Best way to master?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tigerflystudio
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Hi Terry!

Why my thoughts specifically?:confused:

I have no problem with the track you're taking, Terry. A great number of us here cut out teeth with or operate with such setups. I went through a 4-track open-reel tape deck and two cassette portastudios before I ever moved to the world of analog/digital hybrid with the (then) high-tech ADAT recorders on the back end of an analog mixer. So there's nothing wrong with what you're doing, IMHO.

And it seems to me that a Masterlink would be a fine final link in your chain to create the digital masters from your mixdowns. I have no issues with that.

G.
 
TelePaul said:
Can I wask what ya don't like about T Racks? I find alot of the T Racks 3 plugs handy in a mix.
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You said it ;)

Mastering is not a tool. It's a process. And there is no tool that can replace the process itself.
 
Terry Wetzel said:
Hi southside glenn......i know you'll say that i'm limiting myself or i'm just too lazy to learn but, be that as it may, i decided awhile ago before i spent a fortune on software that what served my purposes best was a multitrack .
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Why are you putting words in his mouth???? I've never heard him even suggest that.

Many of us, my self included, use outboard recorders.
 
i have a stream going on playing all of steely dans tracks randomly back to back ..it all sounds like one great cohesive album to my ears .bottom line is that if you get each track sounding the best that it can ..and its the same band/mixing team ..then the chances are that it will fit together ..at least in other peoples ears.

if however you are a patchy outfit and need some serious glueing together ..well maybe the issues started apearing way before the mastering process.
 
jonesey said:
I'm going to go ahead and do this, because I'm and idiot. Every time I see a thread that says "best way to master" or the like, its like a car wreck. There is always carnage, but I have to look. This thread is a great example. The author even said he would like to avoid the common arguments that go with this topic, but invariably he gets dumped on by a bunch of pros who insist their way is the only way, undermining and belittling his attempt learn something new.

This board, after all, is called "Home Recording". Ergo, there are many newbies and hobbyists on here. Many are simply trying to learn new methods and techniques, or simply don't have the money to send their mix off to a professional to master. Much like they may not have the money to buy studio time to record professionally or buy the best gear or instruments, or may not be good enough musicians to get a recording contract. Does that mean they shouldn't even try their hand at recording?

One of the greatest pieces of advice I've gotten in my years of recording is to experiment with different techniques and to not get bogged down in rules, factory pres, or plug ins. But when it comes to mastering, the message I consistently see is "leave that to the professionals, son." Kinda like "You'll shoot your eye out kid!" I respect that it may be a honed skill, but acting like it is beyond everyone else's reach is rude and counter-intuitive to the purposes of this board.

Maybe the pro masterers here are just trying to keep their corner of the market, which I can respect. But please, just advertise your services and maybe mention that it took you years to be able to master properly, and you need good equipment both God-given and man-made, and not a cookie cutter software. But the holier than thou attitude wears thin. If we're all too green to be worth your time, then get off of a Home Recording board and stick with your trade magazines.

Let the flames begin
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No flames here. Just a couple of ideas.

About the mastering thing: I think it depends what your aim is. If you want to have fun and learn about it, then there's no other way except to get in there and do it and make your mistakes until you know better. Alternately, if you want a good product right out of the gate, then (assuming your mixes are good) send the project to a reputable ME - he'll do in a day or a week what it would take you years to learn. (That's cuz he's taken the years to learn it lol.) Alternately again, a year ago I pony'ed up to engage the services of an ME on a project of mine, cuz I wanted to learn. I wanted to find out what sort of difference a pro ME could make to the best mixes I could come up with at the time. It was a really useful experiment - I was amazed at how much better the album sounded after going through the ME's studio. (Add this: just this week, a guy I know who mixes at a far higher level of competence than me used the same ME for his project and reported similar amazing results.)

Next, about the Home Recording thing: this site is just called Home Recording. It ain't that in reality. It's a place where lots of people from lots of places hang out. Would you rather have a place where pros and near-pros *weren't* allowed? Pros know stuff, and that's useful. Pros know stuff, and the interaction between them and the amateurs is both useful and interesting. Sure, people get on each others' tits sometimes. But people are gonna do that anyway.

Hoping I haven't got on your tits,

dobro

ps "Every time I see a thread that says "best way to master" or the like, its like a car wreck. There is always carnage, but I have to look."

I know. Me too.

:-)
 
I have a decent EQ, a maximiser, and a compressor...Im going to try an learn with these

these "suites" seem like gimmicks to grab your cash..Im sure they can be used but you've probably got the plug ins anyway..


thing is some stuff just doesnt want to fit no matter what I do...ambient bassoon instrumentals dont fit in with punk/new wave fusion no matter how I EQ


should I put distortion on the bassoon :)
 
If you got money to throw around on sound forge, Ozone and T racks for a single project, seriously look at a pro's rates. Cost wise for a single album it very likely will be a wash either way but with a pro you get the objectivity and top end gear instead of a bunch of mid range plugs.

If you have 200 songs, no time constraints and a desire to learn through months/years of trial and error then have at it, if you want a 12 song CD to give out in the very near term that puts your material in the best possible light to get more gigs, a fan base and a demo to give out to radio stations labels and all that stuff then really think about what having a second set of ears really critically and objectively listenening and adjusting through an absoulutely top end listening and processing chain could do for you (assuming the material is good to start with)
 
kcearl said:
I have a decent EQ, a maximiser, and a compressor...Im going to try an learn with these

these "suites" seem like gimmicks to grab your cash..Im sure they can be used but you've probably got the plug ins anyway..


thing is some stuff just doesnt want to fit no matter what I do...ambient bassoon instrumentals dont fit in with punk/new wave fusion no matter how I EQ


should I put distortion on the bassoon :)
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Yes.

:-)

Pretty much the most difficult to EQ stuff I've ever worked with is some sounds that I used from Fruity Loops. It's like they were so completely lacking in character that they weren't 1/10th as responsive to cuts and boosts as stuff that I'd recorded through mics or DI'ed.
 
kcearl said:
should I put distortion on the bassoon :)
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No!

Seal up the bassoon and fill it with double malt scotch. It will make and interesting talking point, give the whiskey a nice oakey flavour and.... who can't EQ better with a bassoon load of double malt in their belly! It'll make it sound like bob katz himself was at the faders (at least until you wake up in the morning)
 
this is the kind of advice Ive been looking for...Im giving up the bassoon for full time alcoholism...thanks! :D
 
dobro said:
Yes.

:-)

Pretty much the most difficult to EQ stuff I've ever worked with is some sounds that I used from Fruity Loops. It's like they were so completely lacking in character that they weren't 1/10th as responsive to cuts and boosts as stuff that I'd recorded through mics or DI'ed.
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thats a very good point..I use outboard synths as well as soft synths and its very hard to not make the outboard ones jump out like they're in 3D in a mix..Im of the mind that all my keyboards will eventually come for "real synths" (ironic huh) and only use software for effects

which incidentally sometimes don't even sound as good as my crappy emp100..
 
i kinda agree with this and have encountered the same general "we know more than you and we will do what we can to discourage you from learning it"! some of us have been at this in one form or another for quite a while and learning on your own is the long road. that is why were here, to learn! truth be known, the only way to master is to be able to afford the high tech toys that seperate us from "the masters of mastering". A wise man once told me, " The best masters are the ones that don't sound like they've been mastered"!
 
Terry Wetzel said:
i kinda agree with this and have encountered the same general "we know more than you and we will do what we can to discourage you from learning it"!
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I don't think it's intentional. It's just that if you know the best way to get from where you are to downtown Manhattan is by taxi, it's difficult sometimes to restrain yourself from pointing that out to someone who's of the opinion that hitch-hiking rides from bikers is the way to go.
 
Terry Wetzel said:
i kinda agree with this and have encountered the same general "we know more than you and we will do what we can to discourage you from learning it"!
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I'd like to see someone find and document ONE SINGLE TIME when one of the real pros here have *ever* done that.

Does anybody REALLY think that people like John and Tom and Tom and Ronan and Harvey and the rest (sorry to anybody I didn't list) come here with the purpose of wanting to make themselves feel self-important or elite in front of a bunch of newbs they never met before, just to stroke their egos? REALLY???

Or that there is a massive (no pun) conspiracy by everybody who's a "pro" - which would be a conspiracy larger and more secretly kept than the Manhattan Project - to hide the fact that this racket is really actually quite easy if you know the trade secrets of the pros, and to hell with the newbs because we're closing the door behind us and you can't some in and join the club? REALLY??? REALLY???

Christ, where's Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler when you really need them. I mean, REALLY!! :P.

More often than not what *REALLY* happens is someone asks a question with a predisposition as to what they actually want as their answer. They don't want to hear an answer, they want to hear exactly the kind of answer they want to hear. When they don't hear what they want to hear, or when the truth is harder to hear than they wish, they get all pissed off and either start playing the "elitist" card, or start making the absolute ludicrous claims that the pros are holding back the "real" secrets and alleged shortcuts for themselves in an industry-wide conspiracy against newbs.

How delusional :rolleyes:.


G.
 
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SouthSIDE Glen said:
Or that there is a massive (no pun) conspiracy by everybody who's a "pro" - which would be a conspiracy larger and more secretly kept than the Manhattan Project - to hide the fact that this racket is really actually quite easy if you know the trade secrets of the pros, and to hell with the newbs because we're closing the door behind us and you can't some in and join the club? REALLY??? REALLY???
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Maybe not. But I bet you guys know who killed Kennedy....and you all put those demolition squids on every floor of the WTC, you fuckers. :mad::mad:
 
RAMI said:
Maybe not. But I bet you guys know who killed Kennedy....and you all put those demolition squids on every floor of the WTC, you fuckers. :mad::mad:
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Well, yeah, of course. We also chopped down the cherry tree and got George to cop to it.

But that's different.

;) :D.

G.
 
SouthSIDE Glen said:
Well, yeah, of course. We also chopped down the cherry tree and got George to cop to it.

But that's different.

;) :D.

G.
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Well now you're just being ridiculous. There were no studios back then. You guys didn't exist. Come on, Glen, stop being foolish.:eek:
 
Im gonna neg rep every pro insight...you have all been warned
 
RAMI said:
Well now you're just being ridiculous. There were no studios back then. You guys didn't exist.
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Ah, but that's just what we WANT you to think!

Masons schmasons. The "compass" on the symbol of the masons is really an early mastering lathe cutting knife. And that "eye" on top of the pyramid? That's no eye, that's an early LDC capsule. And the "pyramid" is really just a closeup of a foam diffuser panel. The whole idea of "masons" grew out of the idea that a real recording studio had to be a brick-and-mortar building, and not just a computer in a bedroom.

And, BTW, if you look deep into the 1,200+ pages of the American health care reform bill, you'll find a passage actually devoting $1billion to "pro" audio engineers for the purchase of Har-Bal, valid only for those who claim in public that it's really a piece of shit. This is thanks to the extremely strong K-street lobbyists for the AES that have practically the entire Congress in their pockets.

G.
 
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