calling all mastering gurus

[marcpardon]

by the way : there is a nice video on delay compensation on the "air users blog"!

[Darney]

Originally Posted by 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

Well, you're on the right track, asking great questions. Of course, Sterling is one of the best and Greg Calbi is a legend with a discography that is massive.

[O.G. Killa]

Originally Posted by jlcnyc

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)

Yup... parallel compression on the stereo mix. It's one of the most widely used features on the Weiss DS1.

http://www.weiss.ch/ds1/ds1.html

You don't "need" the DS1 in order to do this technique. But just with everything else, YMMV. In the end it's not the gear, it's your ears that make something sound good. Being able to hear WHEN you should use parallel compression on the stereo mix and when you shouldn't is more important than how you go about doing it.

[musicalavtech]

Originally Posted by marcpardon

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

You can insert the same compressor, eq...(bypassed), on the uncompressed bus to compensate for latency.

[waltz mastering]

Originally Posted by marcpardon

I you want to smash your music till -5 db rms and still want to sound good and open

This is pretty much impossible to achieve. Even if you are measuring with a meter that uses the AES 17 standard sine wave for calibration.

I would love to hear an example of music that has an rms of -5 dB and still sounds good and open.

[Kling3]

An excellent source on this topic is "Mastering In Pro Tools" with Phil Magnotti. Worth every penny for the video download. Probably the best video I've purchased on the topic of PT. I was glued to this video on first run though and reference it often. An great foundation on mastering...

Phil Magnotti

[jlcnyc]

Originally Posted by waltz mastering

This is pretty much impossible to achieve. Even if you are measuring with a meter that uses the AES 17 standard sine wave for calibration.

I would love to hear an example of music that has an rms of -5 dB and still sounds good and open.

I guess I'm speaking "relatively". Again, we're talking hip hop, so some distortion is present. (and maybe my metering is suspect too) Bottom line, when I attempt to match levels (with commercial releases) by using limiting (among other things), my mix "disintegrates" - so obviously the trick isn't in slamming the limiter. So I guess that's why I started this thread in the first place
I've always felt that a big part of getting a hot master was probably about reeling in certain frequencies in the initial mix. I'm trying to learn how to recognize/hear the "problems". I appreciate all of the feedback.

[jlcnyc]

Originally Posted by Kling3

An excellent source on this topic is "Mastering In Pro Tools" with Phil Magnotti. Worth every penny for the video download. Probably the best video I've purchased on the topic of PT. I was glued to this video on first run though and reference it often. An great foundation on mastering...

Phil Magnotti

thanks - I'll check it out. I downloaded a similar video (it was "Logic's mastering toolkit") While it was informative, the info was pretty basic - nothing I didn't already know. Guess I'm looking for "secret tips from the pros"

[waltz mastering]

In order to get things loud and still hold together, I think the single most important issue is frequency and energy distribution followed by gain staging...being able to hear what is going on through a full range system... I would put limiting near the bottom. ymmv.

[Darney]

Originally Posted by waltz mastering

In order to get things loud and still hold together, I think the single most important issue is frequency and energy distribution followed by gain staging...being able to hear what is going on through a full range system... I would put limiting near the bottom. ymmv.

+1