how to master you mixes

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 7:08 am

I think that a better way to phrase the question is, "what do you do differently to a song (or collection of songs) if you are not sending it out to a mastering house?" Some think of this as "mastering your own songs," but I don't.

My answer is that if I am sending something out to be mastered I don't fade in or fade out, I don't do anything to the final stereo mix - no overall compression or limiting no overall eq, and I leave it at the original bit depth and sample rate.

If I'm not sending it out I (at least) put a stereo limiter and four-band eq on the overall mix and I dither down to 16 bit. I do it all with software because that's what I have. I'm not going to invest in either expensive hardware or even better software because any track that's really important is going out to a mastering house - not because they have better equipment - though they do. It's going there because they have ears that didn't sit through all of the takes of the individual tracks and all of the mixing sessions.

Like a few others above, I don't do much with these tools. The limiter just tames a few of the stray peaks and the eq is only applied after I've listened to the mix on speakers outside of the studio. These things make the final track sound better, but would make it harder for the ME to do the same things if he had deal with my lame efforts.

Of course, a real ME will do other things like noise reduction, but I'm not going to do that to my own tracks because the only reason the noise is there is because I didn't hear it in the first place. Again, the biggest advantage of an ME is different ears, different equipment, and a fresh approach.

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 10:47 pm

Space wrote:

I haven't read a wrong answer yet!

But the post that answers the op question directly "how to master you mixes " that is a more informed answer and speaks directly to what can you do with existing work, even if it is a lesson in futility, was given by Michael Fossenkemper.

Code and Greener are right, even though they didn't give answers. Who is right? You CAN't HANDLE who is RIGHT!!!!

:)
p.s. I didn't go to the church building this morning, so this is my amen.

Micheal's answer is right on but I think the poster wanted to know HOW as in what equipment to use and what settings to use BUT as any good mastering engineer knows there are NO "normal" settings or setups and you really do have to listen to the music and then decide, based on some experience, what needs to be done to the material to make it sound good.

Everyday when I read these forums I can almost tell you two of the posts that I will encounter. Post number one is "how do I make it LOUD" and post number two is "how do I master my own material" Multiple request for stickys on these two topics have fallen on deaf ears and even if there were stickys people, being people, would probably NOT read them.

Time for a small RANT!

In the "for what it is worth department"

I don't know of very many professions where people can come onto a forum and ask for help in doing something from professionals in that field (in this case mastering) and get the kind of answers they get on a daily basis here on this forum.

Try asking a famous surgeon to share his hip replacement procedures with you and see what you get in reply. Try asking a famous trial lawyer how his goes about building his defense and see how far you get. Ask someone like Bill Gates how he makes decisions on the day to day running of Microsoft and see what kind of answers you get. Yet everyday someone comes on this forum and basically says.

"I don't have any money and I want to do the mastering of my own material so tell me in as few words as possible how to do this" or "I want to become a mastering engineer so give me all your "secrets" or "I want to make my stuff sound professional so please tell me how to do that".

Maybe that is the way people in the music business do things because they are use to copying some famous guitar players rig/technique so they can sound like him/her or why drummers spend hours listening to the same song over and over again so they can play the rift the same as <insert name of famous drummer>. If this works for producing music then I guess these same musicians figure it will work for mastering. They just have to find out what equipment he or she uses and what techniques they use and PRESTO instant self mastering.

If anyone wants to get into mastering then learn the same way that every professional who is on this board did. Immerse yourself into mastering and do it every day. Read everything you can about the process and as you get better at it get a good room and good equipment and keep learning. No one here was zapped by lightning and then suddenly was a mastering engineer. It is all learned with a lot of hard work and a lot of listening and everyday you learn something new. There are no secret handshakes, no magic formulas, no quick and dirty ways of making things sound GREAT and/or LOUDER. It all takes time, experience, the right blend of equipment and skill and the ability to do critical listening and then act on what you are hearing to make the song sound better.

The person who originally said that you have to let the music tell you what to do to it was speaking the truth and no amount of witchcraft, black magic, incantations or spells is going to make someone a mastering engineer overnight.

YMMV

Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2008 11:10 pm

My mileage varies somewhat.
Have you read a medical journal recently? The only doctors who aren't to forthcoming about their methods are plastic surgeons.
But as a musician, when everyone is in a world competing to make art, then what have you got to lose? Someone could take your advice and produce some awesome ear candy you enjoy. It's like helping train the guy who later on replaces your hip. Smile

Oh yeah, I can think of a profession where you are constantly telling people how to make things. It's called Engineering.
Communicating ideas is the bread and butter of Engineering, so helping others in an open forum is awesome practice and experience.

Mastering Engineers are the people who conceptualise what needs to be done to the sound to make it better. Also they construct hardware and model software to achieve a desired outcome. Simply tweaking and being a method whore is not engineering. It's being a technician.
So yeah, TWB, I think you're an Engineer because you conceive ideas and communicate them helpfully. If you can turn a dollar doing it all the better, but don't whinge when you can't. Razz

Posted: Mon Nov 24, 2008 2:30 pm

Hell now BobRogers and Thomas W. Bethel are right too!!!

Not wanting to start anything most of the posts here are to the point and are in their own way correct. Me with my thinking, if you have to ask how to master and what it takes, then stick to learning your recording chops. Chances are they(the chops) need more attention at the moment.

I also very much agree with your comments Mr. Bethal. The reason I select(ed) Michaels comments is simple. They were simple and addressed the simple question. These kinds of questions (no slander or harm is intended to the OP, please do not write it in Smile

), to me, seem to want the most and offer the least.

I do have my own quirks with semantics. Right and wrong is one of the common modifications people make to a statement to adjust it to their way of knowing, whatever it is they may know. So I drive a wedge.

Anyway, each of you have done well in giving freely of your experience.

I suppose if a body looked at this(my) comment long enough they may think "well that redneck thinks we oughta keep our smarts until a better question comes along".

I can assure you each, that would be incorrect.

Moderator Joined: Sep 12, 2002 Posts: 1885 Location: NYC

Like anything that involves "devil in the details" it's hard to answer a question like this. First I think you need to identify the goal. Once the goal is identified, then you get to the details of each step.

"I want to be a race car driver, how do I go about doing it?" for instance. simply answer is, you get in a car and mash the pedal down and go around the track as fast as you can. Once you know the goal, then you can begin to hone in on the details like suspension, gearing, tires, seats, angles etc... But you won't know until you jump in the car and practice. As you practice you find the areas that need improvement and you begin to look into those areas. That's when more specific questions can be asked and more specific answers given.

I also do not agree that the better mixes need less mastering. I think it's completely the opposite. I think the better mixes need the top of the cream to bring them home. If a great sounding mix comes in and it needs a hair here and a nip there, no way in hell can you slap on a junk eq listening on junk speakers and get away with it. It will get thrown right back in your lap. If you degrade that mix because you don't have the chops or the equipment to improve it, then you aren't doing your job. And the person that delivered that mix will also be more critical of your work because they obviously have the ears to bring it to the point to where it is. I actually have to work HARDER on better mixes than not so great mixes. It's easy to make something bad sound better. It's very hard to make something that sounds great sound better. So in that regard, better mixes require more both in experience and in gear even though they do not need much.

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 1:15 am

Michael Fossenkemper wrote:

Like anything that involves "devil in the details" it's hard to answer a question like this. First I think you need to identify the goal. Once the goal is identified, then you get to the details of each step.

"I want to be a race car driver, how do I go about doing it?" for instance. simply answer is, you get in a car and mash the pedal down and go around the track as fast as you can. Once you know the goal, then you can begin to hone in on the details like suspension, gearing, tires, seats, angles etc... But you won't know until you jump in the car and practice. As you practice you find the areas that need improvement and you begin to look into those areas. That's when more specific questions can be asked and more specific answers given.

I also do not agree that the better mixes need less mastering. I think it's completely the opposite. I think the better mixes need the top of the cream to bring them home. If a great sounding mix comes in and it needs a hair here and a nip there, no way in hell can you slap on a junk eq listening on junk speakers and get away with it. It will get thrown right back in your lap. If you degrade that mix because you don't have the chops or the equipment to improve it, then you aren't doing your job. And the person that delivered that mix will also be more critical of your work because they obviously have the ears to bring it to the point to where it is. I actually have to work HARDER on better mixes than not so great mixes. It's easy to make something bad sound better. It's very hard to make something that sounds great sound better. So in that regard, better mixes require more both in experience and in gear even though they do not need much.

Well said!

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 6:03 pm

Michael Fossenkemper wrote:

Like anything that involves "devil in the details" it's hard to answer a question like this. First I think you need to identify the goal. Once the goal is identified, then you get to the details of each step.

"I want to be a race car driver, how do I go about doing it?" for instance. simply answer is, you get in a car and mash the pedal down and go around the track as fast as you can. Once you know the goal, then you can begin to hone in on the details like suspension, gearing, tires, seats, angles etc... But you won't know until you jump in the car and practice. As you practice you find the areas that need improvement and you begin to look into those areas. That's when more specific questions can be asked and more specific answers given.

I also do not agree that the better mixes need less mastering. I think it's completely the opposite. I think the better mixes need the top of the cream to bring them home. If a great sounding mix comes in and it needs a hair here and a nip there, no way in hell can you slap on a junk eq listening on junk speakers and get away with it. It will get thrown right back in your lap. If you degrade that mix because you don't have the chops or the equipment to improve it, then you aren't doing your job. And the person that delivered that mix will also be more critical of your work because they obviously have the ears to bring it to the point to where it is. I actually have to work HARDER on better mixes than not so great mixes. It's easy to make something bad sound better. It's very hard to make something that sounds great sound better. So in that regard, better mixes require more both in experience and in gear even though they do not need much.

Excellent post.

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:19 pm

Why dont you just TRY IT YOURSELF!!! I mean its pretty much that simple. At one time you wanted to record yourself when you didnt know crap about it! And now I bet you maybe pretty good at it? Mastering is the same way. It is an art! It is a skill! You dont get good without practiceing.

I have very very cheap and unorthadox equipment and still yet I get a decent sound because I have spent alot of time learning what sounds good.

If all else fails and you cant get a sound you want GIVE UP! That seems to be what most people want you to do anyway! Why not make them happy.

Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:49 pm

You first

This topic sponsored by: