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Mastering request etiquette
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| scorpradio |
For quite some time now I have been contemplating getting some electronic material mastered by a professional. I have seen some threads that talked about the process however I became lost after awhile of reading.
Now then,maybe this is a question to those like Raphie. But,
Is there a protocol that I should follow?
Should I deliver a track in Wav - Mp3 - Flac?
Should I submit a track that includes all my effects (EQ-Comp-delay)
Should track volume levels all be 0
In essence, what does a mastering engineer want in the form of audio presented to them.
Any help with this would be much appreciated! |
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| tehlord |
| This information should be on their website, and they should be willing to communicate witj any questions you may have. If this is not the case, then they are best avoided. |
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| meriter |
from what i've gathered
peaking at -5 or -6db (I still don't know why though, maybe someone can clear that up)
24 bit wav highest sample rate you can/sample rate youre working in (dont like convert it to a higher sampler rate)
if youve got a limiter or an eq on the master, take it off |
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| echosystm |
| quote: | Originally posted by meriter
peaking at -5 or -6db (I still don't know why though, maybe someone can clear that up)
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I'd like to hear the reasoning behind this too. I never understood why people talk about headroom in this context; exporting at an unnecessarily low volume is just going to result in the noise floor getting raised later on.
As far as I am aware, this practice is just a relic from the old days, when analog VU meters were not fast or accurate enough to determine for sure whether or not the signal is actually clipping. In the computer era I think higher volumes are fine, as long as you aren't getting any inter-sample peaks. If you are sure the signal isn't clipping, I see no reason to export at a lower volume. |
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| tehlord |
One of the reasons for having tracks professionally mastered is to increase volume. Leaving 5-6db of headroom allows the ME to compress and/or limit peaks and increase the overall level of the track.
Noise floor is all but irrelevant with ITB mixes, rendered at 24 bit. That is unless you have recorded live sources where it may still be a slight issue. |
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| meriter |
| quote: | Originally posted by tehlord
One of the reasons for having tracks professionally mastered is to increase volume. Leaving 5-6db of headroom allows the ME to compress and/or limit peaks and increase the overall level of the track.
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i guess im wondering why the ME cant just lower the overall level of the track, like why do I have to do it before sending |
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| tehlord |
| I guess he could, but it's still good practise to mix at that level anyway. There's nothing more annoying than finding halfway through a large project that the master is clipping. |
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| cryophonik |
| quote: | Originally posted by meriter
i guess im wondering why the ME cant just lower the overall level of the track, like why do I have to do it before sending |
He can, but he can't get rid of any clipping, if there is any. So, as Geoff mentioned, the -6dB recommendation is generally a guideline that MEs suggest for mixes to ensure that he doesn't receive a .wav that has some clipping. Other MEs will suggest -2dB, or -12dB peaks. The key point is that they want the file to have: (1) some headroom for processing, and (2) no clipping. |
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| meriter |
| fair enough, the cynical side of me thought the 6db of headroom just worked best with Ozone presets |
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| TranceElevation |
| I would suggest everybody to master their own tracks. |
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| DJ RANN |
| quote: | Originally posted by echosystm
I'd like to hear the reasoning behind this too. I never understood why people talk about headroom in this context; exporting at an unnecessarily low volume is just going to result in the noise floor getting raised later on.
As far as I am aware, this practice is just a relic from the old days, when analog VU meters were not fast or accurate enough to determine for sure whether or not the signal is actually clipping. In the computer era I think higher volumes are fine, as long as you aren't getting any inter-sample peaks. If you are sure the signal isn't clipping, I see no reason to export at a lower volume. |
This is correct.
| quote: | Originally posted by Geoff
One of the reasons for having tracks professionally mastered is to increase volume. Leaving 5-6db of headroom allows the ME to compress and/or limit peaks and increase the overall level of the track.
Noise floor is all but irrelevant with ITB mixes, rendered at 24 bit. That is unless you have recorded live sources where it may still be a slight issue.
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This is also correct.
| quote: | Originally posted by Dave
He can, but he can't get rid of any clipping, if there is any. So, as Geoff mentioned, the -6dB recommendation is generally a guideline that MEs suggest for mixes to ensure that he doesn't receive a .wav that has some clipping. Other MEs will suggest -2dB, or -12dB peaks. The key point is that they want the file to have: (1) some headroom for processing, and (2) no clipping.
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This has even more correctness.
These are all essentially good answers, but the reasoning these days to have anything less than a smidgen under 0dbfs is a self defeating paradox; if you are at the stage where your track is worthy of hiring a pro mastering engineer, then it must be very well engineered and mixed, so there's no way anything on your track should be clipping.
Therefore, the need to leave -6dbfs will do nothing more than raise your noise floor if you're using any real samples, and has no difference/advantage if you're just using synths etc.
In my mind, it;s always best practice to mix to 0dbfs so you are at a universal calibration standard. If the mastering engineer then really wants their -6dbfs, then you just pull the master down by that for the export. Again, I can't see why they'd need it below that as they will be working in a 24 or 32bit environment and they have all the headroom they'll ever need to expand up if required.
My advice is to mix to just below 0dbfs - it also teaches you how to tame sounds and peaks, which is a crucial part of understanding dynamics and sound design. |
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| Lucidity |
| quote: | Originally posted by TranceElevation
I would suggest everybody to master their own tracks. |
This is the worst advice you could give. One of the main reasons to have your tracks mastered, is to have another set of ears that is unattatched to the music to listen because they can be more objective and not partial to the song, yielding better results. |
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