any good tutorial resources for mastering?

  • Thread starter Thread starter gdgross1978
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why not

I'd also ask why he's narrowing in on stem mastering and not 2mix mastering.I don't have many links for mastering procedures outside of what Masteringhouse and Massive Master have on their sites, but to give my own answer to the rest of those questions:

...

The biggest trick IMHO is knowing when to stop, and that is all in the ears. When pushing apparent volume in mastering, It'll reach a point where you'll start trading sound quality for volume. At some point the mix will start sounding "pushed"; i.e. the loss of volume dynamics in the mix ill start revealing itself as sounding unnatural.

It's your own personal choice as to how much quality you wish to trade for volume, and as to whether you want that pushed sound or not. Personally I hate that pushed sound, but everybody has their own personal thresholds for that. But it takes ears to hear that stuff, combining that with personal preference, and what sounds "pushed" to one person does not to another.
...

My own personal recommendation would be that if you're not sure, it's better to err on the conservative side than to overdo it. An "under-pushed" master will still sound good to everybody, and can simply be turned up on playback. An "over-pushed" master will sound over-pushed to those who can hear those things and will never sound good to everybody, and cannot be corrected by turning down the playback volume.

G.

stems give the master engineer more flexibility to fix things
especially when some home recording guy does the mixes instead of an experienced mix engineer and hands over a terrible stereo track where the damage can't be undone.

you can always make a maximum level master that is good and simply turn down/up the amp depending on your preference. I find that by normalising everything i never have to change the volume on my amp. And I tend to keep the SPL at home rather lower than others may want.

I am not fighting the loudness war by compressing and trying to get the highest perceived sound level.
 
you said the drum peaks were holding down the level of the other instruments. if you compress them and amplify them first you can make them a lot louder in the mix. you could just lower the drum track but you might get more noise that way.

normalise - i use that to mean raise the level of each track to the same amount. and the final track as high as i can safely. then it is easier to mix them in the right proportions and avoid one being too loud.
Is English not your first language?
 
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stems give the master engineer more flexibility to fix things
especially when some home recording guy does the mixes instead of an experienced mix engineer and hands over a terrible stereo track where the damage can't be undone
I understand that, and you're right.

In this case - if I read it correctly - though, it's a matter of a home recorder self-mastering an already existing stereo mixdown. There are no stems.

If he's going to go back and re-mix to create his own stems for himself to master, he might as well just get the mix right since he's going to wind up mixing the stems together himself anyway - i.e. getting any stems together would be before what his question is asking about.

G.
 
home stems

i would bet that most home recordists stems are their original tracks and they do not have the intermediate work product.
 
thermal noise limit

...
So in a typical 24 bit preamp/ADC, there are actually 24 usable bits? As in, the preamp/system is quiet enough not to overwhelm the last few bits with its own noise? (My day gig is building data recorders, most of ours are 16 bit; but I did use a TI ADC recently and the effective noise-free bits was something between 20 and 22.)

The reason to record lower is to get a cleaner signal that's more in the linear range of the preamps and converters?
...

Thanks again, and forgive me if I'm asking dumb questions!

Thermal noise limits the usable bits in ICs to 20 unless you cool the circuits like nasa does with a deep space antenna. so turn the a/c up high you might get another bit! Discretes could do a little better if in a well designed circuit with low noise components.

24bits will give you plenty of cushion to do fx and manipulate the signal without losing any real S/N. you only get 16 when you burn a cd so no real need to obsess about this.

theoretically there could be some linearity issues with high signals but the negative feedback should pretty much make that moot. but still a good idea to run in the middle of the range than push it needlessly.
 
list of some master mix/master resources

Quick question - anyone know of any good mastering tutorials on the web?...when I go to master it everything ends up MUCH quiter than I want. In fact I can see the waveform peaks corresponding to the kick and snare and they're huge, so I know that is limiting things. ...

first you do need to read this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_wars

then check out these for mastering info

http://www.bartlettrecording.com/mastering.html
Digital editing and mastering of your songs
Suppose you have a CD-R or cassette of your songs. I can edit it into a CD master that is ready to duplicate on CD. I also master the recordings made at my studio. Your songs will be in the desired order, with a few seconds of silence between songs. All noises before and after each song will be removed.

Also, I will match the song levels so that no song is too loud or too quiet relative to the others. This makes the collection of songs sound more uniform, like an album.
Editing screen in mastering
PROCESSING
Other audio processing can be done, but should be done only if needed:
• Digital equalization to change the bass, mids, or treble of certain songs.
Loudness maximizing to keep the overall level hot. This processing will not change the dynamics of your music unless you ask for that.
Harmonic balancing to make the tonal balance like a commercial CD of your choice.
Fade ins, fade outs, and cross-fades from one song to another.
• Cut and paste editing. For example, put the guitar solo from take 3 into the rest of take 1. Or use the intro from take 5, and the rest from take 2.
By splitting songs into segments, I can EQ the chorus differently from the verses, adjust overall level in spots, and so on

http://www.tenthegg.co.uk/mastering/stem-or-stereo.html
Stem or Stereo Mastering?
Which Mastering Approach Is Right For Your Project?
Stereo Mastering involves working with a single stereo mixdown of each song. This is great for most projects but in some cases better results can be achieved by splitting a track out into a handful of sub-mixes (stems) and processing these separately. This is known as Stem (or Separation) Mastering. For example we could compress, EQ or widen the stereo spread of the guitars without affecting the rest of the mix.

http://en.wikiaudio.org/Stem_mixing
Stem-mastering is a technique derived from stem mixing. Just like in stem-mixing the individual audio tracks are grouped together to allow for independent control and signal processing of each stem and can be manipulated independently from each other. Advantages
1. More control over each group of instruments.
2. Ability to adjust mixes that are out of balance.
3. Ability to process each stem through a separate signal chain.

Music Tech Magazine issue 43 - issue on mastering

http://www.redsecta.com/pdf/StemMastering.pdf

http://www.stonebridgemastering.com/blog/?p=30
Stem Mastering has many different names. It is is sometimes called separation mastering and some people call the stems submixes.
Everyone that has listened to recorded music is already familiar with stems. Most audio recordings are in stereo, where there are left and right stems that play together to create the listening experience.
Usually to submit mixes to a mastering studio, mixing engineers and producers will provide their mastering studio with stereo mixdowns (only two stems). This is the industry standard and the traditional way of mastering, but there are three situations where you may want to provide more stems than just 2-channel stereo mixdowns.
First, if the audio fidelity is extremely critical and you want the very best possible results from mastering, you will want to provide stems. Mastering is an art of compromise, and there are some compromises that can be eliminated altogether if there are stems provided.

http://www.fixyourmix.com/stemmixing.html
Square Stem Mixing or "Stem Mastering" is a hybrid between our mixing package and our mastering package, designed for artists with fully- or partly-mixed songs.
Mixing from stems enables us to do almost everything we would during the mixing stage–punchier drums, tighter low end, vocals more up front–all while retaining the essential character of your mix.
Here, you're giving us more to work with than you would for mastering (a single stereo track), but less than you would for mixing (all of the tracks separated). You take all of your individual tracks and export them in groups called "stems."
A stem, also known as a submix, subgroup, or bus track, is a single audio file made by combining multiple tracks. For example, a "vocal stem" can be made by soloing all vocals simultaneously and exporting them as a single stereo track. Unlike for traditional mixing, you should leave all of your volume, panning, and plugins enabled when exporting stems.
With Stem Mixing, we literally "fix your mix."

http://www.mastering7.com/index.php...25:stemmastering&catid=45:articles&Itemid=202
The advantages of stem-mastering:
1. More control over each group of instruments.
2. Ability to adjust mixes that are out of balance.
3. Ability to process each stem through a separate signal chain.
We sum the tracks in digital domain, no noise or phase problems are added!
Generally well-done mixes do not need stem-mastering. But if you are unsure about the balance of your mix, stem-mastering is the perfect solution.

http://www.diplo.co.uk/music/mastering.php


http://mastering-media.blogspot.com/2008/11/music-mastering-techniques-to-make-your.html
8 Music Mastering Techniques to Make Your CDs Sound Better

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/aug04/articles/computermastering.htm
Audio Mastering In Your Computer
How to achieve classy-sounding results
Published in SOS August 2004

http://www.pcmus.com/mastering.htm
Digital Audio Mastering FAQ

http://hubpages.com/hub/Audio-Mastering
Mastering Techniques: Audio Mastering Explained

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2224928/The-Secret-of-the-mastering-engineer-Katz-Tutorial

http://www.musicbizacademy.com/articles/mastering.htm
Mastering: What is it and Why Can't I Do it Myself?

http://www.masteringguide.co.uk/
Top 10 Audio Mastering Tips For Preparation of Mastering
1. Leave enough headroom: Don't use limiting on the master at all. leave about 2-3db of headroom from the loudest peak to 0db.
2. Don't add too much on the master buss: This includes eq and compression, especially multiband
3. Take breaks to rest your ears while mixing.
4. Mix with some stereo compression over the master bus: But not too much just gentle compression to let you hear how it will affect the mix.
5. Be careful with stereo expanders: They can cause phasing problems if over used.
6. Dont moniter too loud: This can cause both your ears and moniters to compress slightly resulting in a different sounding mix than what is actually there.
7. Check the mix at very low levels. This helps get an overall picture of the mix. Nothing should disappear with these lower listening levels.
8. Reference other mixes.
9. Listen to the mix in a variety of listening environments as well as headphones. Laptop speakers are good for hearing the mix on less capable speakers.
10. Consult a good online mastering engineer for further guidance on your mix before sending in.
 
i would bet that most home recordists stems are their original tracks and they do not have the intermediate work product.
:confused: Which is to say that they have no stems. And since they are self-mastering, stems wouldn't make any sense; that would just be part of their mixing process.
XLR said:
He uses Har-Bal for mastering
And for his equipment list he shows a picture of the control room of a submarine and says, "What I wish my control room looked like.":rolleyes:,

G.
 
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