New and Older Mastering techniques

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Hi, I recently began recording and mixing my songs (357 and counting) using Cubase. I'm curious about the mastering process. For instance, I imported two similar arrangements from two of my favorite Bowie albums, Tin Machine and Heathen. Besides the obvious loudness differences, looking at the waveforms I can see that the song from Tin Machine(1989) has no limiting or leveling, I'm not sure which or if that is the same thing. Maybe some compression but the peaks and valleys where the song gets softer are plainly visable whereas the song from heathen looks like its gotten a flat top haircut and is pumped up to 0 db. Is this the industry standard these days. Also, how can I apply leveling without distortion and loss of dynamics?

 

[Blue Bear Sound]

Also, how can I apply leveling without distortion and loss of dynamics?

The definition of levelling IS to lose dynamics!!!!!

You avoid distortion by not pushing the levelling too hard.

I also suggest you pick up a copy of Bob Katz "Mastering Audio - The Art and the Science" for an excellent primer on what's involved in the mastering process - I guarantee it isn't what you think !

 

[HangDawg]

Hi, I recently began recording and mixing my songs (357 and counting)

You've written and recorded 357 songs!!!!. Surely you must be joking? I'd just like to see a list of 357 song titles written by the same person.

 

[Garry Sharp]

Well HangDawg that's only one a day for a year - sounds like the lazy sod took 8 days off

 

[backpage]

"You've written and recorded 357 songs!!!!. Surely you must be joking? I'd just like to see a list of 357 song titles written by the same person."

I wrote them over a period of 17 years and I recorded and mixed 50 or so and I'm slowly getting them recorded, arranged and mixed one by one. What's the big deal? Woody Guthrie wrote a song a day for over 30 years.However, I must say, since I started this recording at home my writing productivity has really slowed down. Only one a week if I'm lucky.

Can anyone comment on mastering levels. Is it the industry standard to crank it up to 0 db? I just think all this limiting business can really ruin a song.

 

[Garry Sharp]

backpage - you really ought to get hold of Bob Katz's Mastering Audio book - he devotes page after page to exactly this topic.

There are some very good older threads on this as well. IIRC there was one a year or so ago comparing an older Rush album to a newer one which was very illuminating. It's not the issue about peaking at 0dB, it's that stuff is so heavily limited that the meter stays up there virtually all the time.

Hopefully Blue Bear or one of the other more experienced guys will give some more focused pointers.

357 songs......there are a number of things I've done 357 or more times but writing songs is not one of them

 

[Massive Master]

There's a out-of-print (coming back, I hope) PDF pamphlet on my site called "Mixing for Mastering... blah, blah, blah" that might answer a few questions for you.

John Scrip - www.massivemastering.com