Can you tell me if this is wrong?

  • Thread starter Thread starter TamaSabian
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TamaSabian

TamaSabian

Peruvian skin beater
I just have a problem with a CWP file that´s corrupted and SONAR 4 can´t open it. I don´t have enough time to redo the whole project. Here´s what I´ve done:

Fortunately I saved a 24 bit mix but with low volume almost reaching -9db. I talked with the guy who´s gonna be mastering the whole thing and he told me that he needs a mix that should be closer to 0 db, so I add 6 db to the mix I have. Is something wrong with it?.

Thanks
TS
 
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Sounds like BS to me. A good mastering engineer should be able to work with something that peaks below 0 dB; even 9 dB should be ok. Most seem to like to have 3 - 6 dB to work with.
 
I agree with you, but I have no option cause it´s gonna be for free.....
 
If he is telling you that he needs something at 0 for him to master you might as well not even bother taking it to him cause he doesnt know what the heck he is doing.
 
Don´t you think he could improve the sound of my mixes???. He has been outside the mixing stage so he got fresh ears and another point of view. As I said is for free it won´t hurt anybody if I give him a chance.
 
TamaSabian said:
Don´t you think he could improve the sound of my mixes???. He has been outside the mixing stage so he got fresh ears and another point of view. As I said is for free it won´t hurt anybody if I give him a chance.
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If he says he needs a mix that peaks close to zero to master it, he certainly has his "mastering" service priced correctly. (free) I wouldn't expect a lot.
 
There's no reason why he shouldn't be able to work with the original mix. It's good to have a little headroom when mastering so actually the -9dbFS version should be preferrable. That is unless the RMS value of the mixes are super low and raising the level creates a problem with noise.

Ask him why he needs the mixes to peak at 0, would be interesting to hear his reasoning. For 16 bit this was closer to the truth, 24 bit leaves enough resolution to come in at a lower level.
 
Now I know the complete story about this guy.... He started 20 years ago recording some local bands, working for other people until he got the chance to run his own studio. Is hard to make a living based on recording music, so he get involved with some advertising companies and started producing jingles for radio and tv. Two bandmembers know him very well and have worked together doing some music for tv spots, that´s how this guy get´s in and said: I can polish your work, I can "master" your mixes, bring them to me. As I know he studied mixing and mastering with pro tools in Berklee on line, don´t know how much it could help.
I asked him why I have to mix everything closer to 0db???. He answer, try to push your mixes to the limit without using comp, normalize, L2, or whatever you can use for that. Give me 3 wav files of your mixes in 24 bits, stereo and split mono. That´s what I need to work.

BTW I was checking all my mixes and they are between -9 and -6 db. I´ll let him do his job, I´m not expecting too much out of these.

Thanks
TS
 
Isn't that kind of like taking your flat tire to an experienced mechanic ... and being told that he can't patch it up until you come back with "more air in it" ?

:D Don't let duffuses touch your mixes.
 
TamaSabian said:
Don´t you think he could improve the sound of my mixes???. He has been outside the mixing stage so he got fresh ears and another point of view. As I said is for free it won´t hurt anybody if I give him a chance.
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Not if he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. If it sounds better after he gets done with it, it's an accident.
Even if the mixes peak at 0db, when you compress them you are still going to add gain to raise the volume of the mixes. That is half the point of compressing them.
 
chessrock said:
Isn't that kind of like taking your flat tire to an experienced mechanic ... and being told that he can't patch it up until you come back with "more air in it" ?

:D Don't let duffuses touch your mixes.
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:D

Talking seriously, what else can I do??. This is gonna be our first CD, totally homerecorded. You don´t have many choices around here, go independent is the best thing to do. Our budget is low there´s not enough money to do real mastering. I was thinking of Massive Mastering or Mastering house well known here but as I said budget is our problem. I think I have to talk with the band to see if there´s another option.
 
You can let him do it, it's free. If he does a crappy job, you are just back where you started from. Give him a copy of the masters and keep a copy for yourself. That way you always have an unmolested copy that you could give someone to master later.
 
Farview said:
Not if he doesn't know his ass from a hole in the ground. If it sounds better after he gets done with it, it's an accident.
Even if the mixes peak at 0db, when you compress them you are still going to add gain to raise the volume of the mixes. That is half the point of compressing them.
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Jason's right. The only difference "should be" to lower the threshold of the compressor to accomodate the lower level. Gain makeup on the comp should take care of compensating for the difference.

If you're going back to the original mixes and bringing them back in to the DAW to raise the level and back out again then you've gone through at least one extra processing step that could have been avoided by just sending the original. Extra processing means more quantization distortion. If you're going back and remixing these to get the level up to 0 then you are doing a lot of unnecessary work.

Anyway, if it's a free job I would just normalize (cringe) the mixes to get them to the level he wants, send them to him, and hear what he does with them. I might also try to master them yourself to see which you like better.
 
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