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Mastering stuuuuuff...
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| Derivative |
some people probably already know here that i dont really do any mastering on my stuff. well today i sort of have. and overall its alot more subtle than i expected it to be.
basically i got a raw mixdown which i was happy with. this btw is the same psychedellic downtempo hardcore demo i uploaded in the psy/goa thingy thread. anyway, here it is, unmastered, 140 bpm:
http://www.soundclick.us/fastk6/10/...hingnothing.mp3
i spent about an hour mastering it yesterday and just now. here is the result:
http://www.soundclick.us/fastk6/09/...ingmastered.mp3
ok. now im in this weird position because ive definitely added something to the dynamic of the whole thing - its very very subtle though and you might need to do a side by side comparison. but ive lost something too and its peeving me off cuz my ears are getting numb and i know i have to leave it for a couple of hours before i should try again. what do you think ive lost in the process? im beginning to think the premaster is now sounding better than the master which means the last couple of hours work has been pretty pointless. which one sounds better? sorry about the 128 kpbs uploads. the difference is more noticeable at higher bitrates but soundclick wont let me up more than 128.
also as a side note - should i push the bpm up? thanks for yo help, TA homeboiiiiis! |
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| Rob |
From a mixing perspective it's WAY TOO LOUD, probably due to the fact you compressed the absoloute out of it. You gave it WAY too much top end aswell.
What I would like to know is what CD/Tracks you were using as your mastering/mixing refference? Because I really want to stay away from that CD, as it would destroy my ears.
My 5 minute attempt at mastering it with Armin - Communication as a reference(the one off Gatecrasher Anthems). DOWLOAD |
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| Rob |
| okay, 10 minutes later, and having re-listened to my master, it's still too hissy(you can tell it was a 5 minute mastering job lol:rolleyes: ). I think you need to seperate the lead from the hihats a bit more(give the lead synth more oomph in the <6k range) and slightly fatten the kick up. |
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| Derivative |
uhhh i didnt actually use any reference - i just used my tattered ears ;) i guess if i was going to use a reference it would be something like uplift and stargazer - statik. which is hardcore.
also, when you say its way too loud, armin - communication comes on louder than your master of my track!
armin's tune does sound tighter and more separated though. hearing them back to back kind of shows up all the stuff that wrong in mine. mine is flatter and more sibilant. the bass is warmer but blurrier. i do actually think you made my tune flatter with your master though :p but thanks for the effort mate - got lots of notes to take down now.
yea you are right though - i just woke up and listen to my song and its only been going for 2 minutes and my ears are hurting. the highs deffo need to come down.
i dont know - is this something that needs to be sorted in the mixdown or is it doable all the master bus?
EDIT: on a side note - i do compress things alot ^_______^ i dont know, it seems like the only way i can get presence out of my instruments in floops is to compress the living daylights out of them. and if they still lack the OOMPH - overdrive it. filter it. compress it some more. |
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| RiCo |
| Wow dood...are you outta your mind? That killed my ears, hehe. What you need is Harbal. By the way, ignoring the mastering, I loved that little track. |
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| RiCo |
| Oh, the tempo is perfect. What sequencer did you use? I'm the opposite...I'm better at mastering than mixing, haha. But usually, my ear is bass heavy, so everything I make usually has a big bottom. |
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| AaroNoct |
| quote: | Originally posted by RiCo
Oh, the tempo is perfect. What sequencer did you use? I'm the opposite...I'm better at mastering than mixing, haha. But usually, my ear is bass heavy, so everything I make usually has a big bottom. |
If your ear was bass heavy then everything you'd do would have a weak bottom. You'd adjust for what you were hearing that was too heavy and back off. So your ear must be bass shy. |
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| Derivative |
im using fl studio 5.0. thanks for the comments. i think you guys are right - it is overcompressed. and the high end is wayy too harsh. but when i tone it down it seems to lose quite alot. its as loud as the armin track - but his sounds nice on the ears. mine doesnt. his track also seems to have more dynamic range to it. mine seems flat and loud cuz of the compression. but if i remove some of the compression on the master bus it really gets alot quieter and it loses it in the bass department.
overall, mastering is proving a difficult art to get to grips with. more so than i imagined. |
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| Rob |
The example I gave was quiet a one tho. You really need to use an entire CD as a reference. The armin track sounds quiet weak in comparison to "PVD feat. St. Etienne - Tell Me Why", which absoloutly slams every track on that CD in the bass/kick department. The kick just punches through the entire frequency spectrum, and is the emphasis of the track. Some tracks have more emphasisis on the mids(say if you wanted to excentuate a lead), while others have their sweat spot in the high end(a track with lots of percussion for example). Strangly enough, they all achieve a volumn/tonal balance that makes them sound "right". Somewhere in that volumn/tonal balance lies the secrent of mastering/mixing. Strangly enough, I'm still well off learning what that secret is(or most importantly learning how to implement it).
As for your track Derivative, I don't think it's a compression issue entirely, seeing as some tracks have lots of dynamic range, while others don't, yet they can still both sound "right". I think it's more a mixing issue, where you placed alot of emphasis on the top end. You placed all your elements in almost the same frequency range ie. The lead is almost in the same frequency range as the hihats, and the kick (and lack of a bassline) leaves nothing in the low end (300-1500k range). Using Armins track as an example and my master, his kick and bassline is taking up an entirely different frequency range in comparision to the lead. Everything in his track is seperated so well and all the elements are audiable and dynamic(most probably because the different elemets arn't fighting for the same space). With that being said, you're not THAT far off. |
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| Rob |
Okay, and now a example of one of my failed mastering attempts
CLICKY
The reference track is "The Mystery - All I Ever Wanted(Devotion)" followed by a remix I did mastered to it, followed by the unmastered version, which is just horridly off. I ended up lowshelving the bass by around -15db and the highend by -12db. Thoughts?:nervous: |
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| RiCo |
now that you mention Armin, his CDs always sound too low and weak, compared to PVD and ATB, which sound fuller and richer. :)
Deriative...that's weird. Usually, my stuff sounds loud...sometimes louder than CDs so I have to mellow them down. You say you loose a lot of life if not using dynamics on your Bus? Hmmm...usually, the stuff has to sound good and the dynamics is just for perfecting it...it shouldn't drastically change or pump the sound...you know what I mean? But now that you mention FL, my stuff there always sounded low. In Cubase, I get hotter mixdowns. But hey, at least your stuff sounds awesome...I wish I sounded like you. :) |
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| RiCo |
| quote: | Originally posted by Rob
Okay, and now a example of one of my failed mastering attempts
CLICKY
The reference track is "The Mystery - All I Ever Wanted(Devotion)" followed by a remix I did mastered to it, followed by the unmastered version, which is just horridly off. I ended up lowshelving the bass by around -15db and the highend by -12db. Thoughts?:nervous: |
Rob, my ears are very fatigued so I couldn't comment right now. Anyway, did you make that stuff? I like it a lot. |
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