Mastering - What is the secret?

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TGA

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I have read good advice on mastering from many of you. What you have told me to send it to mastering house. Yes they know what they are doing and do it well.

What is the big secret? What type of equipment do you have to have to master? What kind of expertise does one need?

I first started playing in a band. We wanted to make a demo. So our band was told to go to a recording studio and tracked and mixed it. Well i have built a 24 track studio and track and mix very well now.

I have money to work with. SO WHY CAN'T I MASTER TO??? :rolleyes: :confused:

Thanks for any information.

TGA
 
Well, if you really want to compete with mastering houses, look into a Crainsong STC8 for compresssion http://www.cranesong.com/photos.html and a GML 9600 for eq http://www.gmlinc.com/9500.htm You will need a way to get into the computer, so maybe look at what is popular, like a Apogee PSX-100 http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/index.html Actually, a pair of Lucent converters would do well too! :)

Now, if limiting is what you are going to need, and still want to compete, maybe look into the Requisite L2M http://www.requisiteaudio.com/rcomps.html Looks promising enough to me....:)

Don't forget that you are going to need some reference quality monitors, like some Meyer HD-1's http://www.meyersound.com/products/studioseries/hd-1/index.htm.

Of course you are going to need a pretty good computer with a SCSI CDR burner, because SCSI burners have a built in crystal for clocking the burn.

Don't forget to ultra-tune your room so that you are not making subjective decisions based upon a unbalanced room.

There you go. On your way to competing with the big boys now, at least in the equipment department.

ahhhhhhhh...but now you need to spent umpteen hours just mastering and playing around with stuff to get an idea of what is going on and how to fix it. Will probably take you a good year.

Good luck.

Ed
 
So, Ed....

Your trying to tell me I cant get just as good results with my BBE Sonic Maximizer, Soundblaster Live card, and Radio Shack Optimus 7's?......

Im willing to take a few of your suggestions though...I have a extra set of Grover tuners laying around...can I tune my room with those?....
 
sonusman said:
ahhhhhhhh...but now you need to spent umpteen hours just mastering and playing around with stuff to get an idea of what is going on and how to fix it. Will probably take you a good year.

Good luck.

Ed
Click to expand...

What year..............make it 15 years of experience to make right decisions..........

If people only knew how easy it is to ruin a mix............."I'll only lightly compress the mix nothing else......"

Then they go and fuck up the hours of work.
They spend hours getting a color of a mix then compress it and the whole color changes......... and this is only the start......
Multi band this...multi band that..........they cant make out the difference between 1k and 15k yet they will know the correct band to compress using the right attack and release.

They will make "great" Eq enhancments yet run it back and forth to and from the computer or change the format....sampleling rate.....different converters and degade the quality........

Ahhhhhh...lets not forget the magic warmo plug in....just click here
and here.......ahhhhhh all warm now................

TGA...... It really is an art to master. It's the art of how to slightly enhance yet not ruin a good mix.
 
TGA,

take these "big boys" advice and either :

a) send it to a mastering house or....

b)do it yourself......If you mix and well as you say, do a slight bit of limiting, maybe adjust a tad off eq....taa-daaa.....
 
Yeah, there is good advice in the sense that it takes lots-o-expeience and high quality devices to master well.

However it could be a little more constructive for someone trying to learn the process.

As Shailat inferred, part of mastering is taking a good mix and embellishing it with appropriate eq, multiband compression, level adjustments, etc. without ruining the mix.

Unfortunately, I've seen too many posts, articles, etc. stating that mastering is an art form left to the professionals. Little peons like you home recording idiots can't even comprehend how the pro's walk in the door, much less what they do once they're in their room. F*ck the naysayers. The "pros" also had to start out as newbies to mastering.

Twenty years ago, they were saying we couldn't make a decent recording without a major studio. Ten years ago they were saying we couldn't burn our own CD's. Today they say we can't master our own mixes...
 
WOW!

Ask and yee shall receive.

Sonusman thanks for the links. This stuff looks expen$ive.

Thanks for all the help everybody. I will let you know my progress or poverty.

Shailat - Off the subject... do you mess around with Hammond B3 -C3 etc?

TGA
 
Re: WOW!

TGA said:
Ask and yee shall receive.

Sonusman thanks for the links. This stuff looks expen$ive.

Thanks for all the help everybody. I will let you know my progress or poverty.

Shailat - Off the subject... do you mess around with Hammond B3 -C3 etc?

TGA
Click to expand...

Errr...that was my point....:)

Ed
 
sonusman said:
Of course you are going to need a pretty good computer with a SCSI CDR burner, because SCSI burners have a built in crystal for clocking the burn.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, this is something I hadn't heard before. Would you mind elaborating a bit, specifically on how this is superior? I assume you're talking about some kind of quartz oscillator? I happen to have a SCSI CD-R burner and I have no idea if it has this. Is this something all SCSI burners need or is an optional feature?
 
Whatever happened to a Drawmer 1960 or MOTU Breakout box, and Waves Plug-ins...... oh and don't forget... Great mastering cd's like Apogee, and Quantegy.

Or, maybe it's just us dumb canucks that use this stuff.:D
 
BBB said:


The "pros" also had to start out as newbies to mastering.

Twenty years ago, they were saying we couldn't make a decent recording without a major studio. Ten years ago they were saying we couldn't burn our own CD's. Today they say we can't master our own mixes...
Click to expand...

You can do what you like.

Pros that do or moved to mastering are people that have been in the audio field for many many years. They have payed dues from here to Kamachatka. They studied from other masters.

Would you suggest anybody goes to a nurse and have open heart surgery on a dirty cot in a basement?
Yet to master art, you seem to think anybody can try.
People spend a life time refineing their craft.

I focus not on the trying to master at home but rather on the point that if you are not a master at mastering you stand a chance to degrade your art rather then help.


TGA - I am a fanatic about B3's. I play one every now and then
on recordings and I'm toying with the idea to record a cd of my new trio - B3,Bass,Drums. We are thinking about doing some demos now.
 
Shailat said:
TGA - I am a fanatic about B3's. I play one every now and then
on recordings and I'm toying with the idea to record a cd of my new trio - B3,Bass,Drums. We are thinking about doing some demos now.[/B]
Click to expand...

Shit. I just trashed my reply (don't ask how).
Eh. Screw it.

Btw, what's a B3?
 
Full name - Hammond B-3 organ.

It uses drawbars to create various sounds and is conected to a speaker called "Leslie" that spins at different speeds.

The most classic keyboard ever made.
 
sonusman said:
Of course you are going to need a pretty good computer with a SCSI CDR burner, because SCSI burners have a built in crystal for clocking the burn.
Click to expand...

Anybody know about this crystal thing? (see my post above)
 
Hmmm… I don't think TGA got the kind of answer he was looking for. I don't see why someone shouldn't learn how do better do mastering if they are interested. Sure, if you have a demo that's important, then of course have someone more skilled do it if you want to spend the money. But you're not going to take every song you ever recorded to a mastering house. What's wrong with learning to do the best mastering you can at home? Even if you never get better that 10% as good as a master masterer, at least you're better than you were? And your home recordings will be better as a result.

We're all musicians. Have you ever met someone who seemed to suggest that unless you are one of the best musicians that you shouldn't even pick up an instrument? "Leave music to those who are talented." As if music were only for the elite.

And as TGA pointed out, the fact that pro engineers in a pro studio can do a better job than we can at home doesn't stop us from recording and mixing at home. Although we can't afford the kind of equipment that the mastering houses have, don't we at least have access to equipment as good as mastering houses had 25-30 years ago? And those albums were mastered well. If so, then it wouldn't be a question of equipment.

Mastering isn't brain surgery---you're not hurting anyone by trying. It's OK to be only 10% as good as the best. Mixes are there to be messed up, and messed up again until you get it right, no?

I only say all this because I'd also like to read about mastering techniques. The title of the forum is "Mixing/Mastering". If the only answer to all mastering questions is "take it to a mastering house" then maybe the forum name should be changed to just "Mixing".
 
Here's a question.

From the perspective of a person who doesn't understand the complexities of mastering, should I aim to get my mix sounding *exactly* the way I want it?

When I'm mixing, I'll sometimes throw a 2:1 peak compressor across the master channel set at -1 db just to catch the oddball transients enough to avoid clipping. When I start feeling like I want to adjust the ratio to 4:1 I step back and fix the individual track that is bothering me with whatever makes sense.

Am I messing with stuff that is better left to the mastering house? I've read somewhere that the final mix should pretty much be normalized to 0db without any compression, but sometimes that slight glue across the master channel just sounds better to me.

Should I be leaving that master channel alone? Seems like anything you put there is stepping into the realm of the mastering engineer.

-Chris
 
I dont see anything wrong with people trying yet my point was that toying with mastering has a better chance of degrading the mix by 10% rather then improving.

TGA didnt ask for specific advice but asked a general question.

Chris - U can use compression on the final mix
Depending on your material you might need light compression or only limiting or perhaps both.
You might use a soft knee type compression or not......
You have to be carefull on the attack and release settings - make
sure your not pumping. Are the drums losing it's punch ? Are you
pumping ? unwanted noise like leakage or hiss ?

Dont forget to link both sides of the stereo compressor.
 
Rock on JimH!
I couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm at the point where I take a similar approach to Chris S. I apply some compression to the final mix to mush the transients a bit, add some punch, and maximize loudness while avoiding pumping. By experiementing, I know my mixes sound better, not worse after tweaking them. I'm a tweakaholic. Gimme more knobs! I'm never satisfied with a final mix. Cut some eq here, add or back off the compression there. I love dinking with the mix to figure out different sonic possibilities.

I also love learning about new techniques. It prevents going down paths that others have tried and found futile (although, rules are meant to be broken). Let me know a new way of approaching a mix and I'll have fun for days experimenting with the new approach.

Point being: give info, not discouragement. Many here are present to learn.
 
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