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Mastering questions.

odie

odie

Gold Supporting Member
Mar 12, 2000
3,586
27
Minnesota, Earth, Milky Way
#1
I am currently doing some final mixes of some recording I have deen with my band. I laid most of the guitar, and all of the bass. We have the drums and vocals done. I starting to edit the tracks and setting the volume and pans along with effects.


But my questions are. Is it feasable too master it myself??

Also how do I eq?? Do I do each track and then eq the final stereo track??

If it is difficult what are some places that can do it for a reasonable price. Do I send them a final mix with all the tracks eq'd individually and the just do the final stereo track??
 
#2
odie said:
I am currently doing some final mixes of some recording I have deen with my band. I laid most of the guitar, and all of the bass. We have the drums and vocals done. I starting to edit the tracks and setting the volume and pans along with effects.

But my questions are. Is it feasable too master it myself??

Also how do I eq?? Do I do each track and then eq the final stereo track??

If it is difficult what are some places that can do it for a reasonable price. Do I send them a final mix with all the tracks eq'd individually and the just do the final stereo track??
Click to expand...

There's tons of info around the web regarding stuff like mixing, mastering, and EQ... and also a lot of books and tutorial DVD's available... so I don't think anyone could possibly tell you in one post what you'd really need to know. How hard it is depends on you and your ears really. Plus, depending on the quality of your recording (ie. how well it was recorded and with what) there's no way to know what would be required to tweak to improve the sound without hearing it.

There are general guidelines and opinions a lot of that stuff that you could dig up from various sites that might work or get you headed in the right direction, but when it comes down to it, it's what works for you and the music. The other important things here are your ears... how well you hear things to pick out the trouble spots, and what your listening through to do this stuff. Every level impacts the final product.

Eq'ing is one of those things that takes some experience to get down, unless you have fantastic ears... I still struggle with it and I've been a semi-pro/recording hobbyist for almost 20 years. Typically, I try to do as little EQ'ing as possible overall, other than cutting frequencies so that things sit in the mix better. I *rarely* add EQ unless it's for a specific effect, as this usually leads to more trouble and the next thing you know, you're boosting everything. High pass and low pass filters can help here as well depending on what the track is. I often put a high pass on stuff like vocals (depending on the range), and sometimes guitar. Low pass on Bass and Bass drum, etc. If you got a good sound going in, there should be little need for any drastic EQ. Some selective compression, if you didn't use it while tracking can help you on tracks as well.

If you're going to have somebody master it for you, don't apply any EQ or anything to your stereo mix... they'll take care of that. There are some plugins and apps stuff out there for mastering, and some produce pretty good results, but I don't think anything replaces a seasoned mastering engineer with good quality mastering equipment.

I'd suggest a trip to Google and do some searches regarding this stuff and you'll likely find what you need without too much digging.

Hopefully this was some level of help. Good luck.
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#3
If you're going to master it yourself, I strongly reccommend Har-Bal's mastering software.

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It's under $100 (it was when I bought it) and it's actually a very useful piece of software. I think the newer versions actually have a built in limiter so it would have everything you need to be ready to go.
 
#8
It really depends on what you want to do with the tracks. If it's demo material, try mastering it yourself, using software like Ozone, or UAD plugins. Make sure to listen to the tracks on lots of different systems, in the car, using computer speakers, etc.

If you plan to release the tracks, get a professional mastering engineer. Listen to masters he's done previously, and check his gear - most professional mastering is done with outboard gear, and pros never master using near field monitors.
 
#9
Phantasm said:
If you're going to master it yourself, I strongly reccommend Har-Bal's mastering software.

Invalid Link Removed

It's under $100 (it was when I bought it) and it's actually a very useful piece of software. I think the newer versions actually have a built in limiter so it would have everything you need to be ready to go.
Click to expand...

I bought har-bal because of this post and the site. Had a mix that was done but not mastered. All I can say is holy crap is this software good.

I know next to nothing about mastering, but using the a CD in a similar genre as a filter I was able to really make it sound good.

I can only imagine what someone who knew what each tool really did could do with this software. Very easy to use and learn though. If you are mastering on a tight budget this is it.
 
#10
stratology said:
Make sure to listen to the tracks on lots of different systems, in the car, using computer speakers, etc.
Click to expand...
+1

You've got to master for what your audience will be listening on. Check your mix on high-quality gear to make sure you're not doing anything screwy that isn't audible with other gear, but cheap stuff from Wal-Mart is your primary target.
 
#11
mastering is an incredibly fickle and subjective subject. If you've spent a bit on the recording, and you've used good gear with mixing etc id reccommend dropping the extra to get it professionally mastered. A prof. studio will have access to gear that could help you're sound allot, which you just wont get at home, not to mention someone with fresh ears for the project and a skill in mastering.

That said, for a demo passable results can be achieved at home, as long as you dont try anything too radical. get Bob Katz's 'mastering audio : the art and the science', a very good book on the subject, and be prepared for a bit of a read!

looking at you're first post it seems you might be a little confused about the process, mastering only regards the FINAL stereo track, everything you do to the individual tracks is mixing. If you're unsure about mixing I would really advise getting a mixing engineer to do it for you. mixing is as big a subject (probably bigger) as mastering and you simply CAN'T learn it on the fly!
 

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