Mastering for noobies

Jaymz

Jaymz

Stymphalian Productions
May 20, 2006
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Ive watched a few vids on youtube to hopefully gain an insight how to do it properly. A lot of people seem to use the Waves PAZ, so I decided id have a look at prolly my best mix of a live band yet. The waves are peaking realllly high and ive tried to use the L3 multimax in a way I saw on a vid and I cant do it for the life of me. Getting all the frequencies at a similar level? They change too often for me to do anything about it. The voxengo stuff totally kills my waveforms on whatever setting I use, I just dont have a clue anymore, the mix sounds nice and loud but I want to sort this properly rather than half assed.

Ill post a pic of my PAZ etc which is on my master. Another thing is I cant seem to compensate what the PAZ shows, it shows ive got a lack of bass so I increase the bass freq's on the L3and it dosent change.

Hopefully helping me will also help anybody else that is a noob like me. I thought mastering would be a simple few plugins but how wrong!!! Not too mention its hard due to my CPU dying so everythings running at half pelt:erk:

Anyway, if anybody can show me some light at the end of the tunnel it would be much appreciated :)

Heres the pic:

mastering1.jpg
 
Listen to your favourite productions through the PAZ. Try to mimic the waveform with a multiband EQ. Skip the L3, and use the clip mode in Voxengo, 4 x oversampling until the compression is acceptable. Try and then try again. Take a break every 15 minutes tp rest your ears, and try again.

If you don't succeed, use a mastering studio. It's sooo worth the money. Those guys are pros.
 
Thats pretty much out of the question, mainly because there isnt even a quality studio around here for miles nvm a capable mastering suite :P If I just cannot do it myself id be up for letting some of you guys having it if you were willing to accept....however thats a last resport (no offence) I just really want to be able to do it all 100% for myself esp since im playing 100% of the instruments on my solo stuff + ill be able to master well for other bands for fun.
 
Most mastering studios will do an unattended session where you send them the material and a reference disc of other stuff that is comparable. I've sat in on a few sessions but they usually prefer to work without the bands there. There's very little input they need other than maybe a reference disc.

If you're mind's set on mastering your own stuff, the first thing I recommend is getting a copy of Bob Katz's book.....but for anything beyond demos ideally mastering should be outsourced to a reputable studio because they will provide (1) objectivity and (2) a well-treated acoustic environment and the necessary experience and equipment to make sure your mixes translate onto different platforms. They're not miracle workers but can improve certain aspects of a dodgy mix too.

There are some internet-based services out there, but I'd not send them anything unless I'd heard the results of their work.
 
Ill give Bob a look :) I wont be able to do an outstanding job of lets say an album but im looking for "simple mastering" not taking too long just something that tames the peaks, brightens it up, CD volume etc etc. Just the simple few plugins I guess. But Im sure I need more guidence as I think that PAZ and the waveforms I usually get are dodgy to say the least! :P

Could anybody give me an insight into their personal (preference) mastering chains?
 
It may be worth working more on the mix before mastering it then. It should sound good before you master it. Unfortunately the mastering faerie dust only goes so far :D

To paraphrase Bob's book: a great mastering job won't save a bad mix but it can make a good mix great.
 
Yeah totally. It does sound good, basically I just need to wrap it up without it clipping. Ive got a smidge of EQ which sounds good, but unless I turn everything down to silly levels it peaks. This is my master btw. I really dont want to crush my mix so its got sod all dynamics but I want it to be nicely max'd without crushing it badly. When I do try my waveform is quite a size off being big yet my meter's are around -2db :goggly:
 
sparkyness said:
Most mastering studios will do an unattended session where you send them the material and a reference disc of other stuff that is comparable. I've sat in on a few sessions but they usually prefer to work without the bands there. There's very little input they need other than maybe a reference disc.

If you're mind's set on mastering your own stuff, the first thing I recommend is getting a copy of Bob Katz's book.....but for anything beyond demos ideally mastering should be outsourced to a reputable studio because they will provide (1) objectivity and (2) a well-treated acoustic environment and the necessary experience and equipment to make sure your mixes translate onto different platforms. They're not miracle workers but can improve certain aspects of a dodgy mix too.

There are some internet-based services out there, but I'd not send them anything unless I'd heard the results of their work.
Click to expand...


we got to sit in on Dave Shirk (sonorous mastering; he did a lot of old relapse stuff - dismember, amorphis) when he did ours. it was mind-blowing watching him work. I don't even think he used a mouse, he was hammering away on this old keyboard like a madman, and flipping a hundred switches.
 
The few pro mastering guys I've sat in with were from a strange breed. Usually crazy intelligent, but nevertheless....strange in an úbergeek kinda way. One of the most nervous days of my life was sitting in on a mastering session for white label mix I'd worked on for a DJ friend of mine at Abbey Road of all places (we managed to blag the record company into it) . We were waiting for the mastering guy to reveal us as the frauds we were, but it was fine. I've got good ears, but this guy astounded me.
 
i agree 100% you should send your projects out to be mastered
1. thats what they do and they're good at it
2. they have fresh ears and arent biased to your material
3. you'll thank yourself
 
Im just after something to tie my projects up with tbh. Like all you guys post ur mp3's of ur tracks and they sound great and you did your mastering no matter how small. I dont do any commercial recording of bands or anything, its just the track ive just mixed is for a college recording. Even when I do my solo stuff, its just going to be promoted on forums like this and put on myspace. Its not like an album, if that was the case, id want a band to work with me who could actually contribute ideas and then I would DEFFO get a pro on the lash.

Any tips?
 
If the end product is only going to end up on myspace or in mp3 format, any benefits of mastering the mix are pretty negligible. You won't hear too much difference. This is especially the case when you consider the ghastly compression myspace will apply to the file, or the loss of quality in mp3 format.

You might as well just stick a compressor on the master buss and make sure the mix is cool and leave it at that.
 
sparkyness said:
If the end product is only going to end up on myspace or in mp3 format, any benefits of mastering the mix are pretty negligible. You won't hear too much difference. This is especially the case when you consider the ghastly compression myspace will apply to the file, or the loss of quality in mp3 format.

You might as well just stick a compressor on the master buss and make sure the mix is cool and leave it at that.
Click to expand...

Indeed! Well if it was JUST gonna end up on myspace and nothing else id bash some pots and pans together and nobody would be able to tell a difference :lol: Naww ill whack it on CD as well, I want to try and get my stuff sounding as good as a possibly can *obv*.

Its the clipping issue that pisses me off. What I was doing with songs before was have a bit of EQ then voxengo crushessor on the punch +1.5DB then to a voxango elephant2 on some setting I havent got a clue, then sometimes a glip clip. Just so that it didnt clip. Tbh I cant use the voxengo stuff for the life of me, since the sections it has on it ive never heard of before. Take the elephant for example, I dont have a scooby what 3 letter algorhyhms mean what lol.

Yeah I should not have said about myspace :P I dont want shit quality recordings honestly :P LOL :p
 
Ah, I've been looking for some mastering tips too. Most of the time I feel that I'm butchering the mix. I've been messing around with this song for awhile, hard to get something nice. I got a pretty decent sound one time, but I forgot how I did it, damnit!
 
SymbolicSV said:
mastering for noobies:
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/guides.html

if you want someone else to do it :
http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/andy-sneap/283411-metal-mastering.html?highlight=metal+mastering

:kickass:
Click to expand...

Sweet this could help! Cheers :)


Arjen W. said:
Ah, I've been looking for some mastering tips too. Most of the time I feel that I'm butchering the mix. I've been messing around with this song for awhile, hard to get something nice. I got a pretty decent sound one time, but I forgot how I did it, damnit!
Click to expand...

Exactly, same here! I hate butchers :erk: :)
 
Ive just looked at 2 songs in the PAZ to compare. I looked at Born - Nevermore and Impending Disaster - Devildriver. Both have almost the same image as my song! Its even clipping the PAZ at about the same level. I guess thats good, now I know metal mixes do have really high flying lines rather than the softer demos I saw :P. Just need to sort this compression stuff on the master and im sorted. :lol:
 
^ I compared my mix to The Drapery Falls by Opeth with PAZ, the image was also pretty comparable to what I had, to my surprise, haha.

The Ozone tutorial gave a pretty decent result I guess, not yet perfect, but still a decent guideline. Actually I did it with the Waves plugins instead of Ozone, maybe I'll try it sometime, it looks interesting.
 
in all honesty, the 1st thing you need to do is mix with your ears before your eyes!

drop the analyzer out of the equation...then A/B your mix with something similar to what you want your mix to sound like

then ask yourself...what does that mix have that yours lacks?

after that, assess what tools are available to you, and see what you can do to get the results you want with what you've got

also remember that, in its most basic form, mastering is the process of preparing a recording for duplication. you don't necessarily have to eq/comp/limit/whatever else the fuck out of it all if it doesn't sound like it's needed.
 
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