Mastering.. Whats the deal?

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jonhall5446

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If the charge of boosting the sound for the sake of volume is a crime the I am guitly as charged. I continue to see Posts from people in the business of mastering that say you ruin the mix by compressing to a certain volume. So how do you folks (masterersersrss) get the quality and volume out of a recording. I refuse to beleive that this can only be achieved on $100,000.00 worth of mastering equipment. On my first run of recordings I discovered this compressor that would make the tracks louder :) I cranked the sucker up. As you might guess it was loud enough but the sound was dead. After some experimenting over several lightyears, I have now found what I believe to be a working relationship between compresseion and eq. It may loose a little pump here and there, or we may see a few peaks, but for the most part it is a good recording for gorilla mastering. I am recording on a digi001 and burning to 16 bit... taking notes on the mix on the way to my day job and then tweaking at night. Repeat about ten times. Trying to balance track volumes and levels the best I can. The bass is a little distorted, which may be what you refer to. When the highs are too high, I adjust in the eq. If I get an ok sound in the end then why spend the money to have it mastered? It sounds good and the people who have heard it say it sounds professional (not all friends by the way). Do I need to have my record mastered? Will it sound bad on the radio? Where will it sound bad? Other than people who know recording in and out I believe it is suitable for ears. The folks who do know recording in and out, I am sure could pick it apart in seconds, but thats not all I am going for here. I want to present and sell a cd that sounds good but without the million dollar budget. I have seen posts scrutinizing us who don't take the time to learn compression, but I can't say that I really want to spend that much time learning it. I rather be playing guitar!
 
I don't understand your question.

It doesn't sound like you're a very fussy person. If you're not overly concerned with how something sounds and you're not aiming for commercial success and stardom, then don't worry about it.

Are you trying to say mastering isn't necessary or something like that? Please. That subjects has already been beaten to death. Don't you want to talk about something else? You're a guitarist . . . don't you want to talk about guitars or something?


That might be kinda' fun.
 
I just want to know the fruits of having my labor mastered. It sounds good now, but want to know how much better it will sound if I pay to have it mastered. No insult intented. I just want the mastering folks to tell me what they do and how they do it and if I am on the right track.
 
Why don't you work out a deal with a mastering engineer: Tell him you'd like him to master 1 song for you . . . or better yet, 1/2 of a song. Tell him you'll pay him $50 and a 12-pack of beer for his efforts. If you like the work and you think it makes a major improvement, then have him do the rest of your CD. If not, then move on to someone else or just don't master it. What's the big mystery?
 
That is a good suggestion! Don't be so hateful.
Also, you say the subject of mastering or non has been beaten to death but I don't know what you are talking about. Are you saying that there is an ongoing debate on whether or not mastering is needed? Those are the kinds of question I have attempted to ask which you made no attempt to answer, but I appreciate the sarcasim,... I mean, imput anyway.
 
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yes....the subject has gone on for quiet some time

what you can do is do a search for threads that have mastering in them...there will be a bunch and you'll see ideas, opinions, reasons, arguements and websites on trial runs and all that good stuff....i realize you only have a few posts so i wont go off on ya.


if you can stand to read through the posts...you get some good advice....and some quick tricks "cough cough nerowaveeditor cough cough" "haaaaackcoughcoughdecentlycheapandeffectivecoughcough" i think i'm coming down with something :)
 
Thanks so much for the advice, I'll ceck it out

mama always told me they ain't no bad questions.

Guess I was wrong
 
yes there are bad questions....for example

I see the motherboard in this computer but where is the fatherboard? is there a fatherboard?

or

Hey man, can i borrow your car to get to court? the cops took mine and wont give it back...you know..something about their dogs smelling something.

or my personal favorite

I dont have the money this week but if you let me get the cd then I'll sell some copies and get you the money by wednesday, can you hook that up for me?
 
distortedrumble said:
yes there are bad questions....for example

I see the motherboard in this computer but where is the fatherboard? is there a fatherboard?

or

Hey man, can i borrow your car to get to court? the cops took mine and wont give it back...you know..something about their dogs smelling something.

or my personal favorite

I dont have the money this week but if you let me get the cd then I'll sell some copies and get you the money by wednesday, can you hook that up for me?
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And where is the "any" key on my computer ?

:D
 
ok look, I know you guys took this opportunity to be funny but hello? Is anyone out there?

I have seen the massive amounts of posts asking... Why can't I get my recording louder and then the constant replies saying not to boost the compressor or it will distort the sound yada yadda yadda, but isn't that what a master track is for? Tweaking eq, leveling the tracks, like a polish right? So, if I can do an alright job at polishing on my computer then why am I bad off? Why is it necsessary to have my ok recording, from an ok studio, sold to folks with an ok ear, MASTERED? Please answer the damn question and don't be rude about it. Hell, one of you guys might earn my business rather than making me out to be some sort of idiot.

Dissapointed in what I thought was a user FRIENDLY forum.

Please no negative replies, just keep it to yourself
 
jonhall5446 said:
{Mastering is...} Tweaking eq, leveling the tracks, like a polish right?
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Yup - pretty much, more or less.....

jonhall5446 said:
So, if I can do an alright job at polishing on my computer then why am I bad off? Why is it necsessary to have my ok recording, from an ok studio, sold to folks with an ok ear, MASTERED?
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Because you generally CAN'T do an allright job - even if you think you can.

The most critical part of the mastering process is to be able to really listen to a mix and objectively analyze what, if anything, needs to be adjusted.

There are some fundamental requirements for this analysis to be successful.

1) You have to have an ear for audio detail -- if you can't tell the difference between an overcompressed signal and an uncompressed one, you might as well forget mastering.

2) You have to have objectivity -- if you've tracked and mixed a song (or album), do you really think you're in a position to be objectively critical of your own tracking and mixing? The fact is that your ears have grown too accustomed to the project and you're unlikely able to distiinguish subtle audio anomalies in your work.

Of course, the opposite it also true - you could also be so overcritical of your own work that your overanalzye and attempt to correct problems that aren't even an issue.

3) While it's often true that gear doesn't matter, in the mastering process - gear DOES matter, at least as far as requiring an environment that lets you hear what you need to hear to critically judge the sound quality of an audio work. If your signal chain, monitoring system or room is deficient, you will not be able to differentiate between a mix that needs adjustment, or a mix that is fine but is simply being colored by the signal or monitoring chain.


So while there's nothing stopping you from going the DIY route (hey - knock yourself out!), there are also concrete reasons why you shouldn't expect to acheive results that come close to mastering done by a professional.


If you want the full scoop on Mastering basics, check out Bob Katz' article --> http://www.digido.com/portal/pmodule_id=11/pmdmode=fullscreen/pageadder_page_id=31/

(In case you don't know, Bob Katz is one of the leading ME's in the industry....)
 
jonhall5446 said:
Please answer the damn question and don't be rude about it. Hell, one of you guys might earn my business rather than making me out to be some sort of idiot.
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Easy. :D Understand this is a question that almost always seems to erupt in to a massive debate . . . people get all touchy and the thread always just seems to go to the crapper. We're just trying to have a sense of humor about it. I hope you get the answers you're looking for, but don't get too discouraged if the thread turns ugly. Just try to sift through it all and gleen whatever helpful tidbits you can get out of it. And just try and smile and have fun with it in the process. Good luck.
 
your questions arent bad........i was just displaying questions that are obviously bad with no forethought. just chill man....relax and take things step by step and be sure to have a laugh here and there.
 
They were valid questions. I just want to know where my "any" key is !
 
The "N" is between the "B" and the "M"

The "E" is between the "W" and the "R"

Okay, it wasn't so funny...
 
chessrock said:
It was sorta' funny . . . in a non-funny way, that is.
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I laughed...Not an out loud laugh, but it was there. As long as we're being honest, I suppose my question wasn't that funny either.
 
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