Here is the problem.
Bank Holiday - YouTube
I am not trying to promote my trash, I just need it to see whats wrong with the mastering.
If anyone could, please point me in some direction. I did a lot of EQing, some compression, but I've heard it's bad.
Hello there---I think a helpful point of view to gravitate towards when making final evaluations may relate again to "artistic/emotional intention" for the entire release and also like others are suggesting I absolutely agree the final quality of each song should have some type of relationship to the tracks following it (or preceding it, if you're not looking at first track on the release).
If I could offer something,
a way to think about this could be very simple if you think like a story-teller.
Get super basic and think thematically----a story has basic elements: "intro, exposition, establishing foundations of character, intro to conflict, conflict, struggle, facing conflict, resolution, moving on", etc etc. Those labels dont matter; the specific nature of content for each portion of thematic process does not matter; nor does the order of events/process matter. For our purposes it is my opinion that music which moves people also leads people through an emotional journey.
In this context---Mastering----the concern is how does each song affect listeners specific? What does the lyrical content convey, how does the melody, rhythm, fxs, overall impact of each song express and define the final emotional/thematic connection meant to reach listeners? Again the master's job is to make overall decisions for each track to enhance these details as they relate to each specific song and to the overall picture of the release, right?
If you perhaps agree, try to craft an linear emotional or thematic journey for the entire release (i.e. order songs to have most potent emotional/thematic thru-line). Define this overall image, define the specific details of each track contributing to these individuals events (the songs and their unique melodies, rhythms, etc.) adding up to this final long term impact on listeners. Once you have a clear, intuitive understanding in your mind, your skills and preferences as the mastering engineers now have precise targets to aim for with EQ, Compression, expansion, saturation, and whatever tools you come to the rodeo with. Use your tools to enhance (or remove) the elements that define (or obscure) this musical intention of the artist's work.
And hey, be careful with them EQ's, ya know? those are pretty much our version of a surgeon's scalpel----you only mess with things that absolutely MUST be messed with, or your patient aint gunna make it through to the end. "Do no harm" is always a good filter with which to make final decisions
wishing the best, and happy adventures as they come
-MadHat
