Steven the best advice I can give you is to get your gains as close as possible in your mix. Mastering a mixed project can only be done properly if there are no huge disparities between your tracks. I mix to -5db and then pull everything up in the mastering session.

The mastering process when dealing with mixes is based on making everything similar. So stereo width, depth, and slight compression (I use PSP Vintage Warmer because I like the color it gives). I also use the waves L3 MM Plug in as the last plug in my chain (highly recommend for everyone to pick this up).

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Originally posted by Tarpex Stephen, you can contact me anytime for any mastering / question related stuff, I've got incoming releases on Black Hole & Armada at the end of the year, and I know a thing or two about music Peace.

Tarpex, i may have to pick your brains one day on this subject ?!

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Originally posted by pactdonkey Heres a good thread on this subject i read recently over on a&b forum.. Maybe youve seen it, maybe you havent. Always wandered how the TATW show is a powerful volume...im glad he said never use it as a reference..ive spent many times trying to match the volume and just crushing the whole dynamics of my tracks just to match it....and then just thinking im crap. hehe Well here it is. http://www.anjunabeats.com/forum/in...showtopic=31854

Yup; the waves C series and L series are used by most of the big radio shows; they are fucking outstanding products!

Anytime pactdonkey, my PM box is always open

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Steven if you're interested I'll do this for free for you. You've always made yourself available to me whenever I've had any questions or wanted some feedback.

I'd be more than welcome to help your label displace some of the muppets currently monopolizing the industry.

You can check any of my mixes in the link in my sig if you'd like to see what my techniques can accomplish.

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Originally posted by Tarpex Multiband comps are a tool designed to correct serious irregularities within the mix; they shouldn't even be considered for normal work most of the time)

have to disagree with you there. The problem is that people think these tools are to fix big problems and that is why you get people using them when they should just automate things instead.

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Originally posted by Tarpex Oh god, he said he's getting his tunes from top labels, which kinda have their music properly mastered (and even those that ain't top usually care about quality of their releases), don't complicate stuff too much mate. There's a reason mastering gear costs 20k+ in total, and no software plugs can achieve the same, now you're telling the guy to scrap the masters already done and remaster on software? Has to be one of the silliest ideas I ever heard. Stephen, you can contact me anytime for any mastering / question related stuff, I've got incoming releases on Black Hole & Armada at the end of the year, and I know a thing or two about music Peace.

well he didnt actually say that. i'm giving general advice, i have no idea whether the source material is top notch or crap. and i dont know much about the labels he's mentioned. we dont know whether the masters were done in a pro mastering studio or in some guys bedroom. maybe i missed something...

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Originally posted by mfitterer1 Wrong And wrong again. Aren't you a mastering engineer? I hope I'm just recalling incorrectly because you've made some very stupid statements noted above.

um yeah i am, whats wrong with with what i've said?

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That's what I was wondering. I think there wasn't anything wrong with what you said (and from an engineers standpoint definitely the way to go for the best result), although it's a lot of work doing it the way you described. Getting pre-masters is even more work. It's just unpractical.

I'd just set the volume on all tracks so that they sound equally loud and then some gentle compression on the master output. Most likely that's the easiest way to go.

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quote:

If less is more think about how much more more would be. -Frasier

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Originally posted by studiobob um yeah i am, whats wrong with with what i've said?

"if your mastering an album and the source material is already mastered then your options are limited."

This is untrue. Just because something is mastered already doesn't mean it can't be adjusted or benefit from subtle changes or sweetening of the sound.

"therefore putting any kind of dynamic control over the master channel is gonna work well on the quieter tracks and crush the loud tracks, not really ideal! "

The thing is all tracks should be the same, despite what their sources are. So say you have an track with an rms of 10 and a track with an rms of 8 (fairly squished); once recorded if done efficiently they'll be near the same as an end product. I think you're overestimating how much post processing is done when mastering an entire mix OR what type of post processing is done on an entire mix.

"useless if one of your tracks on the album has been "mastered" to a +20DB and is one big nasty square wave from start to finish...cos you cant do anything with it." This is also untrue. The technique I use for these tracks is mixing them in about 1-2 db lower than the rest of the mix. This allows my post processing to actually reestablish some dynamics (or give the feelings of that) and give it some much needed room that was taken away in the original mastering process.

Mastering a mix is MUCH different than mastering a single track.