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House/Trance Mastering & Mastering Effects Chains - Advanced Users (pg. 3)
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| Raphie |
I use cubase 6.54 / Wavelab 7.0.2 Would tend to agree there fluxburn, Katz is a good read.
But cut up a mixdown in 3 bands? Multiband in general is something one would like to avoid as much ad possible. A lot of tinkering just ruins the cohesion of a track, sense of space and depth will diminish, people will try to compensate with some M/S wideners and at the end it's one big inflated mushy mess.
If anything religious from my side, it's really that the track dictates what's required, not the process. Also the integrity of the track should be maintained. Mastering ofcourse can be used as a colourbox too, but I would again prefer "corrections where needed" rather than "colouring"
If multiband would be required i would always opt for getting the stems first. One will generally get better results. |
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| Raphie |
By what I've written above, you'll by now should know what the purpose should be of mastering. If you expect a "silver bullet" treatment below to seriously beef up your tracks, read no further. As there is none
If you expect to be told which frequencies to boost or cut, read no further, those are different for each track. You might have standing waves in your studio, Thinking you've just shared a pounding monster, reality might be that your track is bass light.
Other way around too: you might think your track is tight, but it's really bass heavy, but because of cone size, or headphones you totally missed the plot.
bottom line: you can not control what you can't hear. Hence I'm not going to tell you what to do.
So what can you do at home:
- Use REW (Room EQ Wizard) to measure your room, use 1/3rd octave smoothing to not fully go crazy and focus on 20hz > 10Khz
- If possible apply some bass trapping you'll need quite an amount of cubic inches to make an impact here, easily like 6-10 packs of rockwool (not slices, packs!)foam doesn't work for trapping, but it might work for diffusion/absorption of mid high freqs
- listen to reference tracks - A good place to start to learn what "good" sounds like in your room, again it might sound like in your room. It's not the track, it's your room > acknowledging this this skewed tonal reality should be your baseline.
- then ask yourself what's the difference between the reference track and yours? yours might probably sound "better" in your room already.
But you will need to adjust.
- I will not comment further on headphones and aural simulations. You might like them, I see easy pitfalls. for one: Harmonics sound different than fundamentals, you can not master on headphones, you might have a different opinion, or have all kind of legitimate reasons why you are tied to headphones, but in the end you can't expect headphone mixing and mastering decisions to translate well on every system (remember the goal is not to have it sound "phat" on your setup, but the track to translate well on ANY system)
Would you agree so far? are we aligned?
I would really like to see your view on above before I continue to the tools section |
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| MSZ |
| ^Raphie I see a pitfall on the headphones, they're never as flat as monitors, I havent seen any graphs online matching flatness, and usually there are always bumps and dips somewhere. I use 3 pairs of headphones for different things, each have their strength. |
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| Raphie |
| quote: | Originally posted by MSZ
^Raphie I see a pitfall on the headphones, they're never as flat as monitors, I havent seen any graphs online matching flatness, and usually there are always bumps and dips somewhere. I use 3 pairs of headphones for different things, each have their strength. |
True and if you know what to listen to in relation to other references, then you can get along. But it's not ideal and not a good starting position.
I'm not saying it can't be done, I'm saying don't expect micacles and be beware that you're sort of in the dark on the low frequencies |
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| itsamemario |
| quote: | Originally posted by Viking Pillager
That being said, prior to now, I have done various things for "mastering" using sonar/cubase/audacity - and please dont have some one rant and rave about how mastering is for engineers only yadda yadda I DONT CARE WHAT HATERS HAVE TO SAY AND I AM NOT GOING TO SPEND GOOD MONEY FOR THIS WHEN I CAN DO IT MYSELF.
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I am not trying to be an or anything, but I listened to one of your tracks, and I'm not gonna say don't try to master your tracks because you're not a mastering engineer, I'm gonna say don't try to master your tracks because they are not yet in a state ready to be mastered. If you catch my drift. Mastering is something you do at the very end of the process. Your tracks do not sound finished.
And like Missy Z said, a properly mixed down track shouldn't need any mastering. |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| i find headphones actually pretty essential in mixing. You can't do anything about hrtf issues using monitors that having headphones for a quick check is invaluable. You are in the dark using only monitors 100% of the time no matter what you are using. And consider the fact that most people are listening on headphones, it is now an important tool more than ever. |
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| wayfinder |
I tend to agree, headphones play an important role in getting the stereo field right, finding problems with reverb and delay etc.
a simple tip btw is to swap left/right every half hour or so, it'll help with listening fatigue and result in a more balanced track |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| the one thing headphones suck at is specialization. Unless you are talking about stereo field for headphones only. Because it is a one way reference. It won't translate to speakers. |
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| itsamemario |
| i read that sentence four times now, and it still hurts my brains. do you mean spatialisation? |
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| Raphie |
| quote: | Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
i find headphones actually pretty essential in mixing. You can't do anything about hrtf issues using monitors that having headphones for a quick check is invaluable. You are in the dark using only monitors 100% of the time no matter what you are using. And consider the fact that most people are listening on headphones, it is now an important tool more than ever. |
i would consider that cross check, not main monitoring solution, you'll lack the frequency extension |
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| Raphie |
| quote: | Originally posted by Looney4Clooney
the one thing headphones suck at is specialization. Unless you are talking about stereo field for headphones only. Because it is a one way reference. It won't translate to speakers. |
exactly |
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| Looney4Clooney |
| quote: | Originally posted by Raphie
i would consider that cross check, not main monitoring solution, you'll lack the frequency extension |
yup but essential. Even if it is a quick check. Like using a sub as well. I sometimes just have the sub with nothing else. And if you know your headphones, they can be incredibly useful. Well if you don't know your headphones, they are kinda pointless i guess is what i meant.
you need to spend a good amount of time listening to reference mixes doing A/B. Doing white noise boost and cut exercises .... |
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