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-- What is your "mastering" process?
What is your "mastering" process?
The other thread got me wondering how we go about mastering or finalizing our songs.
- Do you do it yourself, or do you rely on others?
- If others, then professionals, or other hobbyists?
- If you do it yourself, then do you do it right in your DAW, or do you use something like Sound Forge, Wavelab, Ozone, Har-Bal, etc.?
For myself, I handle it myself unless it's being signed to a label. If it's signed, I just find out what the mastering engineer is looking for and export a raw mix. I like to review their masters because I had a terrible master made once (made the mix extremely muddy!) that would've gone out for distribution had I not requested that the label send it to me for review first! And, I'm not talking about a nitpicky thing here either - it was totally effed-up and the mastering engineer was even like "whoa - how did that happen?" in hindsight.
Anyway, for my own tracks that aren't signed, I have my own general process that I consider more "finalizing" or "pre-mastering". I get the mix to sound as much like a commercial reference track or two that I can in my DAW. I only use a limiter on my master buss set squarely at -0.2dB to catch any "overs" and not to affect track loudness. I try to mix so that my peaks are hitting about -2dB. I export the track (at 24/44.1), then sometimes I'll put it in Har-Bal to just see how the overall frequency curve looks and sometimes tweak it using reference curve(s) from the same reference track(s) I used to compare my mixes. If I make changes to the file, I export it as a new file with a "...._HARBAL.wav" added to the file name. Then, I bring it into Sound Forge, clip/fade the intro/outro to eliminate dead space and start with a plugin chain usually consisting of:
volume > multi-band EQ > multi-band compressor (optional) > limiter
I have a few preset chains and presets for each device within the chain that I've dialed in over the years for various genres/styles, so I usually start with those and tweak as necessary. But the tweaks are usually minor and mostly getting the volume/limiter balance where I want it and slight changes to the EQ, sometimes in concert with slight adjustments to the MB compressor. I reference it by A-B'ing it with commercial tracks through my monitors, headphones, and computer speakers until I'm happy with it (I'm too lazy to burn CDs and listen in my car anymore, and my car stereo sucks 
). That's about it. I export the song as another new file with a "...MASTER.wav" suffix and that file becomes the origin of any mp3s that I subsequently export.
I do it all myself and master on one render. My chain looks like this. Compressor #1 (just to keep peaks down); multiband eq; compressor #2 (to glue the mix); stereo imaging plug in; limiter (however I leave my master pre limiter hitting around -1 to -.08. Thus the limiter is not cutting out dynamics but just bringing the less prominent elements more prominently into the mix); then it goes into the waves l3 multimaximizer (this thing is gold! One of my production buddies had been raving about it forever to me and I finally caved and bought the damn thing).
For those of you that don't know the L3 MM is a eq/compressor/limiter all built into one. So i'll set the threshold to -.05 so it's just barely cutting into audio and set it to render to -.01. Then I will adjust to taste the eq and individual band compression settings depending on what I feel the track needs. When i'm doing this i'm adding .01 to .02 at most. I almost always add .02 to both the top high end bands because I like that airy feel and it seems to capture reverbs better.
Then I render and listen to it on my hs80's, then my pa's. After that I will throw it on my iPod, and if it's all good there I take it onto my laptop. If it translates good on the laptop as well as the rest; it's good to go. Then I'll let it sit for a week and come back to it. By this time i'm usually a month deep in the project at a minimum so the composition has been finalized for some time. So when I go back and listen I'm only making engineering decisions. Usually there are very very small volume changes I will do on efx; slightly change reverb tails; change the length or type of delay, etc. All very minute stuff. Then when I come back the next few days and it sounds finished both days to me it's done. I'll take the day off as a reward for the finished product and then get back to it the next day fully enthralled like I just started producing again. It's a fucking drug
This is my method. Send to Tim Xavier at Manmade in Berlin.
manmade
i try to cut out everything below, 30-35Hz, mono everything below 80-100Hz, cut out everything over 15-18kHz, and then sometimes compress a littlebit and eq a little bit then limit a bit. sometimes realy rare i also add some stereowidth but not very often and not very much. nothing much, trying to keep some dynamics and steadynes in the mix. then i end up thinking it all sounds muddy or shit and i remove everything on the master, re-eq and re-compress each of the tracks in the mix, the re-mix all the levels, then do the whole masterchain shit all over again.
I take the SHM approach and mix into my master chain from the very beginning. I have a fairly extensive chain right now consisting of
Sonalksis SV315 Compressor > UAD Pultec Pro > UAD Cambridge > UAD Neve 88RS > PSP VintageWarmer > Waves UltraMaximizer L1.
I have stated it previously in a thread, but each compressor is taking less than 1 db off. Most of them are there for color, especially the PSP VintageWarmer.
My label doesn't offer mastering, so I'm left to do it myself. 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Eric J My label doesn't offer mastering, so I'm left to do it myself. |
| quote: |
| Originally posted by palm i try to cut out everything below, 30-35Hz, mono everything below 80-100Hz, cut out everything over 15-18kHz, and then sometimes compress a littlebit and eq a little bit then limit a bit. sometimes realy rare i also add some stereowidth but not very often and not very much. nothing much, trying to keep some dynamics and steadynes in the mix. then i end up thinking it all sounds muddy or shit and i remove everything on the master, re-eq and re-compress each of the tracks in the mix, the re-mix all the levels, then do the whole masterchain shit all over again. |
nothing below 30 is interesting and bass sounds werd in stereo. the top is to make the mp3 converting easier/avoiding noise. have no idea if it works, but i cant hear much higher than 16kHz myself so its not needed. btw to me this is most boring process of edm creation.
great article on RA about mastering
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?1007
Pretty good article here about my homie who owns a mastering studio and his girl who is a producer/dj.
article
I wouldn't say I have a set order to put the plugins, but I do just master in Cubase... definitely the easiest way. Doing it in Sound Forge is just not an option. In fact, I don't even have a copy of Sound Forge anymore and I don't miss it.
The only guarantee in my plugin order is that the 25hz / 18.5khz cut EQ is first and limiter is last.
Some general tips:
Let your limiter do all the level increasing. Use the output gain controls on all your plugins so that the over-all level is the same going in as it is on the way out. That way you're not tricked into thinking a plugin is doing something great when all it's doing is making the track louder.
Use a good LP filter or EQ to check your bass levels
Try listening to the track in mono to be sure it sounds just as good -- most clubs don't bother with stereo. This is, of course, only useful if you're doing dance music
Always put the plugins on the individual wav track, not the master track. That way you can import a "professionally mastered" track to do A/B comparisons.
| quote: |
| Originally posted by Eric J I take the SHM approach and mix into my master chain from the very beginning. |
I just limit the peaks off so I can squeeze a bit more volume out of the track. Nothing too drastic, about -3dB.
For releases, the label deals with it.
Yes you need a good mix with a little bit of headroom left before you even send it to master. The engineer is just really making it fit for consumption be it cutting a master 12" on acetate to be pressed somewhere else, or sending the finished file to beatport/juno/etc... to be posted for download. The engineer I know will also do mixdowns for certain clients who pay for that, but that isn't mastering.
For quick home masters, I run Sonnox mastering chain, think it's most impressive piece of software in that field.
All EQing is done in the tracking stage, so I just cut under 40 and over 18khz, slap an expander and compressor on (expander will technically increase the dynamic range, which is then tilted down with compressing, BUT, with expander active, there's practically second to none audible annoying change in volume when there's no kick), adjusting attacks accordingly, then setting fastest possible holds & releases. Afterwards it's limiting time, where gain is increased so at the loudest part I can see the limiting button lit occasionally.
Afterwards it's a stereo plug which I basically use for a mono checker, and voila, leave it be for a day, next day when I'm fresh I hear it's total crap and do it all over again, I get it right on the evening of day 2 usually
This is what i do, it takes me about 1 minute.
First i use a limiter to even out the biggest peaks and raise the volume a bit.
Then i put a compressor on at -3 to -6 db threshold, so i even out the track a bit more, then the final limiter again, raising the volume as close to 0 db i get without squashing.
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