Mastering, mixing, loudness war and college!?!?!

[Fletchur]

I feel like I have little time to produce with college or sixth form/highschool as some people call it - I want to learn how to use ozone properly, but feel like I never have the time and even when I do I end up having a play and reading and watching stuff but still make mistakes. I'm finding after I make my track it might sound ok but as everyone knows .. it doesn't compete with other tracks in the same genre volume wise. Its demoralising to compare your tracks to others and hear yours sounds like a weak piece of **** next to the pro's. I know people will comment saying avoid the loudness war but I hope someone can appreciate what I mean a little.

I'm more ranting than asking anything I know but bear with me. Something I wonder is how complete the track should be in the mixdown stage, I know everything should be all how you want it to sound, but how much should mastering really add to the track and is it really worth it just for soundcloud? When I say mastering I mean using ozone not sending it to pros either, I've considered that but it seems a bad idea at my level.

In short summary what I am asking is:

-How do I manage producing around college and exams?
-Is it worth getting to know how to use Ozone for soundcloud or should I just leave it and eventually have them done professionally?
-To what extent should the song sound "full" and "loud" in the mix - is this just for the mastering stage?
-Is it a good idea to use ozone on individual tracks i.e kick drum or just for the master at the end?

Sorry for this annoying rant with nooby questions but its just getting me confused and frustrated.
-

[fragments]

Something has to be the priority music or school. If neither are youre doomed.

I wouldn't have even bought Ozone in the first place, but that's me.

Your mix should always be the best it can be, mastering is about getting a second set of experienced ears to listen to your tune in a proper environment and polish the awesome that is already present.

Ozone is designed to be a master bus processor, the CPU hit would be huge...but sure...give it a shot.



Honestly if I was in your situation I would concentrate the little time I had for music on song writing. A well written song sounds good even w/ a rough mix.

[drake89]

good mastering job can take a good mix and make it great, take a great mix and make it outstanding etc. but if your mix is shit then so will the 'mastered' version. so yes, fix it in the mix. and also what he said about song writing. some edm tunes are released without mastering...

[__________]

"Learning" Ozone isn't a thing really - you're talking about learning mastering which is basically a distraction if production is your main goal.
Mastering = processing your final stereo mixdown.
While you're still producing and mixing down your tune you are in a better position than the mastering engineer is to fix any problems in the overall sound.

There is no point adding a 0.5dB boost @ 5kHz on your master channel, or multiband compression, etc, when you can fix it all in the mix.

Mastering your own shit with the same ears and speakers will only accentuate any problems you had to begin with.
Let's face it, beyond a good riff, getting competitively loud is the main objective in bass music. Get used to using hard limiters on your master channel (don't have it on by default though) because that's all you'll need really. Any EQ, stereo imaging, etc issues should be fixed in the mixdown stage if possible yo

[laurend]

"Learning" Ozone isn't a thing really - you're talking about learning mastering which is basically a distraction if production is your main goal.
Mastering = processing your final stereo mixdown.
While you're still producing and mixing down your tune you are in a better position than the mastering engineer is to fix any problems in the overall sound.

There is no point adding a 0.5dB boost @ 5kHz on your master channel, or multiband compression, etc, when you can fix it all in the mix.

Mastering your own shit with the same ears and speakers will only accentuate any problems you had to begin with.
Let's face it, beyond a good riff, getting competitively loud is the main objective in bass music. Get used to using hard limiters on your master channel (don't have it on by default though) because that's all you'll need really. Any EQ, stereo imaging, etc issues should be fixed in the mixdown stage if possible yo

I can't say better +1

[Eat Bass]

i also find it hard to produce while in school because when i do have the spare time im not always motivated to produce anything more than a loop.

some tips i found that help my production and production time while in school are....

- start and finish all of your school work as soon as its assigned. procrastinating leaves you constantly behind and you will never have time to produce or you will be too stressed and have no willpower or motivation to produce.
- find the time of day that you produce best and are most creative in. some people its the night, some people its the morning. this way you can best plan your times to produce.
- use whatever non-creative modes your in to organize your libraries or to gather sounds and partially pre-mix them for a song. like get a general idea for a song and gather all the sounds, then construct the drums. you can do this essentially with no creative flow. this way when your creative juices are flowing, you can get right in and actually write and not dick around with sound design or collecting and mixing sounds.

thats all i can think of for now. but those few ideas definitely help me out.

[_helix]

I'm in school as well, and I will tell you the trick to producing and maintaining school. On your down time choose one or the other also a song usually takes more than a day to make so every time just work on a part a little more. Don't worry about the master focus on the Mix more to get a great sounding mix, and I know you said not to but seriously don't fall for the loudness war. Its retarded, And its just ruins your song that you put so much work into. Do you want to make a song that will be heard for years to come or just for 30sec because "It sounds so cool but hurts my ears".

Seriously the loudness war is at its peak right now and it's fucking ridiculous... I don't mind some loudness but Christ what are these people doing, and everyone is doing it. Talk about wasted talent.

[mthrfnk]

I hold down a full time job, still find time to produce at night or on the weekends. I used to produce at University too, and I didn't do one of those no-frills courses with very few lectures. It's all about prioritising your time - I tend to think there's really no point trying to produce if you're not in the mood or have no aims, you've just gotta be motivated when you do find the time to bang out a riff. In terms of mixing, I now spend ages with my mixes like just doing bits and checking/rechecking levels over like a month until I can't stand the track anymore and upload it.

In terms of "mastering", I too use Ozone, I try to make my mix as great as possible before reaching for it but sometimes I like to test my track with a pretty standard Ozone preset I've made throughout the production process to see how it sounds - I like to do this to actually try and find flaws in the mix that sometimes might get highlighted. Some people are steadily against using stuff like Ozone and say "leave it to the pro's" but I like to use it - solely to process my tracks for upload to SoundCloud, I'm not the best producer and don't have the best setup but I'm doing okay so far - until I have a set of tracks I'm 100% happy with that others enjoy too I don't wanna pay for mastering myself. In terms of learning Ozone, I'd say check out their mastering manual, lays out everything really well.

[fragments]

I hold down a full time job, still find time to produce at night or on the weekends. I used to produce at University too, and I didn't do one of those no-frills courses with very few lectures. It's all about prioritising your time - I tend to think there's really no point trying to produce if you're not in the mood or have no aims, you've just gotta be motivated when you do find the time to bang out a riff. In terms of mixing, I now spend ages with my mixes like just doing bits and checking/rechecking levels over like a month until I can't stand the track anymore and upload it.

9 months of the year I'm teaching 4-5 college courses (which has me grading something like 500, 4+ page essays over the course of 15 week semesters ) and I work a retail job every other weekend. I still find a day or half-day a week for production. In the summer I'm poor, but happy making music.

So yea, I think a student with average workload should be able to find some time in the week. And I agree, I'd wouldnt' worry about mastering, or even mixing--I don't find I need that in-moment energy to mix something. But for arrangement, yes!

[SunkLo]

Yeah mix shit when you have no inspiration or when the track sounds so horrid that you need to sort it out before continuing.

iZotope has a track version of Ozone basically called Alloy. I'm not a fan of these all-in-one plugins though. If I was stranded on an island, I'd take Compassion, Pro-Q or Equilibrium, and an analogue modelled bus comp like The Glue or a Fairchild 670 emulation. Slap Pro-L or the Sonnox limiter on the very end if you need to get some extra gain for soundcloud, but like everyone's saying get it on target in the mix. If you want less dynamic range and more loudness don't crush the whole mix! Find the most dynamic thing or the part that you want to be fatter and compress that. Work micro to macro, not the other way around.

[Fletchur]

"Learning" Ozone isn't a thing really - you're talking about learning mastering which is basically a distraction if production is your main goal.
Mastering = processing your final stereo mixdown.
While you're still producing and mixing down your tune you are in a better position than the mastering engineer is to fix any problems in the overall sound.

There is no point adding a 0.5dB boost @ 5kHz on your master channel, or multiband compression, etc, when you can fix it all in the mix.

Mastering your own shit with the same ears and speakers will only accentuate any problems you had to begin with.
Let's face it, beyond a good riff, getting competitively loud is the main objective in bass music. Get used to using hard limiters on your master channel (don't have it on by default though) because that's all you'll need really. Any EQ, stereo imaging, etc issues should be fixed in the mixdown stage if possible yo

Thanks for the reply. Wouldn't you consider having a track mastered as cheating though? Isn't it all part of producing you OWN track?

[Fletchur]

I hold down a full time job, still find time to produce at night or on the weekends. I used to produce at University too, and I didn't do one of those no-frills courses with very few lectures. It's all about prioritising your time - I tend to think there's really no point trying to produce if you're not in the mood or have no aims, you've just gotta be motivated when you do find the time to bang out a riff. In terms of mixing, I now spend ages with my mixes like just doing bits and checking/rechecking levels over like a month until I can't stand the track anymore and upload it.

9 months of the year I'm teaching 4-5 college courses (which has me grading something like 500, 4+ page essays over the course of 15 week semesters ) and I work a retail job every other weekend. I still find a day or half-day a week for production. In the summer I'm poor, but happy making music.

So yea, I think a student with average workload should be able to find some time in the week. And I agree, I'd wouldnt' worry about mastering, or even mixing--I don't find I need that in-moment energy to mix something. But for arrangement, yes!

Yeah I get you man but I can't just sit down for like an hour I like to take 3-4 hours on it. I have kickboxing and other commitments too so that makes it hard also. I can't wait till summer haha

[__________]

"Learning" Ozone isn't a thing really...

Thanks for the reply. Wouldn't you consider having a track mastered as cheating though? Isn't it all part of producing you OWN track?

No worries man. Mastering isn't cheating at all, but it won't really FIX anything and you shouldn't use it as a crutch, e.g "listen to my new tune, but remember, it's not mastered yet!"

Think of mastering like proof reading. I wouldn't write a 30,000 word essay and expect my proof-reader to make it any better or re-write anything. I'd just expect him to catch any spelling or grammar mistakes I made but didn't notice. If I constantly spell "ridiculous" wrong though, I can't proof-read my own shit. And if my ears and/or room constantly over or under-compensate for certain fequencies, I can't master my own shit either.

I'll master my own shit for Soundcloud or to send to my close mates, but for releases I'd want a named mastering engineer. Same as I proof-read this post myself, but if I was writing a magazine article I'd want someone with a better grasp of English than myself to read it.

When you pay for mastering, you pay for the ME's speakers and ears which are better than yours. Then you pay for his DA/AD, outboard and plugins. Then you pay for his brain which knows how to use them.

[Sharmaji]

as you get older you'll find this paradox rings true 100% of the time--

when you have the free time to get everything done... nothing gets done.

when you're slammed with zero time, that's when you finish everything.

so...... always try to find ways to work more efficiently, and when you've got free time, enjoy it as being free.

your mixes should sound full and clear, with enough density and the balance across the spectrum that works for the tune/genre/etc.

was just mastering a track yesterday and was sent a dillon francis tune as a ref-- this loudness war thing in dance music is thoroughly out of hand. the low-end in all this loud is stuff is just one big bassy mush.

[drooka]

hey brotha, in my last year of school, got a job and internship so i feel your pain about balancing music and commitments. my advice would be this.. if possible set aside one day a week (or part of a day) for music and nothing else. get all you other shit done on the other days knowing that you will have free, uninterupted tune time within the next 7 days. by doing it all on one day, makes it easier to progress a tune since you're really in the mindset and aren't breaking to juggle 6 different tasks.

don't want to beat a dead horse here, but the above posts kinda say it all about self-mastering. personally i don't ever touch the master channel or consider self mastering. mix down til it sounds good, -6 db for premaster, -2/3 db for dubs you're gunna send around and bounce.

[AxeD]

Mastering is actually completely separate from the production process most of the time.

I study part-time and work about 20 hours a week. So I have enough time for producing etc..
I'm not at my best with a busy schedule (some might call this 'lazy'), but yeah whatever works.
I don't really see the point in cramping the week with work, it's not like I'll have another 90 years to enjoy whatever I would
get out of doing so.

[FAARE FACED]

Just like you OP, i'm attending "higher" education (i'm not from the US so it's not college so to speak but it's the same idea).

Well, I produce music in my spare time and that's it. If I'm under pressure (need to finish something fast for example for a remix competition) I skip parties/social interractions, but rarely school stuff.

I'm just starting out in production (it's been a year), but I've been able to complete 3 tracks (that i was happy of at the time) in 4 months. But I started dozens of projects and abandonned around 4 just before finishing them because they didn't feel good enough.

On average, I'd say i work between 20 and 30 hours on a track (and I need way more time to think about it outside the sessions, time which isn't taken into account here).
So it's more like 25/35 hours. And usually from initial idea to completion, it takes me between 2 weeks and a month.

To sum up, I'd say it's far from ideal, but it's definitely possible. If you manage to be efficient at school related stuff, and if you don't have too many lessons (i have around 25h per week, and the same amount is supposed to be done at home according to school, but it's actually way less), it should give you some time every day to make music.

[cyclopian]

Just an observation stemming from seeing you ask about putting ozone on each track in your daw, when mastering you should be working with a lossless render of your project (wav). If you are making corrections to the mixdown or structure of the song while trying to master it, it means you need to take a step back and go back to the mixdown stage of the production and get everything perfect before you try to master it.