Preparing for a mastering engineer

WasterEx

I've been reading loads on mixing down and I've gotten my tracks to sound as good as I can get them to sound, just using channel volumes and eq's. Is there anything else I should be doing?

If I was to get the stems mastered too should I remove the eq's on each channel and leave the whole thing 'default'?

If I was not getting the stems mastered should I do my own mastering and then send my 'mastered' version away?

What's the ideal/ typical way to go about doing this?

Sorry about all the questions :pac:

peter05

No compression or limiting on your master bus, that's a BIG no no. send them at -6db so master engineer will have dynamics to work with. you should not have anything on your master bus after mixing.

Unless you have a very good understanding of how all the freq. interact in mastering I wouldn't attempt it. You could be cutting a freq. while boosting another without realizing it.

Where ever your sending it will let you know how they want to receive stems.

madtheory

Forget about stems. You either have a mix or you don't. Make a commitment.

So you've created a mix without using any compressors? Kudos to you. How does it sound on different systems?

I think, to play it safe, yes, don't put any dynamics processing on the master. Not a hard and fast rule though. If you know what you're doing, compression might be exactly what's needed. You do need to know what you're doing though. Notice I said that twice. Because it's important. Avoid limiters though.

-6dB of headroom is probably a bit too much. It's very possible to have clipping in the mixer and not know about it, especially with Pro Tools- unfortunately a bus could be clipping at the summing point, and that doesn't show a clip warning. Dropping the master by 6dB won't solve that. The only way to check it is to use master faders at summing points. Major source of "digititis" as Bob Katz calls it. Pro Tools is stupid about dither too, another cause of digititis.

WasterEx

There's a couple of things there that I didn't know.

@madtheory actually forgot to mention I'm also using compressors. Will that matter?

Interesting one, so really the main thing would be to avoid touching the master bus (until I really know what I'm doing) and leave a lot of headroom in the mix.

Alright that's cool. Cheers lads!

splitrmx

Compressors are really easy to overuse on the mix bus, a small amount of compression can be a good thing though, as long as you're not slamming the mix.

If the wave form looks like a perfect rectangle then you're overdoing it with compression on the mix bus.

Yedya

Leave the master at -6 as peter said,dont have any FX on the master,espically if you don't know what they do.

peter05

Yedya wrote: »

Leave the master at -6 as peter said,dont have any FX on the master,espically if you don't know what they do.

Each M.E will be different. That's just my gain structure @ -6 before any processing begins.

PaulBrewer

One of the values of using a professional mastering engineer is the feedback on the mix BEFORE he masters .

madtheory

Which, in case Paul's wonderfully succinct point is unclear, means that this debate is pointless. Go find a mastering engineer, establish your working relationship, learn, and make a great sounding album.

I would also add: use your ears. Learn what clipping distortion sounds like. As I said earlier, putting the main outs at -6dBFS is no guarantee that you haven't created clipping distortion by mistake. And not every mastering engineer requires that anyway. Note that it's very very hard to use your ears if you don't have decent monitors in an acoustically treated room.

peter05

madtheory wrote: »

Which, in case Paul's wonderfully succinct point is unclear, means that this debate is pointless. Go find a mastering engineer, establish your working relationship, learn, and make a great sounding album.

I would also add: use your ears. Learn what clipping distortion sounds like. As I said earlier, putting the main outs at -6dBFS is no guarantee that you haven't created clipping distortion by mistake. And not every mastering engineer requires that anyway. Note that it's very very hard to use your ears if you don't have decent monitors in an acoustically treated room.

Ha! I should have obviously made clearer that the reference to dbFS is gain structuring on M.E end of things.

I couldn't agree with you more madtheory. Heard a mix/master from an established studio recently with a dull master and vocal clipping. Artist was unaware and is still planning on a full release with the recording. I put it down to bad monitors and fatigue on engineers end but that's no excuse for poor mix/master.