A Mastering Question

[RESROCKS]

Hi all

This has been bugging me for a while and maybe I'm seeing this the wrong way but, does every song have to be mastered in the end? 

When I record I tend to put effects on the track so by the time a song is finished it's pretty much if not wholey there (IMO). 

Sometimes when I try to master something (and I'm no expert), it always sounds too much to me so I just end up making it a bit louder overall. 

Anyway, be good to hear what you all think

Cheers

Les

 

[HoboSage]

It kind of depends on what your final recording is intended for.  Some final mastering is always a good idea if you're doing a CD/album/EP of multiple songs so that all songs end up in the same general volume and EQ ballpark.  Otherwise, the listener will want to be making volume and/or EQ playback adjustments from song to song.

 

Even with single songs though, if you'll be uploading to online streaming platforms, you'll want to be sure that your final mixes don't much exceed -14 LUFS on average, and don't have too many true peaks above -1 db.  Otherwise the platform's algorithm will f*ck with your mix.    Because, like you, my track mixing makes the overall mix pretty much already there, that's usually all I do for final "mastering"  -  and that's typically accomplished with one plugin using presets. The exceptions are those recordings where I have lost the DAW mix files and only have a stereo rendering to work with.  Then, I might have to get much more creatively involved in doing things to the stereo track to get it to a point where I'm content to live with it.

 

But, always keep in mind, the most important person you need to be satisfied with your mix is you.

 

David

 

 

Edited April 6, 2023 by HoboSage

[john]

Your mixing probably already encroaches on tasks that are really mastering steps.

 

Let’s just say you don’t have to, but it’s wise to. If not by a professional, you can learn basics to improve some aspects, but it takes time and practice to build experience, plus some study to understand formats and requirements. If you don’t have the skills, in the short term at least, it is simply easier to get someone to master your track.

 

The mastering process not only makes sure that your track sounds good, but that it will sound good on multiple playback platforms, when transmitted, when streamed etc. that there is balance between tracks on an album, or EP, that your song won’t be too loud or too quiet on a playlist, that it won’t be so far outwith norms that your track is destroyed by compression or unsympathetically boosted by automated tools used by some platforms to ensure your track meets their standard. They do more besides on an EQ front. For example dealing with RIAA compensation curve on consumer HiFi.

 

All that said, it’s your tracks. If you don’t think they are worth all that, then who?

 

Many artists do learn at least some of what goes into mastering and do that themselves. You would not be the first.  Personally, I think it is worthwhile having a knowledgeable pair of ears giving your song the once over. That said it can take time to find a mastering Engineer you respect and trust.

[RESROCKS]

Hi

Yes I'm learning to master (at least that's what I think I'm doing)! 

I get my songs to 14LUFS for streaming and add some EQ to linen/brighten things up a bit. I guess that's a really simple way to describe it. 

One thing I do find is that I get it sounding good to my ears, but after it's rendered it tends to sound a bit over compressed and levels of certain instruments are higher/lower than they were. 

Thanks for your answers, just finishing Mastering a song now so hopefully it'll be ready soon. 

[Steve Mueske]

1 hour ago, RESROCKS said:

Hi

Yes I'm learning to master (at least that's what I think I'm doing)! 

I get my songs to 14LUFS for streaming and add some EQ to linen/brighten things up a bit. I guess that's a really simple way to describe it. 

One thing I do find is that I get it sounding good to my ears, but after it's rendered it tends to sound a bit over compressed and levels of certain instruments are higher/lower than they were. 

Thanks for your answers, just finishing Mastering a song now so hopefully it'll be ready soon. 

 

It depends on how you're getting it to your target levels. If it sounds good, you set it to render to -14 LUFS, and it sounds different then there's normalization going on during the rendering process. I would suggest paying more attention to your meters and turn off any auto-normalizing. There are also proper steps for resampling and bit reduction. The dithering algorithm can change the character of the sound. To answer your question, no every track does not have to be mastered, but mastering is a way of separating the processes so that each stage has its own focus. That's a different question, though, than the one about mastering changing the character. The latter is a process / learning question. It's never about the amount of plugins. It's about it sounding unified and balanced.

Edited April 7, 2023 by Steve Mueske

[MikeRobinson]

I'd definitely chime in here that the notion of "mastering" – which certainly exists today – has altogether to do with concerns of final delivery.  For instance: "XM radio?" "Earbuds?" "MP3?" "AIFF?" "Vinyl, when it actually mattered whether your song was the 'outermost' or the 'innermost' track on a stamped LP because of the physical speed differences caused by the disk's diameter?"

 

You might have had this experience yourself when you submitted your song to [any ...] public repository or streaming service – (hopefully, "privately" at first) – and then listened to what "their algorithms" had done to it.

 

Most of these algorithms have to do with compression.  They want to make the file as small as possible.  They want to conserve satellite bandwidth.

 

A very informative first step – if you can stand to do it – is to download "the resulting file" into your DAW as a new audio file.  Now, use the various analytical tools (histograms, waveforms and so forth) to analyze your original submitted project against "how they butchered it." You will for example immediately see that "your beautiful waveforms" just went to boot camp and got a buzz haircut.

[Pantonal]

A lot of good points have been made, but there's one aspect I feel the need to bring up. It very much helps to know what your system sounds like and how it compares to other speaker/sound systems. I usually work with a pair of Adam T7Vs which replaced Tannoy Reveals. The T7Vs sound thicker and have more bass, but their bass response falls off a cliff below 40 Hz. The Tannoys in general sound much thinner but their usable bass response actually extends to the low 30s HZ (deeper than the T7Vs). Upstairs I have an old pair of Celestion 9 home audio speakers and then there's my car. If I can get a mix to sound good on all of those different systems (probably best to also include headphones and airpods) then it'll sound good on almost anything. That is an important aspect of what mastering accomplishes. I'm always amazed at what I hear in my mixes when I first play it on something other than the Adam T7Vs. Suddenly I hear more reverb (too much?) on the vocal or the snare pops or gets lost or the vocal needs to be louder/softer. Play your songs on lots of systems to hear these things.

[RESROCKS]

16 minutes ago, Pantonal said:

A lot of good points have been made, but there's one aspect I feel the need to bring up. It very much helps to know what your system sounds like and how it compares to other speaker/sound systems. I usually work with a pair of Adam T7Vs which replaced Tannoy Reveals. The T7Vs sound thicker and have more bass, but their bass response falls off a cliff below 40 Hz. The Tannoys in general sound much thinner but their usable bass response actually extends to the low 30s HZ (deeper than the T7Vs). Upstairs I have an old pair of Celestion 9 home audio speakers and then there's my car. If I can get a mix to sound good on all of those different systems (probably best to also include headphones and airpods) then it'll sound good on almost anything. That is an important aspect of what mastering accomplishes. I'm always amazed at what I hear in my mixes when I first play it on something other than the Adam T7Vs. Suddenly I hear more reverb (too much?) on the vocal or the snare pops or gets lost or the vocal needs to be louder/softer. Play your songs on lots of systems to hear these things

 

[RESROCKS]

Hi

Yes I'm using Tannoy 5's.id like larger but lack of space. I always find my mixes too bassy but never learn to compensate! 

Maybe one day I'll realise what I'm doing. 

Thanks all for the responses! 

[Steve Mueske]

On 4/13/2023 at 2:44 PM, RESROCKS said:

Hi

Yes I'm using Tannoy 5's.id like larger but lack of space. I always find my mixes too bassy but never learn to compensate! 

Maybe one day I'll realise what I'm doing. 

Thanks all for the responses! 

 

Two things really help with bass. One is to roll it off somewhere around 35hz - 50hz. Sometimes I use a 6db filter, sometimes 12 or 24. It always depends on the material. The other thing that helps a lot is to make everything mono below a certain frequency. I tend to target 75hz, but again that varies. If there are big spikes, a notch filter really does wonders too. 

 

 

[john]

On 4/13/2023 at 7:44 PM, RESROCKS said:

Hi

Yes I'm using Tannoy 5's.id like larger but lack of space. I always find my mixes too bassy but never learn to compensate! 

Maybe one day I'll realise what I'm doing. 

Thanks all for the responses! 

Simple solution, use reference recordings to calibrate the bass boost on your Tannoys. Early days my mixes sounded like too much bass. I used Tannoy M1s. They are not active, so I added a little bass boost on my power amp so that I naturally mixed with less bass. I used to do that boost trick when I used Yamaha NS10s. It works with Yama HS series too. You would think after so many years with the treble bias of the NS range, Yamaha would have addressed that in their HS range? But no.

 

I tried treble cut instead of bass boost, but found bass adjustment got better, more reliable results.

 

Anyway, a simple, more-or-less one-off solution.