mastering louder choruses, mastering masters

BRIEFCASEMANX

BRIEFCASEMANX

Winner chicken dinner!
Hello mastering masters,

When making certain parts of songs louder, "3db pushes" or whatever it's called, is this most often done by making the perception of the sound "louder" with compression, or is it TRULY louder using volume changes/envelopes/automation?

Your dear pal,
Briefcasemanx :mad: :mad: :mad: :cool:
 
Volume changes - Not normally on everything... Depends on the mix.

When leveling during mastering, it *may* be less of a change, but the density and energy will change, accentuating the volume changes.
 
I tried adding more dramatic volume changes in the mix and then evening it out during psuedo mastering. This seems to make the choruses more intense.

..This was only a one off but worked then. Not tried it on any other projects yet.
 
Fishybob said:
I tried adding more dramatic volume changes in the mix and then evening it out during psuedo mastering. This seems to make the choruses more intense.

..This was only a one off but worked then. Not tried it on any other projects yet.
Click to expand...
Yeah im thinking of doing that.
 
The main idea is to bring or keep the listener interest and then hook them with the chorus. Trying to beat them over the head with volume during the chorus I feel is a far less effective method for doing this than adding interest via the mix arrangement. Boosting chorus volume also tends to minimize the importance of the verses; a particularly bad idea if the verses carry a nice hook or if the lyrics are particularly strong.

I therefore personally do not boost the overall envelope of the song to emphasize choruses. Instead I emphasize the choruses by making changes in the mix itself. This may mean, for example, lowering or even muting some of the rhythm instrumet parts that are backing the verses, and/or saving a particular instrumet line for showcase either in the chorus itself or as an emotional crescendo into the chorus, and/or adding support vocals to the lead (chorusing or backup response), and/or any number of other mix arrangement changes between verse, bridge and chorus.

That way I reenforce the song structure and "emphasize" the chorus, while both keeping enough drama in the mix to keep the listener interest and keeping the envelope of the song tight, making the mastering process easier.

G.
 
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