Final mastering for all tracks

[rgraves]

Hey I have a question about mastering. So, I have an entire CD completed and I have been mastering each track individually (I assume that's the way most people do it?), but I am wondering if there is any step mastering engineers usually take to bring the volume of the entire CD to be the same or similar. I mean all of my tracks are almost the same volume, but actually there is a variation between the tracks sometimes it's noticable.

Thanks for any help

 

[Robert D]

There's often a difference between metered level and perceived level when comparing different tracks, and it may not be desirable to have every track the same level anyway, unless the songs are all intended to have the same energy. The way I approach it is to create the set of mix files, then create the set of pre-master files with each song optimized for metered level, then create a burn file that has all the songs sequentially placed. Listen through like you're hearing the CD for the first time and see how the songs hit you in context, and adjust accordingly. This to me is where there is validity in self mastering. When you're mixing, your only hearing that song. When you're mastering, your hearing the whole project in context, and making it all gell together.

 

[masteringhouse]

What Robert said is essentially the procedure.

I pull in all of the mixes into my DAW in the final order of the CD. I then apply any EQ and dynamics to the songs individually and listen in the context of the entire CD. EQ has an affect on perceived "loudness" so it's good to take care of this first or in parallel with any dynamics processing you are doing. I then listen to the CD in order and jumping around from song to song (like a teenager would) to ensure that levels hold up. In general I only use meters to get a feel for the level the entire CD will be at, trying to match levels with a meter from song to song is very misleading, and as Robert said not "musical" since the "temperament" of the song should dictate the overall volume.