A few years ago, Ronan Chris Murphy mastered our 'Bluebell Woods' EP
WOW!
I am a huge fan of Ronan Chris Murphy - I absolutely LOVE his approach to mixing and mastering and he has a great way of putting his concepts across.
This is one of the toughest parts as you need to do this while preserving the original mix and intent!
I completely agree with this
Thank you so much for the kind words and I am pleased my version has gone down so well. If it is helpful I will share my general approach to mastering...
I always carefully listen to the track and try to understand what the song/mix is trying to "communicate" - my job is then to choose a mastering approach that best supports and enhances the mix and the song
If possible I also talk to the "song owner" (either the writer, producer, mixer etc.) to understand their "vision" for what the end product should sound like (eg using RAM's example he would say he doesn't want it too squashed and would rather sacrifice volume for dynamics etc.)
I have purposely not developed a robotic process for mastering and I have no presets - I start from scratch with each master
Having said that I have developed a "chain" of plugins that I tend to use, which I can switch in and out depending on the approach I am taking
In the case of this mix I felt the mastering should focus on increasing the "energy" of the mix, pull out the vocal to enhance the "intimate" vocal in the mix (which involved removing some of the boominess in the original mix), add some clarity to the mix to help get some definition between the instruments, and subtly "smooth out" some of the spikeyness in the mix by reducing some peaks
There is obviously only so much that can be done with a Stereo master file - mixing a song using the original tracks would allow for much better mixing and mastering
Here is the approach I took and the plugins used for this master:
Waves SSL G Bus Compressor - Some very subtle compression to help glue everything together
Izotope Ozone - Detailed EQ shaping to remove any "mud", booms, and if necessary enhance certain features of the mix
Izotope Ozone - Exciter to add some SUBLTE excitement (light distortion) to specific frequency bands
Izotope Ozone - Multi-Band compression - this is where a master can be quickly ruined! I very carefully compress different frequency bands by different amounts to sculpt the sound
Izotope Ozone - Stereo Image - check stereo image and apply widening (or narrowing) of the stereo image of the mix - eg in this case I narrowed the lower frequencies to give a more "mono" low end to beef up the foundation of the mix, slightly narrowed the vocal to enhance the intimacy and then widened the upper mids/high to help with the clarity and separation of the mix. I also do my first test for mono compatibility at this point
Waves J37 Tape Saturation - I really like to use the J37 in a subtle way to add some "analogue warmth" to the mix
Izotope Ozone - Final EQ - I have another instance of Ozone near the end of the chain with an EQ to do any final EQ tweaks
Waves L1 Limiter - The final stage of my mastering is the limiting where I decide how "loud" the final mix should be. This is very much done "by ear" to achieve the most appropriate balance between achieving a commercial loudness but retaining the dynamics. This is VERY subjective and is done to support the song
Although this looks like a linear workflow it is most definitely not - I constantly jump back and forth between the different steps to achieve the right blend
The most useful thing I have learnt is doing "lots of very subtle" things rather than trying to make dramatic changes
I hope this helps shed light on my approach and I would be happy to answer any questions
As I am still learning my craft I offer VERY cheap rates to forum members
I charge £20 to master a song (with discounts for multiple songs
) and I charge £75 to "mix and master" a song using your individual tracks (which will result in a much better finished product)