Mastering AKA how to make your tracks LOUD

[HORSE FORCE Profile Website]

i was just wondering how other people master their tracks. I personally approach this by taking everything in reason and getting it to constantly clip without having it sound too bad. recently, however, i rewired one of my tracks into pro tools and tried to master it, but it ended up sounding significantly quieter. has anyone else noticed a difference in level when bouncing their tracks to different DAWs?

[weyheyhey !! Profile Website]

render track to 32-bit wav with global volume normalised. master in audition using ozone: usually cut <30Hz, notch @ 4.5khz, mild multiband compression (low end), mild top-end harmonic exciter and brickwall limit (several dBs up :)


if the production's good, mastering should be pretty simple.

[xTxRxAxVxIxSx Profile Website]

All I usually do is throw a Multiband Compressor on every mixer track, and use the preset 'soft limiter'. FL8 now has Maximus though, which will do the same - maximize the sound.

Doing that still clips the tracks though, it just does it softer. Sometimes there will still be noticeable clipping, and I'll just have to go back and turn down either individual mixer tracks or individual samples/instruments.

Oh, and doing that is obviously a major RAM/CPU hog, so I usually just put them on right before I'm bouncing to mp3 or whatever.

[birth control Profile]

Generally you want to get all your frequencies of each element in your track hitting off at the correct Hz if you get this correct half of the battle is won. Using a decent spectrum analyzer will help you achieve this. There is a topic around on there with tops on EQ for where you want certain instruments to sit on the spectrum. Head room is a must for clarity.

Once everything is sitting well and nothing is fighting with other sounds then you want to make sure the whole mix is not peaking over 10db. You'll find that anything above this will probably sound muddy on a club PA. Keeping everything below 10db will allow you then to turn the master up, basically as loud as it can go to get a much louder, cleaner sound from the mix.

Using things like maximizers and limiters will generally deshape what you've spent time on crafting. Everything will sound muddy and its a waste of your time. Pretty much everything I have wrote in the past has failed due to ill mastering. A new outlook of less is more is whats needed.

[133crazydirector Profile WebsiteICQ]

Well i'am kinda in such a situation...
I got other question, if you have beefed drumline and massiff synths all around, how to make bass sound loud and good without any shit..?
Positioning of it's sound doesn't help a lot

[133crazydirector Profile WebsiteICQ]

Oh, and please guys, tell me, why not to master your tracks right in Renoise for example?
Is it tricky someway?
Why do we have to use wave-editors?

[birth control Profile]

Keeping the bass in its own frequency range will give the bass clarity. Having it fight with a set of distorted breaks on the same level of Hz will kill it. Depending what you want from your mix this will alternate. But I generally have my snares hitting around 180hz - 200hz. Kick about 80-100Hz. Leaving quite alot of room for a bassline. Keep in mind to cut absolutly everything around 20hz or up to 30/5hz.

[133crazydirector Profile WebsiteICQ]

Yeah, i have an understanding of frequencies, everything seem to be fine, but i can let bass go real heavy, now it's someway better but not right, i've use EQ and some compression, but it's still not...hmm
I want it to be loud and distorted on let's say (1khz) (i guess it's frequency of my glitches now)
so bass is beefing with it and i can't make it loud, if i use compression i got not so loud bass as i want, if i cut frequencyes with eq or fliters it sounds not so harsh as it need to=)

Fuckin' distortion

[GUN! Profile Website]

For mastering, I of course try to get everything as "right" as it can be before mixing down.

Drop that mixdown wave in sound forge and run it through a final eq just because then use this plugin from the old dx dsp/fx pack called Optimizer. I'm not exactly sure how it does what it does (sort of a compressor/limiter in one thing.) A few passes through jiggling knobs usually gives me a pretty decent "ghetto master." Stll a good bit of trial and error. The first master is never the right one.

[miskibaul Profile]

i just copy what ever horseforce and pepcore say. then i run everything in the uber red. then i mix it down to absolute 0, then i bounce that and run it in the uber red again.

rinse and repeat


/sarcasm-gasm

[pimperteen Profile Website]

mmm, what a great thread.

so far, barely anyone's mentioned anything about mastering. just some pointers on production EQing even a novice should know.

i suggest you go search the internet and read up on mastering; what it's for and how it's done. there's lots of info out there.

[GUN! Profile Website]

And that post helped what exactly...?

Clearly there are some novices on board (no dis meant to any!) that have questions about what they're doing. No worries in helping them out.

[MarkyPoo Profile Website]

And that post helped what exactly...?

Well He Said To Search The Internet...Which Is Probably One Of The Better Ideas...Or To Quote An Article On Mastering.

[133crazydirector Profile WebsiteICQ]

Fuck it ppl!

Let's discuss here the exact questions or problems.

Everyone who use this topic gotta know basics of course )))

[133crazydirector Profile WebsiteICQ]

Someone tell me one thing...
How to make very heavy distorted kicks sounds very loud, but without clipping and peaking etc and not covering all other drums...
I mean just something like Winniepeg album, very loud, very distorted, very fast and not only that kick, other drums too..
I'am clear with other drums, but kick kicks me off again lol
So i need something to do it heavy and suitable...
Some hard mixing.