After mixing... the next step, mastering..

[Black neon bob]

Right, hypothetically speaking...

If one is done with mixing a band's songs... how do you send it to the mastering engineer? can you chop the song up? meaning the space between the end and a beginning of a song... or does all needs to be exported in one huge WAV file, so the mastering engineer does all the chopping?

See, the thing is, and this is not hypothetically, but im mixing a band now, almost done with it, but all the songs have different snare drum hits, and im replacing them with samples through drumagog..
But i cant put the drumagog settings to one setting for all the songs, they vary, and they vary badly...

So i need to chop those songs up, in order to get all the samples to hit right via drumagog... can i send them to a mastering engineer one by one instead of one big long wav file with all the songs in it?

please say yes...










no really.. please say yes...

 

[Sinister Mephisto]

Can't you chop them up with drumagog and then put them all in to one big wav file when you're done?

 

[Black neon bob]

That would most defenitely be the next step if sending it out in one big wav file is neccesary.. good thinking.

 

[Razorjack]

It all depends on the mastering engineer, get in touch with them directly.

 

[carl@laruso.com]

dude.... i'm kinda confused about what your asking......could you try again?

so far i'm guessing your problem is that the snare hits differ badly dynamically from song to song and throughout the song... if thats the case put some comp at say 2:1 to level out the hitt's a little before drumagog then automate the sensativity through out. it really wont take that long honest.

..and yeah man you can send all the tracks separate with silence at the begining and end to a M.E and they should sort everything for you... make sure to tell 'em everything they need to know about track list, -tracks and any creative silence you want etc...

ask him exactly what he/she wants

hope that helps yo.

C.

 

[carl@laruso.com]

i once had an M.E ask for a separate accapella vocal as well as the stereo mix i'd done "just incase"

C

 

[Black neon bob]

Carl..

The problem is, during the recording session, a snare mic got bumped into, and nobody noticed this, they noticed after the recording session, so what i have is a completely different velocity on the snare over a couple of songs.. So i cant setup drumagog for ALL of those songs, i have to set it up PER song, if you know what i mean...

That's why im asking.. i hope the mastering engineer accepts all the songs individually.. i dont really see a problem with that as well, but im pretty much new to this, so i had to ask anyway...

Cheers.

 

[Torniojaws]

i once had an M.E ask for a separate accapella vocal as well as the stereo mix i'd done "just incase"

C

I seem to remember in some guide about sending stuff for mastering that you should have all instrument tracks separately sent, ie. guitars in one file, bass in one, drums in one, synth, FX, vocals etc)

 

[cobhc]

It all depends on what the ME needs i guess.

 

[carl@laruso.com]

Carl..

The problem is, during the recording session, a snare mic got bumped into, and nobody noticed this, they noticed after the recording session, so what i have is a completely different velocity on the snare over a couple of songs.. So i cant setup drumagog for ALL of those songs, i have to set it up PER song, if you know what i mean...

That's why im asking.. i hope the mastering engineer accepts all the songs individually.. i dont really see a problem with that as well, but im pretty much new to this, so i had to ask anyway...

Cheers.

ah dude... that sucks! shouldn't take that long to automate the sensitivity They should take your songs individualy too man GOOD LUCK!
C.

 

[TheStoryteller]

I fail to see the problem. Why wouldn't the ME accept the songs as individual files?

 

[carl@laruso.com]

it's my guess they would prefer it, as they would chop it up first thing....

 

[smy1]

Yea. I've never heard of a ME wanting one big file as they work on a song-by-song basis anyway (unless they are cheap bastards and just run a few preset plugins for a $10/h-insta-mastering) ...

 

[carl@laruso.com]

insta-mastering..... amazing.

 

[Gomez]

I'm an ME.

I always ask/get separate tracks.

why?

Because some tracks might need different processing.

I think it's my job to make the best out of each track and then make sure they work together as an album.

If I ever receive an album as a whole big file, It's more than likely that i'll end up chopping it.

 

[Ermz]

It's pretty common for ME's to ask for an acapella vocal mix next to just the instrumental mix these days isn't it? I can see the reasoning definitely, but can't help but feel that the lines between mixing and mastering these days are becoming a bit blurred.

 

[cobhc]

I'm an ME.

I always ask/get separate tracks.

why?

Because some tracks might need different processing.

I think it's my job to make the best out of each track and then make sure they work together as an album.

If I ever receive an album as a whole big file, It's more than likely that i'll end up chopping it.

so it saves you time as an ME if the engineer has already chopped the songs up for you?

 

[Gomez]

It's pretty common for ME's to ask for an acapella vocal mix next to just the instrumental mix these days isn't it?

Well, I never ask for it but god, it would have made some projects hell of a lot easier. The "problem" with the acapella vocal track is that it may take more time. Then again if you only had the stereo track and problems with the vocals, you might spend the same time trying to sort out the problem or using MS decoding.

I can see the reasoning definitely, but can't help but feel that the lines between mixing and mastering these days are becoming a bit blurred.

Certainly. A lot of people have heard about mastering and don't know what it is or does. Some others don't even know what it is at all.

Stem mastering seems to be getting more and more popular and this, to me, is mixing.

I do prefer working with a stereo track most of the time. If I think the mix is really bad, then I tell the client to re-mix and come back.

I also record and mix albums and as you may have seen in thread I posted last week, I'm not a fan of mastering my own work. I think that's where a good ME is invaluable.Not only get the advantage of getting advice and critique from someone who has loads of experience, but you also get to process your music through very high quality equipment and get to hear it in full range accurate speakers... all this provided you go to a good ME in a nice suite!

 

[Gomez]

so it saves you time as an ME if the engineer has already chopped the songs up for you?

YES.

Because, you might not notice it too much, but it's likely that all your mixes for each track are a bit different.

Chop them, do it. It will also let the ME know when the song starts and ends (if you're not making to the mastering session)

A bit of advice is: Make as many notes as you can think for the ME. Particularly if you are not going to make it to the session.

 

[Ermz]

Thanks for the insight, Gomez.