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bulby_g
Advanced Member
United Kingdom
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 Posted - 2007/12/17 : 14:37:04
Is it even worth trying when you don't have a proper studio? I wouldn't mind learning it for myself but I just can't see me getting results on what limited software I have and some cheap studio monitors.
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novaboy
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Australia
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Posted - 2007/12/17 : 14:46:04
quote:
Originally posted by bulby_g:
Is it even worth trying when you don't have a proper studio? I wouldn't mind learning it for myself but I just can't see me getting results on what limited software I have and some cheap studio monitors.
Well, regardless of the quality of your studio is, you need to really know what your doing. I dont really know much about mastering, but theres alot fewer Mastering engineers in harcore than sound ones, maybe ask ruffage about this.
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Dain-Ja
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Canada
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Posted - 2007/12/17 : 16:05:59
You can do decent mastering in a bedroom studio
but you definately won't be at the same level as something PureFocus would do
and considering it's only 20 bucks to get a track mastered, **** doing it myself
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Future_Shock
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Australia
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Posted - 2007/12/17 : 16:12:56
Yeah its possible man. Definitely possible.
You've heard my masters and i dont even HAVE monitors yet. Yeah you do need to know what you're doing and its a steep learning curve but you can get there. Masters do not all sound the same - even if you put a different sound engineer in the Purefocus studio, the master would be different because of different ears. Not substantially different, but different nontheless.
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bulby_g
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United Kingdom
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Posted - 2007/12/17 : 16:40:12
Yeah I have. Where did you learn about it? Even if I don't get expet results it would be worth reading into for the experience.
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NeXuS
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United States
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Posted - 2007/12/17 : 20:31:42
If you can afford a few upgrades I'd say its worth it.
Best way imo is to find someone in the area to sit down with you and take you through the ropes, you just cant learn anything music related by reading text on some website or a book, you have to experience it (hear it). Once you know the basics its up to you to learn on your own and take it in your direction.
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MEOWCHiX
Starting Member
Canada
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Joined: Dec, 2007
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 Posted - 2007/12/23 : 23:25:47
Bulby_G!
You know I always thought your icon was an evil sponge bob, now i know. heh.
The answer is yes, you can cut a studio (and dare i say analog) quality master on a PC.
Even without monitors..
although you'll be missing out if you don't have atleast a pair of flat response headphones.
The key to doing this is piles of top notch DSP plugs and compulsive signal analysis.
Believe it or not Cool Edit Pro provides a nice scope for Frequency, Spectra & PEAK/RMS.
iZotope's RX is fun eye candy too, might even be useful if your mixdowns are "noisy".
I'd also grab a copy of AAMS Auto Audio Mastering System ( www.curioza.com )
It sucks for actual processing but it kix a$$ for mastering recommendations.
AAMS also gives you an idea of the basic workflow which you will be doing manually.
Next you need your actual processing plugs, I like iZotopes oZone 3 and Nomad Factory's Studio Essentials.
Here's the drill, or at least it's my routine:
1. Cut it
Mixdown at -6db so there's plenty of headroom to work with.
Always work in in an uncompressed format like 44.1khz / 16 bit wav or aiff.
Higher bit rates and sampling frequency are nice but they'll be a pain in the bum later on.
2. Analysis it
Run it through AAMS against the master.ams profile to do a Frequency Comparison Analysis (it'll also give you some compressor settings that might be handy, or not), save recommendations, DONT PROCESS.
You can also do a test run and normalize it to -5db to see how the clips and RMS check in with a Cool Edit Pro analysis (don't save the hot signal though).
3. EQ it (if you must)
If the mix is way off in AAMS do a preliminary EQ using whatever you're comfortable using. Most wave editors have a few options. AAMS can be configured to give you recommendations for just about any numbers of bands for Graphic EQ.
If you're lazy let AAMS EQ it for you on 100 bands. EQ'ing twice can be destructive..
So (if it's a weak mix) you may want to start a second set of masters one with Pre-EQ and one without as the frequency response is likely to change during mastering.
4. Trim it
You can lowpass filter the mix at 20khz to open up even more headroom and squeeze every last bit of volume into the final mix.
You could also Highpass filter it at 20Hz, which might work depending on the mix, but you really need sub monitors to feel how it turns out.
If you don't have the tools don't mess with the subs.
5. Excite it
Tons of options here.. Currently I'm using oZone 3's 4 Band Dance Master preset plus DC Offset Correction & 24 bit dither..
this does way more than it should be at this step..
in theory you just want to wet it a little and tie the mix together with a gentle reverb and/or expand the stereo acoustics.
For me oZone also runs some compression during this step which changes the frequency spread but you can configure it not to..
my preferences (and final sound) often change from project to project.
6. Check it
Run it through AAMS to see how the dynamics have shifted. Check up on the RMS, then zoom in real close so you can see the waveform scroll by while it's playing and make sure the signal is looking clean. If you don't know what you're looking for watch some tracks that sound good and eventually it'll click. Now's also a good time to EQ it if you didn't mess with it before and it's just a little bit off... if it's still spot on count your blessings and prepare to squish the h3ll out of it.
7. Compress it
I swear by Nomad Factory's E-3B Multiband Compressor on "Mastering Class A" (4:1 RM/Peal/RMS). It's old, probably outdated, won't even load properly on Vista in a DAW- but it works like magic.
Feel free to explore and find one that "sounds" right to you, or just take my word for it and beg borrow or steal to get your hands on the E-3B.
Anyways this thing will buff up a clean signal into the makings of a commercial quality powerhouse. It's definitely not transparent, but in 9 out of 10 cases it's going to sound a hellava lot better once it's had it's way with it.
8. Normalize it
Normalize by peak (Not RMS!) to -.5db , all of a sudden all the work should be paying off and it'll be a massive speaker shaking stormer. You want to get a signal with an RMS in the range of -12db to -6db. But don't normalize by RMS to buff up the signal as it'll tear chunks out of your dynamics.
For me what I end up with will tend to be based on how well I've created the track.
If I hit -10db RMS at -.5db peak I'm right happy.
That extra half decibel of head room is there to compensate for the strange peak variations that show up when you compress the track to a lossy format like mp3 or wma.
9. Check it
AAMS and E-3B won't agree. It's close, but AAMS would like to castrate the track if you gave it a chance. It's worth taking a look see and it'll probably always have just about the same discrepancy in the levels at this point, use the force and trust your compressor of choice in essence that will be your signature "sound".
Now what you should have is some serious "product" ready for distribution, compilation or even vinyl if you've watched your phase (long story, different thread).
BUT we could take it a step further.. sometimes you might fall short of -12db RMS or just need a killer VIP HOTMIX to devastate the PA , this is where the Maximizer comes in handy.
10. MAXIMIZE IT
(CAUTION!) This step can and will most likely blow your mix dynamics three sheets to the wind,
if you're presenting the mix to a label I would rather go back to square one and fix the mixdown rather than depend on the maximizer. But when you absolutely positively have to rock everything in the room the Nomad's E-3B Maximizer is there to turn it out.
Every preset on that thing is way too hot for a final master. I've toyed with using it instead of a compressor but it demolishes the target frequency spectrum. Still, for our personal arsenal or netcast there's a relatively quick workaround.
The "CD Master" setting is killer.. but saying it's overly aggressive doesn't even begin to describe the mayhem. So what you want to do is cut the threshold in half from -6db to -3db , nerf the output boost from 3db to 1.5db and fiddle with the attack from 42ish to 30.5 ms (changing the attack doesn't really matter, it's just so we played with most the sliders, it's a fast attack/release either way).
And BOOM.. instant ultra RMS sonic powerdriver without a single clip that looks like it's been tortured by the meanest hard limiter on the block. Actual mileage may very depending on the track and genre but it's a pretty safe bet in the electronic arena.
Yeah.. it's that easy.
Half the studios would do the same thing 'cept in analog (don't let me fool you, digital can't compare to analog headroom) ..
You guys paying $25 for a master are just getting your tracks worked over in wavelab with some simple compressor like Puncher or if you're lucky T-RACKS.
I know of plenty studios that charge $50-$100 for a wavelab master.
But oZone and E-3B seem to hold their own with the "$250 a pop, gold records on the wall and sidechains on the desk" studios... well i like to pretend they do. ;)
The real wizards have some serious tricks up their sleeves..
check out just about any Annie Lennox track, zOMG..
you can only do that with magic.
~MC
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Edited by - MEOWCHiX on 2007/12/23 23:45:11 |
Hard2Get
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United Kingdom
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Posted - 2007/12/24 : 20:18:13
quote:
You know I always thought your icon was an evil sponge bob, now i know. heh.
So did i. If it's not, then what is it? :P
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drivebye
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United Kingdom
157 posts
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Posted - 2007/12/24 : 20:59:08
picachu??
Thanks for that MEOWCHiX ... was really informative
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Edited by - drivebye on 2007/12/24 20:59:41 |
Hard2Get
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United Kingdom
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Posted - 2007/12/24 : 21:00:59
quote:
Originally posted by bulby_g:
Is it even worth trying when you don't have a proper studio? I wouldn't mind learning it for myself but I just can't see me getting results on what limited software I have and some cheap studio monitors.
Fortunately neither stop you doing reasonable mastering to do reasonable mastering; although they will stop you doing it as well as you can!
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Future_Shock
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Posted - 2007/12/25 : 08:32:56
id be really interested to see ruffage's response to meowchix's post....
yes.... that'd be interesting...
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Ruffage
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Canada
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Posted - 2007/12/28 : 16:02:33
^^ Well, since you asked ;)
I don't know MEOWCHiX or mean any offence, but it sounds like a lot of audio buzzwords and someone who 'sort of' grasps concepts, but doesn't fully (or perhaps knows the concepts but can't express them in a clear, factual way).
To make a fairly general statement about it all, mastering is not a cookie cutter/template/preset sort of process. What makes a good mastering engineer (or even mix engineer) is the skill of listening to something and determining what needs to be done do it, not going through a checklist and loading up presets as they go. The key simply is to listen to the track and do whatever needs doing, and that's where the expertise and experience come into play: the ability to both know what needs doing, and how to do it in the most ideal way.
There are certainly a lot of low-cost, fly-by-night mastering services out there, often just out to make a quick buck with a shoddy product. But to say that "You guys paying $25 for a master are just getting your tracks worked over in wavelab with some simple compressor like Puncher or if you're lucky T-RACKS" just shows you're not doing your homework, much like with the rest of the post ;)
And just to clarify, since it was mentioned, my rates start at $35CAD per track. Always check my website for the most up to date info: http://www.purefocus.ca :)
Ruffage
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bulby_g
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United Kingdom
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Posted - 2007/12/31 : 09:45:30
quote:
Originally posted by MEOWCHiX:
Bulby_G!
You know I always thought your icon was an evil sponge bob, now i know. heh.
Heh.
It's from an Anime called Law Of Ueki.
http://www.comixaria.com/wp-content/uploads/lawofueki.jpg
Well cheers people. Perhaps I'll go read a book or something :p. I would obviously still be getting my tracks mastered for me as it's going to give me a better result but I just want to learn about these things. :)
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novaboy
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Australia
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Posted - 2007/12/31 : 10:02:20
nice one ruffage.
love your display picture too.
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Ruffage
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Canada
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Posted - 2007/12/31 : 14:52:35
quote:
Originally posted by bulby_g:
Well cheers people. Perhaps I'll go read a book or something :p. I would obviously still be getting my tracks mastered for me as it's going to give me a better result but I just want to learn about these things. :)
A good read is 'Mastering Audio' by Bob Katz. It's not so much a how-to guide on how to master (I don't think such a thing could exist really), but it's a great read about audio in general and how things apply to mastering.
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bulby_g
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United Kingdom
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Posted - 2008/01/02 : 09:14:57
quote:
Originally posted by Ruffage:
quote:
Originally posted by bulby_g:
Well cheers people. Perhaps I'll go read a book or something :p. I would obviously still be getting my tracks mastered for me as it's going to give me a better result but I just want to learn about these things. :)
A good read is 'Mastering Audio' by Bob Katz. It's not so much a how-to guide on how to master (I don't think such a thing could exist really), but it's a great read about audio in general and how things apply to mastering.
Cheers mate, I'll look that up. :)
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