Professional Mastering of Homerecordings

[jach]

How realistic is it to get a good sound by recording at home with a digital recorder and cassette 4 track. I intend to record with this limited equipment but have someone that knows a little bit more about recording to fix the mixes. Is there anything I should know about doing it this way?

[drumsound]

Treat it as if it's a major label release. Don't think, "It's just a 4-track so it'll never sound good." Play with mic placement and instrument changes etc. Go for the "magic take." Treat the project with respect and seriousness and it will sound that way. One of my favorite records ever was done on a 4-track in an activity room that needed to be checked-out in a dorm.

Have Fun!

[soundguy]

the thing you should know about a "fix the mix" approach to mastering is to just save your money and wait to master your project at the point that YOUVE made a good mix. Mastering can adda nice shape to your mix but its not going to fix a poor souding mix, the is the greatest misconception out there. If you have a friend that knows more about recording and you want him to help you out, you should ask him to help you mix instead of just letting him master. Id rather listen to a well mixed unmastered thing than a poorly mixed well mastered thing.
dave

[jach]

Thanks for the advice. Appreciate the input.

I have really liked some of the things I have recorded but sometimes its perfect except for one thing. Like' there is too much bass or it's too quiet. I guess I should keep mixing till it ends up almost perfect(which is relative with home recording). I guess thats what you are trying to say to me.

"One of my favorite records ever was done on a 4-track in an activity room that needed to be checked-out in a dorm."


drumsound. Which one would that be?

[inverseroom]

I recorded my last CD at home and had it professionally mastered. It was worth the money in my opinion--the record sounds great. Some people will do a sample track for you--give it a whirl.

[fremitus]

just to mention it. The new WAVES L3 multimaximizer is SICK! (it's a mastering plug in, useing linear phase crossovers to split the signal into five bands and then gives you massive control over the peak limiting of each band) They have a free demo download at their website. For anyone on a budget, download it the day you finish mixing. you'll have 14 days to listen and crank it. Very cool...

[NeglectedFred]

Agreed. I've been using the L1 Maximizer. If you look at the waves after you apply it, you'll almost hesitate using it..... Until you hear it..

Practically inaudible - but squashed like a pancake.

[Cellotron]

Agreed. I've been using the L1 Maximizer. If you look at the waves after you apply it, you'll almost hesitate using it..... Until you hear it..

Practically inaudible - but squashed like a pancake.

Ummmm - eerrrr -
I'll have to heartily disagree with you. L1+ is before Waves implemented ARC (automatic release control) and a number of other optimizations to the algorithm - in my experience it can leave your audio sounding like a buzz saw chopped through it.
I'd suggest improving your monitor chain if you can't hear the damage it does when you push it's threshold low enough to give you the "2 x 4" look to your wav form - it's probably sounding great in your studio but not translating as well as possible to other systems.

As for the L3 - I've found that it can indeed be more transparent if properly set than the L2 for a lot of material. Main thing is that with the parameter control Waves have given the operator enough rope to hang themselves - it's really critical to have great monitoring when working with and doing a lot of a/b's with level matched unprocessed material to get the best results out of it. I like the L3 but certainly don't use it on everything and have found the best results when chaining it subtly set with a wide band limiter also subtly set.

Responding to the original question - I do a lot of mastering work on tracks originating from project studios and 9 times out of 10 found that mastering can make very substantial improvements for things that haven't been recorded or mixed in optimum situations. Main thing is to have expectations in line with reality - usually we're talking a bump up of a "grade" in mastering - i.e. mastering can usually help make a "B grade" mix sound like an "A grade" master - but if the mix is an "F" usually the best we can get it to is get it to a "D"!

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[fremitus]

i totally agree with cellotron. the L1 is not so good for anything beyond a couple of dB. you can use a pencil tool and normalize and get better results. i guess i should have thrown a bit more info in the last post, but yes, there certainly is enough rope to hang one's self with the new L3. but the power is there too. a lot of A/Bing is key. start with the L2, i say go ahead and crank it. take some material that is already normalized and set the threshold to -8. then you'll hear what kind of artifacts are going to be introduced. it's burly. then roll it back until those artifacts are negligable or non-existent (subjective). I am not a 'mastering' engineer per se, but i rarely put anything past 4dB... this is due to my original tests of the L2 where everything just 'felt' different and not better past that. anyways. L3 still rocks. but be gentle...

[wedge]

I recorded my last CD at home and had it professionally mastered.

inverseroom...

I don't mean to hyjack the thread, but I went to your website and took a listen to your stuff, and I really dig it! You definitely have a knack for a tuneful melody and also the song ideas are interesting and funny. I'd love to hear a full 3 or 4 minute song of yours. BTW, how did the mastering process go, being that you had 100 songs (albeit very short ones)? Was the guy able to blow through them after a few initial settings, or was it a headache at all? Just curious...

[surf's up]

It is definitely possible to get decent recordings on the equipment you described. If the songwriting is good, and the performances are good, youre very close; one reason you might be having trouble getting your mixes the way you want is monitoring. If you can afford it, you might look into getting some better quality monitors for mixing. Hearing the mix accurately can really help you recognize what needs to be fixed (and when to leave the mix alone).

Other than that, I know its a cliche answer, but just keep trying different things. Dont be afraid of a new mic placement or doing something unusual to see what happens.

[sthslvrcnfsn]

in order to preface the mess that is sure to follow, let me say this: in my HUMBLE opinion (not bullshit I"MHO"), all recording starts with the sound source - the instrument. The next most important thing to me is always the next in the recording chain - mic placement. If anybody disagrees, I'll loan you my 15 year old Sony/RadioShit Omni with the 1/8" output. Put that baby in a good spot, and it'll perform.... What I'm saying is, start from the beginning of the line.

That being said, my favorite home-recording tactic is putting a mic in the hallway, or the next small room adjacent to the space yer playing in, and point it at any wall, about 2" from the upper corner of the room (or hallway, etc.). This would seem to get a lot of reflections, but I've never run into problems dealing with it - it sounds more "real" to my ears than a lot of other mic placements in the places I've lived. Adjust the mic TOWARDS the corner of the room until you have optimal bass. If you are recording a live band - 3+ instruments - put the mic where I mentioned, and then fiddle around for good balance. For me, kick vs. bass is solved in the relationship between the intersection of 2 walls. What i mean is, where the ceiling and any one other wall - not the "corner".

Even when I have 8+ mics going in any given living room, I always like the "next room mic" the most. Center it off the corner, work it between 2 walls for bs.vs.kick, and then work the "corner" to get the mix. THEN master it!

I have done one full-album length project just so, where the "next room mic" ended up dominating everything because it sounded so good. I have also recorded so many evenings where the "next room mic" was the only mic, and sounded great.

long winded jim!

[sthslvrcnfsn]

More to the point, I use Sound Forge 6 to master. Even the basic plugins make things sound passable. In the "engineering job listings" forum, I mentioned an album I recorded with my friends - metal guitars+acoustic+drum machine+live drums+mandolin+DELAY PEDAL ON EVERYTHING+screaming, pretty singing, falsetto+xylaphone+thrift store keyboards+samples+etc. Most of that crap was used on every song, and Sound Forge smashed it together nicely enough to make some goddam admirable CDRs out of.

anyways, dig SF if can afford it. Best friends with the living room musician with a basic computer.

jim!

[sthslvrcnfsn]

More to the point, I use Sound Forge 6 to master. Even the basic plugins make things sound passable. In the "engineering job listings" forum, I mentioned an album I recorded with my friends - metal guitars+acoustic+drum machine+live drums+mandolin+DELAY PEDAL ON EVERYTHING+screaming, pretty singing, falsetto+xylaphone+thrift store keyboards+samples+etc. Most of that crap was used on every song, and Sound Forge smashed it together nicely enough to make some goddam admirable CDRs out of.

anyways, dig SF if can afford it. Best friends with the living room musician with a basic computer.

jim!

[Brian]

better post some links to those recordings cuz I'm jonesin to hear'em now that you went'n'bragged.