I know a lot of you do mastering or have paid for mastering...

[foreverdown]

Thanks for the tips I also read all of the ones on your site and in that PDF. I'm glad you said stay in 24bit because I would have been recording in 16bit otherwise. since I'm not using it on a DVD but hey ya never know when I might want to put it on a DVD.. so yea. anywho.

 

[GamezBond]

These have probably been revisited a hundred times here, but...

• Stay in 24-bit
• HEADROOM is your friend. -6dBfs PEAKS are just fine - Tracking AND mixing. Leave the M.E. some room to work, and your mix some room to breathe.
• Don't feel a rush to "use all the bits" just to make it loud.
• Don't strap a limiter across the master buss. If certain tracks are causing nasty errant peaks, limit or compress those tracks if neccessary.
• Change volume levels frequently during mixing. Try to keep an "anchor" at around 85dB or so, but go louder and quieter here and there. Stay on the lookout for things that "jump out" of the mix at these levels.

While were on the subject of 24-Bit, would it be better to render each individual track as 24-Bit , even though only 37% of the track is consisted of 24-Bit elements(I'm dealing with one shot samples)?And when dithering down to 16-Bit, will it sound better if I had originally had everything as 24 bit or 16 bit or will it have souinded the same????

 

[Massive Master]

I look at it this way -

If you're working with 16-bit samples, your program is likely still running at 24 or even 32 bit math, so mixing down to 24-bit isn't going to hurt anything.

If it isn't going any further than the mix, you could go to 16-bit. If there is a possibility of processing beyond the mix, staying in 24-bit is a safe bet.

 

[masteringhouse]

While were on the subject of 24-Bit, would it be better to render each individual track as 24-Bit , even though only 37% of the track is consisted of 24-Bit elements(I'm dealing with one shot samples)?And when dithering down to 16-Bit, will it sound better if I had originally had everything as 24 bit or 16 bit or will it have souinded the same????

Short answer is yes.

If you're doing any processing on the tracks there as an advantage in going to 24 bit since there will be additional calculations performed on the tracks. This includes level changes.

When re-dithering down to 16 bit it will sound better if the original tracks are 24 bit since there is greater precision. But the difference may be subtle to the untrained ear. The difference mainly has to do with quantiztion error and rounding. You'll hear it as a "grainy" kind of sound.

 

[GamezBond]

Ok, thanks for the info.While we're still on the subject of Mastering,what exactly needs to be prepared(such as files) for him/her, or does it vary from person to person?And what exactly will he be doing to the recordings?Just getting them up to the "standard" CD volume?

 

[Massive Master]

Corrective and shaping EQ, compression, stereo image enhancement, noise reduction... Getting "volume" is the easy part. Getting it there in style is the "art" part.

 

[getgo]

John, I'm glad we live pretty close. I have a project that I am in the process of "attempting" to mix. How do accept a song to master? 24 bit CD? Send it over the net? I would be very curious to have a song "critiqued" by you to see if it's one of those you reject or approve.

 

[masteringhouse]

Ok, thanks for the info.While we're still on the subject of Mastering,what exactly needs to be prepared(such as files) for him/her, or does it vary from person to person?And what exactly will he be doing to the recordings?Just getting them up to the "standard" CD volume?

The submitted material will vary from engineer to engineer and project to project.

It can be 2 track mixes on a DAT, analog tape, or audio CD. A data CD with 24 bit files at any sampliging rate (my preference). A masterlink CD, Magneto optical disc, a DVD, or even files transferred ofver the Internet.

Mastering is the is essentially the art of shaping audio to make it sound it's best and remain as consistent as possible across any playback system. It includes alot of objective listening and re-shaping of the sound. This includes processing such as EQ, compression, limiting, harmonic enhancement, M-S processing, automation, dithering, noise rediction, and nearly anything else in the engineer's bag of tricks to make your music sound it's best.

After processing the ME will also edit, create the pre-master CD and provide a PQ list for the duplication plant.

The main thing with an ME is to choose someone who's ears you trust, and who is will to work with you in regards to what you want to hear.

 

[GamezBond]

Will it be acceptable just to send 4 stereo tracks(Drums,Melodies,Main Vocals,Adlibs/background vocals) for each song?

 

[GamezBond]

Also how many years will it take me so I can just be a mastering engineer myself?I currently don't know anything about EQ,compression etc, all I really do is turn volume levels up and down to what sounds good.

 

[masteringhouse]

Will it be acceptable just to send 4 stereo tracks(Drums,Melodies,Main Vocals,Adlibs/background vocals) for each song?

Sending mixes as stems (submixes) is becoming more popular, however mastering is still usually done on a single 2 track mix.

The answer is yes, I've had about 3 projects done this way in the past month.

 

[masteringhouse]

Also how many years will it take me so I can just be a mastering engineer myself?I currently don't know anything about EQ,compression etc, all I really do is turn volume levels up and down to what sounds good.

Sounds like your on your way ...

 

[GamezBond]

Sending mixes as stems (submixes) is becoming more popular, however mastering is still usually done on a single 2 track mix.

The answer is yes, I've had about 3 projects done this way in the past month.

I thought you usually sent all the individual stereo files(such as snare,hihat,kick,piano,guitar,bass,strings,cowbel,etc) and the engineer workd with it, or is that the Mixing Enigineer(Me ) job?So all that really needs to be sent to the mastering engineer is the instrumental track and accapella?


Thanks for the kind words masteringhouse

 

[masteringhouse]

I thought you usually sent all the individual stereo files(such as snare,hihat,kick,piano,guitar,bass,strings,cowbel,etc) and the engineer workd with it, or is that the Mixing Enigineer(Me ) job?So all that really needs to be sent to the mastering engineer is the instrumental track and accapella?

Usually the entire mix is sent (includes all instruments and vocals on a stereo track).

 

[GamezBond]

can anyone post a unmastered and mastered track so I can hear the differences?

 

[ryanlikestorock]

Mixing involves tracks of individual instruments. Mastering is usually dealing with just a final stereo mix - although sometimes with "stems" of group bus files.

Before/after files are available on many mastering websites - Massive's site for sure.

For the fairly low cost of having your album mastered, you can at least take comfort in knowing that a professional assisted you in the production of your record and that things are probably going to sound pretty decent in the end. Think of it as "regret insurance". AND... In the best cases, mastering can save a fairly bad sounding record.

 

[ryanlikestorock]

Also how many years will it take me so I can just be a mastering engineer myself?I currently don't know anything about EQ,compression etc, all I really do is turn volume levels up and down to what sounds good.

I started recording bands with a Tascam Porta03 recorder (see: shittiest 4-track ever) about 11 years ago. Non-stop work over 11 years brought me from the basement to shitty garage studios to decent project studios and now as a mastering engineer at (in my opinion) the best mastering studio in Canada.

Every day, I wake up and wonder how the hell I ended up doing what I do for a living... but, I guess I owe it to 11 years of non-stop self-education and an internal drive that kept me working even when things got really really bad.

Honestly though, I still feel like an impostor every day. Bands pay me, studios hire me, I'm able to live off it, but I still learn some really really big idea once a month... something I probably would have learned in the first week of any private audio engineering school.

You've at least identified the things you don't know much about. I suggest spending an hour a day (or more if you can afford it) doing pure research on those ideas. After a few days of reading, try and apply the knowledge using the tools you have in your computer audio program... and see what happens. Repeat... forever.

 

[getgo]

can anyone post a unmastered and mastered track so I can hear the differences?

I agree! Any links to such a thing would be cool for me to hear too.

 

[Massive Master]

I've got several on my site... Not "great" ones... Normally I put up files that had strange problems, and how they came out after.

It'd be easy to put files up that already sound good...

Well, there's a couple of those also...

 

[ryanlikestorock]

The thing about samples of someone else's work is that it really doesn't say anything about what your album is going to sound like mastered. If you're serious about your album, you want to have it mastered- no question. Most smaller mastering places will do a demo of your music mastered to help sell their studio. Then, you're getting a real demo of YOUR music... and you'll definitely get a lot more out of the demo.

This week, I mastered a punk rock album that needed a LOT of work done to it. It sounds like a totally different band now... or, the same band with better gear.

I also worked on this really well produced hip-hop record that probably only gained about 3% value from the mastering process. These mixes were just killer and I can tell that the recording engineers knew exactly what they wanted. In fact, they could have released most of the songs as they were mixed and the album would have sounded fine. But, the 3% they gained is important to me and to them... or they wouldn't have paid me to do it.

It might seem like a lot of money to spend on something that adds (what seems to be) very little sound... but, I believe that when all is said and done, you'll be glad you put in the extra effort to make sure your album sounds the way it does.