song is different, but I hope you can understand what I mean. I don't have any mastering engineers near me, so I would have to travel into the city to try find someone, and as a 17 year old, home recording with my friend, I don't think trying to see how a mastering engineer would do it is a good use of money.

Take a listen on soundcloud, and anyone is interested, I'll post a dropbox link


Thank you for all your help!
 
If I've been very ignorant in asking this kind of request, please just tell me. I definitely don't expect an actual mastering engineer to take a look at this. I suppose I must have come across in the wrong way because out of over 130 people who looked at this thread, only 6 have even clicked play on my song.

I'm sorry for that, feel free to tell me to shove it, I'll at least know someone has taken a proper look at my request then! :P
 
Listening now, and not a mastering guy, but I really like it. The song, lays nice, the mix and tones are balanced, it works.
But, that is listening out of context- on it's own.
I would suggest placing the song in line with a few others you'd see as references, and see how it sits. That'll give some (new) cues as to where you might want to take it, and there's nothing to say that can't lead to those tweaks even leading back to the mix.
 
You would have probably stood more chance in the MP3 mixing clinic of having the track listened to, all though appreciate your interest here is mastering. Firstly prior to mastering a track you need to get the mix as good as it can be which generally involves some objective listening and gaining opinions from others if you don't feel you the ear for it. Your mix could do with some reduction in the highs of the percussion, the vocal could be a touch warmer. The guitars and vocal are sitting quite close in the stereo field, you might want to play around there. The hiss which kicks in as the track ends needs cleaning up. The bass is tiny bit wallowing here and there. Once you have addressed the mix and have it so you are happy with that you can produce a track which you can then treat as a whole for mastering. Maybe try gentle compression and EQ to get the overall tonality as close your expectations before getting the level of the track to the volume you want without overcooking it.
It's useful to play the track on a variety of stereos and see how the overall sound stacks up against a commercially produced track or two. Obviously there is a lot more you can do to get the track ready for mastering and then the actual mastering, but the choices around what needs adjusting are ultimately down to you, and possibly based in part on feedback you get from others that you receive opinions from.

Not a bad song.

Tim
 
yea the mix clinic probably better placed.

i listened a few times its great, on a few different systems...this current listen is some Sony 7506's and theres a little high/2.5k ish maybe in the intro more than later, and thats not really heard on other systems I played it.

i liked the arrangement, fragile part being repeated through it...great.

as for the volume and tones it sounded great, not too loud and not quite, very pro-sumer levels.
 
Thank you all for the feedback so far! I'm glad everyone likes the song. I'm working on it a little, but I have trouble with my track clipping. I use samples for the drums, and the drums always end up clipping (Although it doesn't sound distorted) and so my overall sound output is "clipped". I tried to lower the overall output, then add a limiter to the mixdown, but I cannot get it to the level I had here when I posted the song. (without more noticeable distortion). Anyone know how to work with loudness and things?

Thanks!
 
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