Soundforge Mastering Tutorial

[Josh Burgess]

you're asking us to hold your hand and walk you through things you could learn just by reading this forum. many of us learned just by researching and then experimenting on our own while applying that knowledge.

you need to research... but I'll be nice and give you some tips.

many people here mix into a compressor like the waves ssl master bus comp (only with a bit of gain reduction... maybe 2-5 db). this will help to glue your mix together better and tame peaks. follow that up with a limiter... popular choices include Slate Digital FG-X, Izotope Ozone, TC Electronic Finalizer, Voxengo Elephant, etc. This is where your volume comes from... but it's a constant battle between getting things loud and keeping them from sounding squashed and distorted. You can't push the limiter too far. Basically, the idea is to keep everything in your mix as clean and controlled as possible.... filtering out unnecessary sub lows, controlling bass and low mid frequency buildups through use of EQ and compression, etc.... and here's one last hint: the snare drum is almost always the loudest peak in your mix. when the limiter is pushed too hard, the mix will start to become squashed and the snare will disappear. many people use a clipper like the GClip VST on the snare to help control those loud peaks and let you get more volume out of your limiter before things start sounding too squashed. remember, the key to getting a good master at acceptable commercial levels is to first have a clean, controlled, well balanced mix. Later, when you're more comfortable with things, you could try experimenting with multiband compression, tape saturation sims, etc.

hope you find some of that information useful.

 

[GMFx]

thank you so much!

 

[ahjteam]

engl powerball

I know what Lasse has to say about powerballs

 

[aortizjr]

The main reason (for me) to own Wavelab is the metering and the CD Montage or CD burning aspect of mastering (Fades, track times, hidden tracks, ISRC codes, CD-TEXT, etc.). Which is really where mastering started. Wavelab also has the volume matcher app which is great for compilations and such.

But for just the "audio" side of the house you can use whatever. In the DAW, it comes down to metering and plugins. Ozone is a great start IMO, comes with all the tools you need and great metering in one package. Search around here, you fill find Gclip, Elephant, Slate FG-X, etc. In the right hands, great tools.

One thing I try really hard not to do is master and mix at the same time. So drop your mixes. Then load up the stereo mix into cubase or logic or whatever and work on it from there.

Logic actually has Waveburner or whatever it is which also does everything you need on the CD side of the house.

These will just scratch the surface and get you started and I do this a lot too for bands that don't want to pay for mastering (pisses me off). But sending it off will achieve better results. Plenty of guys on here who will do it and knock it out of the park.

 

[Josh Burgess]

I don't think there's anything wrong with mastering (as far as balance, glue, volume) as you mix. There's plenty of pro producers who master their own mixes, and a lot of them do it while they mix.

 

[aortizjr]

I don't think there's anything wrong with mastering (as far as balance, glue, volume) as you mix. There's plenty of pro producers who master their own mixes, and a lot of them do it while they mix.

Yeah nothing wrong with it at all. Well really there is no wrong way or right way, do whatever works for you. But I think when learning, first focusing on a solid mix with dynamics, then focusing on mastering, or sending it off for mastering, is a better plan. The mastering engineer can teach you a lot about mixing too. My first mastered mix took 3 tries back and forth to get a good mix first which meant a much better master.

But a pro will know and understand gainstaging, cutting vs. boosting, balancing the mix, etc. So then working with a limiter can work and even Sneap does that, or at least for the Megadeth mixes.

Personally I find that with master bus mastering chain, I spend more time fighting it than having it help. Then I spend a lot of time chasing my tail of tweaking the mix or the master bus chain.

Then it also forces me to take at least a day to sit on the mixes. If time allows, even take a few days to "master" with fresh ears or hopefully a fresh perspective. Weeks would be better, but time has never allowed for that yet.

As always, grain of salt, and YMMV.