Mastering Techniques

[Mattayus]

Thanks for the tips man, I was reading around on the andy sneap forums last night and learn about clippers, I'm trying to find a good download for the t-racks classic clipper (broke musician haha )

Np dude.
If you can't get T-Racks, I highly recommend G-Clip. It's free, and just as powerful a tool.

 

[AlexWadeWC]

Sticky thread?! Hahaha I'd love if Misha came in here and gave some tips on what he does for mastering

 

[KoenDercksen]

Sticky thread?! Hahaha I'd love if Misha came in here and gave some tips on what he does for mastering

Haha that'd be awesome wouldn't it?

 

[MakewayforMan]

Right now my master bus in Logic is as follows:

-Channel EQ (slight dips in low mids to tighten things up, 5k shelf boost for presence)
-Multipress (2 db gain make up on the 5-20k shelf)
-Ozone 4 (CD Master setting)
-EZ Mix (Master 1 setting, which includes an EQ, Transient, Tape Simulator, Compressor, and Limiter all in one setting. I feel like the EZ Mix stuff is like the "mixing for dummies" presets hahaha but that mastering setting really does make everything sound fucking massive, i suggest trying it.)
-Then finally a Compressor with a final limiter set it -1.0 db

Dude I fucking love it. Every time I read an Alex thread my mixes get better. So the only thing I had been using on my master bus in Nuendo was an eq. After reading this, i decided to throw on a multiband compressor and screw around with it for a while. WOW! Just that alone made my mix sound so much bigger.

When I tried experimenting by adding Ozone tho it really just overloaded everything. When I applied it afterwords on the mixed down, doubled track with limiter (as mentioned earlier) it just sounded too crushed.

I LOVE the sound with just the multicomp and eq tho!

Havent screwed around with EZmix but I've got it, might have to give it a try.

And some people will say the limiter takes away from the sound, but I disagree. Your ear doesn't pick up any freqs it limits, imho. But to each his own

 

[Mattayus]

Sticky thread?! Hahaha I'd love if Misha came in here and gave some tips on what he does for mastering

Oh that's easy dude, he just uses one of these...

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Oh that's easy dude, he just uses one of these...

BTW, this thread is full of win.

 

[TheSilentWater]

I, too, love this thread.

 

[The Omega Experiment]

• Good mixing requires less mastering. I think people who throw on a thousand and one processes on a master chain are doing it out of a sense of duty and/or habit rather than necessity, and probably aren't aware of what half of it is doing to their music.
  
• Don't ever use presets unless it's just to get a ball-park feel. There is no one-size-fits-all master process that will work effectively.
  
• Less is more: Ask yourself what your mix needs, would benefit from, and could do without.
  
• Always audition processes within a mix. Throw a compressor on the master bus and see how it effects your snare transients, the guitar/bass relationship, the click in the kick and so on, and adjust your mix accordingly.
  
  +1 across the board.
  
• You don't need to crush the fuck out of anything to get it louder. Mix it loud, but mix it dynamic.
  
• A good mix should never need a great deal of EQ. Think of it like polishing a car off a production line. It shouldn't need any extra work as you should have got it balanced in the first place. A little high end sparkle and a very low hi-pass will do the track justice in the majority of cases.
  
• Always always always always always CLIP your mix. It's a limiting process that won't kill transients. Use more than one clipper of necessary, maybe one at the start of the chain and another later in the chain. It also enables you to gradually get it louder without any of that horrific frequency separation most loud mixes fall victim to.
  
• Don't over-think it, and most importantly DON'T RELY ON IT. Mixing is where the magic happens, mastering is just polishing it for presentation.

+1 across the board

 

[The Omega Experiment]

I also agree with the comment about leaving headroom. It makes for a much cleaner and smooth mix. Volume will happen naturally the better you get at mixing. Mix your song like you want it to sound when it is mastered. Mastering IS an intensive process to get right, but it SHOULD be about less is more. If you have to cake a bunch of plugs on the master to get it sounding decent, or loud...you should probably re-mix.

I use Ozone in a seperate project file, on the master track. I only use the multi-band dynamics section, and generally compress around -10 in the 65-400hz range...maybe more or less depending on song. Also, I will bring up somewhere around the 10-18k range if it needs any sizzle, but I usually try take care of that in the actual mix. I've found it also really clears things up to just get rid of frequencies in my mix that I'm not going to use. Like, proper low and high cuts. Also, I don't use Ozone's Maximizer. I use L3, which some people think is blasphemy. For my music at least...it sounds uber-smooth. Lastly, I add a master compressor in a buss. It's sort of like parellel compressing, but not. This way...you don't have to squash your entire mix. You can squash the buss mix, and just inch it in and blend with the regular mix until you get a sweet spot. Waves SSL G-buss or API master buss compressors are really good for this sort of thing. Cheers.

 

[myucussman]

This thread is porn for my ears....

 

[MakewayforMan]

I use Ozone in a seperate project file, on the master track. I only use the multi-band dynamics section, and generally compress around -10 in the 65-400hz range...maybe more or less depending on song. Also, I will bring up somewhere around the 10-18k range if it needs any sizzle, but I usually try take care of that in the actual mix. I've found it also really clears things up to just get rid of frequencies in my mix that I'm not going to use. Like, proper low and high cuts. Also, I don't use Ozone's Maximizer. I use L3, which some people think is blasphemy. For my music at least...it sounds uber-smooth. Lastly, I add a master compressor in a buss. It's sort of like parellel compressing, but not. This way...you don't have to squash your entire mix. You can squash the buss mix, and just inch it in and blend with the regular mix until you get a sweet spot. Waves SSL G-buss or API master buss compressors are really good for this sort of thing. Cheers.

Definitely going to play around with this. I love the idea of the master compression bus. One thought: wouldn't using Ozone on the seperate master track be almost the same as using Ozone on the master channel in the mix, though? I can see how it would save some CPU, and obviously you are then adding your mutipress after the mixdown has occurred, but isn't it basically the same other than that? Just a thought.

Oh, and I too would love to donkey punch this thread.

 

[The Omega Experiment]

Definitely going to play around with this. I love the idea of the master compression bus. One thought: wouldn't using Ozone on the seperate master track be almost the same as using Ozone on the master channel in the mix, though? I can see how it would save some CPU, and obviously you are then adding your mutipress after the mixdown has occurred, but isn't it basically the same other than that? Just a thought.

Oh, and I too would love to donkey punch this thread.

I suppose...I just like to save CPU I guess, and maybe it's an OCD thing of seeing my wave form before it gets touched with anything.

 

[illimmigrant]

Lots of info on this thread.
I'm new to mastering, and I most definitely cannot get my levels up to par with commercial CD's. That's my biggest issue

 

[Mattayus]

My biggest advice to you then would be to stop trying, at least for now. Get stuck into mixing, editing, processing, anything else that helps audio come alive, and just get good at getting a really well balanced wholesome mix.

You will probably find in a few weeks/months time that your mixes will naturally have the ability to be raised in volume, simply because you learned more about how to not eat up too much headroom. Don't make loudness the biggest priority for mastering, and just get it sounding great whatever the volume!

 

[thedrummerkid]

This is a great threard! I'm definitely going to try these out when I get home..
possibly before and after examples?

 

[Sacha]

Your loudness potential really comes from the mix, and from being able to hear what's going on. Hi-pass and low pass filters where needed keep tracks from eating up headroom with useless frequencies you don't need.

Your general EQ makes a huge difference too (obviously), the crucial midrange is where the ear is most sensitive so you have to balance the mids just right. Sometimes a bit of saturation (distortion) can help with making this area more audible without taking up more headroom by adding harmonics.

Compression is another key area of course, limiting your dynamic range can help you push the overall level. However too much / wrong kind of compression can make your stereo image narrower and your overall mix sound small and pumpy.

Strategic clipping can be useful to help preserve your snare transients but like anything it comes with a trade-off, make sure you listen and decide if it's worth it for you.

The Ozone limiter is great, you could also check out Slate Digital's mastering processor which can be pretty transparent on some mixes IMO.

 

[DVRP]

So how much headroom should I be leaving approximately? I usually leave about -8db but sometimes feel like I should be leaving more.

Only just getting into mastering now finally. Pretty stoked to get into all this! This thread rules.

 

[Triple7]

This thread has proved very helpful.

 

[Kurkkuviipale]

Your loudness potential really comes from the mix, and from being able to hear what's going on. Hi-pass and low pass filters where needed keep tracks from eating up headroom with useless frequencies you don't need.

That's a real eye opener there. Thank. You.

 

[AlexWadeWC]

Just dropping in a tip that I learned today. Forgive me if I sound noob-ish but I just learned about "stereo spreading" on the master and holy mother of god does it make a difference. It's like it takes every piece of the mix and says "this is your spot, now stand here and be heard instead of running around meshing with each other you dumbasses".

The website I was reading said this:

"Sometimes some light stereo enhancement can go a long way in the mastering process. Of course, don’t apply this as a rule of thumb as every track’s requirements are different.

There are a many different available processors for this purpose, so choose a plug-in that suits your needs.
Here you can see Logic Pro 8’s ‘Stereo Spread’. Whatever you choose to use, remember to only spread the upper frequencies of your mix, leaving the lower end of the spectrum intact. Otherwise, you will end up with a confused low-end mix and the master will not translate well to other systems."

and here's the example setting they gave for any other Logic users like myself:

The guitars separated better which uncovered the vocals, tom rolls sounded insane rolling from left to right in my headphones, it just gave the music more room to well... spread hahaha, everything just seems to have it's on place now instead of fighting for space in the mix!

Like I said sorry for sounding noob-y but.... it just made my masters sound ssooo much better.