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blinx wrote:but i never want to win the loudness war... just compete.

I like this way of saying it.

VirtualMark wrote:Sure you don't mate - I'd almost believe you if you hadn't followed the article word for word!

I lied, you caught me. I care enough about your opinion to lie to you.

VirtualMark wrote:Always boosting your master at 250hz is one of the stupidest "tips" I've ever heard. But it's your track, what do I care!

Someone's feeling a little aggressive today.

Thanks for your feedback though. If you read my original post, you'll see that I said that these are just the methods that I use. I said they might be bad and in fact I was asking for feedback so that I could learn. I was never trying to give anyone pointers.

From my POV you shouldnt need to ever be eqing your master, during the self mastering stage. My assumption being that you can easily fix and eq the elements how you want them to sound before you step into the mastering stage, since you have ultimate control over YOUR projects. I feel like bumping 250hz is just a bandaid to a bigger mix issue in a self mastering scenario.

Now if you had to fix OTHER ppls projects and could not easily just load up the source project to fix your mix issues, i guess i could see someone boosting or cutting slightly in the master stage. That i would leave up to a trained ME though.

blinx wrote:From my POV you shouldnt need to ever be eqing your master, during the self mastering stage. My assumption being that you can easily fix and eq the elements how you want them to sound before you step into the mastering stage, since you have ultimate control over YOUR projects. I feel like bumping 250hz is just a bandaid to a bigger mix issue in a self mastering scenario.

Now if you had to fix OTHER ppls projects and could not easily just load up the source project to fix your mix issues, i guess i could see someone boosting or cutting slightly in the master stage. That i would leave up to a trained ME though.

Much of this is true, especially the 250Hz bellend being a bandaid. But I have to say there's a lot to be said for applying a gentle curve on the master. If you have a good, transparent EQ whose boosts and cuts sound good, applying it to a given area across the whole track does something that EQ's in the mix can't.

it's like applying the boost to the whole mix accentuates areas of the mix that contain really sweet results of mixing elements, the outputs on aux sends from verbs and delay feedback that you don't necessarily notice in the mix or EQ per se, but when brought out into the open you get these ghost harmonics that take it to a whole new level.

For example sometimes i even shy away from ~2k on prominent elements that shine at around the 2k mark, and apply a boost at 2k on the master instead. So all the reverb and delay feedback and mixture of harmonics in that area get accented and it can be really cool. Another example maybe would be having a layered bassline with content from sub-range to ~150Hz, and your midrange layer being high passed around that mark... maybe I'll reduce the volume on my sub bass and kick drum, and apply a bass boost on the master. Bringing out the sub, midrange-bass and kick drum with the same curve helps gel the low-range and it's just a different way of accenting those elements with one mouse-stroke.


Plenty ways to do it, but if you're self-mastering i find playing with subtle EQ curves can be really cool

Today wrote: Plenty ways to do it, but if you're self-mastering i find playing with subtle EQ curves can be really cool

This is spot on for me!
I just wrote a long post with quotes and it went tits so meeehhhhh.
Agree Today with you wise words of wisdom

Man, a lot of you guys are getting all butthurt here, did somebody play a bad April fools joke on you?

op, keep reading bro, but be mindful of where you're getting your info from. most sites like that are awful, most dudes here are awful (at mastering)

compare your stuff to professional tracks, and at the end of the day, practice will get you much further than reading up on "theory" behind mastering.

i do recommend the ozone mastering guide. all the best to you!