Tell me about mastering?

[Erland]

What does this actually mean? How is done? Is it to do with getting the eq just right and cutting off high and low bugger ups.

I am having a problem converting to Mp3. i have been doing fine until today my ear just would not accept the mp3 over the wav. It had loads of High, treble, if that makes sense. I convert at 192 and use CD ex 1.3.

Its just an icle frustrating. Any advice?

Erland

 

[Newest User]

Mp3's are a lossy compression format. It has its own set of problems that would be too long to get into. You can never get an mp3 to sound as good as a .wav or .cda, but which converter you use can make a difference. So far the proper use of the MusicMatch encoder will yield better results than most others. As far as mastering, it means different things to different people depending upon their level of experience and knowledge. Experiment with having to make a seperate master that meets the mp3 short comings.

 

[Chris Shaeffer]

Mastering is, officially, the final stages of preparing a collection of songs to become a packaged album. It includes things like putting the songs in order, setting the length of silence between each track, making sure all the songs sound about the same volume, and applying and processing to make the songs sound cohesive.

Unofficially, its any processing done to the stereo mix of your tune.

Its a different game when you are trying to use EQ, compression, and effects on the whole mix. Its best to avoid trying to fix problems in the mix this way. Why would we? We're home recordists- we can go back to the mix and fix any problems there, like as not.

Fun, fun, fun.
Chris

 

[TexRoadkill]

It seems for me the only way to make mixes MP3 friendly is to compress the hell out of them. I wouldnt do that for a CD .wav but its an easy way to make rough mix MP3's a little easier to get some volume out of.

When you notice that you have freq spikes your best bet is to deal with the specific track that is causing the problem. That way you dont have to EQ or Compress your entire mix just because of one bad track.

As you learn to mix you will find yourself going back and remixing many, many times as some problems dont rear their ugly head until after you think you are finished.

If you mix correctly than all Mastering should do is finalize the relative volumes and 'loudness' between songs on a CD. If you have to apply liberal EQ and compression as part of your 'mastering' process than it really means you need to remix and deal with the root of the problem.