what is Mastering??

[kvnsgnsh]

I am trying to find out what is mastering well i know what that word means (mastering) lol,i kno how to make beat do i have to master a beat after i finish?? is there a prgram for mastering,tell me some tips on mastering,anybody?

[D Mass]

Mastering is the final stage before making a completed product...In other words
you dont need to master your beats...
but you do need to master finished tracks before your cd/vinyl piece is manufactured.

[kvnsgnsh]

What do i have to do when im mastering?? is there a program for that or??

[Al_Sween]

most programs that you use to record can be used to master.

Acid Pro
Cool Edit
Pro Tools
Sonar

etc

I use Acid Pro but most would say that the algorithm for mix and mastering isn't good in acid but I am using Waves plugins which should work the same in any program.

[D Mass]

there is a book by Bob Katz on mastering which is a good place to start...
honestly it is not a good idea that
1. You master your own work
2. Let anyone but an experienced engineer master your work...
If what you want is a professional sounding product.
The fact that you dont know what a mastering engineer does is proof enough to me that you need to read up on the subject.
And you would greatly benefit by getting your work professionally mastered...
This is the music business and since its a business sometimes you got to pay for things. That is if you want to be considered a professional.

[harlley]

Originally posted by D Mass

This is the music business and since its a business sometimes you got to pay for things. That is if you want to be considered a professional.

maybe...

[funkynuts]

To put it simply mastering is the final "polishing" stage before pressing a record or c.d.

It normally involves processes such as...

Multiband compression
Parametric eq
Limiting
Sample rate conversion (dithering etc)

This processes will sweeten your mix,correct any minor tonal balances and bring it up to a level which will compete with other recordings,whilst retaining the appropriate feel and without adding any nasty artefacts.

Good mastering houses will use high end outboard gear,$50.000 worth of monitors and an acoustically suited room to achieve their goals.

If you are planning to release a single or album then pro mastering is considered essential.

Cheers
Funk

[funkynuts]

Here,s something i posted on kvr a whil ago....



Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 9:13 am

The funky guide to bedroom mastering.

Step 1. Fix The Mix!....

Make sure your mix is definately up to scratch first,ensuring the individual elements have been eq,ed/compressed/limited appropriately.

Step 2. Export as 32 bit audio file...

Export your mix as a 32 bit audio file to limit processing artefacts being added in the mastering stage.
Now import this file into a fresh project for mastering.

Step 3. Watch That Wave!...

Visually examine the waveform looking for any major amplitude peaks/troughs deviating significantly from the average .

These are the parts of the song which will make compression/limiting work harder thus heighten the liklihood of the processing adding artefacts,so......

My advice here is to manually cut around these sections and bring their levels more into line with the song,s average(unless the peaks/troughs are necessary on an artistic level of course!)

Step 4. Eq/compression...

Now that you have created a wave form with a more constant amplitude manually,its now time for processing.
Personally if i find eq necessary i,ll add it first,if no serious corrective steps are necessary then i,ll add some SUBTLE compression.
(however i normally find that almost everything benefits from a little low shelf,cutting the frequencies below 35Hz,as even though you can,t hear them well these frequencies can have an effect on the overall level and subsequant dynamics processing.)

Also a 1 or 2 db of boost at about 12 KHZ can add a little "air" to your mix.

Compression wise a guide setting would be a ratio of about 1:1:1 and a threshold low enough to register no more than 2 - 3db of gain reduction on signal peaks.

If you find that you want to add more than this i would suggest you re-evaluate the dynamics of the mix itself.( however sometimes two stages of even subtler compression can give better results)

Step 5. Limiting

Now its time to employ limiting .Use the best quality limiter you can find and set it up carefully.

Guide settings would be to set the output at -0.5db(to prevent digital overs) with threshold low enough to generate artefacts then adjust the attack and release settings until this is complementary to the timing of the source material.

Now bring the threshold back to 0,then gradually lower until you begin to detect artefacts and then back it off again just a touch.

Step 6 .Beauty is in the ear of the beholder...

At this point you may or may not be satisfied with your results which leads to the choices of repeating one of the previous stages in the process,normalising or adding delibrate colouration from a favourite plugin or outboard unit.

These are all very much a personal taste thing so experiment and play with the settings but always remember that mastering is very much a subtle process.


Hope this is of help.

Cheers
Funk

--
boom,boom,tchk....mwooooowm mwooooowm,
boom,baboom,tchk....bip bip bip b bip bip

[D Mass]

2 things...
it is not 1:1:1
it is 1.1:1 (maybe that was just a typo but if not you need to study up on compression)

If your serious about your mastering you wouldnt use a normalizer...you would use your ears to adjust the volume..as volume is "apparent" and not actual.

your methodology reads alot like some of the tips in Paul White's book Mastering Basics...(which is intended to help people make better sounding demos)you might not ruin your tracks following this advice but your results could be so much better.

[D Mass]

plus it doesnt hurt to have a second pair of ears on a project...most major label projects have at least, a producer, a tracking engineer, a mix engineer and then a mastering engineer.