During mastering what exactly do you do personally usually apart from maximiser/limiter? (for a single song)

Assuming you have the mix, and the tracks

Thanks

 

Provided your mixdown is complete, give it a while between mixing down and mastering. Then you want to listen to your mix and see what needs doing to your ear.
In a nutshell I then (on an exported HQ mixdown) compress (multiband if you want), EQ, add a little saturation/stereo widening if necessary (not always), limit, use some meters to check LUFs/loudness and a meter to check your frequency range at all times...

then export final mixdown to 16 bits, 44khz.

That's a very brief overview its a massive topic

 

what are you achieving with this? when would u do this

thanks

 

You use multiband compression to compress only certain frequency bands, eg. if you want to tighten up the low frequencies but leave the rest unchanged.

 

I don't really multiband compress I just add a standard compressor at the start of my mastering chain to even out the peaks and 'glue' the mix together.
Makes the mix sound more cohesive :D

 

give the finished track to a mastering engineer, since they know what tools to use & if any treatment is even required.

but if this isn't an option for you, then the same rules apply as in mixing: do what's needed based on what you hear, but you'd need the ears of an experienced mastering engineer to make the best decisions for the track, so catch 22.

The track may or may not need compression/multiband compression. it may not even need eq'ing.

just about all mastered tracks need limiting and rendering. everything else is case by case basis.

SIDE NOTE: i am not a mastering engineer, but there are people on this forum that are by trade. the best thing to do is post your track so a pro can have a listen & make recommendations. some of them may even offer to master it for you.

 

Last edited: Jun 24, 2024

How long is a piece of string? The principles are the same regardless of style, though knowledge of what should not be in a specific style, is generally better known by a mastering engineer of decades.
Either ask a professional or look at the new Softube Mastering suite. While it looks good and has some decent reviews for what it is, unfortunately, Softube has just gone the subscription path.

 

There is no specific recipe for good mastering and it all depends on the source material. The better the final mix is, the less you need to intervene; on the contrary, there is no mastering process that can save a crap mix. My method is to use a reference and do a lot of A/B when tweaking. I love the Plugin Alliance tools to do this job and they are really good. Some high end studios use expensive outboard gear for this purpose and (when used properly) the result is considerably better than plugins. My only advice is to attend some online mastering course, they will give you a lot of useful hints on making your song shine.
Note: A hi grade mastering can only be done on good pro monitors, forget about doing it on mickey mouse speakers

 

I have my workflow and the next ME has his/her workflow. We all do it differently. It's a service and there are many ways to please a client/artist/band/record company owner (from good communication to that extra revision free of charge). Just like when seeing a doctor, you want them to be thorough, detailed and professional. We are dealing with music that people (usually) have put their soul, money, time and sweat into.

Mastering involves many layers and processes, but it all starts with quality control for me (phase issues, correct edit, noise/clicks/mishaps/etc, resonances, DC offset, weird panning/tilting, width, depth, etc). All songs can be shaped and dressed up. For me it's about where the song wants to go. There is homogenic dynamic progression, tonal balance, bass/sub control, M/S volume balance, M/S spectral balance, sibilance and cymbal control, (multi-stage) dynamic processing, color/character, etc. Finally there is my personal ID and secret sauce, if you will. Yes, most MEs have their own "sound" and workflow.
If there are multiple songs that needs to be coherent when listening through (album, EP, etc) then there is the massaging of the songs so that they gel as you listen through it all. Then there is DDP, different edits, different file formats, etc.

Edit: I've been mastering (my own stuff and friend's stuff) for fun since 1998 or so. In 2019 I decided to do mastering exclusively. I've done audio work for 27 years now and have made pretty much all the mistakes in the book (and learned from them). I'm at the stage I was dreaming about when I was 17 years old. I can't do the skateboard tricks I could back then, but I sure can do great mastering.

 

Last edited: Jul 14, 2024

If I was to do mixing & mastering simultaneously, my mindset is like this:

I do everything that needs to be done in the mix, in order for the mastering, to do almost nothing but limiting... The less you have to do on the master (meaning, all you'd really have to do, is think about loudness) the better the outcome, objectively.

 

Stav you cant learn mastering from a chat . Go watch some tutorials or open a book or go study mastering .

 

Limit it first and see how the limiter is reacting, is the song capable of achieving optimum loudness without the limiter working too hard, obvious degradation in audio quality, sound aesthetic etc. Compare the limited and pre-master and listen if anything disappeared, exaggerated, become too obvious or changes in balance. Chorus/drop & transition, listen whether the song's overall impact pre and post limiting and during transitions. Listen if anything is wrong, unusual or can be improved and then do the processing accordingly, with the first stage goal is always making sure the limited version sounds more or like the same like the pre-master but better in a way. Then moving on to the 2nd stage with is spreading the blood of virgin black mountain goat all over the track and while whispering the secret mantra sent to 480XL for more retro vibe.

 

you might learn from chat more than you learn from a book as well. Also i watched countless tutorials, but i don't think i learnt that much.

 

You could learn more from reading the books about things, which are recommended to you by other actual readers. The internet can be an infinite library of junk if you don't know where to start. It's why AI search engines will replace current google, bing, etc. It's already read all those sites it would normally display as junk results and narrows it down enormously. Other people can do even better, because they actually know what they are reading about.

 

What clone says is true. I find it funny when I see people on YouNoob revealing "secrets" of Serum or some hardware unit. Secrets that are literally printed in the manual.

 

Just run everything through Ozone.

 

Last edited: Jul 1, 2024

apply compression and/or Limiting, and eq if needed... As far as loudness and brickwall's I do not smash the track to a flat looking waveform. I will limit the larger peaks to allow for the overall level of the track to come through WITHOUT sacrificing a lot of dynamic range. Leaving "air" in mixes is key AFAIC but you still want to maintain hardness and clarity. You should be able look into the mix and pick out any instrument or vocal that was recorded. That is not possible when crushing everything to -1 or 0 vu...

 

You weren't pointing at me now, were you?

 

Errrr i make sure the mix was done right

 

Here is what I personally do.

1. Identify if the mix is a stereo file or from stems.
2. Identify the mix sample rate delivery.
3. Ask client for reference song material for approximate end goal.
4. Listen to clients rough maximized song.
5. Listen to un-mastered final mix. Listen for errors or problems... IE glitches, pops, or digital spikes.
6. Determine what tools are needed to bring the song up to professional quality tonal balance and LUFS levels to compete and what the client wants, using the client provided reference track as a finished goal. With that goal in mind, use any combination of EQ, compression, tube/transformer saturation, spacial adjustment, clipping, and limiting to achieve the client's happiness.

There are always compromises at every level, and the better the mix, the easier it is to achieve the clients end goal.