outboard mastering levels

[FALKEN]

yeah, the mix is pretty flat. anything I could gain by remixing I could gain double by eqing the mix (which I actually avoided but am now rethinking). simply, I am not going back to the track level again. I did my best, next time i'll do better, but not with this project. and I did have levels in mind from the very beginning. I've been getting the tracks from about -21 or -22 to -18. thats pretty good but for loud ass rawk music (not exactly korn but it should still kick ass) i'm not sure its cutting the mustard either.

the transients are mostly vocals and snare and bass drum, in that order, which is also the order of volume loudest first. the vocals are very strong and percussive, sort of like fugazi.

 

[Farview]

Maybe you should compress the vocals a little harder and EQ a space for them to sit inside the mix, so they don't have to be so out front. I understand that the vocals are the focus, but there is no reason they would be fighting with the drums. The drum transients should be the loudest things, the vocals normally are tucked back a bit from them.

 

[FALKEN]

Maybe you should compress the vocals a little harder and EQ a space for them to sit inside the mix, so they don't have to be so out front. I understand that the vocals are the focus, but there is no reason they would be fighting with the drums. The drum transients should be the loudest things, the vocals normally are tucked back a bit from them.

well, now that I look at my waveform, I think the drums might be loudest. I agree that the vocals need more compression. unfortunately, I had just bought a new compressor was dependent on using it. the only instrument it didn't completely suck on was vocals, and even there it performed poorly. the harder it clamped down, the more "colored" it got, and in a bad way. so I didn't compress as hard as I would like in favor of a better sound. luckily the entire mix needs compression and limiting and so far the vocals are sounding great afterwards.

anywayz I am not going back to the track level, for one its tape so I would have to set up all my gear again and get all my notes and re-learn all of the mutes and faders.... but more importantly because I have never been happy with a single mix ever so allowing myself to go back will guarantee that the process will never end. right now I have a really good mix that I already put my all into. it would sound like a great mix with proper compression, and I could actually use it if it had some volume too. I intend to use it so I gotta get it right. I won't release something that sounds like horseshit. and right now its sounding better. its not horseshit, but its still brown and stank.

I noticed something when I was trying to compare masters that I hadn't noticed when mixing. I noticed that as it got louder, there was this huge honking noise in the lower mids. the way I noticed this is the very first pass I had done, the low mids were cut on the mixer from when I had mixed it and I forgot to zero them out. I immediately figured "crap that wasted like an hour" but listening back that one sounds better at extreme volumes. or at least that's how I noticed it...at an extreme volume I switched takes and that honking mid section was gone and the whole mix was much better. its almost something you could feel. I guess it was worth it for the bit of 'ear training'. now its like "which frequences are in the way of the mix" .. I sort of 'get it' a little better. dumb freaking luck.

so Ima give it a few more passes with some eq and probably some different kinds of compression again.

 

[Farview]

It might be time to send it out. You will eventually get it, but your time is worth money too. I'm sure you didn't get in to this because you like agrivation. If this is for release, it is cost effective and a good idea to have it professionally done. I've got some really kick-ass stuff here and mastering experience. I still send mine out.

 

[FALKEN]

well If I can't get it by the end if the week out is where its going. It just sux because most every ME's website that I go to has files posted that sound like arse. I think, "shit, I could fuck it up myself and that would be free, and at least then it would sound muddy instead of annoying".

you were right btw, the drums are the loudest. and to think, I went for "less compression during mixing" on the drums so that it would sound 'livlier' after compressing the mix. could my intentions have been so far off-base?

 

[Farview]

well If I can't get it by the end if the week out is where its going. It just sux because most every ME's website that I go to has files posted that sound like arse. I think, "shit, I could fuck it up myself and that would be free, and at least then it would sound muddy instead of annoying".

you were right btw, the drums are the loudest. and to think, I went for "less compression during mixing" on the drums so that it would sound 'livlier' after compressing the mix. could my intentions have been so far off-base?

Your intentions are fine, without hearing it, I'm just taking wild guesses.
If you would have compressed the drums more, you might not have needed to compress the mix as much to get the same volume. This does get frustrating. When you change one thing, everything else changes around it.

When I am trying to make a louder than normal mix, I tend to compress everything at the track level (or in groups) to get the dynamics in line. Then once I get it mixed, the dynamic range is already very small.