Getting A Master That Breathes?

[HCL]

I've been struggling with my masters for a while. What are your favourite methods with mastering fast, heavy and low tuned music, giving it power and loudness while not squashing it too much and killing all the dynamics?

I'm ending up with masters that are a little quieter than standard volume, with none of the life. Any insight would be awesome!

 

[derekmoffat]

it all lies in the mix. balance out your frequencies within the mix, then you should have no (or minimal) problems with the mastering process.

 

[RedDog]

It's all about staged compression for color with me. And a little automation in the right places. To get it to breathe, I have the bus comp, into an eq, and two stages of multiband. After that, it's usually a clipper with a soft knee, and then a limiter. The process gets it loud but is very unforgiving if the mix balance isn't right.

 

[pikachu69]

+1 to the above. This all starts at tracking. Dont track too hot to start and you will have more life and energy in you master.
Any issues ariving from tracking like boomy notes, uncontroled bottom end etc will make gettin a loud master almost impossible. The balance between frequencies and the individual elements of the mix is most important of all.

TBH if you are using more than one eq, (maybe a) comp and a limiter to master and struggle to reach commercial levels the mix is your issue not your mastering skills.
I see people on here all the time saying the use 3 or 4 different comps and a clipper or two and a limiter or two and this multiband etc... This really is a case of either not enough dynamic control in the mix itself or an unbalanced mix specturally speaking.

I sometimes use a masterbuss comp, sometimes dont as I let the mix decide if it needs one. If I do use one I wont use a comp for mastering at all, just one eq and one limiter and I can usually always reach -9db to -8db without any trouble.

 

[neptunian]

To expand on what derekmoffat said, "Balance out your frequencies" means reducing the frequencies that are taking up too much room and not contributing anything important. If you cut them at their source and your mix suddenly sounds clearer, more open, or less irritating, then you've done it right. As a bonus, that's all the more space freed up for other frequencies to get loud without clipping. A mix can only fit so much sonic energy.

Common problem areas are beneath 30 Hz, which should be hi passed anyway; fundamentals of the bass guitar at 30 to 80 Hz, which make your head hurt if they're too loud; and 300 to 500 Hz where boxy muddy frequencies reside. Just to name a few. Low frequencies especially steal a lot of energy from the rest.

Another thing, be careful with compressors on your master bus. Used unnecessarily it will leave your mix neither loud nor dynamic. Many cases I prefer skipping the compressor and just using a good limiter.

 

[RedDog]

My mixes struggle with a lot of lower end madness. I'm having to subtract so much l ow end energy from mostly my guitars, and the harmonic structure invariably changes the whole balance of the mix. That said, I require a fuck ton of loudness and that's where I bring in the stages of multicomp. The original bus compression is for the glue. I never have to get really surgical, I just like my subs to pound because it fits the music. My music, anyway. Everyone else wants the slamming your face loud shit that nails the fuck out of -8 dB and that's where the soft clipper has its place.

 

[tonymiro]

As others have said you need a start with good arrangement followed by recording and mixing and finally mastering. At mastering processing shouldn't really be to save a mix but to add the final few %: TBH if the recording and mix are excellent there should be very little processing at mastering and mastering can then focus on QA, assembly and so on.

When you do have to process at mastering you need to evaluate your mix to decide what, if anything, to do. A few generalisations though if you need more peceived volume:

As others have said use pass filtering to affect the spectral balance.

Low threshold and fractional ratios on a compressor can help.

Serial limiting - two or more limiters with each applying 1-2dB rather than a single limiter applying more than 3dB. (As Pikachu69 says though if you need large amounts of limiting then look at the mix.)

 

[outbreak525]

I use a very simple method aha, if I want the master to push hard as fuck I master it so the RMS stays around -8. The way I like it is that the bass drops push it to -7, and the rest of the "dynamics" end up at around -12.

For the more dynamic mixes I just use less compression on the master depending on how I want it to sound, and normally the RMS chills at around -10.