The mastering alternative.

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Muffin

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I'm going to be recording an acoustic project for a friend soon. Just a single acoustic guitar and her vocals. I'll be recording her for free just to help her start out and get some publicity(as well as practice for myself). I've recently upgraded to Cubase 5 essential from Cubase le 4. However just like in 4, the export mix is much quieter in comparison to a mastered track.

She does not have the funds to dish out for mastering and I'm also not prepared to help her in that so is there some way for me to bring up the final mix volume to the level of a mastered track?

I've experimented with a free program called 'MP3gain' however if I do achieve the overall volume that I'm after, the mix is horribly distorted(clipping), if I bring it down to the point of no clipping, the volume is back to it's quiet self.

Is there something that I may be doing wrong with the final mix that is causing it to clip when I use MP3gain? Is there some other program that may achieve the volume of a mastered track?

Lastly, in the VST plug-in section of cubase 5, there is a mastering plug-in, yet I have no clue how to operate it, do you?

Any insight is greatly appreciated!
 
One thing is for sure - You don't want to be adjusting the gain of a MP3 file. Work on 24-bit PCM data (period - no exceptions). Export *to* 24-bit PCM data for that matter - Make MP3's from that.

Without getting into the whole "mastering is only very little about volume" thing, you can strap a VST limiter across the main mix buss and make anything 'loud' to some extent.

A) How it's going to react to that is up to the mix.

B) If using a relatively premium analog chain with comparatively obscene amounts of headroom (as a typical mastering chain consists of) compared to a typical VST limiter is another story all together...

I'd usually bet on the obscene amounts of headroom.
 
Muffin said:
Lastly, in the VST plug-in section of cubase 5, there is a mastering plug-in, yet I have no clue how to operate it, do you?
Click to expand...

Have you tried inserting it on the main bus and fiddling with the controls?
 
Thanks for the replies.
Massive Master, my audio export options are as follows.
Wave File
AIFC File
AIFF File
MPEG 1 Layer 3 File
OggVorbis File
Windows Media Audio File
Wave 64 File

I don't see the one you speak of. I also tried some experimenting on the limiter on the master channel. Yes the volume does increase but it gets too muddy for my liking.
When you mention 'headroom' do you refer to have the volume on all the individual channels lower? Is there a certain db level that would be sufficient headroom?

Bouldersoundguy
I've tried yet it doesn't really have any settings. The VST name is 'Mastering-UV22HR'. When open it up it has 2 'sub-menus'. One is 'output bits' with the options: 8, 16, 20 and 24. The second menu is titled 'dither level' with the options high, low and auto black.

I'm not sure what either menu does but that's all it has.
 
Muffin said:
Thanks for the replies.
Massive Master, my audio export options are as follows.
Wave File
AIFC File
AIFF File
MPEG 1 Layer 3 File
OggVorbis File
Windows Media Audio File
Wave 64 File
Click to expand...
Wave is the one to choose. Then there should be other controls for sample rate (choose 44.1k) and bit depth (choose 24)

Muffin said:
I don't see the one you speak of. I also tried some experimenting on the limiter on the master channel. Yes the volume does increase but it gets too muddy for my liking.
Click to expand...
That's because you were trying to get the mix louder than it wants to be. If it gets too muddy, you need to go back and mix it so it is a little thinner. Then when you limit it, it won't get muddy before it gets loud. For the most part, you have to take into account the amount of limiting you will have to do to get it as loud as you want while you are mixing.


Muffin said:
When you mention 'headroom' do you refer to have the volume on all the individual channels lower? Is there a certain db level that would be sufficient headroom?
Click to expand...
In general, he is talking about an analog mastering chain. Your situation (digital) isn't going to work like that.

Muffin said:
I've tried yet it doesn't really have any settings. The VST name is 'Mastering-UV22HR'. When open it up it has 2 'sub-menus'. One is 'output bits' with the options: 8, 16, 20 and 24. The second menu is titled 'dither level' with the options high, low and auto black.

I'm not sure what either menu does but that's all it has.
Click to expand...
That is a dithering plugin. You probably won't hear a difference. That is to add low level noise in an attempt to make a 16 bit file sound like it is still a 24 bit file. You really only notice it (if ever) on reverb tails, fade outs and really low level stuff.
 
Muffin,

Yeah a lot of the questions you're asking are fairly common ones that are problems we all deal with when it comes to making music.

Mostly I would concern yourself with the recording process first. Make sure you have a really good sound on the guitar and vocals. Get it sounding as close to the sound you want as possible before you do any mixing at all.

Then when you're mixing, don't worry about the volume level too much. Track things at around -18 on your DAW's meter with peaks at around -12 or so. This will sound quiet compared to any commercial songs, but get a nice clean recording and just turn your monitors up while you mix.

Be gentle on the mixing...don't overdo it, subtlety is key.

When it comes to raising the volume of the song MP3 gain won't do what you're looking for. It just normalizes the audio and doesn't compress at all so if you try and raise the level too much you'll get distortion (as you discovered).

Limiting can also raise the apparent volume, but as you discovered you're raising the volume level of EVERYTHING below the threshold that the limiter is at so you're also raising the volume of the frequencies that sound bad. So until you get a great mix, you can't expect to raise the volume and have it sound very good. And don't over do it or you'll lose a lot of character in the song, especially in an acoustic/vocal piece.

When Massive is talking about "obscene headroom" he's talking about the hardware equipment that a mastering engineer would use. Mostly analog (not computer based) and very expensive. But designed specifically to have a lot of room for doing some of the things you're talking about.

Read these articles to help you understan some of the concepts behind what you're asking to do. It's a lot more complex than it seems at first glance:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/mastering_your_audio.htm

http://www.tweakheadz.com/compressors.htm

http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/index.php
 
Why do you need to have max volume?

Unless what you're recording is going to be put in some form of sequence with "correctly" mastered tracks, most people listening will just turn up the volume.

I've recorded 3 albums, and while I don't doubt that the final result would be both better and louder if I'd had them professionally mastered, my attempts to do it myself via a bit of limiting / EQing on the stereo buss have yielded good enough results for the intended purpose.

No-one who's even bought one of my CDs has ever mentioned that it's not as loud as other CDs...

That said... the advice you've been given is all excellent and when I record the fourth album I'll probably get it mastered properly...
 
Here:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/650.html

Put this on your master bus. Careful, it's loaded!!! :)

Seriously, it's a free limiter similar to what Massive is referring to. Download it, unzip it and put the dll file in your VST folder. Don't know where that is?? Look at Devices>Plug-In Info (or something similar) and note the folder your vst plugs are located. Restart Cubase.

Garnish and serve with a light table wine.

Cheers,
 
Chili said:
Here:

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/650.html

Put this on your master bus. Careful, it's loaded!!! :)

Seriously, it's a free limiter similar to what Massive is referring to. Download it, unzip it and put the dll file in your VST folder. Don't know where that is?? Look at Devices>Plug-In Info (or something similar) and note the folder your vst plugs are located. Restart Cubase.

Garnish and serve with a light table wine.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Thanks Chili,
I'll be sure to try that out. And thanks for explaining how to load the 3rd party vst plug-in(me and my nooby self had no idea how, haha).
I'll let you know my results.
 
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