I'm so God Damned excited I can't stand it!!

Z

Zed10R

New member
After working on, obsessing over, nit picking, and re-re recording my first full length cd for the last 3 1/2 years I am facing the very real posibility of BEING DONE!!! OH MY GOD!! :eek: But I want to throw out one question to anyone who feels like they may have some advice.

My mix is as good as I can get it short of being perfect. I COULD spend the rest of my life tweaking it, but perfection will never come. I am happy with it. BUT....when I burn it to cd and play it in my home stereo the highs don't sparkle and the lows are too big. The mids are perferct, though. And when I play that same cd in the car, it sounds bad ass, but just a bit too much down low still.

My question is: Should I try to fix this imbalace myself now and risk more obsessing, or should I send it to a mastering engineer before I decide to loose another year of my life to this? I am after the best possible result and I am afraid that if I keep going over it I will end up doing more harm that good.

Thanks all!!
 
Take a look at this website, particularly what is said about "Separation Mastering". It sounds like you've reached the limitations of your equipment and mixing atmosphere. Yes, send it to your favorite mastering house but ask, are they equipped and amiable to the separations mastering approach. Good luck! Can't wait to hear it!
 
cool...the Seperation style seems like a logical way to go...

Thanks! I will look into that more now that i know about it..... :D

I will post something soon...I've been yapping about this project forever....
 
I of course have no conection with John Vestman, but his site is very educational and the links are great. I like people who are so confident in their own skills they are willing to share them with the masses. A great sales pitch informs a customer of what they are missing, and what to do about it.
 
I'm still shopping around for "my favorite" mastering house...but really..thanks for the link and advice. You are right....confidence gained from experience shows through in how they explain what they do. I still have to surf the rest of the site, but that place is definitly in the running.
 
Congratulations! Allot O folks don't have the stick to it-ness you've shown!!( CARS in rusting primer anyone!!)


But hey , youve got it wet sanded and smooth as a baby's butt; now let the guy with the spray booth and years of experience put on the blindingly brilliant glossy paint job!..........................
 
I've never heard it referred to as "seperation mastering"...I always have referred to it as "stem mastering"...and in reality, it's not that new....people have been doing masters this way for years...especially on mixes that are less than perfect....so, if you're not quite sure how your mix stacks up, take the mix to the mastering house in "stems"...it will take longer to master most likely, but it's a good solution if you aren't in the best monitoring environment.
 
Not long ago there was a thread explaining why stem or separation mastering is mixing in the mastering stage and I think there were a lot of people chiming in to say it was a bad idea.
 
I don't think it's a bad idea if your mixing environment is tricking you into thinking an instrument sounds like "x", when it really sounds like "y". once you give a 2-track to a mastering engineer, how is he going to directly affect that instrument without bringing out frequencies in the rest of the mix? I think it's not a bad idea for non-experienced engineers to handle their mastering through stems. the only downside that I can see to this method, is giving the mastering engineer the ability to in essence, mix the song to his/her liking.

that being said, there is no replacement for an excellent mix...

Oh, and BTW, congratulations on finishing...I just started mine in June, and I am about 45% done (I think)...I hope it doesn't take as long as yours does though... :D
 
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So far, with the mixes I have sent out, it seemed that when I considered the mixes finished, they sounded right on most of the systems I played them on. It seemed like mastering took care of it on the rest of the playback systems and then some.

My advice is, play it on a bunch of different systems and take notes. If it sounds really good on 8 out of 10 and, you don't notice any really bad problems on any of them, send it to master.

Just my take on it, YMMV.

Good luck and congrats on finishing the CD :)
 
Ok, I know I'll get flamed on this, I was only trying to give somebody advice, and advice can come from either side of the coin.
Some people think stemming is plain wrong. Some people think it has it's uses. One thing I do know is the Mastering process uses a whole different set of tools to accomplish it's goals. Many of these tools probably aren't needed by the professional mix artist, he can do his job without the assistance of any mere ME.
There are indeed professional mix artists here whose credentials are beyond suspicion. We appreciate their vast knowledge and useful tips. As this BBS exists to aid the home recordist, we can assume the majority of us are amatuers at creating the perfect mix. I know I am.
If I were to send a mix to a mastering house that I had slaved over for three-plus years, I think I would appreciate the extra effort put in by the engineer to make my amatuer mix the best it can be, staying true to the original stereo rendering that I have supplied.
 
mikemorgan said:
Ok, I know I'll get flamed on this, I was only trying to give somebody advice, and advice can come from either side of the coin.
Some people think stemming is plain wrong. Some people think it has it's uses. One thing I do know is the Mastering process uses a whole different set of tools to accomplish it's goals. Many of these tools probably aren't needed by the professional mix artist, he can do his job without the assistance of any mere ME.
There are indeed professional mix artists here whose credentials are beyond suspicion. We appreciate their vast knowledge and useful tips. As this BBS exists to aid the home recordist, we can assume the majority of us are amatuers at creating the perfect mix. I know I am.
If I were to send a mix to a mastering house that I had slaved over for three-plus years, I think I would appreciate the extra effort put in by the engineer to make my amatuer mix the best it can be, staying true to the original stereo rendering that I have supplied.
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Sorry to disapoint, but instead of flaming, I'd say thanks for trying to help, there's NOT only one way to do a job. It's a free country( ok semi-free), so do it yer way!!!!!! :D
 
Robert D said:
Mixtering? Stemering?
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The term is "Stermerizification via sonic decrapulation."
I would appreciate the extra effort put in by the engineer to make my amatuer mix the best it can be, staying true to the original stereo rendering that I have supplied.
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That's the key - I'm not a big fan of using stems, but when I'm using them, I think of them as a vehicle to *preserve* the mixing engineer's intent. I've heard a few that seemed to have used it to mix vicariously...
 
Stems are useful with less experienced mix engineers, and in cases where the band/producer may not be able or want to commit during the final stage of mixing. It's helped a great deal on several of the projects that I've worked on resulting in less overall EQ, compression, de-essing, and other processing.

That said, a great mix is a type of "performance" when in the hands of an experienced engineer. In those situations stems shouldn't be required.
 
gtrman_66 said:
So far, with the mixes I have sent out, it seemed that when I considered the mixes finished, they sounded right on most of the systems I played them on. It seemed like mastering took care of it on the rest of the playback systems and then some.

My advice is, play it on a bunch of different systems and take notes. If it sounds really good on 8 out of 10 and, you don't notice any really bad problems on any of them, send it to master.

Just my take on it, YMMV.

Good luck and congrats on finishing the CD :)
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Thanks gtrman.... :)

That's where I'm at. It doesn't sound perfect on anything, better on some than others....but there are no glaring imbalances on anything either. Just a little bottom heavy here, a little dull on top there....
 
blueroommusic said:
Oh, and BTW, congratulations on finishing...I just started mine in June, and I am about 45% done (I think)...I hope it doesn't take as long as yours does though... :D
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45% done in 2 months?? Dayum!! I wish I could do that. I'm so damn obsessive. Just one rythm guitar part took 96 takes to get right. 96!! Others took even more!! And I can't even tell you that it was really necessary!!!! What's wrong with me?? :D
 
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