I "mastered" a friends song from his album and it sounded nice. now i want to do it properly, his whole album

His mixes are good the vocal is clear but he has a lisp that gets a bit zesty

Can someone give me some pointers. where to start?

 

Here's a good place to start. I've read it a few times many years ago when I started, always considering it as the Bible of mastering

https://www.public.gr/product/books/english/art/mousiki-artists/mastering-audio/prod7360214pp/

 

Not at all, you can't get rid of that.
Lisp should be viewed differently - not as a disorder, but as a character trait of that person. Then you can live with it.

 

If you indeed want to do this properly, start by telling him to fix his vocals before sending you stuff to master

 

I have decided I'm a dolphin.... oh... wait... i'm a woman now....

 

I'm a a mastering engineer (too). I don't fix lisps. Doctors and speech therapists do that. There are a lot of hats to wear, but that lisp hat ain't one.

Edit: Imaging fixing lisp (in the mix!) and people going to the live show and they ALL go "WTF?! The singer is a lisper?!".

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2021

was just wondering how to get the excess highs from a partic icalr area. cause when it gets loud there are some artifacts, stopping it from being as loud as possible

any tricks. thanks

 

You should know how to fix this. You're a Mastering Engineer! How do I know you are a real Master Engineer? You want it as "LOUD AS POSSIBLE!!!!"

 

Good one!

 

so that dude who's been here since 2015 gets the ask the stupidest questions and you guys chime in with paragraphs of knowledge but I ask a question of how to remove sibilance from a mix and this is what a I get?

 

here we go

 

i might get this wrong since i don't know what "lisp" means and the translator doesn't help, but from what i'm getting you're having a problem with the "s" sounds?

I'd suggest you take your time experimenting with de-essers, multiband compression and dynamic EQ, but don't be affraid to do some automatation too (particularly, EQ automation). that last one could be the best solution if you're talking about something that sticks out just a few times in the song.

This is also very very true. Your friend (or whoever mixed the song) should be able to fix it and it's definetively the best choice. If he's not too mix savy, you can always tell him to slap in a de-esser on the vocals and lower the threshold until the "s" starts sounding like an "f" and then back it up slowly until he can hear an "s" again. It's a quick and crude, but from what i'm getting it could be just what you're looking for, and if it doesn't fix the issue, you can always carry on with more detailed advice.

Also check the mids, the lack of low mids and the over accetuation of high mids could be making this problem look bigger than it actually is. Of course, it's not your job as a mastering engineer to mess too much with the tonal balance, so be careful with that.

And finally, you can always look for a reference track in order to help you decide what to do next (in case you're still stuck). Also keep an eye on you analyzers, specially if your monitoring system is "meh".

 

Thanks man. I appreciate it <3

How do I properly use an analyser for this task?

 

You require Diplomas and certificates stating you have completed Audio mastering, Engineering and music courses from a college or music conservatory and state that you are now fully certified to enter this field, the Engineers I've worked with had studied for several years and could detect and correct any flaws in a song or piece of music as well as having perfect pitch and being able to play many different instruments. You can be proud of what you've done on a friends recording but this in no way makes you an engineer, If this really interests you then by all means study and go for it, good luck. As for correcting a lisp try to make it sound intentional or have them go to a speech therapist, or an ancient Roman practice of trying to sound as normal and clear as possible speaking with pebbles in their mouthes in order to project their voices, before Senate meetings you would often find several senators at a river side practicing.

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2021

Nonsense, perfect pitch is certainly not required to be a mastering engineer - who taught you this?

If it is true that perfect pitch can only be acquired in early childhood, then by your twisted logic almost none of us should be allowed to enter the field, nor would any amount of hard work get us there. A reprehensible and misinformed view, at best.

 

In spectral analyzers sometimes you can easily see the temporary bump that happens every time an "s" sound is made. If you hear there's a problem with the "s" (and only if you can hear it), then the analyzer might tell you at which frequency do you need to set your de-esser/multiband comp/eq without compromising more content than you need. It may also tell you if there's something else in that area (like hi-hats, chimes) that could also trigger whatever process you're using. It may also not tell you s***, it all depends on the material you're working with.

On the broad side of things, it can also tell you how are the highs in terms of level compared to the mids and the lows. Maybe it's not the highs that are too loud or essy, but the mids that are too quiet, and that contrast makes it sound like the highs are too much. For that, you ideally need to know the genre you're working on very well, or have a reference track at hand that has a similar arrangement, feel, vocals, just overall a similar track or as close as you can get. You also need to be aware of the song's arrangement so you don't try to boost something that was never there in the first place, or fill in the gap with other stuff (like saturation).

Phase analyzers are a bit useless for this specific task, but sometimes you can "sort of solve" a bit of high frequency issues by widening the highs with an stereo imager or MS processing (although it's kind of a side effect). In which case a phase analyzer will keep you from messing up the stereo image too much.

 

Last edited: Nov 18, 2021

Mastering simplified.

 

That's kinda true, bugs me a little... Sometimes... Too. Seems like most of the people only want to answer the most dumbest or the most brilliant questions xD

 

I would be willing to help anybody who could benefit from my help. But when the OP says he is a Mastering Engineer, something which I am not, how can I help?

 

Charge more for gating and de-essing but don't tell him about it.
In that order, unless you feel like you can out-argue Bill Cosby on dog whistle.
Then go right again, I won't stop ya.