Please share your thoughts and comments on mastering.
245 thoughts on “Mastering”
Noticed this hasn’t been updated in a while and wanted to chime in…
Mastering is not nearly as complicated or scary as people often make it out to be. The mix process is where you should be spending all of your engineering energy.
Mastering is simply some final sweetening or spectral balancing, imaging correction, and leveling. Assuming it’s supposed to be more indicates that the mix needs attention, not your mastering chops.
For any of you guys subscribed to MacProVideo this is a great course I recommend checking out. It should help dispel some of the apprehension newer composers have when mastering their own tracks… Although it’s centered around EDM, the same principles he teaches are useful for any genre.
I’d also recommend using Magic AB if you’re not already. It’s incredibly useful at both mixing and mastering stages as a point of reference. It’s also useful to get you in the habit of re-referencing every so often as a means to “cleanse the aural palette” and to guage what RMS level you should be aiming for in your mix…
I can’t thank you guys enough for the advice and also the positive feedback on my rookie mixing/mastering skills haha. It’s really encouraging to know that I don’t necessarily have to spend the extra money on a separate outsourced mastering service. I’ll try to hone my skills with the adaptive limiter and study as much as I can regarding compression in Logic Pro in the meantime. Thanks again guys.
Dont worry too much about about the mastering. Play around with Logics Adaptive Limiter for a while and you’ll get the hang of it. It will work fine for your needs.
The mix can be harder to figure out on your own and it sure aint fun if you feel like you can’t get the tracks to sound the way you want. When I started some years ago I used to take some of my tracks to a friend who is a pro Logic user. I paid him to mix my tracks but I would hang around his studio and take notes of everything he did. That’s the best school I’ve ever went to 😉
Not to claim that the adaptive limiter is the best option out there, but if you don`t have anything else than stock Logic plugs, it will get the job done.
Really nice Weston. I thought the mixes were great, but a few of the acoustic songs, like We Who Dance in the Rain, could have benefited from being run through some light compression / maximization. I really like Down Into the City, which doesn’t seem to need any further polish.
I will master your tracks for £5 a track – it will involve only putting a limiter on it – but I would prefer you learnt a limiter yourself dude , it takes two mins – you basically set the loudness and make sure it won’t go into the red
Hi Dude
My advice , take it or leave it , is you are making a wrong turn doing that – your in library music – I do non exc and have over a thousand tracks un ex – each one I just mainly banged a sonnox limiter on – if I wanna get fussy I will add a compressor but for the most part I honestly just wack the limiter on – if you go to an exclusive library like universal etc they will have their own mastering service which they employ – but for doing library tracks which often dont even sell you may not see a return on your $99 – my advice is get a good mixdown then add a limiter and if you need to a compressor – a pro limiter like sonnox should surfice- and mate realise that these people who are buying your track off a site…its often in 64 bit audio – if you get together 100 tracks how much is that gonna end up costing you – a sonnox limiter or similar is cheaper – it has v few controls to learn – learn it in about 2 mins
I didn’t see a forum topic specifically for mastering related questions so hopefully my question won’t go under the radar as I’d love any input/advice anyone may have. I’m in the foundational stages of exploring and educating myself on licensing, library composing, and writing and recording from home and need to build my song catalog at a much faster pace. What has been holding me up is the mixing/mastering process after tracking due to inexperience. Rather than decide to become a wearer of too many hats, I’m considering submitting my next song to StudioPros.com as their fees start at $99-$199 per song for mixing and mastering services. I’ve listened to before and after tracks they’ve done and it sounds a lot better than what I could do which I translate into a more polished and professional song for me to pitch while also giving me more time to spend on writing & tracking. The company seems to have lots of solid reviews, testimonials and endorsements from magazines, etc but I just wanted to see if anyone on MLR uses them or a similar service to be more efficient in building their catalogs time-wise from the A-Z process of creating a song.
If you are going to pay that for every library track you make, you`re going to have a hard time making some decent money out if it, unless you`re writing for the big exclusives with good up front payments.
My advice would rather be to pay someone to teach you how to do these things yourself. I`m sure there is a lot of good engineers who will gladly show you some tips and tricks for $199 per song 😉
Hi
You will never make money with paying out for mixing and mastering. Its a skill set that modern composers have to master IMHO. A 500 song catalogue is going cosy 50-100 k. Its simply economics really, if you are guaranteed 1k a track then maybe its viable, if you are waiting on license fees and backend with no upfront fee then no, it makes no sense.
I appreciate the feedback a lot guys. I am familiar with limiters and compression and have made my own attempts at mastering in Logic Pro on all my songs thus far with okay results. I’ve read here and there that with Licensing for Film/TV/Advertising that you present your songs as pro/polished/refined as possible, ready to broadcast so to speak. Would you guys consider the mix/master job I did on these acceptable to pitch then? https://soundcloud.com/weston-boucher
Sounds good to me. I wouldn’t waste your money on getting them mastered as everyone else has said. The production is very clean and the tunes sound very nice!! I have heard songs with much less production on TV, including some of mine, he he. Keep it up.
Noticed this hasn’t been updated in a while and wanted to chime in…
Mastering is not nearly as complicated or scary as people often make it out to be. The mix process is where you should be spending all of your engineering energy.
Mastering is simply some final sweetening or spectral balancing, imaging correction, and leveling. Assuming it’s supposed to be more indicates that the mix needs attention, not your mastering chops.
For any of you guys subscribed to MacProVideo this is a great course I recommend checking out. It should help dispel some of the apprehension newer composers have when mastering their own tracks… Although it’s centered around EDM, the same principles he teaches are useful for any genre.
https://www.macprovideo.com/tutorial/ozone-7-12-essential-mastering-tips
I’d also recommend using Magic AB if you’re not already. It’s incredibly useful at both mixing and mastering stages as a point of reference. It’s also useful to get you in the habit of re-referencing every so often as a means to “cleanse the aural palette” and to guage what RMS level you should be aiming for in your mix…
https://www.samplemagic.com/details/184/magic-ab
@angopop. I was on the L.A. sessions.
I can’t thank you guys enough for the advice and also the positive feedback on my rookie mixing/mastering skills haha. It’s really encouraging to know that I don’t necessarily have to spend the extra money on a separate outsourced mastering service. I’ll try to hone my skills with the adaptive limiter and study as much as I can regarding compression in Logic Pro in the meantime. Thanks again guys.
Dont worry too much about about the mastering. Play around with Logics Adaptive Limiter for a while and you’ll get the hang of it. It will work fine for your needs.
The mix can be harder to figure out on your own and it sure aint fun if you feel like you can’t get the tracks to sound the way you want. When I started some years ago I used to take some of my tracks to a friend who is a pro Logic user. I paid him to mix my tracks but I would hang around his studio and take notes of everything he did. That’s the best school I’ve ever went to 😉
Not to claim that the adaptive limiter is the best option out there, but if you don`t have anything else than stock Logic plugs, it will get the job done.
Really nice Weston. I thought the mixes were great, but a few of the acoustic songs, like We Who Dance in the Rain, could have benefited from being run through some light compression / maximization. I really like Down Into the City, which doesn’t seem to need any further polish.
I will master your tracks for £5 a track – it will involve only putting a limiter on it – but I would prefer you learnt a limiter yourself dude , it takes two mins – you basically set the loudness and make sure it won’t go into the red
Hi Dude
My advice , take it or leave it , is you are making a wrong turn doing that – your in library music – I do non exc and have over a thousand tracks un ex – each one I just mainly banged a sonnox limiter on – if I wanna get fussy I will add a compressor but for the most part I honestly just wack the limiter on – if you go to an exclusive library like universal etc they will have their own mastering service which they employ – but for doing library tracks which often dont even sell you may not see a return on your $99 – my advice is get a good mixdown then add a limiter and if you need to a compressor – a pro limiter like sonnox should surfice- and mate realise that these people who are buying your track off a site…its often in 64 bit audio – if you get together 100 tracks how much is that gonna end up costing you – a sonnox limiter or similar is cheaper – it has v few controls to learn – learn it in about 2 mins
I didn’t see a forum topic specifically for mastering related questions so hopefully my question won’t go under the radar as I’d love any input/advice anyone may have. I’m in the foundational stages of exploring and educating myself on licensing, library composing, and writing and recording from home and need to build my song catalog at a much faster pace. What has been holding me up is the mixing/mastering process after tracking due to inexperience. Rather than decide to become a wearer of too many hats, I’m considering submitting my next song to StudioPros.com as their fees start at $99-$199 per song for mixing and mastering services. I’ve listened to before and after tracks they’ve done and it sounds a lot better than what I could do which I translate into a more polished and professional song for me to pitch while also giving me more time to spend on writing & tracking. The company seems to have lots of solid reviews, testimonials and endorsements from magazines, etc but I just wanted to see if anyone on MLR uses them or a similar service to be more efficient in building their catalogs time-wise from the A-Z process of creating a song.
If you are going to pay that for every library track you make, you`re going to have a hard time making some decent money out if it, unless you`re writing for the big exclusives with good up front payments.
My advice would rather be to pay someone to teach you how to do these things yourself. I`m sure there is a lot of good engineers who will gladly show you some tips and tricks for $199 per song 😉
Hi
You will never make money with paying out for mixing and mastering. Its a skill set that modern composers have to master IMHO. A 500 song catalogue is going cosy 50-100 k. Its simply economics really, if you are guaranteed 1k a track then maybe its viable, if you are waiting on license fees and backend with no upfront fee then no, it makes no sense.
I appreciate the feedback a lot guys. I am familiar with limiters and compression and have made my own attempts at mastering in Logic Pro on all my songs thus far with okay results. I’ve read here and there that with Licensing for Film/TV/Advertising that you present your songs as pro/polished/refined as possible, ready to broadcast so to speak. Would you guys consider the mix/master job I did on these acceptable to pitch then? https://soundcloud.com/weston-boucher
Sounds good to me. I wouldn’t waste your money on getting them mastered as everyone else has said. The production is very clean and the tunes sound very nice!! I have heard songs with much less production on TV, including some of mine, he he. Keep it up.
haha Good one, Unfortunately too like reality.
Funniest Mastering tutorial ever!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY4UFEZFRpg&feature=player_embedded