EQ - Compression... which first?

  • Thread starter Thread starter eljay
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eljay

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Wow this place is the best, lots of real smart people here. With that I thought I would post a little question. I hope it's little :)

I am ready for a master using my fine tuned mix.

So which first? EQ? Compression? Limiting? Where does one start? Is there an order to follow when mastering the final cut?
 
EQ > Compress > Limit > EQ again because you realize you didn't get it right the first time > Compress again because your last EQ tweak just messed with the dynamics > Limit again because the compressor didn't get all the freak transients > Record over from scratch because you realize you just compressed the life out of it.

That's how it usually works for me. But in an ideal world, it would be eq first, then compress, then limit.
 
So I'm NOT the only one who does it over and over ;0)

Hmmm? I have been EQing, compressing then Limiting. I think I got my sound so far.

I have too much BOOM in my songs and way to high points.

I have been using cool edit pro, sound forge and some plug ins at db-audioware.com. Those have some nice presents that I use as my base to work with.

I like the bass and treble boost the most. It's nice.


Ok so I EQ, Compress, Limit and then Normalize right? I thinks thats correct.

Anyone else on this matter?
 
Well, you're talking about mastering, right? Not mixing?

For "mastering" I don't touch the EQ, really. Why would I when I can go back to my orginal mix and bring out the specific elements that I want so much better there?

The most I do is tailor the bottom end a bit. I feel like I should go back and tailor it in the mix, but its easier for me to do it afterwards. I'm talking WAY bottom end, and mostly just cutting the mud out of the it.

Then I compress, since I know what the tune sounds like. Usually, I am just lightly touching it to bring the peaks under control and bump the tune up a few dB. If I have to do more than that its "Hi ho! Hi ho! Back to the mix I go!"

I don't like the way the limiter in t-racks sounds so I don't use it. Again- if I feel like I have to limit it I go back to the mix and treat the individual tracks that are causing the spikes.

Its a great way to learn about mixing, really. :)

Ye, gods! I can't think of any reason that I would normalize after tweaking the EQ, compressor, and the limiter! I try to hit my target peak with those tools rather than get a good sound then normalize it to -.3dB or whatever. It just makes more sense to me that way and probably maximizes whatever sound quality your track has.

Take care,
Chris
 
Welcome to the board, by the way, eljay. :D
 
generally, if you are boosting frequencies, you should compress then eq.

if you are generally cutting frequencies, you should eq then compress.
 
Thanks for the welcome.

Yeah I was wondering about the normalization and all.

Biggest thing I have right now is that I get these spikes when viewing the wave in the editor. They seem to be from treble. I can't seem to kill them off even in the mix. Maybe I should stick to just making the tunes and leaving the mastering up to the pros. :(

See I got this call from a record label who heard my music on MP3.com. They want me to submit a 3 song CD, profile and full contact info. They say their interested.

I just want to make music and share it. I run a very successful business online and I don't know if I want to get caught up in the music business. Right now I love music and I love to play with all my toys. I am into electronic music. If I get into this business I might lose that love. Life would suck real bad then.


I really just want to make the best master possible with my own means and just enjoy it for myself. My wife and friends think I should be out their published and that I should go for the record deal. Any opinions on this?
 
Oooo, good call fenix. I almost always cut, so I wouldn't have thought of that.

eljay,

I'd go ahead and follow up on the record label thing. I'd be pretty surprised if it panned out to be anything, but you never know. My ex-wife always wanted me to push my music more, but... I'm just not into making my music a business and dealing with all the politics of that business. (Shrug) No one understood why I felt that way because all they saw was glamour. Who says that you have to share with everyone? Can't you just share with those around you?

Back to those funky peaks- try to find a plug called "Peakcomp". Its a free peak compressor that shows you the waveform as it tames the peaks. I just looked for it online and I didn't see it. :( I didn't look very hard. I've had it forever, so they might not be offering it free anymore. If you can find it, don't use the "Autonormalize" function. I've found that it sometimes does funky things and never found out why. :)

Have fun,
Chris
 
eljay said:
See I got this call from a record label who heard my music on MP3.com. They want me to submit a 3 song CD, profile and full contact info. They say their interested.
Click to expand...

Well, let's hear it. Link, please ! ! !
 
Yup- That's the Peak Compressor I was talking about. Hopefully, they've worked the bugs out of it. Apparently, they've added more granularity to the compression settings- what a blessing! It used to be 1/1, 2/1, 3/1 etc. For mastering you need stuff like 1.24/1 and such. I downloaded the demo and will try the newest version out this weekend. :D

Oh, the excitement! ;)
Chris
 
I seem to have figured out a good mix.

I EQ just to cut treble which helped with the spikes. I had to cut the bass just a little too.

Using cool edit pro I compress 2:1 and then normalize. On my home theater it sounds great as well as on my speakers here. I also tried it on the car hifi system and still good.

I just got back from radio shack where they have about 12 car stereos set up in a "sound proof" room. Very nice :)

So I think I will go with that formula and just kinda tweak for each song. I know that not all settings work for all songs.

But the mix is where it all seems to matter. I cleaned up the mix before all of the above and man did it make a big impact on the final cut.
 
But the mix is where it all seems to matter. I cleaned up the mix before all of the above and man did it make a big impact on the final cut
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right there. Always try to fix glaring problems in the mix, and use the mastering stage to apply the final "spit & polish" - balancing the overall EQ, boosting loudness (if you're into that), matching track levels, and applying dither if you're burning to CD.

The thing is not to worry if your final mix sounds a bit wimpy before mastering. It's more important for the mix to sound sorted - clean, uncluttered, relaxed, preferably with some dynamic range to play with. Your mastering tools (multiband compression, EQ, limiting) will apply that final sheen to give a quality sound. (Good grief, it sounds like I'm talking about waxing a car... perhaps not a bad analogy for mastering)

As Chris already mentioned (and as you found out yourself), you usually get to your end destination quicker by cutting in the mix rather than boosting. The temptation is often there (for ex-guitarists like me anyway) to make the mix sound "better" by adding "more". Turns out a wasted youth spent turning knobs up to 10 is not a good foundation for a career in mastering :)

Good luck with the promo CD...

Dave
www.db-audioware.com
 
chessrock said:
Well, let's hear it. Link, please ! ! !
Click to expand...

I second that! Get it in the MP3 clinic and maybe we can help you out...

I'd even let you get away with posting a link to it from this thread since we're all asking for it. ;)

(shhhh...don't tell DarthFaders ;) )
 
"Using cool edit pro I compress 2:1 and then normalize."

First, how do you use Cool's compressor? It has both a 'gain processor' and a 'level detector' - do you use the level detector at all?

Second, why are you normalizing the mix? I've heard more than one respected engineer here talk about the folly of automatically normalizing everything on the album. :)
 
Welcome to the board, Dave! :D

Folks, if you haven't checked out Dave's plugins you might want to. :) I haven't purchased them yet myself, but he's got some some killer (and inexpensive) DirectX plugs for playing around with mastering. Every time I reinstall or upgrade my OS I redownload the demos and play with them some more...wishing for the day that I have a little extra cash to throw at software.

Take care,
Chris
 
Well I am NOT normalizing now, I am using Dave's plug ins to get the right sound. Some NICE stuff there Dave :)

I will see if this helps kill the mud. I think it's mostly in the mix at this point.

Here's the big problem this song has lots of bass so whats a good compression?
 
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