Mixing VS. Mastering: How Do You Export 12 Mastered Songs To Your Hard Drive For CDs?

[Mike Freze]

Hi, everyone! Thanks for all your help in the past.

Hey, I'm beginning to understand more about things as I go along. Now I have a question about mixing individual songs down to export as a single audio (stereo) file (wav format) vs. the final mastering of a full CD album full of songs to be copied to a CD.

No problem with one song full of 12 tracks to be mixed down to one final track that can be exported to your hard drive as a wav file. After all the tweaking is done, it's simple to do.

My problem is with mastering those same songs for a full (say, 12 song) CD. How do you do that? If you have mixed down 12 separate songs and exported them to your hard drive as 12 separate wav files, do you have to import all 12 songs back into Cubase to do the final mastering? If so, do you literally import every song on separate, individual blank audio tracks to do this? That would mean I have 12 premixed songs on 12 audio tracks to work with all of them together at the same time for mastering: volume levels, sequencing, EQ's, etc. Is any home computer capable of handling that massive amount of memory required to work on 12 completed songs simultaneously for mastering?

OK, the other question. However I'm supposed to do this, what about saving and then exporting my mastered songs as wav files back to my hard drive? Do you have to re-mix these songs all over again as one gigantic wav file (that includes all 12 songs, recorded one at a time, all on one file) to get it to save to your hard drive as a finakl product for CD copying later?

I'm confused on how to do this. Obviously when you call up a CD of a famous band on your hard drive, you can see that each song is separated as separate tracks (or files) on the CD. That way, you can play what you want or copy only one song to somewhere else if you want to.

So when you finishing mastering all 12 songs in your recording program (like Cubase), how do you export the final version for all songs to your hard drive as individual songs to burn to a CD later?

Sequencing is a big issue: if that means ordering songs the way you want to appear on a CD (and getting what you want for specific silent periods after the end and the beginning of each song), how can you do this if you export each finished song one at a time as separate files on your hard drive?

Again, there's no problem with working one ONE song in Cubase (say, with 10 tracks), mixing all the tracks together to get your sounf, then exporting a single, sterio file to your hard drive as a single wav file. But how can you tweak all complete 12 songs in a recording program at the SAME TIME whn you master them down and THEN export them as separate songs that still maintain the sequencing and silent parts between songs for your CD?

Mike Freze

 

[Mike Freze]

Is Mastering A Second Re-Mixing Of All Completed Songs?

Is mastering another "mixing" (or re-mixing) of the individual songs you already mixed down and exported to your hard drive as wav files?

These are the things I'm confused about. Again, how can you EQ, set dynamics, pan, etc. on 12 completed songs at the same time? Each one on a separate blank audio track in Cubase? Or do you have to call up all individual tracks for all 12 songs you recorded into Cubase to do this? If so, you would have to have like 125 tracks to work with to master all your 12 songs if each song was made from 10-12 tracks each to begin with. Is this the only way to mix the master all down again to export to your hard drive?

Mike Freze

 

[dintymoore]

When I finish an album, I have say 12 songs and I import them into Cubase and put "solo" on so that only one song will play at once. I don't think that this taxes your computer like you're talking about because you only play one at a time. Ten years ago on an Apple G3 I could put 50 songs on Cubase at once... you could probably put 1000. It's playing them all at once that taxes the computer and you don't do that. I leave solo on so only 1 stereo track plays.

Each of the songs has it's own track so you can tweak them separately.

With those 12 songs on Cubase I can hit play and then the up and down arrows and it will jump from song to song for me to compare the volumes and eq. If I want to I can eq and tweak a song, then export it and save it as a new version. To save the songs in Cubase I use "export audio file".

When I get the songs to the point I like and make sure the tweaked versions are all saved, I quit Cubase. So all the songs are separate files.

Then I burn CD's either using Toast or the built in burner app on my Mac. Toast lets me leave a predetermined amount of time between songs and I usually choose 2 seconds. If I wanted longer on one song I would add dead air at the end of a song in Cubase.

Does that make sense?

 

[Chili]

My problem is with mastering those same songs for a full (say, 12 song) CD. How do you do that?

I use Wavelab 6 Essential. Although, if I had to choose over again, I would probably try CD Architect. WL seems to have a lot of problems with newer CD burners and their respective drivers.

Both are around $100USD.

 

[Mike Freze]

Thanks! Just One Final Question

Thanks, Dintymoore! Very great advice and I owe you one.

I understand the approach to only playing one song at a time when you import all 12 songs to master to save computer power, space, memory, etc. Like you said, you master each track (one song for each track) and move on to the next.

But how do you synchronize ALL 12 songs together at the same time in order to balance the overall volume, EQ's, etc? If you only did one song at a time, there's nothing to compare the other 11 songs to to see if that initial song is getting balanced with all 12 together.

Here's a simpler example. If you record just one song and go to the mix (let's say the song has 10 separate tracks you recorded in Cubase), it's like trying to mix only ONE track at a time, move to the next, etc. until you're done. But with mixing in your virtual mixer, you use EQ, volume control, effects, automating groups of tracks, etc. while listening to the entire 10-track song to get that balanced mix. Shouldn't that be the same procedure when mastering: to hear ALL the mixed audio files (complete songs) imported into Cubase AT THE SAME TIME in order to hear how all 12 songs balance out together as a whole? How can you get that complete balance between all of the songs if you only do one at a time?

If that's the case, then I don't understand the whole point of mastering all 12 songs you recorded. Just to master one song track at a time sounds the same as what you did originally when you mixed only one song to record and save with many tracks. I thought mastering meant hearing ALL songs together at once to get the balance for all songs when they come out on a CD.

Mike Freze

 

[Chili]

. Shouldn't that be the same procedure when mastering: to hear ALL the mixed audio files (complete songs) imported into Cubase AT THE SAME TIME in order to hear how all 12 songs balance out together as a whole? How can you get that complete balance between all of the songs if you only do one at a time?

Say what?? I'm sure I'm misunderstanding what you're asking.... I think you're saying you want to have all 12 songs playing at the same time so you can match levels, balance, etc. If that's waht you're saying, that wouldn't work at all. It's not the same as listening to 24 tracks within one song all playing to the same tempo, song structure, etc. 12 different songs playing together is going to sound like an AM radio. lol

To establish the proper levels, eq and mood of all 12 songs, you have to listen to them sequentially and then at random points throughout all the songs. Listen to them all the way through from the beginning of song 1 to the end of song 12. Then bounce around from one part of a song to another part of another song. Then listen to all the soft parts of each song, then all the loud parts. Adjust levels and eq to strike a balance that works across all parts of all songs.

You can maybe choose one song that has elements of all the other songs and use that one song as a golden song to compare the rest with and adjust the others to match the tonality of the golden song.

BTW: Cubase wouldn't have any problems playing 12 stereo tracks at the same time, even loaded with plugs on each track, it's not a lot.

Hope this helps.