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Audio Mastering In Your Computer : August 2004 Home Search News Articles Forum SOS TV Subscribe Shop Directory
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Can You Do Your Own Mastering? Before You Master Does It Work In Mono? Real-time Mastering Within Your Sequencer Adding Outboard Processors To A Multitrack Host The Best Of Both Worlds Splitting The Stereo Channels Processing Individual Mixes Assembling Your Album Master Effects Routing Mastering For Vinyl Managing Your Levels Mastering Mastering
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Many home recordists hope to perfect their productions by doing their own mastering on their studio computer. However, few seem to achieve the classy results they're after. So how much can you realistically achieve by going it alone, and what techniques will give the highest-quality results?
Craig Anderton
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Mastering is a vital part of the recording process, so much so that a substantial amount of mythology is associated with it. We've all heard stories of high-priced mastering engineers with mystical, proprietary gear based on gilded vacuum tubes salvaged from ancient Russian submarines... or something similar. But we've also heard of computer studio owners with a two-track editor and a few plug-ins who have started mastering their own material. What gives?
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Automation envelopes can reduce the odd rogue signal peak, thus opening up more headroom and allowing a hotter sound without you having to use as much dynamics processing.
Once your plug-in effects have been added and edited as desired, you have three main options to create a mastered file: Render (also called bounce or export) the track to hard disk. This reads the signal at the final output, including the results of any effects you've added, and writes the file to hard disk. This is your final, mastered track. However, it still needs to be assembled with other tracks to create a complete CD. Send the output to a stand-alone CD or DAT recorder. This will record the final, mastered song although, again, you'll still need to assemble these. Send the output through analogue mastering processors, record their outputs into two empty tracks in your multitrack, then export those tracks to your hard disk. (See the 'Adding Outboard Processors To A Multitrack Host' box for more on this). Of course, if you choose to do real-time mastering, you'd better get things right the first time, because if you want to make any changes later you won't be working with the raw mix file. For example, if you decide there's too much multi-band compression, you won't be able to undo this, and neither will any mastering engineer; you'll have to do another mix. Adding Outboard Processors To A Multitrack Host
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For most mastering tasks, a multi-band dynamics plug-in such as Waves C4 (bottom) will achieve the most transparent results, but that doesn't mean that you can't use a fullband compressor such as Universal Audio's 1176SE (top) if you're after a more vintage 'pumping' sound.
If you plan to use a mastering engineer, do not be tempted to present them with a 'pre-mastered' mix where you've tried to take the sound part of the way towards where you want it. Always provide the raw, two-track (or surround) mix with no mastering effects. However, it may be worth creating a separate version of the tune that uses mastering effects to give the engineer an idea of the type of sound you like. The engineer can then translate your ideas into something perhaps even better, while taking your desires into account. Splitting The Stereo Channels
I've also used a multitrack host to do audio restoration and remastering of a tune that was recorded in the '60s; this would have been very difficult to do with a conventional digital audio editor. One instrument was overly prominent in only the left channel and this needed to be fixed. I split the stereo signal into two mono tracks, and loaded each one into the host. Through a combination of equalisation, dynamics control, and level automation in just the right spots, I was able to reduce the level of the problematic instrument. As this also reduced the apparent level of the left channel, I used a combination of panning on the individual tracks and balance control on the output buss to restore a better sense of balance.
Digital emulations of classic analogue equalisers, such as the TL Audio and Pultec recreations shown above, will often produce the most musical results when you're applying broad and gentle processing during mastering.
Add Dynamics Processing: Generally, you'll use a dynamics plug-in for the track holding the file, or possibly for the buss it feeds. Multi-band dynamics processors are your best option; compared to standard compressors, they're more transparent, because dynamics control in one frequency band doesn't affect other frequency bands. However, some people like slamming a stereo compressor, because they can hear some 'pumping' and 'breathing', which gives more of a vintage sound.
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A loudness-maximising limiter such as Waves L2 can increase the overall level off your mastered track with surprisingly few audible artefacts.
I sorted each type onto its own track, and applied the same processing to like-sounding files. The bass-heavy ones needed a different kind of EQ to the neutral-sounding ones, and I also added multi-band compression to both of these tracks. The songs that were already compressed didn't get any multi-band compression, but did need a fair amount of EQ this created a few peaks, so I added a small amount of limiting. As mentioned earlier, a multitrack host allows you to do tricks that may be difficult with a dedicated digital audio editing program. This is particularly true with dance music, where you have a continuous stream of sound. It's easy to create crossfades, for example, either using an automatic crossfade function where overlapping two tracks creates a crossfade, or by having the tunes on separate tracks and adding fades manually. You can also dedicate a separate track for transitions or sound effects when doing a dance mix, add track automation to bring effects in and out (to increase a high-pass filter's cutoff as a song fades, for instance, so it seems to disappear just before the next track comes in), and so on. This process essentially creates a 'meta-mix' where, instead of mixing individual tracks to create a two-track file, you're mixing twotrack files to create a final album.
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Vinyl is an unforgiving medium, and mastering for it is extremely difficult. Its dynamic range is a puny 50dB or so, even with decent vinyl, compared to the 80dB or more we enjoy with even the most basic digital media. As a result, compression is essentially mandatory to shoehorn music's wide dynamic range into vinyl's narrow dynamic range. But vinyl has other problems. There's a trade-off between loudness and length. This is because a groove in a record is just a waveform, and a louder waveform will cause the groove to have a wider physical excursion. So, to get a lot of material on an LP, you have to cut the vinyl at a pretty low level. Bass is also troublesome. Bass waveforms have a very wide excursion and, with stereo, if the left and right channels are even slightly out of phase, the stylus can 'jump the track' as it tries in vain to follow different curves for the right and left channels. We take concepts like stereo bass for granted now, but back in the days of vinyl bass had to be mono. And that's not all! As the record gets closer to the end, the tone arm hits the groove at more of an angle (except with linear-tracking turntables), causing what's called inner groove distortion. As a result, song orders often used to be created with the softest songs coming at the end of an album's side, so that the inner grooves would be less subject to distortion. In the old days, recording engineers were well aware of the limitations of vinyl, and took them into account during the recording process. Many of today's engineers were brought up in an essentially vinyl-less world, and don't consider the problems discussed above. This makes it more important than ever to use a mastering engineer who is an expert in the art. When it comes to mastering for vinyl, the advice is simple: don't try this at home!
To set the master fader for the highest possible level short of distortion, first reset the margin indicators, then play the tune through from start to finish. When it's over, check the margin and note the reading. Let's say it's -4.1dBFS. As you want the margin to read -0.1dBFS, that means the overall level needs to be raised by 4dB. Now note the fader reading. We'll assume it shows 1.5dB. We want to add another 4dB of level, so if we set the fader reading to 5.5dB, then the next time the song plays from start to finish the margin should indicate -0.1dBFS.
Mastering Mastering
I certainly wouldn't want to imply that following the above techniques will make you a mastering engineer. However, I believe that if you apply these ideas correctly you'll end up with mixes that sound better than before and that's the whole point. Besides, if you start working on your mastering chops now, you just might discover a whole new outlet for your creativity.
Published in SOS August 2004
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