Some Mastering Issues - PLEASE HELP!!!!

[Aedryan Methyus]

Hey Guys,
I'm just getting ready to master my first Pro Tools (MBox 2/Pro Tools 7) project and i'm having a couple initial problems already that i'm hoping you guys can help me out with....

Firstly, before I did any mixing or adding effects or anything, I bounced my recording to disc just as a test and the .WAV file won't play in Windows Media Player. I get an error for some reason. Apparantely i'm missing a codec, but i'm running the latest version of Windows Media Player and all of it's components and I never have any problems with any other .WAV or MP3 files. The file seems to play fine in Musicmatch Jukebox and Cool Edit Pro. Any idea why this is happening or how to fix it?

Again, this initial "bouncing to disc" test was to get a rough idea of where my levels are at, because presently I don't have any monitors, so i've been using headphones to record and everything. All of the instruments and the raw mix sound fantastic and plenty loud enough through the headphones, but the .WAV file I bounced to disc has a very low playback volume and just "so so" sound quality compared to listening to the mix through my headphones. Any ideas here?

I had my Bounce Options set as follows:

Bounce Source: Out 1 - 2 (Stereo)
File Type: WAV
Format: Stereo Interleaved
Resolution: 24
Sample Rate: 44100

* No dithering was used.

Also, in regards to this low playback volume - None of my individual tracks are even close to clipping or anything, but when I created my stereo master fader and played the mix, the overall mix appeared to be borderline clipping, according to the master fader's meter. Why? Also, am I supposed to create two stereo master faders or just one?

Any help or suggestions would be very much appreciated. Thanks in advance!

- Aedryan

[snowjiber]

WMP (and many other music programs) don't support 24 bit audio. Bounce to 16 bit.
Just in case you didn't know, CD quality is 16 bit, 44.1.

[Aedryan Methyus]

Thanks, Snow! No, I didn't realize I was supposed to render it to 16 bit. I guess that could be a lot of my sound quality problem right there, eh? So, since i'm rendering to 16 bit does that mean I HAVE to use dithering too? Also, am I supposed to create 2 stereo master faders before I bounce to disc or just the one?

Thanks again!

- Aedryan

[snowjiber]

Actually you lose sound quality when going from 24 to 16 bit. Someday I'm sure the standard for music will be 24bit, honestly I don't know why it isn't right now. Maybe because of file size or something. Anyway you should use dither on a single stereo master fader when bouncing to disk. The quality will probably be dull and not very loud, that gets taken care of during the mastering process. I can't help you out with mastering since I'm not an ME, but there are plenty of posts around here on the subject. It seems like a new one pops up weekly.

[Masterpiece]

What I always do is bounce my mix down to a stereo file @ whatever my session is.
Usually 24bit etc... then I will pull that 24 bit stereo file back up in a new session and on the master fader use a dithering plugin to dither it down to 16 bits and THEN bounce it to 16 bits

dont know if this helps or even good practice just what i do .. it helps keep the quality of my track the way i need it.