Basics of mastering for selling beats?

B

b.b.

New member
So I'm wondering what kind of "mastering" should I apply to my beats when I have mixed them and want to put them out to youtube/soundcloud for people to buy. I'll have the separate unprocessed bounced out tracks ready for the buyer but the version I put on youtube/soundcloud I need to at least get the max volume out right? Is a final limiter on the master channel enough? I'm keen to learn this so I'm not looking for the easiest way out but I'm not looking to become a mastering engineer either. Just asking what do you think needs to be done for your beats to shine and sound like they are quality beats. Or is this "mastering" stage more just about cranking up the volume and mixing is where the quality comes from? I can't seem to find any proper info on how quality beatmakers do their mastering/final processing or how ever it should be called...

THANKS!!
 
b.b. said:
So I'm wondering what kind of "mastering" should I apply to my beats when I have mixed them and want to put them out to youtube/soundcloud for people to buy. I'll have the separate unprocessed bounced out tracks ready for the buyer but the version I put on youtube/soundcloud I need to at least get the max volume out right? Is a final limiter on the master channel enough? I'm keen to learn this so I'm not looking for the easiest way out but I'm not looking to become a mastering engineer either. Just asking what do you think needs to be done for your beats to shine and sound like they are quality beats. Or is this "mastering" stage more just about cranking up the volume and mixing is where the quality comes from? I can't seem to find any proper info on how quality beatmakers do their mastering/final processing or how ever it should be called...

THANKS!!
Click to expand...

It is not so much the mastering you should be focusing on, it is basically everything before mixing and maybe most importantly that you are using high quality sound sources and take in the signal in a high quality digital stream. The differentiation comes from having rich information present inside of the beat and then provide the engineers flexibility when working with that signal - meaning distribute all tracks in the beat as separate items. Do not master at all, just record and print the tracks with minimal signal loss, using hardware on the tracks before the A/D. You can then sell a different format on it also where you are providing a mastered beat, that can be a normal mix + master. But if you don't find you are good at that part, then it might be better just to use that as a preview of the beat. That you can also discover, try both routes and see what works the best for you...

In practice what will determine your success is the combination of the quality of the beat production and the recording, because for producers and engineers sitting in their home studios trying to become famous, this can be an option for them to get closer to a commercial result without having to buy all of the hardware it takes to get there. That's why they buy beats, because else they would do it themselves...

But when you record the beats, do so also with the mixing and mastering engineer hats on. Try to make these recorded tracks as final as possible, so make everything as ready as possible before the A/D. You can find examples of how multitracks are sold out at multitracks.com, do it similarly for beats...
 
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Everyone seems to want to make their tracks loud for some reason.

Mastering is easy.

The hard part is mixing. So I suggest you do some homework on mixing because that is where people fail.

Mixing can be summed up in one word... BALANCE.

Get your balance right. That's very important.

When you sell beats you actually should be selling them UNMASTERED!!!

Don't make your beats super loud!!

How are vocals going to sit in the mix if you've "mastered" the beat and compressed the shit out of it with gain..

Hope that helped fan :)
-----

EyeAm.
The Masked Man.
EyeAm. The Masked Man. [Producer / Engineer] – Self Growth
 
EyeAmPeriod said:
Everyone seems to want to make their tracks loud for some reason.

Mastering is easy.

The hard part is mixing. So I suggest you do some homework on mixing because that is where people fail.

Mixing can be summed up in one word... BALANCE.

Get your balance right. That's very important.

When you sell beats you actually should be selling them UNMASTERED!!!

Don't make your beats super loud!!

How are vocals going to sit in the mix if you've "mastered" the beat and compressed the shit out of it with gain..

Hope that helped fan :)
-----

EyeAm.
The Masked Man.
EyeAm. The Masked Man. [Producer / Engineer] – Self Growth
Click to expand...

Thanks!

Let me explain what I mean.
I produce a beat, I finish the arrangement and it's ready to be mixed. Let's say there's 15 tracks of instruments/samples/midi. I bounce all of them to audio. I track the beat out so to speak. Now this is the product that I would be selling, right? 15 unmixed tracks. Maybe some EQ to shape the sounds, but more like sound designing than mixing. And after this, I open up a new project and do the mixing/mastering. And I don't sell it. I just put it in Youtube, Soundcloud, where ever. Just for people to listen to. And if they wanna buy it, they wanna buy the 15 bounced out tracks that I have saved and kept apart from the tracks that I'm mixing myself, cause they want it to be properly mixed with their vocals. They are not buying the mix that I have done. So my question is about that version. How does a producer deal with the "mastering"? I'm under the impression that you would want to at least apply a final limiter to your master bus/master channel and that would be called mastering I presume. So this is what I'm asking. What should I apply to the master channel for my track? Because I don't know. Is a limiter enough for this purpose?

If I would download some producers beat from Youtube and I would put it in my DAW and play it, I imagine that in most cases the instrumental beat wouldn't clip and it would probably peak right there in 0,0db like any commercial track would. But somehow I don't think these producers are doing too much of any high-end mastering to their beats. They just wanna make it loud for the listeners and then sell the individual unmixed tracks if someone would be interested to buy it. Let's imagine that they would seek for the best quality possible and not just buying a mp3 file of the beat and record raps on top of that.

So, what do the producers do when it comes to "mastering" the instrumental beat? Just a limiter? If the word mastering should not be used in this case, let me re phrase it: How do the producers finalize their mix of the instrumental beat that ends up in Youtube or Soundcloud? What type of processing specifically would you recommend?

THANKS! :)
 
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First insert a limiter and raise up the gain until the limiter starts working,
change the volume of the vocals and drums until you can hear them all the way you want,
you can also add a reverb if you want,
and put an eq to get rid of the muddy low sounds
 
What I do is after my final mix is done and I am satisfied with that, I will use a very light compression on the master track just to take care of some of the peaks. I usually mix up to about a -6db level and the compressor will take care of a few peaks if needed. After that I will use a limiter on the master buss just to bring up the volume. That will be good enough for preview from a potential customer. Also let it be know that the final compression and volume gain can be removed easily before sending to the buyer. I also offer to make arrangements to my customers also. But for the most part, like what was stated before, the hard part is the mix and I am still learning things everyday. Hit me up if I can help you with anything.
 
balance and limiting. don't let the input go over 2db's into the limiter. my simple suggestion.
 
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