DIY Mastering Clinic #1!!!!!

mshilarious

Banned
Ladies and Gentlemen, here it is, the long-awaited mastering contest now reborn as the DIY Mastering Clinic!!!!

First let me explain the objectives of the Clinic, then I will set down the rules:

Objectives:

The objective is to give home recorders insight into the mastering process as well as some basic analysis and techniques for improving final mixes via stereo bus processing.

The emphasis will not be on LOUDNESS! Mixes will almost certainly get louder, but we hope to gain an understanding of not only how loud a mix can be, but how loud it should be.

Finally and most importantly, we'll learn what should really be corrected in tracking and mixing and not left for mastering.


Am I going to teach all of this? I hope not! As your host, I will be commenting and encouraging frequently, but the Clinic is open to everyone who wants to post a master, and everyone who wants to comment.


Rules:

This is not a contest; it is not judged, there is no winner, there are no prizes. As it is not a contest, please don't feel there are any secrets--post your master, describe your objectives, describe your process and how successful you feel you were.

I will be posting finished mixes that I have solicited and received from well-known members of Homerec. These members aren't looking for free mastering!!! To emphasize this, the final mixes will be in .mp3 format--nothing they could use for a CD.

I am not a moderator, and generally speaking, there aren't many moderators around here anyway :o I will ask that any commercial activity be kept to PMs and off the Clinic thread. As host, I will personally not solicit or accept any such business. Everyone else is free to do whatever they like.

I hope that will do. Next post will have the first track!
 
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Before the track link, a few words on what the Clinic isn't:

It isn't really real "mastering". Not because we might not be pros, but simply because we are only taking one song in isolation and not producing a premaster CD. So I feel there's lots to the process that will be left out. That is an acknowledged limitation of the Clinic.

The first track is by Dogman, featuring Jack Real and VSpaceBoy. I'll let Dogman tell you more about it. I think it's a track not only with potential, but lots of different options. It's on the long side, so one challenge will be to keep it sounding fresh. There aren't glaring faults, but there is still stuff that could be fixed (to be fair to Dogman, I asked him to give me a less processed mix so we'd have more things to play with).

That's all I will say about the track, other than it's a 13 meg 320K mp3:

http://www.lightningmp3.com/live/file.php?fid=3052

Also the (60 meg) .wav is available here:

http://www.the4dogz.com/Master/DarkAndLonelyBareMix.wav

And Tom of masteringhouse is hosting the zipped .wav, the .mp3, and a Monkey Audio lossless compressed version here:

http://www.masteringhouse.com/masteringclinic/


(Thanks to NL5 for hosting! If you need a server to upload your master, NL5 has generously offered his site, www.lightningmp3.com)


Let's get mastering!!
 
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This is just what we need. Maybe we can all learn something about mastering instead of hearing the all too common, "You're fools to think you can master at home with nearfields and plugins."
 
Well, my musical cohort, Supercreep, and I, will be finishing our CD and probably doing a DIY mastering job on it soon. We could use some insights into this process as I'm sure there are many things we're doing wrong or not doing at all.

Mr. Creep is the keeper and master of our digital stuff, so he'd be the one dealing with that, should the need arise. I just want to follow along here and learn and lend my ears and opinions, if no one minds. This should be cool. . .
 
I am also here to learn. I don't want anyone to do something for me, that I might be capable of doing myself..at least to an acceptable degree. I, for one, have no aspirations of doing anything musical for a living. My money is made on property, and the buying and selling of. My music is for my own pleasure, and I appreciate immensely, any and all help I can get. I would love to learn a lot from people of this end of the music stuff. Thanks for playing gang. :D
 
Well, I was planning on posting my take first, but the kids are in bed, and seven months after moving, I still haven't done any soundproofing :( So it will have to wait for tomorrow.
 
Incanus said:
Well, my musical cohort, Supercreep, and I, will be finishing our CD and probably doing a DIY mastering job on it soon. We could use some insights into this process as I'm sure there are many things we're doing wrong or not doing at all.

Mr. Creep is the keeper and master of our digital stuff, so he'd be the one dealing with that, should the need arise. I just want to follow along here and learn and lend my ears and opinions, if no one minds. This should be cool. . .

Creep does metal, yes? Clinic #2 will be a metal track :)
 
Ok, my first stab with this mix. Pretty simple, but I need a starting point.
Dark take 1
This was simple, trying to get rid of teh boom in the low end, and accentuate the vox a bit.

Who the hell mixed this anyway??????? :eek: :o
 
As someone who entered the world of mastering as a newbie only about 5 years ago, the whole online mastering "scene" seemed VERY pretentious and unwelcoming. I decided to say "fuck em" and continued learning as much as I could from these and other message boards, a few books, listening to a lot of records, and playing with T-Racks and Cool Edit Pro. I learn quickly and I think I'm pretty bold when it comes to learning a new skill - so, after a year I thought I knew just about everything. I was WRONG. Very very wrong.

If mastering engineers come off as being dicks, it's probably because they hear something you don't hear - a whole new level of hearing audio that most musicians and young engineers just haven't trained themselves to hear. Then again, some of them are probably real dicks. :)

So, 5 years into my mastering career, I still feel like I'm hearing a totally new level of audio every few months. Decisions I made two years ago seem absolutely foolish to me now and I wish I could go back and re-do every album and re-do every conversation I had with people who must have thought I was nuts. Not that I totally destroyed anything, but I just wasn't hearing things the way I hear them now. I'll probably feel this way later too, but that's life.

Anyway, I'm excited about this clinic - both to learn and to hopefully teach someone who is trying to get started like I was a few years ago. Mastering (and audio in general) is a very very complicated medium for problem solving. Sometimes it's math, sometimes it's art... often I find myself trying to solve problems only I can hear, but I solve them because that's the fun of it.

Thanks for doing this event. I totally appreciate it. If any newbies have any questions about mastering, but fear that people might laugh or generally "be dicks" about it, drop me a line or give me a call anytime and I'll tell you what I know. ryan.mills@littleking.ca - 416.427.2827
 
Oh yeah, people who have been mastering for 15 years or more can definitely see where I'm at in year 5 and are probably shaking their heads at how confident I sound. I love it. I can't wait to hear things the way they do. Every year just sounds so much better than the ones before it, even just when it comes to listen to music.

The bad news is, it gets a lot harder to be impressed by something for its audio quality. Still it happens. God bless Wilco, The Beach Boys, John Vanderslice, and all the others who hold this sacred art dear to their heart.
 
ryanlikestorock said:
As someone who entered the world of mastering as a newbie only about 5 years ago, the whole online mastering "scene" seemed VERY pretentious and unwelcoming. I decided to say "fuck em" and continued learning as much as I could from these and other message boards, a few books, listening to a lot of records, and playing with T-Racks and Cool Edit Pro. I learn quickly and I think I'm pretty bold when it comes to learning a new skill - so, after a year I thought I knew just about everything. I was WRONG. Very very wrong.

If mastering engineers come off as being dicks, it's probably because they hear something you don't hear - a whole new level of hearing audio that most musicians and young engineers just haven't trained themselves to hear. Then again, some of them are probably real dicks. :)

So, 5 years into my mastering career, I still feel like I'm hearing a totally new level of audio every few months. Decisions I made two years ago seem absolutely foolish to me now and I wish I could go back and re-do every album and re-do every conversation I had with people who must have thought I was nuts. Not that I totally destroyed anything, but I just wasn't hearing things the way I hear them now. I'll probably feel this way later too, but that's life.

Anyway, I'm excited about this clinic - both to learn and to hopefully teach someone who is trying to get started like I was a few years ago. Mastering (and audio in general) is a very very complicated medium for problem solving. Sometimes it's math, sometimes it's art... often I find myself trying to solve problems only I can hear, but I solve them because that's the fun of it.

Thanks for doing this event. I totally appreciate it. If any newbies have any questions about mastering, but fear that people might laugh or generally "be dicks" about it, drop me a line or give me a call anytime and I'll tell you what I know. ryan.mills@littleking.ca - 416.427.2827
Do yourself a favor, Ryan. Print out this post and keep a copy for yourself tucked away somewhere. After you've been at this for another 10 years after today, pull this message out to give yourself a good laugh. ;) :D

G.
 
ryanlikestorock said:
Oh yeah, people who have been mastering for 15 years or more can definitely see where I'm at in year 5 and are probably shaking their heads at how confident I sound. I love it. I can't wait to hear things the way they do. Every year just sounds so much better than the ones before it, even just when it comes to listen to music.

Hey, thanks for coming :) After about 1 year playing with mastering, I still feel incompetent, so no overconfidence here :o I'll limit my confidence to the success of this thread :cool:

This was simple, trying to get rid of teh boom in the low end, and accentuate the vox a bit.

I think you pushed this too hard. On the intro, actually I think you could try to fatten the guitar up a little. Instead it's louder, which is good, but also very sharp. Gotta be careful with that because the stereo is so wide there.

To me, with the volume it got bassier. A LOT of the volume is still coming from that huge kick.

For the vocal, bringing it out just seemed to yield a shrill, sibilant sound. I think some midrange helps the vocal and too bright seems to hurt. On the other hand, the bright sound works better for the second guitar solo, so that might be worth exploring.

OK I better put up or shut up now, eh? :o :o :o


Oh wait, we're forgetting an important part: you told us what your objective was, but not exactly how you did it :confused:
 
mshilarious said:
Hey, thanks for coming :)
I think you pushed this too hard. On the intro, actually I think you could try to fatten the guitar up a little. Instead it's louder, which is good, but also very sharp. Gotta be careful with that because the stereo is so wide there.

To me, with the volume it got bassier. A LOT of the volume is still coming from that huge kick.

For the vocal, bringing it out just seemed to yield a shrill, sibilant sound. I think some midrange helps the vocal and too bright seems to hurt. On the other hand, the bright sound works better for the second guitar solo, so that might be worth exploring.

OK I better put up or shut up now, eh? :o :o :o


Oh wait, we're forgetting an important part: you told us what your objective was, but not exactly how you did it :confused:
So far, this is pretty simple. Just a multiband, with the lows turned down a bit. It's a free plugin. It needs tons more work, but with my limited knowledge, it's all experimental. :o You should hear the other version I did....I won't post it out of embarrasment... :eek:
But, I will keep working on it, and hopefully, someone else will post something better, and give me some good ideas... :D
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Do yourself a favor, Ryan. Print out this post and keep a copy for yourself tucked away somewhere. After you've been at this for another 10 years after today, pull this message out to give yourself a good laugh. ;) :D

G.

You should read my business plan from 5 years ago when I decided to jump into mastering full time. It's pretty funny.

There's no way around it, I think I'll always feel like today's work is twice as good as yesterdays. At this point, I'm really really happy with the work that I do, as are my clients... but, there's always so much to learn, even if I'm not aware of it. I work with audio 8-9 hours a day, every day; so the experience adds up quickly. I think that's the issue, not that it's a problem.
 
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