Good evening guys, i'm here to share with you my last guide i wrote personally. In this guide i'm trying to explain how to achieve the right mentality to mastering, since it's what i do for work.
The full (very nicely formatted) pdf can be downloaded HERE <---
If you want to follow up what's coming next look at our website and our facebook page:
http://www.woodenboxstudio.com/
https://www.facebook.com/woodenboxstudio/
Hope you'll enjoy this and i apologize for language errors in advance.
3 STEPS TO APPROACH MASTERING CORRECTLY
SO, YOU JUST FINISHED YOUR TRACK AND NOW IT’S TIME FOR MASTERING, BUT WHAT DO YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT IT?
Start with the idea that mastering is a separate part of your workflow, your song should not need it to be great, it has to be great BEFORE master it. Mastering, regarding be a very complex work if done properly, consists in a very few passages that can be synthetized in:
- Analyzing the track
- Fixing existing problems
- Achieving fullness and loudness
That is what you should focus on in your mastering process, no less, no more. Let’s discuss about it.
- Analyze the Track Analyzing the track is the first step in the mastering process, so take your time to listen carefully and to study it, because this will significantly help your work. Remember: always start with rested ears.
You need to understand on what the track is focusing, which the powerful elements of it are, and where the errors are (if there are any!).
Use your ears to identify every instrument and then look at the spectrum with an analyzer to find out if there are any resonances or peaking (highs and lows) and if they are there on purpose or you have to fix them. Be careful to stereo image and compression, since they are tricky to fix in the mastering, same thing for phasing issues; better go back to mixing if you struggle with these. Deal with the fact that mastering cannot fix everything and even if it could, if you find that your track has several problems maybe you should consider going back to refine your mix at first. In doubt: always trust your ears over your plugins.
- Fix Problems This is the main target of the mastering process: fixing all existing problems that the tracks still carries after the mixdown. This should be your first worry in your workflow: not loudness, not fatness, FIXING PROBLEMS PROPERLY. Is the song very punchy and dynamic? Is it warm and soft? Don’t try to make it a trap festival track!
We are not going deep in explanations since this is not a full technical step-by-step guide (it’ll come maybe!), but let’s see how we could possibly fix problems.
A) Using a Reference Always use a reference track for your work. Choose a track that is similar to yours and put it in your DAW, ready to switch from one another; even if you think that everything is ok in your track, the reference may help you to find out that maybe (and probably) your ears are just tricking you. You cannot be sure on how the track sounds unless you have another perfectly balanced track to compare with, that’s because our ears always adapt to any sound, and the way we perceive the same sound over the time change drastically.
For the same reason, it is important to pause your work from time to time, as your ears need rest: take a 10 minutes pause every hour, your results will be better and your ears will thank you.
B) Equalization Follow the rule that LESS IS MORE. Is not just saying. Not doing is bad, overdoing is worse. When you’re fixing a mix, remember or try to understand the intention of the creator, try to embrace the feeling that the author wants to transmit instead of fighting it. More than often, a mastering chain begins with a simple equalizer and even with a simple plugin as that, you can ruin the whole mix. Of course, a flat spectrum is what everyone try to achieve because it always offers the best response on every audio system, but this shouldn’t be the reason to destroy the original idea of the song. If the song don’t fit well the spectrum, first understand if it’s a problem or it’s just like that, then if there really is something to fix, fix it following the logic of the song. Again, if you find out that the mix needs too much changes or it does not sound right after a few fixes, going back to mixing is not a shame! When you’re applying EQ changes, as everything else in the mastering stage, start with less; just a few points of dBs would be ok for almost every track mixed correctly. Using excessive amount of equalization in a track could lead to an unnatural sound. A good starting point is trying to cut before boosting.
C) Compression A common error is considering compression a remedy for everything. Those who think that are often just creating more problems in the mix. These people (which i was part times ago, i have to admit) just think that if it sounds bad, maybe it just needs compression. When they are going to apply compression, the ears trick them, making them thinking that it sounds awesome because it’s louder or a bit distorted. Do not do that. Be better than that. Compression is not a method to fix every problem; compression usually BRINGS OUT problems. Applying compression correctly on a whole stereo track is a matter of good ears, good equipment and very little changes in the parameters of your compressor; apply too much and you’d have your dynamic range completely destroyed, apply too little and it’d be like nothing (but always better than a destroyed dynamic tbh). Remember the rule: Less is more, especially for compression.
Why then using compression at all? Because if used correctly and in little amounts it can make your track shine. Think of that like a car polish, you firstly need a car assembled correctly to make it shine with a bit of polish; you cannot make a wreck shine and, if you polish too much, you damage the paint! With this in mind, let’s assume now that we have a perfectly functional shiny car, and now, only after we have a full working base, we want that car to be powerful and loud; there is where are we going with our next step.
- Fullness and Loudness In the modern era, loudness is something that we simply cannot ignore. Having a fat and loud track is what commercial standards demand today, but someone could say that this state of mind is ruining the music industry. We are not going to discuss this thread because everyone has his own preferences and ideas but, for me, the truth stands in the middle.
Approach loudness like a tune for your car: too much can kill it, but who would drive a lazy slow mule?
Coming back to music: to achieve a track that sounds fat we usually resort to distortion. Distortion is almost the base of contemporary music: it makes every sound fatter, bigger, by creating additional harmonics in the sound that fills the spectrum; during mastering, it is common to make use of it. The right approach to distortion is simple: add it until you can barely hear it, and then go back a bit. There are many types of distortion that color the sound in different ways, the choice is yours. Be wary since many compressors or equalizers already add some distortion or saturation to simulate the analog behavior.
The last step in a mastering process is achieving a good amount of loudness, because none would like to drown or be skipped in a playlist just because our song is too low on volume, right? We shall use a limiter for this work, simple compressors would not be good because their attack times are slower than limiter’s; that could lead to peaks passing through and causing clipping. Different limiters have different behaviors: you could like a more pumping limiter or a more “flat” one but usually, the more transparent it is, the better. Remember that a limiter is however a compressor, it will afflict your track’s dynamic so don’t overdue. Your goal is to find the right compromise between loudness and the distortion/flatness caused by limiting. Choose a reasonable time for the limiter and learn where to stop with the gain knob; a completely loud distorted track that nobody will listen is worse than a slightly less loud but cleaner track.
Now go and share your work!
Submitted August 29, 2016 at 05:10PM by iamAVRG https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/5071mm/3_steps_to_approach_mastering_correctly/?utm_source=ifttt