Super Secret MIXING/MASTERING Info!

Questionnaire: What production & recording system do you use?

Hello friends,
this is good oportunity to find out, how we works and what we use in production and recording process (ProTools, Cubase, Nuendo, Sonar, Logic Audio, only hardware etc...) :cheers:
 
There are threads, dozens of pages long, covering this already.
 
man I am new to the game and i am learning as we speak, i mean i read the forum, but Im not grasping the concept. my music sounds good before i put on cd, but on cd it sound muffled and not to its full potential. I have a roland x6 fantom, and it is great but could anyone give me a brief step by step walk of how to mix properly, and record my music, and voices to make it sound like a pro. I mean some songs sound better than others on cd, either the voice quality is ok, or the beat is ok. How do I make both sound like a profressional mastered it?
 
How do I make both sound like a professional mastered it?
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Have a professional master it. If there was another way, there wouldn't be professional mastering engineers.

Granted - The best mastering engineers in the world are limited by the mixes they're given to work with...

It sounds to me as if you're having room & monitoring issues to some extent.
 
yeah but im low on cash, isnt there a way to do it myself. I wanna know how to do it so ican start it on my fantom x6. theres got to be a way.
 
You do what the mix tells you to do - It isn't some big secret...

It's fairly clear that you aren't in touch with your mixes in that way. Which makes sense - After all, you mixed it. In theory, you already did what it was telling you to do. There are two absolute key elements in the mastering phase - (1) Uncolored objectivity. (C) Monitoring is EVERYTHING. Mastering on the same monitors something was mixed on (God help you in the same room it was mixed in) is... Well, logically, it doesn't make too much sense, does it...?

But of course, nothing is going to help the core sounds and the core of the mix more than those elements. I can bring a "B" mix to an "A" mix. And an "A" mix to an "A+" mix. But I can only take a "D" mix to a "C" at best...
 
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jaykeyz712 said:
my music sounds good before i put on cd, but on cd it sound muffled and not to its full potential.
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Is the problem that your music sounds different when you play it from your sequence than when you play it after burning it onto a CD while playing it through the same playback system (i.e., playing it through the same speakers and everything else)?

Does your music sound muffled AFTER you bounce it to a stereo mix but BEFORE you burn it to a CD?

OR, is the problem that your music sounds different when you burn it onto a CD and play it in your car (or wherever else other than the computer you made the music on)?




depending on how you answer those questions, the answers you seek will be very different.

moses said:
please close this thread....
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It is funny... I had forgotten what I made this thread about in the first place...

It was never really intended as a place to ask questions to receive some "super secret info"...

Like i origanally said in response to someone on the first page, this thread was intended as more of a "philosophical" one



The "super secret mixing and mastering info" is all layed out in the first post of this thread.


Anybody who wants to know what this thread is all about, just read the first post and move on with your lives.

:)
 
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Close your eyes.Imagine the performance before you.Position the performers in logical position (pan) on the soundstage.Utilize faders to create space between the performers, process sparingly to highlight the soundstage.Select an area to create your signature
 
mastering like Brian "Big-Bass" Gardner told me, should be to just level match and space all the songs, even he admits to having to not eq or even compress the mix a lot, it should be done during the MIXDOWN, it's almost like building a house and not putting up the walls straight, expecting the FINISHING contractor to straighten them up.
 
In an ideal world, that'd be wonderful. And no doubt, projects that come in here from the better engineers require very little tweaking.

But I guarantee you - Brian doesn't do nearly as many flat transfers as he'd like to...
 
Dvyce - thanks 4 the reassurance, yo! I don't have the money to obtain a lot of the equipment and/or software that cats are going crazy over, but somehow my stuff seems to come out hot anyway. I just put up my MySpace page and is looking for some critiques. I notice most of y'all is into Hip Hop primarily (I'm a hip hop/dancehall/breakbeat lunatic - but I am concentrating on Deep Soulful House right now...), but lend me y'all ears and let me know what my ish sound like, m'kay? Imma do the same. http://www.myspace.com/thelibraclassicsound , aiight? 1.

Well - HITZ! I just checked out ya page and it's hot - check ya messages!
 
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this thread is RIGHT..! the only way you can make your projects sound better is by identifying what are their needs.
Keep opening your ears every day!
 
Big thanks goes out to Dvyce for his original 'philosophical' post.
It's exactly what I needed to read.
 
dvyce said:
I don't even know where to start here...


The truth is, it is not inaccurate to say "do what the mix tells you (i.e. what the mix needs)" in response to a question of how to master.

...and the fact is, the same thing goes for mixing and songwriting (each of which are all very specific craft and art, no less so than mastering.)


Mastering, mixing, and songwriting ALL take a lifetime to learn. That is a fact. Every day that goes by, you will get better and better... and if you actually have a talent for it, you may become great.


It should be a given that you need the highest quality equipment... and that goes for mixing, recording and mastering EQUALLY.

...you shouldn't need someone to tell you that... even though it has been told to you countless times.


in order to master (or mix or record) you will need a complete intimate understanding of various tools such as compressors and EQ's...

...not to mention (with regard to mastering) the guidelines for preparing a finished master ready for manufacture, which is really the ultimate goal of having a record mastered... but I have a feeling that when people ask how to "master" they are really asking "how do I make my track sound as loud as that song from that CD and how do I master it so the mix sounds like a professional CD" (and in that case, there are a lot more steps you need to address before you reach your goals.)


You will need to have the ability to objectively look at a piece of music and hear and understand what needs to be done to it.


(i.e., doing what the music is telling you to do)



You can give instruction on the technicalities of how to use various pieces of equipment and what the various controls do and you can explain what types of sounds have fast attacks (or whatever), but actually using it in the proper place in the proper way is up to the users ability to:

1. hear what the audio needs;

2. decide which tool is the proper one to use; and

3. use it effectively




Some people seem to just be happy having someone tell them what to do whether it is correct and useful information or not.

Someone could tell you some completely useless and false information and people will say "finally! thanks for the help man! good lookin out!"



Please understand this:

There is no "frequency" someone can tell you to boost.

There is no "compressor setting" someone can give you.

There is no "level" someone can tell you to make an instrument in a mix.



--these are all things the audio will "tell" you it needs... and it is up to you to be able to hear what the audio is saying and it is up to you to know how to "answer it when it speaks."



If you are mastering your own material, there should be NO CORRECTIVE MEASURES NEEDED with mastering.

If your hi-hat is too loud, you don't need to try to correct it in mastering... you just lower the hi-hat in your mix!



If your mix doesn't sound right and basically like what it should sound like on the album, then you didn't mix it well.





With regard to both mixing and/or mastering (not everything I am going to mention will apply to both), you can be told things like "don't overcompress, get your levels sounding good, pan your instruments in a balanced way, make sure each instrument has its own space, make the overall album sound consistent, etc"

...but it is up to you to know your tools and how to use them... and it is up to you to know what sounds right.


Every day, I see several people here saying "you should pan this here and use this compresor setting and boost this frequency and roll this off and copy this to another track and use this plugin and this preset and this synth"

...and it is generally bad advice...

...and people say "thanks for the great tips!" because they don't know any better.





If you want to get some help on your mixing, maybe try posting one of your mixes and ask people to critique it. Maybe you can get an objective opinion on whether you need to raise the level of your snare... or if you have too much reverb on your vocal... or if some effect you used sounds cheesy... or if your stereo spread is off... or if the strings sound dull... or you have too much compression on the guitar... or you need to automate the level of the solo section... or whatever


If you want help with your mastering... post something you mastered and have people critique it. Maybe you can get an objective opinion on it. Maybe someone can tell you "it sounds like you have a lot of compression on the track, which is not my taste, but if that is your artistic decision then it is good... but it sounds like you have the release set too long because I can hear the compressor recovering" or whatever.



...and that should do it...

...you are now on your way to becoming a great recording/mixing/mastering engineer!
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True...
 
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