DIY Mastering Clinic #1!!!!!

just have fun with it, do as you see fit and hope someone says or dose something you can learn from......
all else is bullshit.
 
I'm putting together some of my thoughts on my approach to mastering and will have this setup as a page on my site for reference. It's taking me a bit more time than I thought.

One element that is missing from this clinic is the fact that we are only working on one song. Unless you're doing a single, a large part of mastering is putting together the entire album and making disparate songs sound good together. There are also issues with the creation of the final CD which we aren't dealing with.

Essentially this clinic should be about critical listening and processing. Two elements of the mastering process. In my opinion this should include everything that you would do up to the point of preparing the final CD. This includes EQ, compression/limiting, and any other enhancements that you would do up to the point of sample rate conversion and dithering.

The "loudness" that you would make this track is as important a factor as the EQ that you would use. Just as there is give and take in raising or lowering frequencies, there is a give and take as far as dynamics. It's not about making things sound their loudest without falling apart, it's about making them sound appropriate for the style of music and translating well for the medium. It's too easy to dismiss this part by saying it's more "purist" not to apply dynamic processing or to keep your levels intentionally low for this reason.

Ultimately you have to decide if your client would be happy with what you have done when they hear it against albums that they are going to inevitably compare it to.
 
hey if i missed it - i will be more than happy to keep readin over these posts till i find it - but im tryin to find out "how to" master -- "at least beginner's level" b/c i have a song that i am going to shop/service to dj pools in my area. thus far, i have had good feedback on the mix, but i was told to either pay $50 to "master" it just enough to where its "volume" or "loudness" would equal other "standard" industry songs . . . cuz the dj's will not play it, if they have to adjust (turn up to play - then turn down after playing)

any pointers?

what software do you/can you use? (i use Vegas to record, mix-- dont know if i can "master" in that software or not . . . what factors are involved with "equalizing" the final wave file so that it is = to store bought, mainstream artists?

any help would be greatly appreciated!!!!

thanks
 
masteringhouse said:
I'm putting together some of my thoughts on my approach to mastering and will have this setup as a page on my site for reference. It's taking me a bit more time than I thought.
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Again I'll express my appreciation, because I suspect that is a significant task.

Tom, you made a great point about critical listening, that's the heart of the issue for DIY mastering because it requires the recordist to objectively examine their own material. I find it helps me to not only listen to other peoples' mixes, but to play with them to see if I can make them better; from that, to speculate on how I would remix. Then I can return to my recordings better informed to ask the same questions.

So whether arguing about mp3s, playing with Dogman's mix, or listening to each others' masters, critical listening has been the common denominator, and that's what we've successfully accomplished so far.



When I post the second track (maybe end of the week, we'll see), it might be interesting to try to select appropriate relative volumes. However this is going to be quite a challenge, because the next track is radically different than Dogman's. Pretend it's a compilation CD or something :D
 
gullyjewelz said:
hey if i missed it - i will be more than happy to keep readin over these posts till i find it - but im tryin to find out "how to" master -- "at least beginner's level" b/c i have a song that i am going to shop/service to dj pools in my area. thus far, i have had good feedback on the mix, but i was told to either pay $50 to "master" it just enough to where its "volume" or "loudness" would equal other "standard" industry songs . . . cuz the dj's will not play it, if they have to adjust (turn up to play - then turn down after playing)

any pointers?
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It sounds like you've got a pretty close deadline for this track. I would ask if the $50 is small in comparison to the amount of money you could make off the track. If that answer is yes, I'd pay the $50 and concentrate on selling CDs.

You could probably use the tools you already have, but the experience it takes isn't going to come as quickly as you might need to move that track.
 
Pingu I didn't see anything in my post that said you were incapable of doing it. It just seemed to me from your post that you excluded it from your processing so that it wouldn't be an issue or point of criticism.

If you feel that your levels are appropriate for the song so be it.

I don't know that the amount of compression/limiting that I would supply would be "perfect", I do what I feel is appropriate. I look to the client or producer for feedback on what their creative goal is and try to help educate them in regards to excessive levels if I feel that they are going too far. Ultimately "best" is in the eye of the beholder, that's why mastering is as much of an art as a science.

If you are making a CD for yourself, sure fuck the the client. If it's for public consumption, maybe more than one opinion is a good thing?

Mine is just one opinion, and please note that I didn't say that you had too much or too little, only from your post that it seemed you didn't want to even address it.

I don't profess to be a guru, and I would be cautious of anyone who does. The only good advice that I've ever gotten from a guru is one that said "I am a child constantly learning".

For me that's the spirit of this clinic, we all learn from each other.
 
Sorry Tom.
I have deleted my post.
Its not warrented behaviour.

I suppose sometimes i speak too definitively in mastering or music in general and its just the opposite. There is a lot of room for opinion which can cause a lot of shit fights.
And it is the real world and loudness is an issue.

Sorry man.
Im off to bed.
 
Usually when discussing loudness, people use peak-to-RMS as a shorthand. It has limitations, but so be it.

These days it's unusual to see a track that doesn't peak at zero, so volume is controlled solely by RMS levels. In the context of an album, that might not make a lot of sense; there could be a song that has not only low loudness/RMS, but maybe even doesn't need to peak at zero.

Thus the source of my question, would this track be the sort that used to be the last song on the side of an LP, and thus translated to CD-land, not have peaks at zero?
 
mshilarious said:
Usually when discussing loudness, people use peak-to-RMS as a shorthand. It has limitations, but so be it.

These days it's unusual to see a track that doesn't peak at zero, so volume is controlled solely by RMS levels. In the context of an album, that might not make a lot of sense; there could be a song that has not only low loudness/RMS, but maybe even doesn't need to peak at zero.

Thus the source of my question, would this track be the sort that used to be the last song on the side of an LP, and thus translated to CD-land, not have peaks at zero?
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I don't know that the "how close it comes to zero" is a good guideline. One can limit the heck out of a track and then lower the overall volume so that it peaks at any level. I think the question is better asked "how much dynamic range is required by this song in order to translate well for the medium and sound appropriate?"

The "translate well" is the science and is in part dictated by what the medium can handle without distortion and remaining at a good signal/noise ratio. For vinyl the level (crest factor) is going to be different than a CD, cassette, radio, etc.

The "sound appropriate" is the art that cannot be dictated.
 
mshilarious said:
Yours sounds very bright in the presence range, which is an area most people have been moving away from :confused: Did you just focus on the lows first? Cause that sounds OK, maybe even good, hard to tell under the highs though.
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I did spend most of my time trying to fix the low end. As far as the overall brightness of my master, comparing to various reference material (pop) I didn't feel I was far off on the balance. I'm very curious to know what others feel. Tom???

IMO, the balance of the mix was way too bass heavy. Without major corrections in the bass I believe most of the submissions will have that overly bass heavy sound. Of the few I've listened to, It seems that way to me.
 
here's my perticulars as best as i can remember if any one is intrested.

main line:
multiband comp, fast attack and release 2/1 threashold up to maybe 5db of reduction..... set about 3K i think, don't remember exactly what freq or the Q. this is the probably the most productive thing i did (at least in my own eyes) and was aimed specifically at getting rid of the presents on the arpegiated gits, which i suspect was a result of compression.
de-esser at about 7.5K, everything i did above about 5K can be considered a failyer, i could not resolve what i precieved to be the problems in the hi's.

side chain: (looking for the kick)
3 band eq. low pass at about 4K, hi pass at about 40hz..... removed all mids at about 450hz with a wide Q. violent compression probably 6/1 about 45ms attack, about 100ms release can't rember how much gain reduction, but it was a bit. came upon this side chain after much dilleberation, not really happy with the result but i think it helped the kick a little.

master inserts:
10 band eq. can't really remember what i did here. some cut at 130. low shelf cut from 200 down probably 2db or so. 30hz hi-pass small boost at about 700 (i think) med Q probably like 2.5 db. hi shelf at 3K? a couple db, with an extra little boost at 13K (i think, can't remember)

some light compression slow attack fast release. 1.5/1 like 2 db max.
JK telephone filter (eq section turned off) 2 db of drive (think of it like a colored and distorted brick wall limiter..... it has it's problems but over all i like what it does to things..... trade offs, trade offs....)
L1, 6 db of gr output at -0.3.

not trying to pretend it was a pro result. :p
 
mshilarious said:
It sounds like you've got a pretty close deadline for this track. I would ask if the $50 is small in comparison to the amount of money you could make off the track. If that answer is yes, I'd pay the $50 and concentrate on selling CDs.

You could probably use the tools you already have, but the experience it takes isn't going to come as quickly as you might need to move that track.
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This is all too true - and with a little luck, i may have even gotten the fee down to . . .$35 . . . so perhaps i will just pay for it . . but i still would like to be able to go somewhere and git a few lessons from someone . . . :confused:
 
pingu said:
Is SouthSide Glen not going to participate.

It would be nice to have him on board.
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I had every intention of giving it a whack, but between the fact that I spent most of Thursday and Friday doing plumbing repairs in my house and having a live Gig on Saturday, combined with my dial-up connection limiting how quickly I can do multi-megabyte d/ls & u/ls, I fell so far behind in this thread and fairly lost as to what's what here that I really have only been able to spectate. I just haven't had a chance to do much other than make the occasional post here and there; I haven't even been able to d/l anybody's efforts to comment on, let alone do any of my own stuff.

I haven't even had a chance to upload a file to another member here on an unrelated issue that I had promised him a couple of days ago.

Hopefully my pipes will hold together long enough and I'll get caught up on my real world projects in time for #2, which I'm guessing by the apparent success of this thread will probably happen...just not right away I hope ;).

G.
 
I actually sqeezed one out (a master, that is) real quick Friday night before I had to start moving crap, but I couldn't get dang Putfile to upload the track! :mad:
So, I might bring it to work and try to upload it from here.
It was tricky as heck! I am used to working with rock-type stuff, so this was a bit challenging for me. Especially the fact that the vocal resonance I was trying to cut out seemed to change depending on, I'm guessing, how close/far/off-axis the guy was to the mic. I think I found a decent kick sound in there, but probably at the expense of the bass. My personal preference.
I'll see if I can get it up soon (the master, that is).
 
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