A guide to home "Mastering" of your own tunes

[Sorglos]

Thank you so much for this guide. It inspired me to go over some of my tracks and try it instantly. Couple of questions: would you consider Ableton's Glue compressor transparent and suitable as a second compressor?
I used Native Instruments passive EQ and abletons EQ8 for the eq'ing. Is ableton's EQ passable and relatively free from artefacts?

[Guthook]

Thanks for the guide Steve!

However I chose to use your services because it still didn't sound really good, so already sent you an e-mail!

[Lost to the Void]

Thank you so much for this guide. It inspired me to go over some of my tracks and try it instantly. Couple of questions: would you consider Ableton's Glue compressor transparent and suitable as a second compressor?
I used Native Instruments passive EQ and abletons EQ8 for the eq'ing. Is ableton's EQ passable and relatively free from artefacts?

The glue compressor is not really transparent no, it's a great bus compressor and it is ok on the 2buss.
Eq8 works best on hi quality mode if you are using it to make adjustments on the master, I find it quite pleasing as an EQ.
I mean, you're "mastering" your own material here, so these concerns aren't really concerns.
Remember this is just a rough guide to maximisation.

[s7ntax]

Thanks so much for posting this and also your other guide to mix bus compression. These two posts have helped me out loads. Just mastered my latest track and really happy with the way it's sounding. Gone fairly subtle with everything, seems to have worked though.

[Lost to the Void]

Thanks so much for posting this and also your other guide to mix bus compression. These two posts have helped me out loads. Just "mastered" my latest track and really happy with the way it's sounding. Gone fairly subtle with everything, seems to have worked though.

Great, you are welcome.
Just had to edit your comment for accuracy though.

[s7ntax]

ha, I can't even remember how I worded it so I have no idea which part you edited.

[Stereomatic]

Thank you for the tips!

one question (which is probably pretty easy to answer):

if you use eq's and compressors when mastering, do you adjust the output, so the level of the track has the same level with and without the eq/compressor?

I hope this was clear enough.

thanks in advance

[Lost to the Void]

Thank you for the tips!

one question (which is probably pretty easy to answer):

if you use eq's and compressors when mastering, do you adjust the output, so the level of the track has the same level with and without the eq/compressor?

I hope this was clear enough.

thanks in advance

Well yes and no.
It's all about gain staging so as long as that is a optimum for the output of one device and the input of the next, then all is fine.
Generally when working in mastering it's good practice to be able to switch the device out with no level change so you can A\B without loudness bias.
But when it comes to final levelling obviously that task of volume equalisation has to switch over to your monitoring console, having programmable presets on your monitor controller can then come in handy.
There are some EQs that automatically adjust the output in relation to what you do, which can be super handy.
And obviously you can do this with some compressors automatically, ie level matching input to output.

[lauren]

Amazing guide mate, cheers.

Any thoughts on parallel compression?

[intrusav]

Covered pretty comprehensively here:

http://subsekt.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t= ... t=Parallel

If you run a search, it's touched on a fair bit in different posts ..

[lauren]

cheers! sorry, i'm a bit all over the place today

[Lost to the Void]

Amazing guide mate, cheers.

Any thoughts on parallel compression?

Yes, don`t do it on the master bus, it overly complicates the process and can cause dynamic conflict when what you are looking for is dynamic cohesion.
I`m not saying *never* do it, but it`s a fairly advanced practice in mastering terms, and generally unnecessary.

Get really really good at the basics and you will not need to be dicking with stuff like this, especially when dealing with your own material, you want simplification, as you have the ability to adjust your mix when any problems are identified.
This is not mastering, this is more self maximisation of your own music.

IF I were to write a mastering tutorial, it would take me years to write it, and even then it would be useless, mastering is not something you can learn by reading or doing a course.
It`s an experience thing, the techniques are no different to production techniques, they are just used in a very precise way, and the only way you learn when and how to apply those finely tuned techniques is to basically slog it out and get experience.

Hence this simple guide to help people maximise their own music for playing out or whatever. It`s never going to be good as going to a mastering engineer, but it is useful, and hopefully will give more insight into what happens in mastering, and also help you make your music "mastering-ready", but understanding the processes.

Mastering is like..... 70% EQ, 25% other processing and 5% format prep (ISRC, DDP creation etc).

[lauren]

amazing mate, cheers! i've got a mate who swears by it but i'm not convinced on it.

[Lost to the Void]

It's great for some purposes. Good on drum buses. But rarely used on the master bus. Talk to any mastering engineer about parallel come and they will say they rarely use it.

[mss808]

What do you think about slapping an Izotope Ozone 8 on the master to test a sort of pre-master?

[Lost to the Void]

I think it completely ignores the entire point of this guide.

[mss808]

I think it completely ignores the entire point of this guide.

Thanks

[mss808]

This is a completely different topic, I'll start a thread

[Lost to the Void]

Well the longer answer is, it will tell you nothing by putting Ozone over your master.
Mastering and presets just have no place together as all mastering is entirely content dependant.

So all Ozone will tell you is what your mix sounds like when subjected to a mastering preset.

If you fully read this thread, what has been done here will give you a much more relevant understanding of what mastering is, how it applies to your own music, and what to expect.

Ozone can be a good tool, but for a beginner it is far too complicated and distracting and gives a bad impression of what the mastering process is.
In pure audio terms, taking out ISRC codes, format peculiarities etc, mastering is pretty much all down to EQ, with a little (single band) compression and limiting, carried out to a very fine degree of precision.

In personal terms, making a better mix, and acquiring the skills that help you make a better mix are far more useful than trying to fix your less than good mix by trying to learn mastering skills and fixing the problems via mastering.

A great mix needs hardly any input from a mastering engineer.

[juodas]

I aways wanted to ask thos all the time cause i couldn't understand this completely, (reading text is my wealness lol) do you apply thos on separate stems of the track or whole track instead?