
masteringhouse
www.masteringhouse.com
I will only add one other statement to Glen's eloquent summary.
Quit blaming your tools and get the fuck to work!
Best,
Tom
Quit blaming your tools and get the fuck to work!
Best,
Tom
You make it louder at the mixing and mastering stages. You should come somewhere around -6dbfs when you are done mixing to leave some headroom for the ME.But, if lot's of us newbs get mastering confused with "making it louder" then when do you make it louder?
b/c since I have started to get my levels at -18dbfs everything sounds a lot better and alot quieter.
[RANT]
This is nothing personal at you, jndietz, I'm just using your quote because it is so perfectly representative of the HUGE problem that always rears it's head on this board that just drives me to scream like I did in the first reply.
Would someone please tell the rest of us how it is that they believe that "mastering is more engineering than anything" and that tracking and mixing are not? (Frankly, jndietz, I give you credit for even mentioning mixing; most people seem to believe there is only tracking and mastering, and that all mixing is is throwing together the former in order to do the later.)
And would someone please also tell the rest of us where all these newbs get the idea that the main purpose of mastering is fixing the mix? I really want to go to the origins of this crap and sautee the kneecaps of the people spreading this garbage.
The engineering is supposed to be frontloaded, folks. Ask any seasoned professional engineer: their best work is the result of tracking that practically mixes itself, and of mixes that need the least amount of "engineering" at the mastering stage.
I'm not taking anything away from the job that MEs like Tom and John do; in fact I'd say thay'd probably agree with me. They have a tough enough job without having to try and polish turds.
[/RANT]
G.
Making it louder is the last step before burning the CD. But making it louder is not mastering.
Just because not many people know something, doesn't make it a secret.Well, hot damn. I stand corrected!!! See, there ARE secrets after all!![]()
Here is the only tip you will need in audio production. It's a three step process.
1. Listen to what you have
2. Imagine the sound you want
3. Make the necessary adjustments
That is all there is to it. There is no magic.
You're parsing my little stylized quadruplet a bit too literally, zzed. In fact, we agree completly; the whole point of the first line is indeed that it's the performer's job to perform as well as possible, because in fact great performances make for better recordings, just as you said. Just as great trackings almost seem to mix themselves, and great mixes need the least - but benefit the most - from the mastering.I think the performer's priority is to perform well, and everything that that entails, and not to make life easier for the engineer. Making the engineer's task easy is (in my view) a by-product of a good performance.
It depends on the purpose of the home recording. If it's "for kicks" or for pre-prod or what not, there you go. If it's for public release, that might be another story.(Sorry if this has been brought up before, I didn't have time to read all of the long posts.)
Shouldn't a home recording site actually kinda discourage sending your mixes to a professional mastering engineer? Isn't that kind of... against the purpose? That comes from my perspective though, and I've never had to master anything.![]()
You're parsing my little stylized quadruplet a bit too literally, zzed.
Good pointI just wanted to emphasize that there are responsibilities as well as dependencies.