PROPERLY Mastering Beats/Songs

caycay

New member
I've searched google and youtube pages, and usually there's an article or a video where someone says how to master and then comments about how they're doing it completely wrong. And can't seem to find the info I'm looking for in the forum search.

I'm trying to see step by step the basics of mastering a beat or a song properly (especially in fl studio if possible)?

I usually first, just do all my mixing to make the song clear/clean sounding. With all of the faders/individual tracks at 0. Then I throw a limiter (fruity limiter) on the master track and reduce the level or gain so nothing is peaking?

Am I missing anything from mastering a track? Should I be eq-ing anything on the master?
 
I've searched google and youtube pages, and usually there's an article or a video where someone says how to master and then comments about how they're doing it completely wrong. And can't seem to find the info I'm looking for in the forum search.

I'm trying to see step by step the basics of mastering a beat or a song properly (especially in fl studio if possible)?

I usually first, just do all my mixing to make the song clear/clean sounding. With all of the faders/individual tracks at 0. Then I throw a limiter (fruity limiter) on the master track and reduce the level or gain so nothing is peaking?

Am I missing anything from mastering a track? Should I be eq-ing anything on the master?

It's best to tweak your mix until it's as close as possible to how you want things to sound. Mastering is often overrated. Mastering is basically putting the final polish on a track (if needed), and sometimes making it louder if necessary in the most pleasing way possible (the least destructive). Most of the work should be done in the mix, and mastering just adds the last bit of detail. Limiters are a helpful tool during mastering for sure. They're usually used to catch peaks so the overall volume can then be turned up. There are many other tools as well that are used in mastering - EQ, compression, saturation, exciters, multiband, MS techniques, etc, etc... Sometimes, even clipping.

Hopefully this is some help. There are some great books on mastering if you want to learn more. Bob Katz wrote one a while back that is pretty good: Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science: Bob Katz: 8601404985119: Amazon.com: Books
 
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Hi!

Mastering is done with a lot of precision because it involves very fine adjustments to the song. These adjustments may not be audible to the layman, but it can potentially make or break the song while playing back on various devices. And that's one of the main reasons for mastering a song - to ensure proper, clean playback on all kinds of devices.

Mastering is not an exact science, but you can follow some guidelines which usually end up working for most people. Before mastering, make sure your mix peaks at not more than -6 to -3 dBFS. This leaves plenty of headroom for your mastering limiter to properly add gain to the song. So set your faders on your buses and other tracks accordingly.

In your mastering session, make sure you are metering everything. Check for your track's loudness levels, overall balance, RMS, true peaks, etc. Compare these parameters with other tracks in the same genre. Always keep referencing. A lot of people like to brighten up their mixes just a little bit with some harmonic distortion, or other things. You can also make very fine adjustments on an EQ, or perhaps a multi band compressor if required.

For more detail, you can check this out: Mystic Alankar | Music Production


Cheers, and all the best!
 
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