Mastering

[IB_Staff]

Waves for example, one of the programs in one of those bundles, has a fingerprint tool, such that the cd or wave you think comes close to what you are after, you can fingerprint it, apply that to your track.
Not always workable but it's a start for do it yourselfers.

I tend to view mastering as something best left to a neutral third party if you can afford it. The trick is finding someone, reasonable, knows their salt and is familar with your style. Some might say, the style is not all that imporatant but if you are close to others who do the same thing, that little edge might help.

Mastering to cd or dvd is differnet from mastering to mp3. Again, some might say, good mastering will make no difference, maybe true for some things. Mp3s for us, loose the very fine detail that is almost lost on the CD. If we stick to DVD, that fine detail is there, very noticeable.

Mastering is also good if they are close to you. You can visit, talk it over, hear many different versions. Long distance is the next bext thing. Long Distance, you don't have to stick to a Master in the same country.

Sometimes those little edges help set you apart from the masses.

dale

[Terrytown44]

I always wondered what matering guy's did because I'd never no how to explain my mix to them, def good thread

[malcolmfhill]

As I've been recording my tracks using SONAR 7, I've found the best Mastering software to use with it is T-racks.

I'm still learning with this though - I tried over 100 different mastering settings on one of my tracks before getting it to sound how I wanted it!

It certainly is a labour of love.

Regards, SOUNDTRAIN.

[yourockradio]

That's the problem... Settings.

Mastering is an art, not a "setting". Let someone else master your mix. There is a reason for this. Getting a new ear on it. People believe that all mastering involves is pumping up the volume and limiting the clipping. Then they call that "Mastering". Uh, uh.

Mastering is finishing. You look at the wave form and you listen to the mix and you decide where, what, and how you want to attack the mix. What is it that will make it "finished". That is mastering.

I manage a few artists and you have no idea what kind of abortions they send me that are supposedly mastered. They tell me some guru with 20 Gold records on the wall charged them 300 -1000 bucks for these monstrosities! I want to kick the crap out of these "gurus" because they are ripping us off! They don't care. "Oh, its just some stinking Indie guy, what does he know?" That is why mastering gets a bad rap and people skip it. Major error.

What we know as artists is how we want our finished product to shine. We may not know how to get it there, but each of us knows what we want. And what these turds are spitting out? I don't think so.

Any artist that I manage personally, I master their material. It is as much of an art as the rest of the process, if it is not treated this way you get these over compressed, over limited, unnatural sounding pieces of garbage that were the mainstay of music in the last 10 years. And it is too bad.

There is no "setting". Whenever I try to explain how to master it eludes me. I can't explain it, it is just something I have a knack for. Not everybody does, they really don't. Find someone in your circle that feels it. Master theirs, and they master yours. I believe that the results will amaze you!

[Add]

I work in Nuendo and Samplitude. I use Waves plugins. after mixing I do mastering in wavelab

[hasya108]

Hi-- to all those about to master: We salute ( or laugh at) you. If it sounds ambiguous that's because mastering is exactly like the classic
Brit instruction for the perfect lawn: Roll for 40 years. All the mastering
experts, the ones who write the papers/ articles/ books have been recording
and engineering for similar or longer. I know a couple, and they learned the same way: time in. It seems there's a point after so many thousands of
hours of manipulating recorded tracks that the serious pro can actually
discriminate between the gazillions of possible tones available to the ear
and adjust all those parameters to good result.

So fellow aspirants, the previous paragraph was THE CAVEAT!!
There is good (sort of) news for us beginners. All the "experts" got wet
in their first years and released plenty of music as they went along and
even if not done to what we in 2008 would call top standard, much of our
CLASSIC rock--50's thru 70's were freshman efforts by brilliant and
determined people of enormous talent who have directly influenced--
whether we admit it or not--just about everything being recorded today.

I know many say:"Wait now, MASTERING is that thing they do after
you already finished recording" Up to about 15 years ago this was a
partial truth, because before digital, that thing they do was to adjust
for three distinct possibilities: after the producer signs off that it's
complete and mixed--do you want it to sound "Right" on 1: AM
2: FM or 3: consumer quality home stereo. Juke box BTW, is #1

By 1990, commercial studios are digital either all or mostly, to the
point where today EVERYTHING is mixed/mastered digital and the
actual 'mastering" for those 3 previous realities is 80% done by the
recording studio, under the direction of the producer. This is because
there is no significant difference between a well-manufactured CD
being heard in the control room of a pro studio or over the radio.

I did say Good News dint I? Here it is--the simpler you record familiar
sources, like voice/guitar/drums with today's easily affordable hi technology the easier it is to get extremely compelling sound. For
1000. today you have the sonic equivalent of 1 million dollars of
1980 era equipment...in terms of maintaining a loud,undistorted,quiet
and repeatable product, probably better. ( i'd still take the 1980 stuff
cause on e-bay it sells for 2 million)

Learn by making those acoustic natural sounds emerge from your
monitors at good volume as if the player(s) were 2 feet in front of you

Lastly, are you recording on a PC or Mac? The two most used, some
say overused, plugins heard on EVERY album and most singles
are Waves L1 or L2 or L3 Maximizer and BBE Sonic Maximizer
I mean EVERY album.....buy them and use them, o pioneers! There
is something to be said for nuking your mix so that it erupts from
the speaker and bruises your nose..

Hope this helps----you in the last row may now leave..

Hasya108

[Add]

What is mastering:
EQ-ing, compression and processing (room, reverb, chorus, delay, flanger and etc) of groups of tracks or individual mono or stereo track that contains each and separate instrument

Panning and setting of volume level for each track and with respect to overall balance.

overall mixdown of balanced and processed tracks

final mastering (eq, c1 compressor, stereo base, resampler, ultramaximizer and etc)

Dont use multiband effects or any others on mastertrack