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Originally posted by frykshun Plain and simple.You CAN NOT get the same level of volume,depth,and overall sound with just some software program.If your songs are going to be put out by a label etc. they will be mastered by a professional,not you.You always want someone else to master your tracks to get a different perspective to the mix.Mastering is the icing on the cake.There is a reason for mastering facilities.If T-racks and Ozone could give you the same result, then mastering facilities would be going out of business very rapidly.Yes your mix can sound better by uisng some of these programs and if you produce for fun then its cool to run your mix through some software to get that instant gratification boost in sound, I know I have done it.But if you are sending out 1000 promo CD's and you want them to sound like a disc you went out and just bought from a heavy hitter then you need to take your material to a mastering facility.

agree...

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www.ultimatedjbattle.com

I thought that this topic is supposed to help amateur producers better themselves, to learn and make more polished mixes.
Comments that 'mastering is an art' or 'he could say that I needed 0.2 dB in the 10kHz range (reffering to a wonderfully mysterious mastering engineer)' will not help anybody in this forum understand what mastering really is, or how to go about it if you decide to do it yourself.
Let's talk about how we can do this at our homes, in front of our computers, since mastering is not an art but requires a lot of learning, experience, practice and quality equipment. That is not to say that you cannot master your own tracks...of course you can, the question is how and to what degree of satisfaction?
If I had $100,000.00 worth of sound procesing equipment I would not be sitting here, talking to you right now. Instead, I would open up a studio and charge all the amateur bands and producers, and tell them that I can hear they're missing 0.2 dB in the 10kHz range. Therefore they have to pay $70.00/hour for my services.
Yeah right!...and who's going to pay for my hard work and late night mixing sessions, because I work during the day. No, thanks. I'll master it myself for now.
I have a small budget for my home studio (like most of producers here). I am also determined to make my mixes as clean and polished sounding as possible.
So, after all this long intro what is mastering? I'm not an expert on the topic but I'll give you my opinion, for all that it counts.
For me mastering is producing a cleaner, smoother, dynamic and relatively loud track that will blend with the rest of the tracks on your CD. Of course, classical music is mastered differently than trance but there are general guidelines on how to proceed when mastering.
Let's get one thing clear first. If your mix sucks, no amount of mastering will help it sound better. Period.
Get your mixes sounding good without any mastering effects. Hell, get them sounding awesome, without mastering effects. That means, that your sounds first have to be well recorded or sampled and then properly mixed. But that's another huge topic.
So, you have this awesome sounding trance track, and you're ready to master. First, try to do your mastering several days or even weeks after you finished mixing the track. Try to have a good night's sleep and start your session in the morning.
Now, apply the commpressor plugin first, to even out the mix. Your attack time should be relatively short (10-30ms). The release time should be set as low as possible. Start lowering the treshold, until your attenuating the peaks by about 3dB. The ratio should be set at 1.5dB. Next, increase the release time until you reach a smooth sounding mix.
After the compressor, apply your equalizer. Roll off frequencies below 30dB. Bring the bass into focus by applying 80kHz boost of 1.5dB with a Q of 1.4. Cut 1.5dB at 400 Hz to reduce boxiness and 1.0 dB at 1.5kHz to reduce harshness with a Q of 0.8. Apply some presence by boosting 1.0 dB at 7kHz at 0.8 Q. Finally, if you want, add final gloss by boosting 1.0 dB at 15kHz with 0.8 Q.
Now, you're ready to apply the maximizer plugins, that will normalize the track and not only normalize it but increase the loudness to the levels close to those on the commercial CD. Some of these plug-ins have a dithering ability, so there is a smooth transition from 24 bit tracks down to 16 bit.
These are some of the main steps that are applied during a mastering session. They are also just general guidelines to start you on the path of successfull mastering and in no way will work for every track. But, if you apply these settings and play around with them, you'll get a feel for things and effects that are generally very hard to hear. There are numerous other topics like handling fade-ins and-outs, applying stereo width enhancers, de-esseers, multi-band commpresion and noise removal but this seems already like a too long of a reply, that might annoy some people.
I suggest that you read, study and learn about mastering. Then listen to as many tracks as possible on your speakers and make notes how they differ from your mixes. Apply the gained knowledge to your own tunes and they will definitelly sound more professional.

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okay so far...no one has mentioned anything about the actual mastering chain you tned to use...

okay for all of you who doesn't know the "mastering-chain" is another word for in wich order you run all the plugins/effects or whatever you wan't to call them...theese plugins/effects are things like stereo enhanchers, equalizers, compressors, limiters and so on

as it is right now my chain looks like this...

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EQ - I start off here to enhanch the frequencies that needs it
Compressor - I usually go with the waves "C1-compressor" here
Stereo enhancement - not always needed but if it is I usually do it here
EQ - small makeups if needed, not more than 2db enhancements usually
Compressor - this is also a laborative step, sometimes it's needed and sometimes not
Limiting - last but not least I tend to go with the Waves "L1 ultramaximizer" here, if the mixdown is in a very good shape you only need very little limiting to cut out thoose highs

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when I do this chain I almost always use the waves tools (for everything except maybe equalizing sometimes)...

in my opinion the T-racks and ozone are good tools but they are not near as good as the waves tools so if you can afford it go for them

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Originally posted by davedresden i suggest getting the gabriel & dresden prog-a-minute. in 3 easy steps you too could change the face of dance music. batteries not included. - dave

Hi Vizay,
seems like you're using a lot of plugns for your masteribg. How about the noise levels. You know that each time you apply a plug-in there is going to be some amount of distortion and noise.
I would like to hear some of your mixes...please leave a link.

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Originally posted by Design Hi Vizay, seems like you're using a lot of plugns for your masteribg. How about the noise levels. You know that each time you apply a plug-in there is going to be some amount of distortion and noise. I would like to hear some of your mixes...please leave a link.

Noise when using plugins? I've never heard of this before. The only noise you get is when you record stuff, for example with a mic or input. But you won't have noise if you process your songs digitally.

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www.ultimatedjbattle.com

what exactly do ya mean with noise? loudness or actuall noise?

if your'e reffering to loudness (what I really mean is clipping and not loudness) then there's no problem as long as you adjust the in and out levels on the plugins...I mean if you put on a beefy EQ it will most likely clip unless you adjust the output or input volume...

well anyway, if youre talking about noise then I have no clue of what you mean


but what would I use while mastering if not plugins? it's the only way to do it as far as I know and many of the pro ME (mastering engineers for you that don't know that one ) use the waves tools for mastering so I don't think there's any problems with it

but then again, I might be wrong about this since I'm in no way a guru or something near that when it comes to mastering

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Originally posted by davedresden i suggest getting the gabriel & dresden prog-a-minute. in 3 easy steps you too could change the face of dance music. batteries not included. - dave

When you introduce a plug-in in your mastering chain, your're automatically introducing a certain small amount of noise and signal degradation. The quality of your track will be definitelly degraded as you introduce more and more plug-ins. I could not hear this at first but then did a little test. Increase the volume of your monitors to maximum. You will hear a certain amount of hiss coming from the sound card, or the mixer If you now turn the plug-in on (don't play your track), you will hear a stronger hiss.
That's what I'm talking about when I say 'noise'.
I suggest not to use a lot of plug-ins unless absolutely necessary.

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quote:

Originally posted by Design When you introduce a plug-in in your mastering chain, your're automatically introducing a certain small amount of noise and signal degradation. The quality of your track will be definitelly degraded as you introduce more and more plug-ins. I could not hear this at first but then did a little test. Increase the volume of your monitors to maximum. You will hear a certain amount of hiss coming from the sound card, or the mixer If you now turn the plug-in on (don't play your track), you will hear a stronger hiss. That's what I'm talking about when I say 'noise'. I suggest not to use a lot of plug-ins unless absolutely necessary.

I personally think this is bullocks. Opening up a plug-in doesn't bring any noise to the track. Maybe you hear more hiss when you open up a new plugin, but that has to do with other things. I don't know why the hiss is getting stronger when opening plugins, I DO know that it will not degrade the sound quality!

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www.ultimatedjbattle.com

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Originally posted by iLLicit I personally think this is bullocks. Opening up a plug-in doesn't bring any noise to the track. Maybe you hear more hiss when you open up a new plugin, but that has to do with other things. I don't know why the hiss is getting stronger when opening plugins, I DO know that it will not degrade the sound quality!

I disagree.While the noise may not be exactly audible it is still being added.This may not do anything to your mix and you will probably never know it, however the more plugins you add the more noise is gonna be added.its just the nature of the beast.Most of the higher quality plugins usually address the problem pretty well.The general rule is to use the least amount of plugins as possible or rather the only ones that are absolutely needed.

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Ok, well if you all say so, it must be true. I thought this wasn't possible, but you convinced me. I will try to remember it when I'm producing, because we don't want too much noise, do we?

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www.ultimatedjbattle.com

It's hard to hear noise and degradation of the sound quality when you have a lot plug-ins active. What I'm talking about is listening to various tracks on studio monitors and noticing minute diffrences. If you want your tracks to sound professional and you have a chance of being played in a club, it's better if you take the precautions about sound quality. Of course, you can never reach the same kind of quality as in a studio, but I believe you can get close to it, if you're smart and carefull enough
Listen to my
'Damaged' Design remix

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