Expecting that 5-10% that mastering does in a final mix?

pcstudios

Member
I'm trying to learn as much about mixing as possible. I know that you try to get your final mixes sounding as good as possible. But you shouldn’t put anything on the mix buss (that’s for the mastering engineer). And the mastering process is just the 5-10% extra which is making it ready for distribution. But that extra includes master saturation, compression, eq and a limiter. To me, that's huge.

My question is have you ever listened to your mixes and wished the mix could sound like it already had that 5-10% already on it? Maybe some artists are experienced enough they don’t expect the mix to sound glued together like what master buss saturation and compression can achieve. I’m always afraid that my mixes will not sound optimized enough the way they are, and they will be rejected.
 
A lot of people confuse "mastering" with "making it loud" - and while that's a (negligible for the most part) part of the process, it's definitely where that "final volume adjustment" is made.

Just to establish that.

So now that's out of the way - If there are things that need to be on the mix buss to make it what you want, do it. I don't mix an awful lot anymore, but when I do, it's pretty friggin' rare that there isn't at least a master buss compressor or processor of some kind (okay, at this point, it's literally the Neve "Master Buss Processor") on the 2-buss. Don't wait for the mastering engineer to do what the mix wants you to do.

Okay - THAT out of the way - Throw a limiter on also and smash the crap out of the mix --- if for no other reason, just to see how it handles the abuse. Nothing illegal there - and yes - when mixing, I still do it myself. Then (this is the important part) if you're sending it off to a mastering engineer, take it off before exporting.

Long story short - You should be pretty thrilled with your mixes *before* sending them off to the mastering guy. The mastering guy's job is to make tiny little tweaks to your mixes to make them translate to the widest possible array of playback systems and (etc., etc.). At least that's how it used to be. Sure, now, many engineers expect the mastering guy to put his fingerprints on the recording. And that's fine - I enjoy that as much as I enjoy saying "well, that sounds amazing and I'm not going to mess with it."
 
Okay - THAT out of the way - Throw a limiter on also and smash the crap out of the mix --- if for no other reason, just to see how it handles the abuse. Nothing illegal there - and yes - when mixing, I still do it myself. Then (this is the important part) if you're sending it off to a mastering engineer, take it off before exporting.

Right. If it helps you get your mix where you need it, there's no reason not to pre-emptively do a simple preview "master."
 
I used to do it as kind of a "worst case scenario" (usually concerning poorly managed FM stations) just to see what would stick out and quickly found it to be a great tool to attack things like sibilance, clicks & pops and effects that are too loud (or too quiet) but might have otherwise sounded perfectly normal in the mix.
 
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