Double sample rate for finalizing?

[Ben Jenssen]

I have a friend who has asked me to help him "master" some pop-rock songs. His rough mixes sound OK, but I think his thinking is that I can help fix problems, give it that extra little polish, and maximize the volume.

Now, I never pretended to be a mastering engineer, or even a very professional audio engineer, but I have pretty long solid experience all the way back to tape and (semi-pro) consoles, although I'm self-taught. And, though I'm pretty much retired, I still have a good PT10 setup with nice listening on my passive Dynaudio BM6 monitors that I know well. And I have a good selection of plugins that he lacks.

I'm suggesting to him that he makes sessions with his mixes as they are, only with everything "cooked down" to 8-10 stereo stems (prints), no plugins, faders at -0, so we can work on the "finishing" process toghether at my place. Some light colouring, dynamics, EQ fixing, bus compression and limiting. Kind of finishing touch mixing, and home mastering, in one.

Now, to my question:
Would there be any advantage, if I was to convert these sessions to 88,1 kHz (doubling) before we start? Giving the plugins we use double the amount of data?

I've never worked on higher sample rates than 44,1/48. Never had a good reason to.

(I guess if he was to do this up-sampling before he prints his stems, it would have a much more fundamental impact, but that's not an alternative. His system would never be able to handle it.)

Good idea, or total waste of time?

[Drew Mazurek]

First, what you're proposing is called Stem Mastering. As opposed to traditional 2-track Mastering.

Second, it's possible that doing what you said could very subtlety improve the sonics of certain plugins (primarily ones that DON'T internally up-sample already) as well as any analog outboard gear you may use because your converters might sound better at the higher rate.

Either way, I don't think you'll do any harm, so I say try it and learn something in the process.

[albee1952]

I agree with Drew. When I send stuff out to be mastered, I tend to bounce to 96K(sessions are at 48K). I also tend to mix hot(just below hitting red on the master), so I trim the master down 6db.

Having said that, maybe the first step would be to critique the mix and give advice on improving things before they come to you for "mastering". (like you, I also DON'T call myself a mastering engineer, despite having plenty of the "tools")

[Ben Jenssen]

Thanks, Drew and Dave.
That's pretty much what I thought. I'll try it with one of the songs, and not expect to hear any difference.

Dave, of course the mix is most important, polishing turds and all that, and I already have had a kind of advisory role in his mix process.