Mastering Sample

Neurojazz

Here follows the workflow from a mix sent by Dav Nagle.

I'd examined the track for average loudness
found that the loudest passage at end was nearly hitting 10db average power
so would normally ask for another mix that was less compressed.



Use spectral and frequencies analysis to visual check slope of frequencies.
The analysis helps show hotspots and i can see the average power in the mix to get a perspective on the range of sound.




Find inital frequencies that fatigue ears using high Q boosts and then cut using high Q.
then boost remainder using low q for sweetness.

I found that there was an over hyped top end - the dynamic eq was used, this enable

cutting the frequencies out only when they appeared the mix.



The same method was used to remove nasel frequencies from guitar passage. It was

located by boosting an Eq with high Q factor and running it up and down until i find the

most hard/bad sounding/ringing area during the guitar solo.



There was a problem was some humming bass frequencies where the decay of the bass

drum were constant... i used the dynamic eq to catch these and make the bottom pump

in time.




The final Eq was gentle to add some sweetness and warmth back into the mix. The

shelve at the bottom removes the unwanted sub power.






Used fairchild emulator to add power and extra sweetness to the mix.

Used Powercore MD3 to give the master a better stereo image and center bass

frequencies.

Checked final render for pops, clicks - as the master was supplied compressed the

dynamic range in the louder passages was reduced by around 3db...
the master sounds ok, but would benefit from another unprocessed mixdown.

The sample section here shows the original at start - 12 seconds in mastering punched

in, 28 seconds punched out back to original.

SAMPLE = http://www.binary-mastering.com/boards/mixdown.wav

dav nagle

Neurojazz wrote: »

Here follows the workflow from a mix sent by Dav Nagle.

I'd examined the track for average loudness
found that the loudest passage at end was nearly hitting 10db average power
so would normally ask for another mix that was less compressed.



Use spectral and frequencies analysis to visual check slope of frequencies.
The analysis helps show hotspots and i can see the average power in the mix to get a perspective on the range of sound.




Find inital frequencies that fatigue ears using high Q boosts and then cut using high Q.
then boost remainder using low q for sweetness.

I found that there was an over hyped top end - the dynamic eq was used, this enable

cutting the frequencies out only when they appeared the mix.



The same method was used to remove nasel frequencies from guitar passage. It was

located by boosting an Eq with high Q factor and running it up and down until i find the

most hard/bad sounding/ringing area during the guitar solo.



There was a problem was some humming bass frequencies where the decay of the bass

drum were constant... i used the dynamic eq to catch these and make the bottom pump

in time.




The final Eq was gentle to add some sweetness and warmth back into the mix. The

shelve at the bottom removes the unwanted sub power.






Used fairchild emulator to add power and extra sweetness to the mix.

Used Powercore MD3 to give the master a better stereo image and center bass

frequencies.

Checked final render for pops, clicks - as the master was supplied compressed the

dynamic range in the louder passages was reduced by around 3db...
the master sounds ok, but would benefit from another unprocessed mixdown.

The sample section here shows the original at start - 12 seconds in mastering punched

in, 28 seconds punched out back to original.

SAMPLE = http://www.binary-mastering.com/boards/mixdown.wav

Pre mastering review:

Dance song: 48khz
Logic studio 8
32 bit float

The mix I sent to Binary was sounding very dry and in no way sonically enhanced. Recorded on Logic studio 8 last Sunday, the mix had a small bit of compression. The mix itself consisted of a kick drum with a long hum or tone tail, a wide bass line, acoustic guitar emulation, some vocal samples and an electric guitar solo sample. The track was recorded with a hardcore tribal club dance theme in mind. The kick drum in particular sounded wooden at the best of times and I was hoping for some special compression on the mastering side of things out and smooth things over.
Now as this project is more of an A/B comparison I really put fourth my latest electronica creation into the mix for this testing mastering purpose only.


Post mastering review:

The elements I heard straight out of the bag were as followed.

1. The track was pumping
2. The track was louder
3. The track was wider
4. The track sounded smoother
5. The track was taller

Mastering is worth it

teamdresch

The link ain't working.

Neurojazz

http://www.binary-mastering.com/music/mixdown.wav fixed! also fixed on original post! sorry about that.

sei046

Fantasitc post lads. Best read here in a while

teamdresch

A level matched version would also be useful to hear your eq/compression changes without volume skewing the results.

henessjon

yes it was a great read,

i also learned that I have to learn to mix..

Neurojazz

Next time i will do that for you to hear the tonality chages.

seannash

davnagle could you tell me how to bounce down to 32 bit in logic.
ive only got 16 and 24 bit options.
i asked on the logic forum and they said it cant be done

dav nagle

seannash wrote: »

davnagle could you tell me how to bounce down to 32 bit in logic.
ive only got 16 and 24 bit options.
i asked on the logic forum and they said it cant be done

You cannot bounce at 32 bit float but you can convert the 24 bit float in another program. There is an option in Logic to export audio and from there you can select 32 bit float. So perhaps the way to go about it in Logic anyway could be to bus all tracks in your mix to a stereo wav and then export that stereo wav as audio 32 bit float. I bounced the file at 24 bit and Neurojazz converted it to 32 bit, so a bit of a type error on my behalf.

sei046

BIT of a type error?!??! Eh? EH?

dav nagle

sei046 wrote: »

BIT of a type error?!??! Eh? EH?

Pre mastering review:

Dance song: 48khz
Logic studio 8
32 bit float


I wrote this above but I am making it clear that the file was originally converted at 24 up to 32 bit float that all, just in case people taught I bounced at 32 bit float:)

seannash

dav nagle wrote: »

Pre mastering review:

Dance song: 48khz
Logic studio 8
32 bit float


I wrote this above but I am making it clear that the file was originally converted at 24 up to 32 bit float that all, just in case people taught I bounced at 32 bit float:)

yep thats what i thought ha ha.i was thinking i was missing something really obvious(wouldnt be the first time )
thanks for clearing that up man

Neurojazz

For your info (just in case you don't know) - Cubase/Nuendo can be set to record 32bit float all the time... cannot understand why logic don't allow this...

PaulBrewer

Neurojazz wrote: »

For your info (just in case you don't know) - Cubase/Nuendo can be set to record 32bit float all the time... cannot understand why logic don't allow this...

Are there any converters that can supply "32bit float" to record?

ogy

as far as i know very best A/D we can hope for is about 20 bit so recording at 24-bit is more beneficial than 16-bit but does have a bit of rubbish in there.

only argument that warrants using the high bit rates is that theres less truncation when plug-ins are doing there maths, more decimal places to work with. not sure the trade off in file size is ever worth 32-bit float though, 24-bit is more than adequate i reckon.

PaulBrewer

And can any DtoAs playback "32bit float" files? and if not what happens? Truncation?

Neurojazz

sorry if i've added to the confusion! - 32float internally via vst/vsti - i work 100% digitally until vocals come into equation so have never needed or looked into the outboard side...