Mastering

[quigleybc]

Hi,

So, recently I got my hands on the RAW tracks that my band recorded at a studio.

I did this because I knew that the guys at the recording school would take a long time to get us a master disc, and I wanted to do my own mix with multitracks, and of course the fact that it's my band, and my own drums makes it that much more fun. Drums had 9 mics, Bass had 2, Guitars had one each, and two vocal tracks in total...so 15 tracks.

So, I've gotten the 7 songs all mixed down, automated, applied plugs or no plugs where I like them, and I'm pretty happy with the finished mixes. I've bounced my tracks down to AIFF's (all in Logic E BTW)

So, is there anything else I could do at this point? Is there any benefit to loading these bounced AIFF tracks up into Peak, or DSP Quatro, or Soundtrack Pro for further manipulations?

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[zimv20]

i'm not making a comment on your mixing, of course, but i believe that a record should be mastered by someone who has not been involved in the process up until that point.

fresh set of ears and all that.

you going to post any tracks?

 

[quigleybc]

i'm not making a comment on your mixing, of course, but i believe that a record should be mastered by someone who has not been involved in the process up until that point.

fresh set of ears and all that.

you going to post any tracks?

ha ha

But it's soo fun....and I agree, a neutral ear would be best, but, it's too fun to resist.

Plus, how else am I going to learn how to do this stuff? Sure as heck can't afford these fancy recording schools..

The guys that recorded it are going to do their own mix and master, and I'm going to do my mix and master, so we'll have two versions of the same thing. Their's SHOULD be better, we'll see.

But, of course my mix is going to have more bass and drums because that's what I like....it's my mix, so ya, it'll sound how I like...

Ya, we'll post the tracks on the website, or myspace or both....I'll probably add a link to my sig in a few weeks.

no tips on where to go from here?

 

[Killyp]

listen listen listen.

Listen on AS MANY stereos as you can, from the cr•ppiest car stereo to the best gear on the market. Hell even email me some and I'll tell you what I think. Headphones are also very important. So many times I've found it sounds great on speakers, stuck it on my iPod and then found a lot of it is lumped in the middle with stuff coming either side of the sound stage. Easily missed on speakers...


Also, make sure you listen from the room next door, at all different volumes. This can bring up problems such as the snare or hi-hat being too loud.

And for god's sake put a damn subsonic filter on that thing! I've nearly blown up my hifi so many times with subsonic rumble!

 

[quigleybc]

listen listen listen.

Listen on AS MANY stereos as you can, from the cr•ppiest car stereo to the best gear on the market. Hell even email me some and I'll tell you what I think. Headphones are also very important. So many times I've found it sounds great on speakers, stuck it on my iPod and then found a lot of it is lumped in the middle with stuff coming either side of the sound stage. Easily missed on speakers...


Also, make sure you listen from the room next door, at all different volumes. This can bring up problems such as the snare or hi-hat being too loud.

And for god's sake put a damn subsonic filter on that thing! I've nearly blown up my hifi so many times with subsonic rumble!

Agreed

My speakers are not up to par with what I need.

So, I bring daily mixes over to the studio loft where we practice to listen through the PA, and I also bring em over to my friends place and listen through his crazy $$ monitors...

result..

All over the place, one place sounds great, one place sounds odd...in the headphones sounds one way, in the car sounds another...uggh...

I swear if I listen to these songs too many more times I'm gonna lose my mind....

 

[zimv20]

Listen on AS MANY stereos as you can [...] listen from the room next door, at all different volumes.

this is excellent advice, but i feel that's a mixtime activity.

mastering engineers think about and hear things differently. it's more than about how a song sounds, it's about how all the pieces of the album fit together. their tools -- including analytical, corrective, and hearing -- are geared towards that meta-aspect of the product. they know markets and can even recommend song order.

imo, it's so much more than simply doing 2-track processing. that stuff we can do at mixtime.

 

[quigleybc]

this is excellent advice, but i feel that's a mixtime activity.

mastering engineers think about and hear things differently. it's more than about how a song sounds, it's about how all the pieces of the album fit together. their tools -- including analytical, corrective, and hearing -- are geared towards that meta-aspect of the product. they know markets and can even recommend song order.

imo, it's so much more than simply doing 2-track processing. that stuff we can do at mixtime.

Ok,

I should have named this thread....Amateur Mastering...for dummies..lol.

Any tips for where I should go next, in a HOME studio, with limited tools.

 

[zimv20]

Ok,

I should have named this thread....Amateur Mastering...for dummies..lol.

Any tips for where I should go next, in a HOME studio, with limited tools.

ohhhhhhh.....

vintage warmer, crank up the drive between 4 and 8, reduce the output gain until you're just below peaking. bump up the EQ at, say, 100 Hz and 8k, double check it through a boombox to make sure nothing gets lost.

 

[quigleybc]

Thanks

I'll do that, another plug I have that may be of use is izotopes Ozone 3.

Any tips for settings on that plug?

and are programs like Soundtrack Pro, and Peak beneficial after the tracks are bounced?

 

[zimv20]

I'll do that

i was only half serious -- if you do give VW a try, pull up one of their mastering presets and work off of that.

another plug I have that may be of use is izotopes Ozone 3.

i ran the demo for that a while ago, too bad i didn't have time to give it much more than a onceover. i'd start with that one, actually, and skip VW entirely.

in fact, i'd try two ozones in sequence, doing gentle compressing/limiting, rather than go for it all in one shot.

and are programs like Soundtrack Pro, and Peak beneficial after the tracks are bounced?

i don't know those programs, but one way they could be useful is if they've got better SRC than logic. i use PTLE, and have been using its built-in SRC, but i don't like the results.

next time i mix a track, i'm going to bounce it at the original sample rate and bit depth, then dump that 2-track into DSP-Quattro. i've heard that it has very good SRC and i mean to give it a try.

 

[Killyp]

We have a pair of far field monitors in the top of our garage (which is just the right shape). Email a WAV or Apple Lossless to me and I'll burn it to a disk and tell you what I think, if you want.

 

[scottlinux]

I actually find headphones are better for mastering. But that is my personal opinion. You can hear much more, esp the panning.

 

[zimv20]

I actually find headphones are better for mastering. But that is my personal opinion. You can hear much more, esp the panning.

and then what do you do to fix the panning?

 

[Killyp]

I find headphones are generally quite revealing when it comes to panning. They're great at highlighting if something sounds really small on the soundstage, and also if panning is out of place, or distracts from what you were listening to before.

If I had to go with one or the other though, it would be speakers (blatantly obviously)...

 

[zimv20]

I find headphones are generally quite revealing when it comes to panning.

yes, but what do you do to correct it? if you're repanning instruments, you're not mastering, you're mixing.

but if you're fixing the 2-track as a whole -- what is it you're actually doing?

edit: oops -- i thought i was replying to scottlinux's reply. never mind, my questions still stand.

 

[quigleybc]

Ya, now that i've got these bounced down, I'm not going to really do anything with panning. But the headphones were usefull during mixing because I'm lacking in good monitors.