Hi all,
I've always been interested in the concept of mastering recordings for the purpose of playing on car systems, home audio, etc. I get to the point where I EQ all of my recordings, put on any digital effects, etc., but they always seem "narrow" to me when I play them in the car or at home. I
assume this is because they need to be mastered, but I don't really understand what the process does, let alone what's involved in actually mastering a recording.
Here's my set up:
I record directly to a Korg D3200 Digital Multitracker.
I then do all the EQing, compression, effects on the board and burn to CD.
- I burn using the highest possible format and it ends up at high-quality
WMA files once the CD is "ripped" by my computer.
I load the WMAs into Cool Edit Pro 2.1 to trim the intro and ending
I then save at the highest possible quality settings as MP3s
There is a function on Cool Edit that supposedly does mastering, but it's more of a Pan/Expand kind of thing. Sometimes it sounds good, sometimes it doesn't.
Does anyone know a tried-and-true method of mastering at home?
Nathan Pendleton wrote to All <=-
Hi all,
I've always been interested in the concept of mastering recordings for
the purpose of playing on car systems, home audio, etc. I get to the point where I EQ all of my recordings, put on any digital effects,
etc., but they always seem "narrow" to me when I play them in the car
or at home. I assume this is because they need to be mastered, but I don't really understand what the process does, let alone what's
involved in actually mastering a recording.
Re: Mastering
By: Nathan Pendleton to All on Thu Jul 03 2008 02:33 pm
Hi all,
I've always been interested in the concept of mastering recordings for th purpose of playing on car systems, home audio, etc. I get to the point where I EQ all of my recordings, put on any digital effects, etc., but th always seem "narrow" to me when I play them in the car or at home. I assume this is because they need to be mastered, but I don't really understand what the process does, let alone what's involved in actually mastering a recording.
Here's my set up:
I record directly to a Korg D3200 Digital Multitracker.
I then do all the EQing, compression, effects on the board and burn to CD
- I burn using the highest possible format and it ends up at high-qualit
WMA files once the CD is "ripped" by my computer.
I load the WMAs into Cool Edit Pro 2.1 to trim the intro and ending
I then save at the highest possible quality settings as MP3s
Are you converting from a compressed WMA format to MP3? That seems strange t me. Are at least using variable bit-rate?
There is a function on Cool Edit that supposedly does mastering, but it's more of a Pan/Expand kind of thing. Sometimes it sounds good, sometimes doesn't.
Does anyone know a tried-and-true method of mastering at home?
I've used Steinberg WaveLab (for 2-track mastering) with good results in the past: http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/audioediting_product.html
digital man (xbox-live: digitlman)
Snapple "Real Fact" #61:
Pigs get sunburn.
Norco, CA WX: 64.2øF, 67% humidity, 0 mph SE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
Nathan Pendleton wrote to All <=-
Hi all,
I've always been interested in the concept of mastering recordings for the purpose of playing on car systems, home audio, etc. I get to the point where I EQ all of my recordings, put on any digital effects, etc., but they always seem "narrow" to me when I play them in the car or at home. I assume this is because they need to be mastered, but I don't really understand what the process does, let alone what's involved in actually mastering a recording.
Mastering is just recording the mix down to 2 tracks (if you're doing stereo in a high quality format and with compression so that you have the "master" from which you can then press your CD's or whatever release format you are going to do.
The narrow sound needs to be fixed during the mixing. Separate your tracks not just with panning. Try using minute delays on doubled tracks (aka
wall of guitar sound).
Re: Mastering
By: Digital Man to Nathan Pendleton on Fri Jul 04 2008 01:03 am
I haven't, actually!
Re: Mastering
By: Digital Man to Nathan Pendleton on Fri Jul 04 2008 01:03 am
I haven't, actually! The only reason I'm going between WMA and MP3 is because MP3 works better with more formats. I can upload it online, put it on an mp3 player, etc. I suppose I could make two separate copies (the raw data is initially in WAV format) one for the internet and one for distribution on CD, but I much more prefer to use MP3s. I always used constant bitrate ... is there a real difference between that and variable?
I'll definitely check out wavelab. I might see if they've got a demo I can look at or something. Is the mastering function you're talking about built into wavelab or is it a plugin or addon of some type? Thanks again!
Re: Re: Mastering
By: Trash80 to Nathan Pendleton on Fri Jul 04 2008 09:28 am
What I do is just straight recording to the multitracker, then I mix it
down to just basic stereo L and R from there. Even when I do full panning, like two guitars playing the same thing but one 100% left and the other
100% right, it doesn't sound as "wide" as some of the commercial recordings I've heard. Could be psychological, but it really brings out the amateur qualities recording quality-wise, at least to me.
I have a friend who used to record to digital and then he transfers it to a reel-to-reel tape machine for mastering. I have no idea what that accomplishes, but in the end, his mixes sound a lot more powerful and
closer to a commercially printed CD than mine.
Could it just be that I'm expecting too much?
Re: Mastering
By: Nathan Pendleton to Digital Man on Fri Jul 04 2008 13:26:00
Re: Mastering
By: Digital Man to Nathan Pendleton on Fri Jul 04 2008 01:03 am
I haven't, actually!
Haven't what?
Re: Mastering
By: Nathan Pendleton to Digital Man on Fri Jul 04 2008 01:26 pm
Re: Mastering
By: Digital Man to Nathan Pendleton on Fri Jul 04 2008 01:03 am
I haven't, actually! The only reason I'm going between WMA and MP3 is because MP3 works better with more formats. I can upload it online, put on an mp3 player, etc. I suppose I could make two separate copies (the r data is initially in WAV format) one for the internet and one for distribution on CD, but I much more prefer to use MP3s. I always used constant bitrate ... is there a real difference between that and variable
I'll definitely check out wavelab. I might see if they've got a demo I c look at or something. Is the mastering function you're talking about bui into wavelab or is it a plugin or addon of some type? Thanks again!
When you mix and master you should be dealing with uncompressed highest qual audio (e.g. WAV) as you can. And then after you have your 2 track master, yo can convert that to all kinds of formats, lossy or not. And variable bit-rat is a definite improvement over constant bit-rate. You can get much higher quality with the same size (or smaller) file than when using constant bit-ra
As for WaveLab, it comes with all kinds of mastering facilities (compressor/limiters, sonic maximizers, stereo imaging, EQ, etc.) and it supports plug-ins as well. "mastering" is not a function, but a process. The elements of this process differ depending on the engineer / producer's taste
digital man (xbox-live: digitlman)
Snapple "Real Fact" #4:
Slugs have 4 noses.
Norco, CA WX: 84.0øF, 51% humidity, 4 mph SE wind, 0.00 inches rain/24hrs
What I do is just straight recording to the multitracker, then I mix it down to just basic stereo L and R from there. Even when I do full panning, like two guitars playing the same thing but one 100% left and the other 100% right, it doesn't sound as "wide" as some of the commercial recordings I've heard. Could be psychological, but it really brings out the amateur qualities recording quality-wise, at least to me.
I have a friend who used to record to digital and then he transfers it to a reel-to-reel tape machine for mastering. I have no idea what that accomplishes, but in the end, his mixes sound a lot more powerful and closer to a commercially printed CD than mine. Could it just be that I'm expecting too much?
Re: Re: Mastering
By: Nathan Pendleton to Trash80 on Fri Jul 04 2008 13:30:00
What I do is just straight recording to the multitracker, then I mix it d to just basic stereo L and R from there. Even when I do full panning, li two guitars playing the same thing but one 100% left and the other 100% right, it doesn't sound as "wide" as some of the commercial recordings I' heard. Could be psychological, but it really brings out the amateur qualities recording quality-wise, at least to me.
I have a friend who used to record to digital and then he transfers it to reel-to-reel tape machine for mastering. I have no idea what that accomplishes, but in the end, his mixes sound a lot more powerful and clo to a commercially printed CD than mine. Could it just be that I'm expect too much?
Do you mean two different recordings of the same quitar part? 'cause that should sound wide. I haven't done any recording for about 15 years (man has been that long) but that always worked for me. Or even one guitar part on tw tracks with a slight delay.
You said you're mixing to mp3? Have you tried mixing to a lossless format? Maybe the "narrowing" of the mix is happening because of a compressed format like mp3.
Nathan Pendleton wrote to Trash80 <=-
@VIA: VERT/BLUELOBS
@MSGID: <48727597.1057.dove-aud@bluelobster.dyndns.org>
@REPLY: <48715D07.176.dove-aud@theville.vintagecomputing.
Re: Re: Mastering
By: Trash80 to Nathan Pendleton on Sun Jul 06 2008 09:02 pm
Re: Re: Mastering
By: Nathan Pendleton to Trash80 on Fri Jul 04 2008 13:30:00
What I do is just straight recording to the multitracker, then I mix it d to just basic stereo L and R from there. Even when I do full panning, li two guitars playing the same thing but one 100% left and the other 100% right, it doesn't sound as "wide" as some of the commercial recordings I' heard. Could be psychological, but it really brings out the amateur qualities recording quality-wise, at least to me.
I have a friend who used to record to digital and then he transfers it to reel-to-reel tape machine for mastering. I have no idea what that accomplishes, but in the end, his mixes sound a lot more powerful and clo to a commercially printed CD than mine. Could it just be that I'm expect too much?
Do you mean two different recordings of the same quitar part? 'cause that should sound wide. I haven't done any recording for about 15 years (man has been that long) but that always worked for me. Or even one guitar part on tw tracks with a slight delay.
You said you're mixing to mp3? Have you tried mixing to a lossless format? Maybe the "narrowing" of the mix is happening because of a compressed format like mp3.
Yup! I'll record the same part on two tracks, or one of my favorite things to do is mic an acoustic with a pickup and plug it in direct as well. then i'll pan the direct feed far left and the mic far right.
In any case, no matter how I pan stuff out, it always seems narrow. I suppose it could be the result of compression to mp3 ... I've never
tried to burn the straight .wav onto CD before. I'll give it a go and
see what happens!
There is something about recording to MP3 format that just diminishes
the sound. Record to wave, or to the CD directly if possible and
There is a function on Cool Edit that supposedly does mastering, but it's more of a Pan/Expand kind of thing.
Does anyone know a tried-and-true method of mastering at home?
Nathan Pendleton wrote to Trash80 <=-
@VIA: VERT/BLUELOBS
@MSGID: <48727597.1057.dove-aud@bluelobster.dyndns.org>
@REPLY: <48715D07.176.dove-aud@theville.vintagecomputing.
Re: Re: Mastering
By: Trash80 to Nathan Pendleton on Sun Jul 06 2008 09:02 pm
Re: Re: Mastering
By: Nathan Pendleton to Trash80 on Fri Jul 04 2008 13:30:00
What I do is just straight recording to the multitracker, then I mix i to just basic stereo L and R from there. Even when I do full panning, two guitars playing the same thing but one 100% left and the other 100 right, it doesn't sound as "wide" as some of the commercial recordings heard. Could be psychological, but it really brings out the amateur qualities recording quality-wise, at least to me.
I have a friend who used to record to digital and then he transfers it reel-to-reel tape machine for mastering. I have no idea what that accomplishes, but in the end, his mixes sound a lot more powerful and to a commercially printed CD than mine. Could it just be that I'm exp too much?
Do you mean two different recordings of the same quitar part? 'cause that should sound wide. I haven't done any recording for about 15 years (man h been that long) but that always worked for me. Or even one guitar part on tracks with a slight delay.
You said you're mixing to mp3? Have you tried mixing to a lossless forma Maybe the "narrowing" of the mix is happening because of a compressed for like mp3.
Yup! I'll record the same part on two tracks, or one of my favorite things to do is mic an acoustic with a pickup and plug it in direct as well. then i'll pan the direct feed far left and the mic far right.
In any case, no matter how I pan stuff out, it always seems narrow. I suppose it could be the result of compression to mp3 ... I've never tried to burn the straight .wav onto CD before. I'll give it a go and see what happens!
There is something about recording to MP3 format that just diminishes
the sound. Record to wave, or to the CD directly if possible and
once you have that "Master" then rip an mp3, you'll notice the
difference immediately. I've done several Demo's in the last 2 years
for local bands, and I send the signal directly from my Soundcraft II
board to my computer. I record using Audacity, once I have it I then
burn the CD or I can rip to Mp3. I'm sure a Digital mixer would be
nicer in some respects, but I just perfer the Analog sound. The
bands like how the CD's come out, even though its a live recording,
done in one session... <during their show!>
Recording live is quite a bit tougher than a studio, but I like
getting the sound of the band as they sound in a club environment.
Getting crowd reaction also helps. Its not as clean, but, if you do
it right, it makes for a great Demo. :)
Re: Mastering
By: Digital Man to Nathan Pendleton on Fri Jul 04 2008 01:03 am
There is a function on Cool Edit that supposedly does mastering, but i more of a Pan/Expand kind of thing.
Does anyone know a tried-and-true method of mastering at home?
I use Cool Edit Pro 2.0 for any audio editing that I may needs. Both here at home and at the sudio. Since Peter sold CEP to Adobe you can't get any plug-ins for CEP but I managed to find a couple online. Just some more effects and one video plugin.
I been usind CEP for about 4 yrs now and I find that it has evrything that I need for CD creation to effects, time slicing, multi-track editing, I use it for my church videos and audio, for the bands that I work with.
As far as "true mastering" goes I dont need anthing more..If I did you would think about CakeWalk or ProAudio..one of those commercial softwares.
At "The Cock of the walk Studios" (Jesse Dupre - from Jackyl) they use CakeWalk software. Looks and does the same as CEP. I use the surround sound plugin for CEP and CakeWalk does have that plugin..
anyway, sorry to ramble...just had to put my 2 cents in...:)
scottie
do your mixes and masters rather than a reflection of the softwareitself.
And rambling is what BBSes are made for. Thank god I have a place toramble > :)
Re: Mastering
By: Nathan Pendleton to Scottie on Wed Jul 09 2008 04:55 pm
do your mixes and masters rather than a reflection of the softwareitself.
What I like mostly about CEP is its simplysity.
For example:
Trk 1 = mono left, full left Pan
Trk 2 = mono right, full right Pan
-
Trk 3 = mono left, 1/3 Pan right - 12%-15% reverb or chorus
Trk 4 = mono right, 1/3 Pan left - " " " " " "
-
Mixdown Trk 1 & 3 to Trk 5 peaking at -1 Db
Mixdown Trk 2 & 4 to Trk 6 " " -0.5 Db
-
Full Streo Mixdown..
As a final Mixdown on the right home stereo sounds frikin great..maybe throw some lite panning effect into Trk 3 or 4 and with the delay or reverb you ge a very cool demensional sound effect. Anyway, I get it on my 5 speaker setup on my computer. And the surround sound home theater down stairs sounds 10 times better...
I was never about to do this with Cakewalk or ProAudio. I just like Cool Edi Pro.
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