Mastering: 1 or 2 times?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Beathoven
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Beathoven

Beathoven

New member
Hey guys, I was wondering:

When you record a song, do you:

1- Master the instrumental, record the vocals, mix the vocals and then master the whole mix again?

-OR-

2- Record the vocals on and unmastered instrumental, mix the vocals and then master the whole mix?

Clear? Unclear?

Hoping to get some answers,
Beathoven
 
The mastering process is typically THE LAST process in the audio production chain, before duplication.

Bruce
 
Yeah but...

It seems like when you listen to a rap instrumental that it was mastered... younom'zen? :D Like if you download the instrumental version of a song and the song, the song is just the vocals mixed with the instrumental... but the two seems mastered?

Am I crazy?
Beathoven
 
Beathoven,

The instrumentals that you mention HAVE been mastered but only after the song (vocals and all) had been completed. They simply send the full mix, instrumental mix, accapella mix etc., to the mastering house after the project is completed.

Typically any mastering is done last, as Blue Bear already pointed out.
 
Last question...

Does the instrumental and the accapella are mastered the same way the whole mix is mastered? (Like using the very same setting on the compressor and etc..)

Beathoven
 
For the most part once the mastering engineer has the right settings for the song, the instrumental is usually run thru those same settings. The accapella tho, in my personal experience may need to be treated differently to achieve the right level.
 
Don't know quite if this is what you're hearing, but the samples used will have already been mastered if they've been lifted from another recording. Then when the vocals have been put on and mixed the whole thing will be mastered again, so in that instance the instrumental will have been mastered twice.
 
if your doing the whole process yourself, you'll want to be basically processing every track of your song. so it's not once, not twice, but mastering every single track of your shit, and then a final master. At least that's my amateur 2 cents. I know you don't want to do just the beat and the vocal seperate though. It'll probably sound just like that -------"seperated". Master every track of the song. Then mix it and do a final master(but like I said, thats just my opinion)
 
oh, and someone mentioned that if you sample, those samples are already mastered-------------that don't really matter when you put them in a new mix. Just because one piece is mastered don't mean it's gonna work with the next sample
 
It all depends on what you mean by mastering. It might be an idea to check out the threads in the mixng/mastering section.
 
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