mastering help, no not the plugin. i want help actually mastering

  • Thread starter Thread starter bradthefattest
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bradthefattest

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ok, so I am only 16, and have only been recording for like 4 years. and I am finally gettting some good equipment(i started with a crappy computer with a soundblaster sound card and a pa system mixer going into it. and 4 crappy microphones, then like 1 year later i got a set of good drum mics. then I built myself a new computer(2.4 ghz, 512 Mg ram soon getting 512 more or a gig more, a soundblaster audigy sound card, and a radeon 9500 video card) and now i have finally bought my self an 8 channel multitrack recorder(aardvark direct pro q10, i like it a lot) and also i have a oktava mk-319 microphone, soon will be buying another large condensor(either studio project b1 or shure ksm27 probably) so i have been reading A LOT about recording for the past 2 years, but never really read about mastering, and i am getting good at mixing. so now i need to learn how to master, I have been using the ME freefilter, and that just isnt good enough. and it is to cheap. So i was wondering, how do u go about mastering after u have everything mixed down into one WAV file or whatever? thanks for any help.
 
Buy a copy of Bob Katz' Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science.

You'll quickly realize what mastering is really all about and why you can't do it at home.... but it will also give you insight on the things you CAN do from your home.
 
Find a song pro mastered you already like. ( A reference )
maybe check for DC Offset
maybe EQ
maybe compression
maybe multiband
maybe imaging

Limit
Dither

And the list goes on. There are too many variables for this. It all depends on the song/mix. One of the main problems is the fact that ,, if you really cannot hear it,, then it's really hard to do it.


Malcolm
 
Spend the next 20yrs listening to all sorts of music in reference monitoring environments and you'll be good to go.

Either that or just slap on some heavy limiting and call it a day. That's what I usually do.
 
Well crud apparently the best reference site for audio recording isnt there. Maybe someone else can find studiocovers.com...I hope so!
 
TexRoadkill said:
Either that or just slap on some heavy limiting and call it a day. That's what I usually do.
Click to expand...

That sounds like an interesting concept.

I don't like variation, too much. I like everything to be one, nice, easy-to-manage volume.
 
bradthefattest said:

.....So i was wondering, how do u go about mastering after u have everything mixed down into one WAV file or whatever?
Click to expand...

Basically, you listen to the track and then fix whatever is wrong with it.
 
ok, thanks for the help all of yall, i will read up on it alot, and work on it. i will try and post a song of this band i am finishing recording soon. the music isnt too good but hopefully yall can look past that and just listen to recording.
 
So i was wondering, how do u go about mastering after u have everything mixed down into one WAV file or whatever? thanks for any help.
Click to expand...

I am a huge fan of Bob Katz but I don't believe that mastering can't be done at home. I have learned to master recordings all on my own and I'm confident in my abilities to produce good masters. Now I'm not saying I have the experience of 20+ years or the expensive outboard gear that "Pro" Mastering engineers have, but software versions that I do have can do wonders when used correctly.

If you want to learn how to master music then start learning and teaching yourself about tools such as Compression with both an input and output configurations and multi-band compression, Equalization with Parametric EQ, Hard limiting(which is compression just at high ratio's such as 10:1 and above) Noise Reduction, FFT/Scientific filtering, Dithering, Jitter correction, DC offset correction, learning your Frequency Spectrum and where different instruments are in the spectrum(such as guitars, bass, hi-hats, toms etc...) there's tons more but I think you get my point.

It takes time to become great at working with such tools but if you really want to learn, and I mean really want to learn, then you can do it. Just be patient with yourself and try not to get to frustrated with when comparing your "masters" to the major releases out there.

Remember that though there are many people who do Mastering, it's the experience that makes engineers like Bob Katz great at what they do. Keep in mind Mastering Engineers do this every day for hours and hours day after day, year after year.

We all can do it too if we work hard at it. Then as the time passes we'll become great at it too.

Good luck,
sonicpaint :D
 
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