Recent content by Waltz Mastering

Leaving about 1dB of headroom is usually a good idea for wave files destined for the conversion process for youtube, soundcloud spotify, streaming etc.. Itunes and Sonnox also have apps/plug-ins that will let you audition what different conversion processes will sound like. Sonnox | Fraunhofer...

I think it's possible to find an ME that you gel with who might have a background in mixing and possibly production to help put the final touches on the project. It seems the jobs in music engineering that used to be somewhat more definable 10 to 25 years ago, no longer are as much, ..so using...

Same here. Pretty much eq only. I wasn't always a big fan of m/s because it's easier to take things in the wrong direction if you're not careful, but it can let you get at things that otherwise aren't available through other processes. Maybe just to monitor the mid signal on it's own for a...

I'd bring the ref down in level to match what you're working on, and also remember that the refs would have been already mastered, so there is a bit of added processing in most cases that the mix didn't have,.. Refs in the beginning are good to get a bead on something or direction, but how it...

I think what you are saying about ns10's is pretty much right on for the most part. I think Bob Clearmountain single-handedly made them a household name over night once there was a pic of him using them. He was one of the most influential and successful mixers at the time. .. then you started...

Yes, the components used to be pretty inexpensive. The speakers new, when they came out, I think were $390 a pair.

I saw where a single replacement woofer is over $500 now on ebay.. laughable... Blown a lot of those speakers over the years... I currently have a set of Ns10's hooked up to my living room tv. Bose and Genelecs Headquarters are the next town over..

For music production, I'd forget about thinking about target numbers as well. How loud your songs are can be a concern when they are in rotation with your favorite recordings, but still matching by ear will be more accurate than using meters. gl

I'd also use 2 mics as John suggested, but maybe use one mic for the low end, directed at the bottom of the Djembe and the other mic to capture the highs (top head & tambourine) Tambourines have tons of transients so you can overload a mic/input easily so having a couple feet of space between...

Being able to accurately hear below 40-45Hz can be problematic on most systems, so most times you're left with checking it on multiple playback devices (car_boom box_etc) A combination of a high pass + some low wide band cutting should do the trick. There's a fine line between having just the...

Multi-bands can be dangerous. If you don't have a clear cut vision for needing it or really don't know how to go about using it, I'd steer clear because they're a bit complicated and the tendency is to want to tweak the crap out of them. Used in a broader sense, they're easier to get a...

It's mostly about balance. You can't have a ton of mids and highs with out offsetting the bottom and vice-versa. Your eq decisions are based on what you hear in your room and through your monitoring system, so those have to be dialed in or you'll be chasing your tail... It's also gotta sound...

I think when asked, most reputable ME's would give advice and feedback. I initially assume that the mixes are as they were meant, but sometimes things like sibilance and imbalance can sneak by an engineer and it's always best to adjust that pre-mastering, so if it's glaring, I might bring it up...

I do it similar with an eq almost always pre compression, and sometimes one following if needed . like a sandwich Eq > Comp > Eq For in the box, I only use one type/make/model and even on the rare mix or stems use that same one I've been using for a long time because I'm so used to the curves ...

If you want to give it a go yourself, ..after you have the mixes sounding as good as humanly possible, I'd get in the habit of creating separate sessions just for the mastering and consider it a separate process. Trying to do mastering on the bus of the mix session can be a bit futile when it...