Mastering

jeff robertson · Post by **jeff robertson** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 7:01 am

Does your music-making process have a separate "mastering" stage (separate from mixing)? Or does the song go straight from the mixer to the final MP3?

If so, what exactly do you do in the mastering phase? Is this where you apply compressing/clipping to obtain the desired volume? Do you do add any effects in this stage (why)?

Do you use different software for mastering than what you used for recording and mixing?

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:21 am

I use Izotope Ozone for my mastering step. Yes, it's different from mixing. Lots of people do use this and have good success with it.
-bill

ken · Post by **ken** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:15 am

I simply use Voxengo Elephant on my master bus. I tend to add this in at the end of my mix and then tweak it to taste.

Lord of Oats · Post by **Lord of Oats** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 9:47 am

As much as I don't like to talk about my process...

My songs do not have a separate mastering stage. I've never applied compression to a mixdown. I've used compression on individual tracks, but mostly just on vocals, because the human voice is very dynamic and typically needs to be tamed a little. But really, that's just because a lot of my presets tell me to. In any case, I am not going to compete in this loudness war. Although people here are probably used to volume knob tweaking, I guess having quieter songs can probably still end up costing you votes and stuff. Oh fucking well. As far as I know, mastering is basically against my personal ethics. Of course, I have no idea what I'm talking about. I basically default to Steve Albini on this.

jeff robertson · Post by **jeff robertson** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:08 am

For full disclosure, let me tell you what I did for my Gift of Music entry. It was mixed in Reaper and then processed with Audacity.

In Reaper, I adjusted the Main fader (by trial and error) until I could play back the whole song and it would peak at exactly 0.0.

Then I exported a WAV file.

I brought this WAV file up in Audacity, and just by looking at the waveform, it was clear that the places where the song actually hit 0 were very few and far between. Otherwise, everything was around -5.

So I increased the gain by 5db. This caused those few samples to be clipped, but they were so short and inconsequential that you don't hear them as either distortion or compression. Meanwhile, the rest of the song is significantly louder.

Any thoughts on how I could do accomplish the same thing with less manual work?

obscurity · Post by **obscurity** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 10:44 am

jeff robertson wrote: Any thoughts on how I could do accomplish the same thing with less manual work?

Put a compressor/limiter on the master bus of your DAW and crank it till it sounds right. You shouldn't need to look at the waveform to see where the peaks are, because you don't listen to music with your eyes.

Disclaimer: I'll happily compress the living crap out of my mixes if I feel it's what sounds best. All this 'oh woe is me, the dynamic range is being reduced' wailing and gnashing of teeth only applies to music in which a wide dynamic range matters, which is not usually the case for me.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:05 am

I save final mixes to uncompressed WAVs so that someone better than I may remaster in the future (though this NEVER happens).

I then load that into Ozone Isotope like Bill and so far crawl through the presets. But I am determined in a future life to learn the tool better.
I master separately to handle over-all EQ, compression (less is more) and such. I guess it's largely about bass and cymbals issues in my mix. Still working on doing a better job. Mastering is both tied to and separate from mixing the individual tracks.

Billy's Little Trip · Thu Jan 10, 2008 11:24 am

I record with Cubase.

I mix and add FX in Cubase to get my sound. I name this Recording Tracks.

After about 30ish tracks with FX, EQ and verious other VST sound tools, my computer starts to lag or freeze. So at this point, I start exporting tracks, combining tracks, such as drums, right/left guitars, b/u vox, etc etc, into individual stereo tracks. (lIE: left/right guitar on one track, etc)

I then start a new project called Mixing Tracks.

I now import my individual stereo tracks to the new project.

Now I can pay closer attention to mixing and my master vst sound tools, such as multi band EQ, compression, etc. I can also bring over straight parts from my original recorded tracks to blend with my exported stereo tracks as needed. This is great for multiple EQd bass to bring it out more, snap the snare a bit more, etc.

This is mixed and exported as a finished song, still in wav format.

Now it goes to my mastering program. I use Goldwave for mastering. The only things that I do in mastering is maximize volume, clean up the start and end, add or remove start and end to allow a minimum of 1 second of silence, remove any pops or clicks, remove hiss or air noise from quiet parts if needed.

At this point I make an MP3 file at 192 kbps for Internet use.

I have now started a new final step. This has been done now on my last three songs. I'm not sure yet if this is over doing things or helping. It seems to be giving me that added little kick I always seem to need.

I now start a third project called Final Tracks.

I import my finished wav file song to my new project.

I seem to always leave my songs in the mud at around 500 to 1500 hz for some reason. Not bad, but it just seems that my ears, or monitoring set up, drives me to this every damn time, and I don't know why. So in a perfect world, I wait until the next day, then EQ the song as a whole one last time. Somewhere in that 1000hz area I tend to bring it up around 2.0 to 4.0 db with a roll off in both directions to satisfy my fresh ears. Sometimes a steep roll off, sometimes very gradual.
Now I do one more little thing. I will import certain things that I feel lost the dynamics from the master compression. Although my master compression is very mild, it still can smooth things out a tad too much for my taste. Very radio friendly, but not CD friendly. My biggest battle is always the snare. I like my snare to snap, so I will import a clean unprocessed snare over from my original recording tracks. I will EQ the snare to just the right snap and tone, then just move it up under the main song track. I have now added an uncompressed snare to a compressed song. I do the same with the kick, because Im good at getting the low tone, but I always lose the slap of the head. So I will move an uncompressed kick into the mix.

I now make an MP3 of the FINAL final song for Internet use.

Now I have a full sounding and nicely EQd song that I can live with. I'm sure Steve Albini would probably cringe, and I'm not receiving fan mail telling me what a great sound engineer that I am, so I'm sure I'm the only one that likes my finished sound, lol.

also, this has been a learning experience. I go back to songs I did, even just a few months ago, and I cant believe that I thought they were mixed good. My equipment is building and so is my skill. I thought I had it all figured out 6 months ago. Now I realize just how little I actually know.

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 12:47 pm

Because I use a standalone box, I have to mix and master simultaneously - unless I wanted to really complicate the process, but who wants to do that? As the song plays through, I raise/lower the faders, apply/turn off effects and mute/unmute tracks as the song requires, and all along, my master effects are applied to the stereo mix.

Me$$iah · Post by **Me$$iah** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:06 pm

Reïst wrote:Because I use a standalone box, I have to mix and master simultaneously

No you dont, you could still make a stereo mix and then Master that using your standalone or even a computer based digital editor.
It would be a slightly more complicated procedure, but would give you the chance to rest ears (dont underestimate the power of a day off listening to your curent tune) and listen to the mix in a variety of rooms and systems before the final mastering process.
It also means you can make a variety of differnt masters, with different comp levels or eqs etc, and then listen to these on different systems in differen rooms to hear which master translates the mix around the systems better.

Reïst wrote: unless I wanted to really complicate the process, but who wants to do that?

Oh yeh .... forget everything I just said

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:18 pm

This reminds me, some 'Nathan' fella messaged me at myspace offering to master one of my songs if I gave him my e-mail address.

So I gave him my 'i don't care what comes to it' e-mail address to see if he was legit.

He e-mailed me back what sounded like he used a preset in some mastering software and told me he would do the rest of my songs @ $40 a piece.

He: compressed, stereo widened, and gave it high end reverb. So, if thats a preset in Izotope, then I"m almost certain thats what he did. He basically castrated a punk song! I explained to him that I could have done that and more specifically: I DIDN'T. He was a good sport about it though... which was refreshing.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:24 pm

Me$$iah wrote: It would be a slightly more complicated procedure, but would give you the chance to rest ears (dont underestimate the power of a day off listening to your curent tune) and listen to the mix in a variety of rooms and systems before the final mastering process.

This is SO true! A fresh set of ears on a song makes all the difference in the world.

As far as someone not wanting to go the extra mile because it complicates things. Good luck with that.

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:41 pm

Aw man, I really need to get on learning how to master my stuff. What little I do is totally uninformed and spazzily done.

I have a low-end version of pro-tools. Generally I create a master fader on which I boost the levels as loud as I can get 'em sans clipping... then I apply a little EQ (really mostly just a smidge of roll off high and low) and a little compression to the whole shebang.

Before I got this beefier machine, I'd have to do more or less what BLT does, and create a "mastering" version of my song before applying the "masterfader" plugins. My new machine seems to be able to handle the load of those final plugins better.

I opt to "ride the faders" (well, "automate the faders" anyhow) to get my vocals into some semblance of consistent volume. I suppose I could just apply a separate compressor to that track individually, but I prefer to do it the hard way. Not sure why.

Doesn't Des have a good mastering how-to posted somewhere here?

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 1:56 pm

anti-m wrote:I opt to "ride the faders" (well, "automate the faders" anyhow) to get my vocals into some semblance of consistent volume. I suppose I could just apply a separate compressor to that track individually, but I prefer to do it the hard way. Not sure why.

Do you record your fader movements live or use drawing tools? I do some of both but mostly it's vector tools to do all my fader automation.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:01 pm

That's good to hear Em, I haven't tried my new machine yet, but I'm hoping it speeds up my process. I'd really like to use all 48 tracks if needed.

Reist · Post by **Reist** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:31 pm

anti-m wrote:Doesn't Des have a good mastering how-to posted somewhere here?

I checked around a bit on his hometracked site, and I found a few -

Tips from a professional mastering engineer

Mastering with iTunes (just for kicks - I tried it, and it does sound crisper)

This was just fun - nothing to do with mastering

anti-m · Post by **anti-m** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 2:32 pm

roymond wrote:
anti-m wrote:I opt to "ride the faders" (well, "automate the faders" anyhow) to get my vocals into some semblance of consistent volume. I suppose I could just apply a separate compressor to that track individually, but I prefer to do it the hard way. Not sure why.
Do you record your fader movements live or use drawing tools? I do some of both but mostly it's vector tools to do all my fader automation.

Oh I just draw 'em in. I don't actually have a mixing board -- My old Tascam 4-track has been repurposed to fill that role. It's a bailing wire and duct tape set up, really.

Steve Durand · Post by **Steve Durand** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 6:13 pm

I also use Izotope Ozone for my mastering. I usually plug it into my master bus after I have done all of the tweaking that I am going to do with the individual tracks such as compression, EQ, reverb.

As time has gone on I do less and less things to the final master. For example I never EQ or compress on the master, I always apply these to individual tracks. What I typically do in the mastering stage is apply a slight amount of reverb ( I feel that this helps to kind of pull all of the parts together so that they sound like they are in the same space), Maybe add a little harmonic excitement if I feel the mix needs it, and apply the loudness maximizer a little bit just to bring the overall RMS up a tad. I alway set this to peak at -1 db. I really try not to overdo this because I do like to keep some dynamic range in the mix

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 7:00 pm

Steve Durand wrote:What I typically do in the mastering stage is apply a slight amount of reverb ( I feel that this helps to kind of pull all of the parts together so that they sound like they are in the same space)

This makes sense. I have been adding my reverb to the individual track because some parts seem to need it more. But an overall reverb would make it feel like it's all on the same stage.

Adam! · Post by **Adam!** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 7:53 pm

When "finalizing" (I don't want to say mastering, because, well, it's not really mastering) my own songs, where I have recorded and mixed all the tracks myself and I am basically happy with how it sounds, and where the target medium is an mp3 and the song is a "single" (as in, not part of an album), I commonly use (in plugin-chain order):

1) a DC-offset filter. A steep high-pass filter @ 20 hz will also do the trick.
2) a fairly heavy handed compressor (for "glue"). I like a 4:1 ratio, 10ms attack, and a release of about sometime next week. The idea is that the medium-length attack will help emphasize the drum attack, and the super-long release will preserve the overall dynamics of the song better than a fast release would. The high ratio makes it very easy to hear when you're hitting the compressor too hard. Typically "too hard" is 2 or more db of gain reduction on the loudest passages.
3) Clipping/Saturation. This is for dealing with those occasional random drum peaks that stick out 3-6db higher than the rest of the song. You know what I'm talking about. Gclip (google it) does a good enough job of this. If you can hear the distortion, you are using too much: the right amount is when you can't tell the difference between toggling the plugin on or off.
3) Limiting. As mentioned many times in this thread, Ozone is very nice. I like to use the fastest release time I can get away with. Again, if you can hear it working, you're using too much. I set the limiter output at -0.1db if I'm making a 320kbps mp3, and -0.3db if I'm making a 192kbps mp3 (to give the decoder some headroom).
4) Dither to 16 bit. People talk a lot of smack about different dithering algorithms, but as long as your dither uses noise shaping I really doubt anyone will be able to tell the difference. The dither algorithm built into most DAW apps is probably good enough.

Aside from the dither, none of those are 'musts': it always depends on the song. Unless I'm really in a rush (which is actually fairly often) I don't EQ or multi-band compress when mastering my own songs, as it's easier/faster/better-sounding for me to go back and make those kind of changes in the mix.

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:19 pm

I still haven't used the DC off set, nor do I know what it is. But I see it in my Cubase tools. The same goes for Dither.

I also use the multi band compression and EQing in the final mix down. My "mastering" which, as you mentioned, Adam, is really not actually mastering because it is just a single song, I am just doing my overall clean up to make sure there isn't anything unpleasant in the song, (excluding vocals of course). 8)

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Thu Jan 10, 2008 8:20 pm

Also, it's important to keep the master track effects/plugins disabled during all recording/mixing. And in a digital set-up, keep the levels well below peak at all times, which will make the final mix much easier.