So you found Deadmau5's masterclass, nice

 

Dunno if Deadmau5 has a masterclass, that would be cool for kids like yourself probably. This is what i hate about all this. Do i need to explain when i was making acid house, every Deadmau5 hadn't even joined the kindergarten?
Your next remarks (and every other's schwarzzie with a smart one liner) send 'em to my newly acquired sponsor http://www.trojanbrands.com/en/condoms . I keep a fresh supply for each and every one of you

 

Why so much hate, geez, this is a community for people to share experience and knowledge, not to unleash their frustrations at some random.
Mods should put these kids that like to brag and talk shit in their place.
Peace.

 

But what is the point of 'mastering'? What is it supposed to do?

Doesn't that depend on context, as well as material? Doing it one's self with hobbyist gear is more like mixing, I would have thought, and most likely to just remove the scope for a real pro to fix it. IMO - not that I know.

I was told only a few places do the mastering for 90% of the output people hear. And people expect stuff to sound like *that*. Personally I'm more interested in the music, I'd happily leave all that stuff to someone who speaks in frequencies and has elephantine ears. Make it better? Cheers!

Anyway, I notice folk are saying to put a touch of reverb across the entire track (just the Sides)? Really?

 

Exactly my thought. Why the heck should i need to be put in a defensive position when all i do is respond to questions trying to help. Patience has its limits. And in any case your "bragging" comment was meant for me, i was born in 1966. I started learning music in '76. I maintain a small (but adequate for my needs and clients) studio called Music Kitchen Studio in Thessaloniki,Greece the last 20+ years. Both me and my business have a name and address. I 've had both accolades and failures. That's life. Look me up. I never brag. I only state facts. I don't need to hide behind aliases, i 'm legit 110% and have the countless invoices for software/hardware bought all these years and more. I live from, through, with and for music all my life. And i strongly feel, i shouldn't have to prove myself to every pretentious prick with a flaming agenda. Bye bye

 

Mastering is there to give the final touch to audio content, usually before public commercial release to either digital or physical media. The gear to round off, shape and refine an already good mix is quite expensive and the people to do it are quite fewer than your mixing engineers ,as it demands an additional skillset and lots of experience, hence why mastering in top class facilities with renowned engineers can easily cost even more than mixing.

In actual numbers it can be even less. If i was to put it simply, master is the "cherry on the top of your cake" so, mixing would be about 95% and mastering should add the remaining 5%. But if you 're smart enough to do the equation, this follows the simple paradigm of gear itself. A good pair of monitors can cost about 500-1000 dlrs/eu and it will cover about 90-95% of your monitoring needs. But try to find what kind of monitor will cover 98-99% of the same needs and this becomes 5k plus , and when it comes to 99.999% this can become easily 25-50k. Just like a Mazda R8 can be fast but it's no Ferrari.
So who needs this ? Not your average Joe for sure. Professional mastering is geared towards pro artists with a budget to spend. I have never had a client for mastering who wasn't sure what to do with the track(s) brought to me for mastering, even when i was mastering a track as a favor. The best thing to know imho (G string,i think you already know this) is mastering cannot fix a bad mix. Same as a good mix, cannot make a bad song good. So having a good mix is essential. As to if reverb is needed or not, many others have mentioned here and elsewhere, there is no thumb rule as mastering is totally content related. What works for one track can ruin another and vice versa. As a thumb rule 99% of the times, treating with reverb any or both of the sides in a mix leads to adding unwanted added noise and interferes with the song's transients. There are though some occasions where it can be applied, but again very carefully. I can happily explain to you (G-string ) or any other who needs to know in pm, when and where this or any other process can be applied, but not here. I already wrote enough and seems many ppl here don't give a dime about professional opinion, so i will share gladly with those who really need to know.

Respect to the struggling musicians all over and middle finger to those smartasses who jump to conclusions faster than they can wipe their bottom.

 

The New York Times had a good quote yesterday: a wise man learns from a fool, the fool learns nothing from the wise.

ETA: just read this excellent article and it seems appropriate to post.

The Death of Expertise

........“students have obligations to teachers,” including “trust, docility, effort, and thinking,”

 

Last edited: Jan 7, 2017

Loving this thread ya'll! Don't let the purists of the group discourage anyone from finalizing on their own. Yes having a mastering engineer do it all for you is best, but from my experience it is totally possible to master something to broadcast quality in a non acoustically treated room on your own. Its actually good to know how to do this, especially when clients sometimes want a new version of a song made asap with no time to send to pro mastering.

 

Having a acoustically treated room is ideal, but not all of us have that option. If you know your room and gear well you can get decent results (Listening to the master on other systems and in other rooms helps).

 

No purist here, not by a long shot. Realist more likely. Any driver can drive a Ferrari theoretically, but the results will be from simply fair to disastrous for 99% of your average drivers. By all means experiment. After all, needing to finalize a track to send or upload somewhere etc etc, it's a situation that all who make music face from time to time. But do not think for a second you will yield results of a pro standard inside an everyday room with a pair of average monitors and some plugs. I don't see how this simple common knowledge is so hard to grasp. Without proper room, gear (and experienced ears), what you will be doing is guesswork at best. And simply put, mastering is not about guessing how this will sound but being able to hear it, point out the weaknesses in a mixed track, fix them, then check what you can do to benefit the track and start the occasional cosmetic and dynamic tweaks etc etc.
Cheers

 

I'm not disagreeing with you, I'm talking about the ability to mix "broadcast quality". If you don't have the time or the budget for pro mastering it can be the difference between an aspiring artist and moneymaker.

 

Im about to try clipping into my limiter...

 

Oh the miss-information is strong in this one boys...

 

I've almost never boosted anything via EQ ... I have aluminum ears (as opposed to golden ones). Occasionally, I'll try an EQ preset, but that usually ends up being worse than if I'd just turned some knobs on my own. I stick to HPF. Nine times out of ten, if a track doesn't sound right to me, I'll try to fix it via other means, like different compression, different FX, a different synth or sample sound, different drums, a different microphone.

As for mastering, I do as little as I can get away with. Mostly just compression, limiting and maybe a tape or console sound. If I do something that needs complicated mastering, I figure it's something I screwed up in the mix.

 

I said deadmau5's masterclass because in one of his tracks the "master chain" is fairly similar to this.
But he explained why he chose that and only for that mix.
No need to get upset and if so, what is wrong about deadmau5's tips and tricks? He's a genius when it comes to mixing and sounds.

1. Tape is not suitable for every mix.
2. You use reverb on the master chain but then again, even the most PRO mastering engineers don't suggest it and there's specific reasons why to do it. Specially for bedroom producers who work in untreated rooms, headphones etc shouldn't fuck with reverbs too much.
3. OTT and fabfilter with -11 gain reduction right after the OTT to bring up all the noise from dat special reverb and all the other crap up, nice.
4. Then the final blow, +2 extra boost for that extra smash... what the actual hell.

Would love to hear a preview of a mix with this, maybe I am missing something cause I end up with just a +6 boost on the limiter.

I feel sorry for anyone who uses this on their mix.
I'm not better than you, I don't know you but for anyone who posts a few screenshots online with title "mastering secrets" is clearly trolling.
For someone who does this as long as you do, you shouldn't have suggested something so plain and rushed.
You should have explain what you aimed for with this mastering chain, in a specific mix.

 

Hoping I'm not hijacking the thread and trying to get moreso on-topic, I'd like to present you all a situation.
Suppose we have a proper gain-staged mix with a fair amount of low frequency content (bass and kicks side-chained and 'stabilized' so to speak) peaking at -10db and sounding great as it is in any given situation: monitors, headphones, earbuds, car stereo etc.
What would be your take on getting it in the -10dbRMS area, that is making it louder by... today's standards? From my own experience, pushing it through limiters and clippers does make the mix louder but also affects the frequency-balance thus forcing me to go back to the gain-staging phase once again and/or pre/post eq-ing. This should not happen, I guess, so I'm asking you all for alternate solutions and advices...

 

Generally frequency balance will not slope too much with limiting (it depends because of Psychoacoustic models will introduce more brightness, which you ears perceive as louder since you hear those frequencies better.)

You might try to highpass your compression and favor clean compressors over analog models that will create more HF content by pushing lower harmonics up and also increase perceived brightness, though it all really depends on you mix and how balanced it is to start with. If you have a mountain of infra bass and bass then a reduction in that area and pushing harmonic up is what you need.....

Human hearing, room modes, room nullls and the frequency response of mid-grade and relatively in-expensive loudspeakers also conspire to confuse the issue, as sound pressure levels increase the apparent loudness of those frequencies you hear, versus those you hear really well increases also even though the actual frequency balance of the output has not changed at all. Some large cuts between 2500CPS and 5000CPS helps to alleviate that phenomena though that is also material dependent.

These problems aren't really that bad in that range -12LUFS (-10RMS [5msSWBM]) range though. So if you are experiencing that rise in apparent frequency brightening check the processors you are using and go back over the mix itself, or figure out what is going on in the room. Just because 11 out of 12 lemmings prefer the Jillabad Facepunch SuperAnalgoue Modeled Mega Mojo 5000 Compressor and the Granite Brick Megasmash Bros Gravometirc Singularity Force Supermassive Blackhole Psychoacoustic XXMXXL Limiter doesn't mean they are right for you and what you are doing.

Try to fix errant peaks from bass drums snares or brass percussives on the channel they are mixed before any bus processing, if you can not while maintaining the presence you desire, then you still have more work to do understanding compression, etc ..... Though this means nothing because if you like to way something sounds.... you should do what you like (doesn't guarantee everyone else will like it... but then again you are you and not everyone else, and we might all learn something from you and change out minds - or not - who knows.)

Try something cleaner and see where it takes you - as long as all the other stuff is in order as well....

You mileage might vary depending on too many factors to consider or list......

Also, we can talk about chocolate cakes and sound processing esoterically... but if I've never tasted your chocolate cake or heard you sound... it is just esoteric talk.

Cheers.

 

Thanks Mozee! I know in audio realm as in life it's all relative but...
I do use eq-ing (hpf for removing unwanted lf and so on), I do tame peaks on percussion tracks at the channel level... I do not like to mix hot anyway...
My mixing/mastering chain, while variable, does not comprise too many analog modeled fx - maybe a 1176 comp on the drums, a glue comp or a la2a and a nebula console output on the master and that's about it. Nothing too fancy here. The rest is fairly transparent... usually stock fx from Live, Fabfilter fx, solid eq from NI and DC8C from Klanghelm.
With nothing on master buss, the mix sounds and looks well balanced usually peaking at -10:- 6 db (*A7X here, wouldn't quite describe them as in-expensive). As soon as I crank it to peak at -0.3db with an average -10dbRMS, shit starts to pour in me ears... and it's not the HF causing problems but the LF.
So does it happen to others? What limiter(s) do you use on master? I personally work with Pro-L in transparent mode, variable settings.
Any concrete indepth advices from old and not so old mastering cats outhere are welcomed. I believe this is also the OPs intention.

 

i remember when i started playing with plugins and musicm nobody talked about distortion, saturation, it was long keept secret and many where telling that there are bad for any track, then all of a sudden, plugins based distortions was coming out and i was like: '' wtf, wasnt that bad? ''