What about mastering?

Hi Martence,

In my opinion mastering will never MAKE a mix. It can only contribute to a solid mixdown of a track, but will never change a weak mix into a great master.
I have even spoken to producers who never master a track. They just use a chain of compression/limiting on their masterbus.
In the days of vinyl mastering was very important, but mainly because some frequencies would cause problems with the needle and others would harm your system...
When producing an album it can be important to let exterior mastering take place to give every song some sort of cohesion with each other, but I strongly believe you can rather invest (your precious time and money) in ways to improve your mixdown than in mastering.

Grtz,
RAF

Todays software ( with there engines ) do the job automaticly, am i right? I upgraded Orion with the new engine and the vst's sounds much better.
I only turn some POT's to edit frequencies now, so is it still important to use compressors and gain limiters? If yes, when to use them?

Changeless

So Raf,

When you produce what are your project settings, 41K 24 bit or 48k 32 bit or other combination? What is the standard in this when producing?

Cheers

Hi FrankDvoid,

Most of the times we are working on 48kHz, 32 bit floating (sometimes I try 96kHz, but this will put some heavy pressure on my HD's when rendered, so almost all (live)recordings are done on 48kHz 24bit). Eventually we render our mix back to 44kHz 16bit, but for mixing it is best to work on the highest quality you can get (look at my reply on this topic: http://funkerman.com/forum/how-important-a-soundcard-really). I dunno if there is a "standard" for producing, but I tend to try to get the most out of our system... :)

Grtz,
RAF

hello again Raf!

do you guys use mid-side compression, Eqing techniques on your tracks?

thanks in advance!

Hi rstm,

I have never tried mid-side compression to be honest, but googled a bit and find it really interesting so I'm gonna try it out some time.
Thx for the tip! ;)

Grtz,
RAF

ps: I'll keep you informed.

Thanx alot RAF for your feedback, it means alot! happy producing!

Quick tip i picked up from future music's in the studio series: to push a track to its limits you can use a bit crusher (standard plug in in Logic )
Turn the resolution up to 24 bit, keep the drive at 0 dB and the downsampling rate at 1x
This will in effect chop every bit above 24 giving you some more room to maximize loudness and since you're probably rendering to 24 bit anyway this does not result in a loss of quality.
Let me know how it works for you guys :)

Cheers,

JP

hmmm, I tried it but didnt have any audible results, or is it noT supposed to be audible?

hm ok, well if i do this it makes the track much louder.... are you sure you have the right settings?

Hi there,
If you want to hear the effect of a good master just contact me and send me your track. I can do one master of it just to let you get the experience.
Basically the mastering process is as follows: correct any unwanted frequencies, then doing multi-band compression, then correct any unwanted stereo-image situations and then do a final limiting.
The result is that your mix will get a firm increase in average RMS power which is audible as a definitely louder mix. Plus the various sounds/instruments are more balanced and come to their right better.
So if you want to give it a try contact me on info@unfold-productions.com or www.unfold-productions.com.

It works if you turn the Drive up again, otherwise there's no difference I guess.