I had a go at a different method (for me at least) of mastering last night. I say mastering, I mean ham fisted mastering.

I used to just throw stuff on the master channel within the project I was working on without really thinking about the levels going into the master channel itself. This time I rendered what I had as a stereo file that was peaking about -8db so i'd left myself plenty of room. I then opened a mastering template in Cubase so I COULDN'T mess about with it anymore and ran the stereo file through Ozone 4. I'm quite happy with the results so far but I still feel there's more room for improvement.

I used M/S EQ for the first time and it certainly helped widen the highs.

Tell me what you guys think, any improvements that can be made etc. Mastering is still a black art to me!


****The file starts loud btw - no intro*****


http://soundclick.com/share?songid=8392670


Thanks

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Let me put it another way.

I'm old enough not to need a pat on the back.


where can I make further improvements?!

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just a personal opinion here. but i think youre blowing this mastering bit out of proportion. my good friend, does no mastering what so ever, his mixes are the best ive heard(again this is My personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt) but ill tell you right now, he blows your clip out of the water.
maybe someone else can clarify more, but i think you should work more on mixing than mastering. that being said, if you feel you need to do a lot of this and are getting decent results, keep going with it.

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Originally posted by msz just a personal opinion here. but i think youre blowing this mastering bit out of proportion. my good friend, does no mastering what so ever, his mixes are the best ive heard(again this is My personal opinion so take it with a grain of salt) but ill tell you right now, he blows your clip out of the water. maybe someone else can clarify more, but i think you should work more on mixing than mastering. that being said, if you feel you need to do a lot of this and are getting decent results, keep going with it.

Well maybe you have a point but I get better mixes after i've done my version of mastering than before.

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A good mix should need LESS mastering

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Well clearly I still need to resort to a bit of mastering to get where I need to be!!!!

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make you track sound how you want to and then send it to someone else to tweek it and make slight adjustments. dont send something you are unhappy with and hope it will come back sounding better. ideally if a track is made how you want it to sound it should come back after mastering and sound the same as your mix but louder. if lots of adjustment is required then its time to learn to mix or replace your monitors.

louder shouldn't mean less noticable dynamics. a good mix sent to a good mastering engineer should come back in a state where you can run both versions (mastered and unmastered) on seperate chanels and run the mastered version at minus 3-6db lower than the unmastered one and when toggling you hear very little change.

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Originally posted by DEAD_MOOSE make you track sound how you want to and then send it to someone else to tweek it and make slight adjustments. dont send something you are unhappy with and hope it will come back sounding better. ideally if a track is made how you want it to sound it should come back after mastering and sound the same as your mix but louder. if lots of adjustment is required then its time to learn to mix or replace your monitors. louder shouldn't mean less noticable dynamics. a good mix sent to a good mastering engineer should come back in a state where you can run both versions (mastered and unmastered) on seperate chanels and run the mastered version at minus 3-6db lower than the unmastered one and when toggling you hear very little change.

Well this is precisely what I've done, or attempted to at least. I'm generally happy with my mixes with the amount of experience I have at this stage. My 'mastering' attempt was a try at acheiving the volume and punch that I want to hear.

Maybe i'll post the unmastered version here later as well.

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i just smash it through a limiter and raise the volume 3dB. end of story. if my track sounds bad its the mixdown or the individual tracks faults, not the "mastering". wtf´s the point with "mastering" anyway when we dont release anything on vinyl anymore? its like discussing dolby B.

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Originally posted by palm i just smash it through a limiter and raise the volume 3dB. end of story. if my track sounds bad its the mixdown or the individual tracks faults, not the "mastering". wtf´s the point with "mastering" anyway when we dont release anything on vinyl anymore? its like discussing dolby B.

Well for me it's about volume, and although that gets a slating I don't really care. My mp3 player only goes so loud and I want it louder.

Usinf my 'mastering' process I can get it louder than I can with mixing alone.

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I know what it is missing. A Gotdamn Clap. Let's get one in there asap.

Sounds overcompressed to me.