Mastering problem-distortion/artifacts/level

[johnfindlay]

Hi-I usually use a Waves C4 plug-in.I just use the basic setting-works good-
all my recordings are home-guitars-vocs-samples etc.

Sounds fine,however not as big as pro stuff & much "quieter".
I can live with that.


As an experiment a buddy of mine tried some mastering in Logic 6 using
some TC stuff-not sure exactly what.It started introducing distortion-OR-
bringing out existing distorion-not sure.
We were trying to get my stuff to sound as "loud" as pro stuff.

My music is along the lines of Bonnie Raitt-Robben Ford.Ive A/B'd my waves
against waves from these CDs.

Anyhow-the long & short is I feel like Im wasting my time trying to reach
sonic relativity-I can live with that too.

Here is a link to a song which I quasi/mastered:
High Water JF master

And here is the new master from my friend:
High Water NEW master

I realize a 192k MP3 may not be a great indicator-any help/opinions appreciated tho.

John Findlay​

 

[giraffe]

it sounds to me like the problems were just brought out by the TC stuff, not introduced by it. but i'm not totally sure about that.

probably just some de-essing would go a long way in your friends chain to make it sound fine.
as for the material, it sounds good to me and i see no reason why it couldn't be brought up to whatever level you want to.

 

[slidey]

If you are EQing heavily on one aspect of the mix especially vocals that can bring on distortion, If I have to EQ heavily for whatever reason I'll drop back the gain, over de-essing can also bring on distorted qualities

Getting things sonically loud compared to pro CDs is a fair task, if you have a brick wall limiter try putting it on your master outputs @ -0.5 ceiling for bounce down & you can drive the levels a bit higher without it clipping but it can be over done

I had particular problems getting the volume of productions up to pro when I used V-drums?? they seem to be spikey pieces of technology

I purchased a TC electronics finaliser 96 & that helped me an awful lot in getting the levels up to pro standard

l8r
Slidey

 

[Dogman]

To me, it sounds like your friends version ended up being more of a compressor than a limiter. It seemed to change the dynamics quite a bit on the song.
I used a simple limiter here, and boosted it 4db. It didn't seem to affect the song so much. Just boosted the level. I think the artifacts were introduced by something in your friends mix somehow, as giraffe pointed out.

Louder

This is too loud in my opinion, but shows you how clean it still sounds.

 

[slidey]

nice headphones............................pardon me for looking LOL