Prep for Mastering

[Waltz Mastering]

On a really good day I can just get away with my tube EQ and maybe a touch of compression.

This is really the direction I am trying to head as well. More of a minimalist approach. The only difference would be tube compression and 95% of the time not showing gain reduction. I'm hoping once I can afford to pick up the Dangerous bax eq that I can forgo any dsp except for the bwl.

BTW Tom, how does it look on the RTA?

I just use the Dorrough's - rarely pull out the rta.

 

[masteringhouse]

I just use the Dorrough's - rarely pull out the rta.

I'm sure, was a reference to one of your posts in a different forum.

 

[thundercage]

I was curious about this topic

Ok, tell me if this is ok

Usually the only thing I don't us some kind of compression on is drum overheads and possibly hi hat. I use compression on each drum and put all the drums on a sub. I do a mix on the entire kit by soloing the sub. I add a complete mix compression on the entire drum kit sub mix. Compress vocals, guitars, bass. I do all this compression so all the instruments sit well in the mix. All my subs mix to the master.

Now, if I'm sending this out for mastering I should stop at this point and my mix should be no louder than -1db peak? Would my compression methods be a mastering engineer nightmare?

 

[RAMI]

Ok, tell me if this is ok

Usually the only thing I don't us some kind of compression on is drum overheads and possibly hi hat. I use compression on each drum and put all the drums on a sub. I do a mix on the entire kit by soloing the sub. I add a complete mix compression on the entire drum kit sub mix. Compress vocals, guitars, bass. I do all this compression so all the instruments sit well in the mix. All my subs mix to the master.

Now, if I'm sending this out for mastering I should stop at this point and my mix should be no louder than -1db peak? Would my compression methods be a mastering engineer nightmare?

None of the compression you apply to your individual tracks will cause a problem if those are your mix decisions. It's not the same as putting compression/limiting or EQ on the WHOLE MIX.

And as far as mix volume, not only should your mix not be louder than -1db, it shouldn't be anywhere close to that loud. Don't worry about volume or "getting it as close to odb without clipping". That's totally un-necassarry and probably detrimental at the mixing stage..

 

[Massive Master]

Side-noting --

Once everything is digital, you certainly don't need to get things 'hot' - but it's not actually damaging to the audio (as it would be with tracking too hot).

If a mix is "naturally" (no 2-buss limiting or excessive compression) peaking below -0dBFS, it's generally okay. The mastering guy will very likely turn it down a dB or three, but it's not a biggie.

It's funny - I know guys who will have a mix ready that's sitting at -3dBFS and then slowly start bringing things up until it peaks at -.5dBFS. Silly? Sure. Unnecessary? Absolutely. But there are worse things...

 

[thundercage]

Side-noting --

Once everything is digital, you certainly don't need to get things 'hot' - but it's not actually damaging to the audio (as it would be with tracking too hot).

If a mix is "naturally" (no 2-buss limiting or excessive compression) peaking below -0dBFS, it's generally okay. The mastering guy will very likely turn it down a dB or three, but it's not a biggie.

It's funny - I know guys who will have a mix ready that's sitting at -3dBFS and then slowly start bringing things up until it peaks at -.5dBFS. Silly? Sure. Unnecessary? Absolutely. But there are worse things...

Since everything I do is digital, my resulting mix always ends up peaking at 0db. This would be ok to hand off to mastering as long as I don't do any compression or EQ on the main output? Also, what about normalizing?

 

[RAMI]

Since everything I do is digital, my resulting mix always ends up peaking at 0db.

I'm not understanding the correlation between the fact that you do everything digital and always peaking up at 0db. If that's the case, I'd turn everything down so you're peaking well below 0db.

 

[Greg_L]

It's similar to what many do with simpler compression. When you compress or limit a mix, often times this will tend to unintendedly emphasize "badness" within the mix that is otherwise masked before the gain reduction is applied.

By "test smashing" the mix, one can reveal the masked problems - i.e. you will hear in which way the mix turns bad by exposing bad frequencies or times in the mix that wind up sounding otherwise bad. This allows you to go back and preemptively fix those masked problems in the mix, further allowing the mastering engineer more leeway to do his job without those problems rearing their ugly heads.

G.

I do this all the time. I routinely do a test smash during the mix process.

 

[RAMI]

I routinely do a test smash during the mix process.

.....and it usually ends up being my keeper.

 

[Wack]

The same can't be said for a mix with no head room.
QUOTE]



And by head room you mean what? Leaving a few seconds before and after the mix?

 

[Dogbreath]

The same can't be said for a mix with no head room.
QUOTE]



And by head room you mean what? Leaving a few seconds before and after the mix?

no...by headroom, he's talkin about the available signal up towards 0 peak.
Ya don't want your mixes eatin up all the sonic space. Let the mastering guy make it loud and polished.
Like tracking at -18 (rms) to -12 (peak) is better than track it "as hot as possible without clipping".

Gotta leave some room at the top man.