Mixing/Mastering Problems!

K

Kurt Cobain

New member
I'm having a really tough time, mixing and mastering. but more so I think its the master. The problem is that when I export the mix it sounds great and all, then when time comes to master I stumble. When I master I add a limiter and a maximizer (keep in mind I mostly produce urban music like Rap,Hip-Hop Trap Etc.) I export it with high levels and it sounds so damn compressed to the point it sounds like everything sounds reverbed, so when I find out that happens I turn it down but when I turn it down its so quiet?, I'm wondering if its just me not mixing it right or my mastering techniques flunk,

Quick question When exporting your Mixed Track What should the master channels dB be? what format as well like Mp3 or WAV


I'm really getting frustrated

Also if you have time can you visit my youtube.com/kurtesyof and critique it here, maybe give me a few pointers on engineering,

I kindly appreciate all feedback, and I'm sure other members in my position will as well!

THANKS!
 
You got to search dude this is a big topic, sounds like you're having trouble with your mastering plugins. "compressed to the point it sounds like everything sounds reverbed" this is an anomaly. You can't compress something so much that it becomes reverbed, Lol.

Either you have iZotope and you have reverb enabled or you're putting reverb on your master track. Try for starter just to add a good compressor and a limiter to your master track simple as that to get your mix louder and "mastered" but really you should search for mastering tutorials.
 
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GETRICH420 said:
You got to search dude this is a big topic, sounds like you're having trouble with your mastering plugins. "compressed to the point it sounds like everything sounds reverbed" this is an anomaly. You can't compress something so much that it becomes reverbed, Lol.

Either you have iZotope and you have reverb enabled or you're putting reverb on your master track. Try for starter just to add a good compressor and a limiter to your master track simple as that to get your mix louder and "mastered" but really you should search for mastering tutorials.
Click to expand...

...or he's compressing/limiting the sh*t out of it, bringing the otherwise subtle reverbs and whatnot to be more prominent than necessary. Compression doesn't obviously cause reverb but it can surely bring it up.
 
Limiter + Maximizer surely kill your audio. Some compression feeding an EQ followed by a limiter is the classic receipt for a successful mastering. Note that the volume is meaningless when the music is gone.
 
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This is why I prefer mixing with mixbus compression, it prepares me for what the finished squeezed product can sound like. It's nothing optional, but check it out.

I recognize your issue, I also ran into it a lot when I experimented with loudness boosting a long time ago.
My experience of it is that compression is more likely to carry the risk of creating this issue than limiters. It also gets to its worst when you use a shorter releasetime on compression. And sure when using compression, where your threshold is can make or break the sound.
Though this is just from my time experimenting, so I may be completely wrong.

As for your quick question, the exported finished mix that will be used for mastering, should peak at the maximum of -6 dBFS (sometimes -3 dBFS is okay but -6 is more like the standard).
It should be at a lossless format: Same bitdepth and samplerate as being used in the mix projectfile, and as a WAV-file.
 
Both .aif, .aiff, .wav are only media containers which can embed mp3 or any other compressed format. Be sure to use the PCM audio codec for a lossless export.
 
steffeeh said:
This is why I prefer mixing with mixbus compression, it prepares me for what the finished squeezed product can sound like. It's nothing optional, but check it out.

I recognize your issue, I also ran into it a lot when I experimented with loudness boosting a long time ago.
My experience of it is that compression is more likely to carry the risk of creating this issue than limiters. It also gets to its worst when you use a shorter releasetime on compression. And sure when using compression, where your threshold is can make or break the sound.
Though this is just from my time experimenting, so I may be completely wrong.

As for your quick question, the exported finished mix that will be used for mastering, should peak at the maximum of -6 dBFS (sometimes -3 dBFS is okay but -6 is more like the standard).
It should be at a lossless format: Same bitdepth and samplerate as being used in the mix projectfile, and as a WAV-file.
Click to expand...


And what do you guys mean by lossless format? I've never heard of such?
 
Lossless means that no (or ridiculously little) quality is lost when converting to the format. When you export to MP3 for example you lose a lot of data and the quality is reduced.
The same goes when you convert from 24-bit to 16-bit or reduce the samplerate.
 
more succinctly: some formats can compress without losing any information, so are referred to as lossless compression (FLAC meets this criteria), whereas mp3 compression is based on the idea that some of the signal can be removed without affecting perceived quality (debatable, but apparently mathematically demonstrated): the higher the compression the more original material is lost and the less perfect the resulting reproduction
 
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