Mastering with one fell swoop

[albee1952]

Originally Posted by BohoProAudio

I guess the important thing that I've always tried to remember is: Get it right in tracking. Then get it right in mixing. Don't expect the mixing process to fix tracking mistakes, and don't expect mastering to fix bad mixing. Take your time listening. Take the time to listen in as many environments as possible. And mastering is all about small adjustments. If it requires heavy-handed, drastic steps, it needs to go back to mix.

Well said

[mij sang]

I do have fun mixing and mastering in one fell swoop, I will try to kill my room and try a higher sample rate also experiment with BROho's techniques. Thanks for sharing your techniques and ideas, they do not come without a lot of time and effort.
after all these are mixing tricks not magic tricks.

Sincere Thanks

[BohoProAudio]

Originally Posted by mij sang

I do have fun mixing and mastering in one fell swoop, I will try to kill my room and try a higher sample rate also experiment with BROho's techniques. Thanks for sharing your techniques and ideas, they do not come without a lot of time and effort.
after all these are mixing tricks not magic tricks.

Sincere Thanks

No problem, mij. They were passed down to me by people with much more experience, so I can't take the credit.

[Bob Olhsson]

What mastering has never been is signal processing in spite of the fact dozens of manufacturers, developers and dealers all have their hands out ready to take people's money!

The goal in mixing should always be for mastering to be just as close to a flat transfer as possible. You can do a much better job of eq and compression in the mix while you still have control over each element than anybody can do after the fact. Often fader moves on individual tracks or the master produce a far more exciting final product than compression after the fact. A mix isn't "done" until it has been checked on lots of different speakers including in a few cars, headphones and some full range speakers.

You want mastering to be a final quality check that catches and corrects anything you missed that might distract people from a positive first impression. Yes, we do sometimes "save" mixes when they can't possibly be redone but the results always sound better when it's done in the mix. Mastering is detailing the car as opposed to putting the final coat of paint on it.

The one thing to leave off a mix is any final limiting for volume. The reason for doing this is simply because there is no way to know what the final volume of a track needs to be outside the context of a particular album or compilation. Until that's been defined, there is no way to know what limiter and settings will sound the best.

[mij sang]

thank you

[Ben Jenssen]

Originally Posted by Bob Olhsson

What mastering has never been is signal processing...

The goal in mixing should always be for mastering to be just as close to a flat transfer as possible. You can do a much better job of eq and compression in the mix while you still have control over each element than anybody can do after the fact...

You want mastering to be a final quality check that catches and corrects anything you missed that might distract people from a positive first impression...

Mastering is detailing the car as opposed to putting the final coat of paint on it.

Yes. I think it's really messed up.
The term 'mastering' is being used everywhere, and most often by people who think it's about "EQ'ing and compressing, slapping on a gate for noise reduction, and piping it thru a reverb, before limiting it for volume."

In my opinion you shouldn't need to master a mix that sounds good, except for sample rate conversion and overall volume, wich is almost unavoidable today.

In the tape-and-vinyl days, mastering essensially meant getting it from tape to the metal master disc (the vinyl mold) without losing quality, and that the music sounded good when the record was played. The ME made shure that the vinyl grooves had the right distance from each other, the optimal depth, width (volume) and so on. And often, yes, it could be that the mastering even could make it sound a little bit BETTER also.

[JFreak]

Whaaatt? So you don't fix everything in the shrink wrap

Seriously, the previous poster nailed it. Song should be mixed perfectly and mastering is just quality control. Or, as said, if you are into vinyl then you would really love an old-fashioned skilled Mastering Engineer.