I think there's a place for both. Personally, my youth was spent listening to bass heavy, riffy music, like Rage Against The Machine's early albums and so on. Therefore, my ears find pleasure in that area and it's what I gravitate to, and so it makes sense that my first version of the above master is perceived by some as having too much low end (whereas some clearly prefer that kind of mojo on a track).

I think there's room for both though, and the point of this post in a way is to help enable that. For example, I want to be able to deliver on my style and my eventual unique sound primarily; after all, that's why lots of people go to the likes of Chris Lord Alge, Andrews Scheps, and so on for their mixing and mastering, to get their 'sound' on the track. However, for generic and run of the mill work, it's also useful just to be able to understand how to provide a generic good mix/master too, if only to serve as a back up in case the label/artist don't like your style in the initial master.

So, in short, I'm sitting on the fence here and trying to play Mr. Diplomat to keep the peace, but I genuinely think both approaches are valid in my opinion.

 

I will let you know later, once I've had time to make a v2 of it, to see if it can address any of the comments and give it a bit more balance

Feel free to share some thoughts on how you think it was done though

 

Huh. First time I hear that rock music must have no balls.

Aesthetically tho, I like this version the most. Just, ahem, low end is a bit lacking

 

yeah, I guess 1db more around 80-100Hz should be alright. I don't really spend much time, only 15 minutes or so through the chain yesterday. I've just ran it through the sonible true balance to see the balance just now, here's what I get. Didn't even use it yesterday



@Bunford , how's yours going through this thing. it's by no mean accurate or whatever, just newest cool stuff we have, might as well see what it has to say about the master.

 

Since those cymbals were pointed out, I'd prefer them possibly boosted in the mids and low passed to make them a little more meatier in the midrange. They sound crushed to all hell and have become artificial sounding with a lot of harsh fizzy hiss. I would take a listen to some tracks that have good cymbals and try to match what I hear. Sounds good otherwise!

 

I find it amusing when people say they "have a stab at mastering".

It immediately de-values the mastering skill as to be akin to boiling an egg.

Let me know how you get on with customer feedback when you have a stab at dentistry.

 

Last edited: May 22, 2023

No idea what you're on about?!?!

 

Mate, I was kidding, that's why I added the ''.

And btw, unless you really screw it up, there is no right or wrong. Whether someone prefers more or less ~ 60, 600, 6000, or 16000Hz is a matter of taste. I made my version to give the OP a comparison to a more balanced mix, that's all. Additionally, when you work for a customer there should always be the option for at least one revision to make adjustments to taste.

 

The golden rule of having a decent career in music is: never ask for an opinion on your work. As you can understand every user has a different opinion, but there is no concept of right or wrong in music. Accept feedback only if it comes from multi-platinum mixers, superstar producers, hitmakers or big artists. Only the opinion of someone who has worked at least one big record counts.

 

You did a good job however there wasn't much you could do in mastering. The track has huge arranging, editing, comping, cleaning, mixing and balancing issues. And the concept of color and direction in the record is missing. In mastering you have done nothing but make all these issues even more evident, highlighting them.

 

Right.

 

never heard of trafficker before but i like this track already

to be honest i didnt hear the unmastered ,i went straight a head with the mastered version

(in my opinion mastering technique is vary from person to person so i ll leave that to our fellow experts )

i do enjoy my 80s and 90s rock and roll and this track reminds me of so much of these golden eras
where rock tracks goes up straight to the top 20 US/UK/ charts i wish rock genre comes back stronger

 

In the process of running a second variation, and currently looks like this. Based on the readings (and to my ears), it seems much more balanced and in the ball park for rock dynamics, loudness across the bands, and stereo width. I shall upload a new version shortly for a listen to whoever may be interested

 

Just my view: All in all a good job. I was noticing that the Kick drum has changed a lot in the mastered version. This is due to the compression of the whole mix. You will notice a boominess that blurs the low end.

Think of it as what would happen if i use this much compression/limit on only the kick drum.YIKES!
Use multiple comps and limiters pushing each in smaller amounts to increase gain on masters. Slow attacks = more transients and punch.

Suggestion: I would use a clean surgical Eq maybe with a little dynamics, zoom in on the kick fundamental fq and remove some of the problem. .

This will actually make the drums more powerful. The same problem exists with the cymbals. The sound had changed with the overall compress/limit. The sound lasts longer and overlaps more and has some overtones that were not heard in the original.

Advice: Use a plug in that will compare the original with the master you are working on at the same level.
Use spectrum balancing.

Thanks for letting us into your audio world. The more you do, the better you become.
Be Encouraged. If you ever need us, we will be here to help however we can.

 

Last edited: May 22, 2023

I did a punk record recently by some OG punks in their 60s. It was recorded by the band in their actual garage. They let me mix 10 songs but two of them they already had mixes that they "really liked". I pointed out there was a difference in... approach... and gently explained that they sounded like utter shit, as in actually like shit and not just in an ironic 21st century punk band sounding like shit way. My words fell on deaf ears (literally). So, I had to "master" those 2 songs to fit the others. The struggle is real and practicing mastering techniques on less than ideal material is a legit pursuit in my book.
(I don't call myself a mastering engineer by any remote stretch but often just for financial reasons any recording engineer might wind up being asked to fill that role so might as well learn to do your best.)

 

I've actually been searching for something to do this. Any suggestions?

I have been using HOFA 4U Blind Test, putting original on one track and then have a duplicate with my mastering effects on a second track, using Blind Test to solo each. However, having to manually try to gain match means it may not be entirely accurate. Is there a similar tool that auto gain matches two tracks?

 

Normalize the mix to -1TP, measure the LUFSi and pull down the master by the difference.

 

I have been using ADPTR MetricAB. It is good not only for comparing for mastering it will allow you to compare between several tracks, all level matched at the push of a button. You can offset the songs to compare only choruses for example.

Includes comprehensive comparison tools, like LUFS metering ect.

 

Last edited: May 22, 2023

I referenced Killing in the name of by RATM and what really appeared to me was the tilt toward the low end on your master.

Second thing that really hit me was the vocals being hidden in the back. Overdoing the ''cheap speaker'' effect but that's an artistic choice in the mix.

Third thing was the drums getting lost in the instrumentation. There was barely any punch in comparison.

All of that in comparison to the reference I used.

As a big picture, in my point of view, it resulted in a record that lack clarity in comparison to the reference.

I believe that with what you worked with, you did a great job. The second and third point would need to be fixed in the mix.

 

So after having a spare hour, I revisited this to try and address some of the comments, like try to control the low end a bit more, make the guitar a bit more of the driving force, and pay a bit more attention to the balance of the track. So, here is the second version of the master, and I also added it to the first post too for ease of comparing. I still can't do anything about the fizz throughout the mix, but done what I could with it and would welcome comments on whether this version is moving in the right direction, or is a step back from the previous version?



And here are some of the readouts of the track as per the v2 master for anyone interested:

SPAN Plus:


Youlean:


True:Balance:

 

Last edited: May 26, 2023