Balancing your mix so you can get it to commercial levels without audible distortion

[[UEAK]Clowd]

I would think this would not be a very good advice. I don't think it's bad to mix through your mastering chain, but I don't think it's good to set the mastering chain up before anything else...Waaaay too many variables in the mix when you are starting out, how would you even know where to set the mastering chains plugins, or what plugins you truly need?

I don't know man. At least with the way I work, I always know what my drums are gonna be, I always know how loud I can push stuff. I track everything so I know exactly what I'm working with and usually its pretty much the same old same old.

Most of my projects don't have the budget for "real" mastering, so I gotta do it.

 

[darthjujuu]

this is an e-mail conversation with new alliance, guys who mastered converge/the red chord/doomriders, etc. etc.

i was asking how to deliver a mix, since itt'l be first time having a commercial 3rd party master get done, so i asked:

"Also, generally if I'm doing a quick in-house master, I alter the mix a ton to preserve transients (kick/snare way higher in the mix then they would be without master bus limiting). Should I just be shooting to get the mix sounding exactly how I want it to, peaking around -4db? Or should I try to mix the kick/snare just sliiightly hot to leave some transient-gobbling compression headroom?"

and they replied with:

"We always recommend that the kick, snare and toms be mixed just a little hotter
to account for the loss of transients during the mastering process. You know how it goes,
as soon as you hit a limiter or compressor the drums are the first to go!"

so there you have it, it's always wise to atleast be AWARE of what's gonna happen to your mix once it gets pummeled, even if someone else is doing it. i always have a limiter on the master bus, usually bypassed, just so i can "peak" at how the dynamic/vibe of everything will be altered once the transients get demolished.

it's also beneficial to have a looksy what a limiter will do because if you haven't EQ'd and sat everything in the mix properly, a limiter will make shit cloudy/make certain elements disappear, and you'll see what needs to be tweaked in the mix a little better before shipping it off. a limiter can help "reveal" where the cloudy/muddy parts of your mix are a little better.

 

[TheDriller]

^ you could always send in a normal mix, and a "drums up" mix too if the Mastering Engineer needs it.

anyway, great point, and its nice to see a professionals opinion on it.

 

[beyond dead]

I was going to suggest ozone. I use it for mastering. The manual has some interesting mastering techniques. the mastering reverb and multiband exciter really help tighten up the low end and add sheen to the hi end of your mixes. Are you bussing your tracks to groups before hitting the master? I always send all guitars to a group, bass, drums to a group, vocals to a group. then instead of multibanding the mix, I can multband the guitars separately.

 

[joeymusicguy]

always do a drums up, drums down, guitars up, guitars down, etc, etc

or just send stems and it wont matter

 

[Force666]

always do a drums up, drums down, guitars up, guitars down, etc, etc

or just send stems and it wont matter

Until you get the bill.