calling all mastering gurus

[jlcnyc]

Hey everybody -
I know the pitfalls of DIY mastering... however I'm intrigued by mastering - so I enjoy trying to improve my mastering skills and overall understanding of the process.(fyi - I've attempted to read the Bob Katz book - much of it was over my head)

Most of my product is in the urban/ hip hope genre - so obviously the loudness wars are in full effect.
In my attempts to faux-master my mixes, my typical chain is usually some combination of:
(IK ARC room correction)
McDsp (AC1 and/or AC2) - light compression and analog warmth
McDsp or Waves EQ - subtle eq tweaks
Waves multi-band compression - tons of trial and error!
Waves stereo imager
Sonnox Inflator
Sonnox Limiter

I have a session setup that includes various commercial mixes so I can instantly A/B between my mix and the "pros".
I guess my basic (yet complex) question is: How do the pros get the loudness and still retain some sense of headroom? My metering shows certain pro mixes hitting around -5 on the RMS scale, yet they still sound somewhat "open". It's obviously more complicated than just slamming the limiter. Where should I be focusing? Is multi-band compression the secret weapon? or really expensive gear? or golden ears? all of the above?

I do not discount the decades of experience the pros have (I've played guitar professionally for many, many years - the shortcuts are few) Just wondering if someone could shed a little more light on the quest for hot (and open) competitive mixes.

thanks in advance

[nst7]

I'm not a mastering engineer, but I checked out your site and from the pictures of your room I have a couple of suggestions, mainly for monitoring. The room looks pretty small and there's very little acoustic treatment, particularly bass traps, which you'd want to put in the corners especially. You might check out Realtraps.com or Gikacoustics.com. The Auralex 2 or 3 inch foam is not gonna do much for the low frequencies. Also, your monitors are sitting right on the shelf. You might get some Auralex mopads or Primacoustic Recoils to put them on. For the subwoofer, a bigger Primacoustic Recoil or Auralex subdude. You'd be amazed at how much difference those things make. (note the Primacoustics are much more expensive).

I mention all this because hearing more accurately into your mix should make things easier to figure out where the strengths and weaknesses are. One of the common things is pro mastering rooms is the very sophisticated acoustic treatment (along with super high quality audio components).

[marcpardon]

Hi,

When i have to master with plugins i will do this and in this order:

1 subtle eq tweaks with a small q (big strokes)
2 peak compression with fast attack and fast release
3 smooth compression with slow attack and slow release
4 parallel compression
5 linear phase eq
6 limiter

I use the oxford limiter my self and use the enhance fader .... but never together with the inflator ..... a stereo imager can cause phase problems ..... about analog feel : i will do this in the mix stage or with hardware ....
precise eq tweaks : use a linear phase eq !!!!!


the plugins i use for example:
1 oxford eq or waves renaisance eq
2 oxford dynamics
3 oxford dynamics
4 depending on taste or song : bomb factory 1176 / waves v series / waves ssl bus compresser or soundtoys decapitator
5 psp neon hr
6 oxford limiter

[Darney]

Originally Posted by jlcnyc

Hey everybody -
I know the pitfalls of DIY mastering... however I'm intrigued by mastering - so I enjoy trying to improve my mastering skills and overall understanding of the process.(fyi - I've attempted to read the Bob Katz book - much of it was over my head)

Most of my product is in the urban/ hip hope genre - so obviously the loudness wars are in full effect.


thanks in advance

You are entering the world of the 'dark arts'... mastering. Even though I do most of my own mastering (the musicians I work with typically can't afford Emily Lazar, Bob Ludwig, etc)... I wouldn't consider myself a mastering engineer.

Top of the line mastering studios have extraordinarily specialized summing consoles, eq systems, compressors, limiters, etc... along with exceptional rooms and monitors. The best mastering engineers have phenomenal ears, too.

Since you're in New York, I'd suggest you take just one of your tracks to The Lodge and sit through the mastering process with one of their engineers. It will be money well spent.
You'll learn more in the hour or so it takes to do that than in weeks of reading about it in Bob Katz's book (which is excellent).

There are other great mastering studios in New York.. but the Lodge comes to mind first...

As always, your results may vary.

[jlcnyc]

thanks for the replys (please keep 'em coming)
to nst7 - the pix on my website are old - I have added bass traps and other aurelex treatments. (I also use the IK room correction software to help with these issues) Also - my Genelec monitors sit on rubber stands that came with the monitors (so they are decoupled from the desk) I've wondered about the Primacoutic recoils but the Genelecs are rounded on the bottom. Anybody out there using the Recoils with Genelecs?

to marcpardon - thanks for your info. Are you saying that you do not use the Sonnox Limiter and Inflator together? (or did you mean you don't use the Limiter enhance fader and the Inflator together?) A few years ago - I coresponded with the guy who invented the Inflator - He said it was ok to use Inflator and Limiter together.

thanks again

[jlcnyc]

to darney - "dark arts" indeed! thanks for the suggestions
I have attended a couple of mastering sessions (as a passive participant)
One was at Sterlng Sound here in NYC. It was cool to watch Greg Calbi work - but I wasn't in a position to ask questions (not my product)
Checking out the Lodge sounds like a good idea
thanks again

[O.G. Killa]

the part of mastering that you are talking about, level, is more about gain staging and than anything else. You have to understand how different compressors work and understand how chaining them together changes the sound of the final product.

It sounds to me like you are trying to master your project using a compressor...and maybe a peak limiter?

The way to achieve the sound you are after is to do the opposite of what you think you should do. Most mastering engineers hit their L2 (or whatever peak limiter) very lightly, so it's attenuating by maybe 1dB at most.

In that regard, try moving backwards through your chain. Set your limiter (L2, L3, L2007, Whatever) so the threshold is maybe at -1 or -2dB. Then start inserting stuff in front of it to try to get the level up to where it is compressing by no more than 1 or 2 dB.

It's a common misconception that mastering is about slamming the limiter. It's really about tailoring the dynamic contents of the material so the limiter only has to work a little bit at the end of the chain.

And just FYI... most mastering studios I've been in/worked with end up using anywhere from 3 to 6 different compressors, 2 or 3 limiters, and 2 or 3 EQs in the chain. They also usually mod the gear so bypass is a true "hard" bypass. That way they can put something in bypass and take the electronics of the device completely out of the chain.

In most mastering studios there is usually an analog AND digital chain that the signal passes through. On the digital side of things I see a lot of Weiss EQs and compressors. On the analog side of things I see a lot of manley and Pultec EQs and compressors. When getting projects mastered at Capitol, Bernie Grundman, Precision, Marcussen, Lurssen, and Collins audio, I have never seen any of them use plugins in any capacity except for dither. That's not to say you couldn't make a great master using plugins... but it is saying that you can't expect any two pieces of equipment analog/digital/plugin to sound the same. A Manley VariMu sounds like a manley varimu and no digital or analog device sounds quite like it. Likewise the Sonnox Inflator plugin sounds like no other plugin out there...

But the guys you are trying ot emulate ARE NOT using the same pieces of equipment you are using. While the equipment is only a small part of the sound a mastering engineer gets... it still makes a difference when you have the right tool for the job and can hear how to use that tool. To make an analogy, You can't drive a nail into wood with a screw driver. Likewise you can't cut plywood sheets with a hammer, you need a saw. But even then, a circular saw or a skill saw will cut the plywood, but a tablesaw would be a much better choice.

When trying to master... make sure you aren't trying to use a band saw to do the work someone else did with a table saw and then wonder how they were able to cut the lines so straight. ;-)

Different compressors, limiters and EQs work differently and impart a different character to the audio passing through them. Don't expect ONE type of each to do the job for you...and don't expect the same equipment to work on every piece of music you master. When I'm at some of these mastering studios watching them master my mixes, on one mix they might bypass ALL the analog equipment. On another they might only use an Alan Smart C2, on the third mix they might have a Manley VariMu, A Manley Slam, a Pultec EQ, a pair of LA3As, a Neve EQ, the Weiss EQ and Weiss compressor, and the L2 on the mix. On one mix they might use their Lavry converters, on the next mix they might use the converters in the SLAM, and on another they might use their Prism Converters... It's all about understanding the effects every piece of gear you have can impart on program material and knowing when to use what to get the desired end result.

[marcpardon]

oxford limiter enhance function and inflator : you can combine them but I never do that ....

I don't think that mastering is a dark art .... use your brains and think logical .... be sure your equipment, monitoring, converters and acoustics are ok ....
Use a good analyser which gives a good frequency response from 30 hz - 22K

I use also recoils but with my K&H 0300's .... the bass gets tighter ....

I you want to smash your music till -5 db rms and still want to sound good and open : use compression on your subgroups .... you get better results than only limit the stereo master ...... and if you read the bob katz book : parallel compression is the thing!

[jlcnyc]

Originally Posted by marcpardon

oxford limiter enhance function and inflator : you can combine them but I never do that ....

I don't think that mastering is a dark art .... use your brains and think logical .... be sure your equipment, monitoring, converters and acoustics are ok ....
Use a good analyser which gives a good frequency response from 30 hz - 22K

I use also recoils but with my K&H 0300's .... the bass gets tighter ....

I you want to smash your music till -5 db rms and still want to sound good and open : use compression on your subgroups .... you get better results than only limit the stereo master ...... and if you read the bob katz book : parallel compression is the thing!

thanks for practical info

ok - here come the dumb questions....
parallel compression on the entire mix? stems? as a bus?
(I saw one post that advocated duplicating the track/file for parallel compression - but that doesn't seem right to me? due to latency issues)

[marcpardon]

Originally Posted by jlcnyc

thanks for practical info

ok - here come the dumb questions....
parallel compression on the entire mix? stems? as a bus?
(I saw one post that advocated duplicating the track/file for parallel compression - but that doesn't seem right to me? due to latency issues)

there are no dumb questions .... and the story of Killa is a very good one but will not helping you ..... you have only plugins .... so you can make a good master with the stuff you have ....

you can divide your session in subgroups ..... all drums in bus 1-2 ..... all gitars in bus 3-4 .... etc ...... you can use compression on the bus masters .....

latency can be a problem when you use plugins that don't have latency = 0 .... but you can compensate that with time adjuster .....

the same story for parallel compression : use time adjuster for compensating the latency .....