Any advice on mastering hip hop music on the free mixpad software. I'm studying to become a producer but would like to work on my own music until I receive my software from school. I'm completely new to the behind the scenes part of music but would really appreciate the help. #LAFilmSchoolClass'22
I'm going to throw in little answers that don't sound like answers but will make sense over time.
First and foremost -- And I'm only saying this because of the "new to this" part along with the school part (as there are schools that don't seem to understand this basic premise). Mastering is NOT about "making it loud." YES, the final apparent playback levels are decided and set during the mastering phase - But this is [1] more or less an afterthought in the big picture and [2] the least important and least time-consuming portion of the whole thing. It's also the part that the end listener couldn't care less about in most cases (and if they knew the damage being done to a lot of material just because of a pissing match between artists and labels, there would probably be an uprising). A trained monkey with a limiter can make any mix the loudest mix ever. Every decision made along the way (and I mean all the way back to the first thought of writing and arranging the material) is far more important.
[0] This is sort of a qualifier. You need to *know* what sounds good. You need to *know* your monitoring chain. You need to *know* your listening space. You will only ever hear as accurately and consistently as your monitoring chain allows you to hear. Your monitoring chain will only ever be as accurate and consistent as the space allows them to be. To a great extent, this is true for every phase of audio production, not just mastering.
But as a former tracking/mixing engineer (well, I take on the occasional project still), mixing entails far more "exploration and experimentation" -- You're presented with a bunch of sources that you may never have heard before and while it's being created, you're creating a final version of that song in your head. Everything post-tracking is trying to create that mix that's in your head. Sometimes it's very straightforward and simple and it just sort of works when you throw the faders up, other times you may spend hours and hours of experimentation just crafting the perfect reverb for a single tom hit. That mix in your head may change quite a bit along the way and it's very easy early on to confuse what's in your head vs. what's actually there. You only have true objectivity once - after that, your ears are biased and decisions will be based on that bias. You will find times where you open a project you haven't heard a while and think "What the hell was I thinking?!?" along with other times where you get frustrated and toss it aside and come back a couple weeks later thinking "Geez, that sounds just fine - what was I struggling with?" as that bias is reinforced and diminished again.
Enter the mastering guy -- He needs to hear a collection of mixes and *know* the potential of those mixes almost instantly (BEFORE he can create that "mix in his head" which will almost certainly lead him astray very quickly). And at the same time, know how each of those mixes will relate to the project as a whole. You're trying to figure what the individual mix is asking for, but you need to make decisions based on what the project is capable of -- all the while, trying to bring a sense of cohesion and consistency to a collection of mixes that may be anything but cohesive and consistent individually.
Decades in to this, there are still days where I need to come back again -- ESPECIALLY on material that I actually like (again, objectivity - Once I'm "tapping my foot" to something, my brain has its own expectations). I was working on this absolutely epic sounding (let's call it "orchestral metal") project that was blowing my mind. The instrumentation was insane. The guitarist was insane. The drums were unbelievable. The (female) vocalist was top-notch, the arrangements were fantastic -- And there I was making half-dB nips and tucks to get all those wonderful tunes to play nice with each other. I was cranking it up just because I wanted to hear it cranked up. The producer (a band member in this case) had a very clear vision of what he wanted, the tracking engineer captured it all wonderfully and the mixing engineer (at a different studio in this case if I recall) had his work cut out for him, but he did an amazing job. It almost felt like cheating (but most great recordings only ever require those half-dB nip-tucks during the mastering phase anyway and it's the mastering engineer's responsibility to know what particular micro-adjustments are going to be needed to bring those mixes to a common finish line).
I nearly sent it off but it was a long session, so I decided to wait until the next day. And I was very glad that I did, because although the consistency across the project was right on, *globally* the project seemed a bit wonky. I was so caught up in enjoying the material that I didn't realize that I had my main EQ bypassed when I was capturing. I was busy listening to the mix in my head (and that EQ was engaged in my head). Granted, we're talking about 3 or 4 half-dB adjustments that I'd probably argue few people would pick a fight about in the grand scheme. I'd bet a dollar the band would've been perfectly happy with it also. But it was no longer the mix that was in my head the day before and I figured out why.
GEEZ LOOK AT THE TIME!!! What happened to those little answers I was talking about? Okay, lemme cut to it. These are the answers that won't feel like any help at the moment but will at some point in the future.
[1] Approach with objectivity (this is arguably one of the main reasons that you rarely find engineers that will master their own mixes).
[2] Do what the mixes are telling you to do. If they're not telling you what they want, you need to develop until they are.
[3] Be prepared to have a mix change its mind - What a mix tells you to do on its own may vary considerably from what it needs in the context of the project as a whole. That one song that sounds extra-bright might sound amazing - It may even be the best sounding song - but if the rest of the project is much "warmer" in the top end by comparison, you may have to guide that bright tune in a slightly different direction.
[4] ALWAYS be ready to bring up potential issues to the mix engineer. I don't care if it's Alan Parsons. I'll bet Alan Parsons accidentally left an EQ bypassed once or twice also.
[5] LESS is MORE.
[6] It isn't all about processing to necessarily affect the sound - "Mastering" by definition, is the creation of the master. The source from which all other copies (whether digital files, physical CD's, vinyl records, etc.) will be made. You need to know the limitations of those media. You'll very likely need to create different masters for many of them.
[7] KNOW YOUR TOOLS. You're not building a car - You're not even painting a car. You're taking an already manufactured and clean car and detailing it for the showroom floor in a way that is consistent with the others cars in the showroom. Meguiar's Tire Shine and Armour All both make tires look pretty. But they might not do it in the same way. And one might be better for low-profile touring tires while the other works better with raised-white outline SUV tires. One might look more "slick and wet" while the other gives you that impossibly rich, dark black that matches the stripes on the hood. Don't make the tires glossier than the stripes on the hood, man. **
[8] NO TOOLS ARE AS IMPORTANT AS YOUR EARS.
** I'm really just making some of that car stuff up - but it does make a point.