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Right, say i want to get a tune mastered, mastering guy says no effects on the mastering channel.

Thing is, thats how i clean up my mixdown. Have I just been doing it wrong all this time?

If it sounds fine just make sure that the me has enough headroom to work with.
If it was me and I was doing that I'd give a little more headroom than normal incase the me doesn't like what you've done

ehbrums1 wrote:If it sounds fine just make sure that the me has enough headroom to work with.
If it was me and I was doing that I'd give a little more headroom than normal incase the me doesn't like what you've done

hmmm... might just ask him straight out. Don't want to look stupid is the thing!

hutyluty wrote:

ehbrums1 wrote:If it sounds fine just make sure that the me has enough headroom to work with.
If it was me and I was doing that I'd give a little more headroom than normal incase the me doesn't like what you've done

hmmm... might just ask him straight out. Don't want to look stupid is the thing!

Thats probably your safest bet

Ask and see. I don't know how much of a difference it'll make to whoever is mastering, but even from a logical perspective you should try to reduce the amount you've got going on your master channel as much as you can. No tweak you make on the master is ever going to be fully appropriate to all the instruments you've got in your track, it might come close, but it'll suit everything in there, so it's probs better to try to tweak everything individually so you don't need much or anything on your master. That said your stuff usually sounds alright anyway, can't imagine there'd be a whole lot to do to it.

hutyluty wrote:Right, say i want to get a tune mastered, mastering guy says no effects on the mastering channel.

Thing is, thats how i clean up my mixdown. Have I just been doing it wrong all this time?

Technically what you're doing there is 'mastering' or at least part of it. When you send an ME a tune, they will essentially only be able to apply effects to the master (unless it's stem mastering) so let them do that. There's no sense of you doing that before they get it because you would have already cut or boosted and they won't have as much room to work with. It's redundant.

You should be EQing the single main elements on their own channels so that by the time they go to the master output, they are already balanced and mixed well. I wouldn't say it's 'wrong', a lot of people do it but it's a bad habit unless you're just doing it for effects or to self master. Just make sure you use the best EQ you can.

If I were you, I'd send him 2 versions. 1 of them with the EQ the way you like it, and the other one with no effects on the master. Make sure you explain which is which, and name them appropriately. Let them know this is the sound you're after and they can replicate it with their expertise.

Yeah, pretty much you've been doing it wrong. You've been doing self masters. Take it off. If you don't like the mix, go back to buss level or track level and make the necessary adjustments. Cleaning as far upstream as possible will be greatly beneficial, as you'll be pulling all that mud out of your fx chains and processing.

Of course you can do anything you want on your master. You can slam it into a bit reducer if you want. But if you are working in any kind of ordinary genre, leave it off if you can. Have heard stronger arguments for dynamics processing like compression on the master at the mix level.

Btw, you using a linear phase eq on the master?

nowaysj wrote:Yeah, pretty much you've been doing it wrong. You've been doing self masters. Take it off. If you don't like the mix, go back to buss level or track level and make the necessary adjustments. Cleaning as far upstream as possible will be greatly beneficial, as you'll be pulling all that mud out of your fx chains and processing.

Of course you can do anything you want on your master. You can slam it into a bit reducer if you want. But if you are working in any kind of ordinary genre, leave it off if you can. Have heard stronger arguments for dynamics processing like compression on the master at the mix level.

Btw, you using a linear phase eq on the master?

Yeah its just being lazy in truth, seems much easier to write the tune and then go over it with broad strokes in order to cut out the flab in the middle or cut all the highs out/ whatever.

Oh and its a high definition parametric shelving eq whatever that means

wormcode wrote: If I were you, I'd send him 2 versions. 1 of them with the EQ the way you like it, and the other one with no effects on the master. Make sure you explain which is which, and name them appropriately. Let them know this is the sound you're after and they can replicate it with their expertise.

Yep, I think I'll do this for now- as I've tried going back and doing all the individual bits and made a total mess of it. In future though I will try and eq things separately as I go along

At the least, try and whack away at the buss level.

This would generally mean to remove any processes that severely restrict dynamic range/kill transients, namely limiters.
People have different ideas about bus compressors, personally if you are doing 1-2dB of gain reduction using X compressor which you are finding is
adding significant good to the mix who am I to say remove it? it's your mix after all.

Limiters restrict a mastering engineer because the mastering chain is a dependent one, each device affecting the next and so on, a limiter
just means a very high signal level electrically for an analogue chain at the mastering studio *not ideal really, and rounded off transients. Chances are your ME will be able to get your volume up with less detriment to the punch of the track.

EQ on master bus, well no rules really but you have to ask yourself if there are underlying tone problems in the mixes individual elements.

When you do remove a limiter do check to ensure there are no overs, if you have been running a hot level your mix can easily clip the master output so
if this is a problem pull back the master fader by the amount needed to stop the clipping and bounce out 24 bit.

I was also going to suggest this : as wormcode mentioned:

If I were you, I'd send him 2 versions. 1 of them with the EQ the way you like it

It gives the ME some insight into your monitoring if nothing else. Sometimes it is useful and sometimes not.
It can reveal if the persons monitors are way off or if they have acoustic problems or misjudgments of hearing /or in the right ball park.
The mastering engineer upon hearing the track briefly should be able to give you pointers which may correct the need to master bus eq
if they know what they are doing.

get yr mixdown right w/o any eq on the master. there ya go.

Anything done to the master is mastering, maybe it's best to just master it yourself and have it checked.

hutyluty wrote:Thing is, thats how i clean up my mixdown.

That part seemed like a red flag to me. Get it sounding right before the master. You have more control that way anyways, eh?

As others have said usually the less you have on the master the better later on. I get lots of tracks from people who have overdone the stereo buss processing and when it's taken off for proper mastering the mix just falls apart and is unsuitable for work on my end.

It's fine to have a bit of limiting on to hear how it will sound generally when boosted. The issue is when people do more drastic eq or multiband comp to make up for not mixing the individual channels.