DIY Mastering - Steps From Begining 2 End (and tools)!!

[bradjacob]

I wanted to know what everyone's step by step process for mastering was - including the tools used

And how successful were you?

And do you have any audio examples of before & after?

Replies to this post, would make a huge impact - as I don't see a lot of mastering topics that often.

Thanks!
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- Brad
www.GhostsOfTheParting.com
www.MapleLaneRecording.com

[inverseroom]

You know, I did it myself this time around using Ozone 3 and Voxengo Elephant. And, no offense to the guy who did my last album--because he did a superb job--but I think it sounds really good.

I can't recommend Ozone more enthusiastically. I thought it would semi-suck, really, and it's true that there is a lot of opportunity for abuse packed into it. But EVERYTHING ON IT sounds good. The EQ is good, the multiband compression is good, the exciter is good, and the limiter is excellent. Elephant was sorta the icing on the cake...I think it represents the first time I have ever actually used a preset on a piece of software: one called "Punchy +3.0db".

There's some stuff in Ozone that cheapened the sound for me...like the stereo imaging stuff (I think I did use it a tiny little bit, but it went a LONG way)...and the reverb, which I can't really see using when mastering. But you can just turn 'em off.

I'll try to get some tracks up...
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New album out now! clicky

[JASIII]

What kind of $ do these programs cost?

[chris harris]

the Universal Audio mastering suite for the UAD-1 is pretty nice. Pretty transparent limiting and clean, precise eq. The bundle includes multiband comp/expander, eq, and limiter. I think it's about $500 for the bundle.

[inverseroom]

Ozone's a couple hundred bucks, but I teach at a college so I got the academic version for cheap. Elephant is $69.
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New album out now! clicky

[Rodgre]

I like Ozone as well, but I've gotten good results with other plug-ins for mastering, or rather, pre-mastering.

My up-front disclaimer is that there is never a substitute for objective ears in a tuned room with some really great sounding gear, sometimes analog (through ridiculous converters!) While I feel I have done some decent mastering jobs on my own, I would still rather have an objective ear do it.

That said, I think there are three crucial plug-ins for quickie mastering. A great sounding EQ, a great sounding multi-band limiter and for that added "gernersaykwah" something that can "enhance" things with secret spells or jedi mind tricks.

I like the UAD Cambridge EQ for surgical mastering. When I need really sharp and specific EQ, this works for me. I also like Roger Nichols' Eqium, and sometimes the current EQ III with Protools. The UAD mastering stuff is really nice too, though I only demo'd the EQ.

For limiting, I love the Massey mastering limiter. Love love love it. Then I like the Waves L2. I think I used Maxim once and it was okay. Roger Nichols' Neodynium is cool but confusing, but his Finis is awesome.

For the special sauce category, I include Waves' S1 Imager for subtle things and for "rube goldberg" M/S processing (I think I've done it, but I don't think I did it well.... that is separating the sides from the middle, to process them separately). I love PSP stuff, especially MixSaturator. I also like McDsp's Analog Channel AC2 for a little color.

All in ones: There's the T-Racks which has gotten better over the years and can do some decent stuff, but back to the original point, the Izotope Ozone is sick. It does it all and very well. I don't use it as much as I should actually. That's why I haven't won a grammy I think.

I think the most important point to make, however is not what plug-ins you need and what to do with them, but what not to do. I find it hard to be objective when mastering my own stuff. I start to second-guess my mixing decisions. "Oh, I'll add this crazy bump in the bottom end for the sub-woofers, and suck out this midrange so it sounds heavy.... and squash this and that...." I think that in order to do a good job mastering your stuff, you need to establish some sense of objectivity: a reference point. Listen to similar store-bought CDs with good mastering jobs. CDs that sound good wherever you listen to them. Then listen to your mix. What's different? Try to keep referencing other things in order to avoid just glopping on EQ where you don't need it. Also do as little as possible! Don't EQ in large doses. I find I'm either doing tight boosting or mostly cutting of a couple of frequencies or else .5db boosts with very broad Q. I feel that if you already mixed it to sound like you think it should sound, then you shouldn't feel the need to do all this drastic EQing. Same with the dynamics. Some multiband limiting to keep it loud and powerful sounding is great, but pulverizing until the waveform looks like a solid block is not so great. There is a way to make it sound huge and loud and present like your favorite CD without killing it completely. Remember, you're trying to make it sound BETTER, not ruin your hard work.


Roger
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www.rogerlavallee.com

Tremolo Lounge Recording
www.tremolo.com

www.curtainsociety.com

[8th_note]

Another vote here for Ozone.

I record unsigned bands and they just don't have the money to get the CD mastered. So I've become a one-stop-shop and I'm not sure how to say this without sounding smug, but I think I'm able to put out a fairly professional sounding CD. At least my clients have been happy.

Like Rodgre I use a reference (or two or three) when mixing and mastering. That keeps me grounded. I'm always shooting for a particular sound and the references keeps me from drifting too far off the mark.

I try not to use EQ when mastering. If something's out of whack, particularly when I push the limiter, I go back and fix it in the mix. That way I don't kill the kick if I'm trying to tame the bass guitar, for example. There's a multiband harmonic enhancer in Ozone that I've found to be very useful but it takes a while to learn how to use the thing. I've gone back and made changes in the mix when I've used that tool as well. It can put some of that sheen onto a mix that we expect to hear from a mastered recording but it can also really screw things up.

Here's a couple of songs that I've done. I don't have the before version handy but you can judge the final product:

Lilith
Poppin' Pills & Climbin' Hills

[inverseroom]

To save time, I wonder if somebody here could write a script that puts this at the beginning of every single post:

[MoreSpaceEcho]

for my last record it was:

a db of plug in eq in like 2 or 3 spots

out via lavry black

a db of compression on drawmer 1969, some output gain

into fatso, no compression, just running through it

back in via lavry blue

a db or two limiting on the elephant

convert sample rate wih r8brain

internal wavelab dither

done

[MASSIVE Mastering]

Mastering step by step -

1) Listen.

2) Do what the mix tells you to do.

3) Done.

I don't pick the chain until I've heard what it needs.
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John Scrip - MASSIVE Mastering

[Babaluma]

i use the freeware "endorphin" mastering 2 band compressor/limiter/eq/ms encoder/decoder vst plugin.

don't laugh - i've been using it for years and i LOVE what it can do to a finished track. and again, it's free...

of course it's better to send it to a real ME, but if you wanna have a go yourself...

here's a completely digital ambient track (apart from the fish tank samples at the end) i made in audiomulch, put through endorphin for added warmth afterwards:

http://darkflame.hermetech.net/Musick/01TsunamiTidalWaves.mp3

[Rigsby]

[scott anthony]

Ozone is pretty cool for the price. I thought it was a big step up from my Finalizer and a fraction the price. Slightly OT, sometimes I like the Ozone levelizer thingy for vocals (hog alert).

In the last 10 months or so I've moved on to SawStudio and the SS Levelizer and the Sonoris plugins for mastering. A huge leap forward from Ozone...
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-s
www.viewing-room.com

[scott anthony]

OK, procedure. I'm sure this has been discussed...

1) Open a new session in DAW (SawStudio) and put each song on it's own track.

2) Season to taste with whatever processing is called for.

3) Slide the songs back and forth to adjust timing between, adjusting fades.

4) A final check tweaking relative volume levels of each song (none too loud or soft).

5) Build a test mix of the loudest point on the album.

6) Insert Levelizer on output of DAW and measure how low before optimal the test mix is and adjust Levelizer for final album volume.

7) Drop CD markers at head of each selection.

Provide CDText info for each song in Cue sheet generator.

9) Buld mix to one WAV file that is the final master image.

10) Open generated cue sheet in EAC and burn a disc-at-once CDText master.
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-s
www.viewing-room.com

[bradjacob]