Mastering & Mixdown (ft. The Money Shot Thread)

[safeandsound]

In the near future I will be linking up to a few nice articles that will explain some principles which some of my clients appear to have some difficulty with, I am just awaiting publication right now.

cheers

SafeandSound Mastering

[MORZ42]

Great thread! Thanks a lot!

[ZACKBLAK]

Thanks Alot For This Thread, I'm Looking Through All the Posts LoL!

[DJ Higgumz]

I just thought i would share this pdf. it is more oriented for eqing for live sound and bands, but some pertains to production

http://www.reverse-engineering.info/Aud ... q_info.pdf

[twilitez]

Im keeping my main mix on -3 before any mastering plug hits it. Thats probably a bit too hot but i never use anything thats not ITB. To some extent digital distortion can actually sound good, as long as its minor and on your lower frequencies. I know how to use the Bob Katz system as well as some others, but uploading anything to soundcloud requires some Ozone or whatever you want on the master. You dont want to sound -12db softer compared to the rest of the site. People will skip your tune just because of volume.

Dont get me wrong, i dont like the loudness war, but we have to deal with it. I never put a mastering plug on my main strip unless im almost done with a tune. Most of the time it will be ok for a potential mastering engineer to handle when i drop all the master channel shit off.

Just keep the following in mind: if youre looking for a release, take those 'magic' master channel plugs off.

If you want to play at a party or upload to SC, no one cares.

[UVOZ]

[MORZ42]

[Comfi]

Kinda shows you that you don't need pages and pages on how to master when it can be covered in one minute and a half vid. People really do make things retardedly difficult sometimes.

[Fauster]

Kinda shows you that you don't need pages and pages on how to master when it can be covered in one minute and a half vid. People really do make things retardedly difficult sometimes.

I can't tell if you're serious...

[ortamusic]

Wow! So glad I found this thread - fantastic!

[RandoRando]

i really need to find out whos behind those videos

[twilitez]

Its funny to look at my own post and find out im ignoring my own advice alot, whether its good advice or not

[Njamimars]

Cheers Wub

[Maxxan]

I've got a question.

When I'm mastering with Ozone I usually smash the fuck out of my tracks to get them bangin' so all the rager kids on SC get hard-ons, and it's all good except that sometimes in the less busy parts I get this popping/crackling distortion on my vocals. It only happens when using the loudness maximizer and happens more the more the I turn it up. If I turn the vocals down or put a limiter on them it goes away but I've got plenty of headroom (around 6 dBs I reckon) so I shouldn't have to do that. It's only audible on headphones or if you listen really closely on balanced speakers.

Anyone know why it's doing this? Like I said I've got headroom, but maybe the vocals are too loud compared to the rest of the track? The dynamics are pretty okay otherwise IMO and it's not ducking or anything so I think this amount of limiting should work, and it only happens to the vocals and not the rest of the track. Really annoying, can't figure it out.

It happened to the tune in my sig for example. Here I removed most of it with limiting. Some of the levels are a bit off in places as I was a tad drunk when I mixed it but I think you get the general idea. Any ideas?

[Electric_Head]

I don't understand how you have 6dB headroom if you're raping the tune with ozone first?
You push it to max and your vocal distorts, big surprise.
Turn the track down and don't abuse your tunes with ozone.

[Maxxan]

Yeah I meant 6 db headroom before it goes into Ozone. Would it be better to just mix it louder so I don't have to smash it as much? The reason I did it this way is just because people tend to recommend it for mastering so I figured I'd try it out.

The thing is that I want to abuse ozone. I know it sounds shit obviously but that's the style that's in now and if my tracks are gonna sound reasonable compared to the others on soundcloud they need to be loud, that's just the way it is. Turning it down isn't an option really. Most producers do it so obviously there's a way to do it and avoid the distortion, which is what I'm looking for.

If someone could put their personal preference aside and help me out it'd be greatly appreciated. I know you're not 'supposed' to do it but there's really no point in bringing knives to a gunfight. Adapt and survive.

[GuitarJon]

lol, this video is so cute

limiter AOM is best like classic analogue limiter without release

[Electric_Head]

Yeah I meant 6 db headroom before it goes into Ozone. Would it be better to just mix it louder so I don't have to smash it as much? The reason I did it this way is just because people tend to recommend it for mastering so I figured I'd try it out.

The thing is that I want to abuse ozone. I know it sounds shit obviously but that's the style that's in now and if my tracks are gonna sound reasonable compared to the others on soundcloud they need to be loud, that's just the way it is. Turning it down isn't an option really. Most producers do it so obviously there's a way to do it and avoid the distortion, which is what I'm looking for.

If someone could put their personal preference aside and help me out it'd be greatly appreciated. I know you're not 'supposed' to do it but there's really no point in bringing knives to a gunfight. Adapt and survive.

I disagree.
Tracks with no dynamics are uncool regardless.
Why do it just to say your tracks are the same as X & Y.

[Maxxan]

Yeah I meant 6 db headroom before it goes into Ozone. Would it be better to just mix it louder so I don't have to smash it as much? The reason I did it this way is just because people tend to recommend it for mastering so I figured I'd try it out.

The thing is that I want to abuse ozone. I know it sounds shit obviously but that's the style that's in now and if my tracks are gonna sound reasonable compared to the others on soundcloud they need to be loud, that's just the way it is. Turning it down isn't an option really. Most producers do it so obviously there's a way to do it and avoid the distortion, which is what I'm looking for.

If someone could put their personal preference aside and help me out it'd be greatly appreciated. I know you're not 'supposed' to do it but there's really no point in bringing knives to a gunfight. Adapt and survive.

I disagree.
Tracks with no dynamics are uncool regardless.
Why do it just to say your tracks are the same as X & Y.

Yeah I agree it sounds worse, but it depends a lot on the genre. For my glitchier, chilled out tracks I dont master them so hot, but for electro and dubstep you want it to go a little harder. And if your track is coming in quieter a lot of people won't think it sounds good. It sucks but what can you do, if you want to compete in 'commercial' music then that's the way it is. Just look at any popular bro/electro track. They're all gonna be heavily limited, and that's not a coincidence. Sure you can ease off on the mastering but in the end you're just making it harder for yourself. If your tracks are killer then they might get noticed anyway but it's a disadvantage you don't need as an unestablished producer imo.

Obviously this doesn't apply to vibey dubstep tracks but for the styles I'm making right now I feel like there's no other choice.

[Optimal Prime]

Some good links here, thanks.