Well, mastering seems the biggest problem for all who cannot afford to build a studio. But even sites like Ektoplasm who distribute your stuff for free don't accept self mastered music.

I'll try my best with monitors and headphones, but there will always be those concerns about proper mastering.

I mean: If you don't need all that treatment stuff, why there are professional studios, built with thousands and thousands of dollars? Is it all a scam then?

Even if I love my music, I'm not willing to spend 500 bucks for an album to be mastered (which never will get sold)...

But surely I'll come back to you for the mastering offer, very generous!

 

DokX
The problem is that nowaday we "can" do anything, mixing, mastering, composing, tracking etc...
We have all the tools, but do we really can in term of time, and specialization?

At the end of the day, a good piece, may be a song or an instrumental, should be the first concern of any musician / composer.
From there, the rest can be done, with or without help.

 

That is so very true. I remember when I first started producing, before I even knew what a synthesizer once, and didn't even know how to compose a chord progression. I started off learning basic midi composition and then jumped into mixing and mastering. I then decided that I was actually more interested in the engineering/mixing/mastering than composition, and although I do produce my own music and do my own composition, my focus is on the production aspect. That's why I actually do a lot of collaboration work, it gets the creative juices flowing and allows me to then focus on the production more and take my time to get everything to sound the best it can be.

All of these problems that everyone is facing take a lot of learning and practice so that you can grasp the reasoning behind how they work and when and why to use the tools you have. The problem is we get lost in all the tools that we lose site of the techniques. Baby steps guys, learn the basics, and slowly progress to the more advanced. It took me years to even begin to get my music to sound good.

 

I have friends who produce and release totally professional-sounding music and who only have a basic pair of monitors in a bare, untreated room. But they know their gear inside out and have taken years to get to know their speakers etc Even so, they always pay for outside mastering.

Room treatment is not a scam by any means, it really works - if you have a balanced room you know that what you are hearing is the truth. But it is more important to know where YOU are at. Sometimes I feel it's preferable to concentrate on composition and not worry too much about production, (lack of)gear etc Just worry bout making the hottest damn tunes. When you are ready to take it further, then you will be willing to spend the money on either getting the gear you need, acoustic treatment, outside mastering etc In the meantime you can always put free stuff up on soundcloud or whatever.

In my opinion, a separate mastering job is essential, apart from anything else, sometimes it can be the only other set of ears analysing your music professionally, this is so important.

 

Time, mostly. I can't make music in small bits. Family, work, etc take a lot of my time. I rather be with my family, of course. But it's when I have the time set out and it keeps getting interrupted. That's my biggest dilemma.

 

TIME, absolutely.

And in studio, the clock running... Terrible. Time = money .

 

Biggest problem wich I am facing right now is that all my mixes sound better then any other commercial song in my studio,

more depth, nice bass, lovely high end, etc, etc
but when I go listen in my living room or car, the commercial songs sound better

Ive used different monitors over time: krk v88 (with the double cone's) dynaudio bm6, bm5's fostex but the same problem keeps comming back

so my first solution is redo the acoustic treatment of my studio, but I just don't know were to start

 

Mine varies from song to song, but generally it's......everything! '0)

 

I have a hard time keeping it simple but still interesting, so naturally and unintentionally it gets pulled toward a more complicated production. I still love the end result, but wanna be able to direct it as EXACTLY as I have it in mind. after 7 Ys starting to getting a hang of it.

I'd say after your final mix is finished. find a reference track, a one very close to your own song. see how it sounds in your room environment. a bit bassy or a bit too bright & etc.. and then apply those to your own track. meaning: if the commercial track is by 2db bass ish, make your track by 2db more bass ishhh.
and when you play it in different places, mark what sounds wrong with it. sounds muddy or wwaaaaay bright, u know in your room you have work more on making it less muddy and less bright, even tough it sounds right in your room...

 

Mine is trying to make music for 2014 on a dusty old dell latitude from 07 with only 1gb of ram and 1.8 ghz cpu. I have no idea how I've managed thus far but hopefully better days are ahead.

 

I need a straight forward workflow to go from mix to master where no steps are duplicated. It's so frustrating to watch tutorial after tutorial and see a person doing one thing during the mix and then seeing someone else doing the same exact thing during the master. I get so confused not knowing where one process ends and the other begins.

I wish there was a clear, straightforward roadmap that would get me from finished production to completed master.

 

getting the actual tone of the sounds nailed. i just never get them to sound exactly how i want them to be

 

This dude just posted on a 9 year old thread like it was nothing

 

Not exactly production, but the "how to fill your track with transition effects and other ear candy" part. I just can't understand how they work.

 

WorkIng with other humans is definitely it.

 

Is your question "When do you know your mix is finished"? Well, that's the neat part. You don't.
If the mastering engineer didn't say anything - then it probably was.

Mastering is getting the track ready for its carrying medium with minimum alterations. There should be no overlap with mixing process, and if there is - that means the mix is not good and needs to be redone. Ideally. Sometimes they just alter small things that aren't worth sending the track back to the mixer.

 

The thread is AALLLLIIIIVE! that's awesome haha. Can't believe it started in 2014....dayum.

Totally understand, it can be frustrating. There are some things you do during both mixing and mastering. Things like EQ, compression, and saturation can be done in both processes.

The difference is what you're using them for. In mixing, you're using these things to make sure everything works together properly and that individual sounds are sounding the way you want them to sound. In mastering, you're using these tools on the overall song. So it's more of getting an overall tone, fixing any EQ imbalance and "glueing" all the sounds together to make the song sound more cohesive.

The best way to get un-confused is to separate your mixing and mastering. First do your mix. Here's a good basic approach to mixing:

1. Sound design and sample selection. Choose sounds and samples that actually work together, this will save you tons of time
2. Gain staging. Start with your most important element. Set it at a volume level where it peaks at a max of -9dB. Then set the volumes of everything else around it (just by ear)
3. EQ - Once you have volume levels set, Start EQing if needed. Remove any unnecessary low frequencies from sounds, brighten things up if needed etc...
4. Everything else after is kind of up to you. You can distort things, compress things to make them pump or give them extra attack, add reverb, delay and things like that. Mixing is as much creativity as it is technical

After you're happy with your mix, export it then take a break for a day or 2. Start a new empty project and master the exported file. Again, you're listening for overall things that can be improved, fixed, or enhanced. You're not focusing on specific sounds or instruments. Then, the final step of mastering is the loudness of the overall track. Again, that's kind of up to you, the genre you make, record label requirements, and other things.

I hope that helps.