[Alan Starkie]

Taking time off from writing/recording and researching mastering in-depth to get the most out of about 14 songs I have that are signed but still ok to remix/remaster and resubmit.

Gonna remix and remaster to as near as dammit pro studio standard.

Need to be on some sort of level playing field.

Research is your friend!

[Boydie]

I think that will be time well spent

I can't recommend OZONE highly enough for mastering

Let us know what you discover on your "sabbatical" and good luck

[Alan Starkie]

I think that will be time well spent

I can't recommend OZONE highly enough for mastering

Let us know what you discover on your "sabbatical" and good luck

Been working on a song remixing and remastering.

Have done three masters using Ozone, T-Racks24 and separate Waves plugins.

My findings have been :

Ozone - Slight brittleness and loss of body (MID) in final master.

T-Racks24 - I have always used this and have been pleased with the results but it sounds boxy in comparison to the others.

Waves separate mastering plugins - by far the loudest and most natural sounding final master. Quite transparent even with 8/9 plugins in the chain.

Surprised by these results.

The Waves plugins take a lot more time configuring and setting up but with very subtle use on each plugin, the end result is the best in my opinion.

The research continues....

[Boydie]

I don't think you can go too far wrong with any of those!

I find OZONE great - but you are right about the brittleness if you are not careful/mindful of it

I have learnt to be very careful with the "exciters" and always use the "multi-band" or "mid/side" options to keep the natural warmth but then work on specific frequencies - or in the case of mid/side I like to keep the "middle" natural and experiment with the "sides"

T-RACKS always sounds great

I am still getting to grips with the WAVES stuff - I got the GOLD bundle and VocalRider recently

I also came to the conclusion that the WAVES stuff sounds best using a "little of each" rather than using just one to transform the sound

[tone]

Mainly gibberish to me I have to say. But I hope one of you can answer a question.

I learned about 'side' EQ yesterday, and I have to say, it confuses the hell outta me.

If a stereo image is made up of 2 separate audio files, how is it possible to EQ the 'sides' separately while leaving the 'centre' natural? Makes no sense at all :s

[Boydie]

If a stereo image is made up of 2 separate audio files, how is it possible to EQ the 'sides' separately while leaving the 'centre' natural? Makes no sense at all :s

That is the "magic" that the Mid/Side processor does

It takes the stereo image and allows you to treat it as "the middle" and "the sides" - rather than "left & right"

If you think about the stereo image going in to the processor it is actually quite straight forward...

In a stereo signal the sound that appears to be in the middle of the stereo field has equal amounts in the left and right stereo channels - so any sound with equal amounts in the left & right channel is treated by the processor as the "MID" information

Therefore the "SIDE" information is audio that has differing amounts in the left & right channels

The Mid/Side processor is then able to treat these 2 streams of audio (Mid & Side) in completely different ways

At the end of the process the signal is combined back to a standard stereo "Left & Right" signal


Some good examples of use are...

Adding some reverb to just the "side" information to give the track some "space" but retaining a solid focus in the centre (eg the vocal)

You could even use Mid/Side processing on the reverb return - eg using an EQ you could scoop out the vocal frequencies in the MID so that it doesn't "muddy" the vocal but leave it present in the SIDES


Another good use is on BASS, especially synth bass

If the synth bass has a stereo effect you can use MID/SIDE processing to keep the bass mono and punchy in the centre of the stereo field and then be a little more adventurous with the SIDES  for some stereo "excitement", whilst keeping the weight of the bass centred

How about running all your guitars to a BUS and then using MID/SIDE processing to bring up the volume of just the SIDE signal of all the guitars up for a chorus or solo section - ie increase the volume of all your guitars but just in the SIDES, without increasing the volume of the MID portion of the guitar signal, so the vocal is still clear

A common trick of MID/SIDE processing is to add a high frequency EQ boost to just the SIDE portion of the signal for a particular instrument or vocal

This gives the impression of a wider stereo spread, whilst leaving the important CENTRE information in tact


On an acoustic track if you are mastering  and want to "warm up" the track you can experiment with adding reverb to just the SIDES so that you don't muddy up your bass and kick (which are likely to be in the centre - MID - portion of the signal) - or add reverb to the MID but scoop out the "lows" to keep it clean


There are other ways to achieve these "tricks" but MID/SIDE is a great technique to get your head around as another tool in the box

Hope this helps TONE

[tone]

that is magic!

Thanks Boydie, that explains it perfectly

[DevyE]

I agree totally with your assessment Alan as I've come to the same conclusion using these tools. I have found Ozone to be brittle sounding, T=Racks boxy/muddy and Waves confusing and just believed it was my poor mastering skills. I'm sure in the right hands these tools can get great results but for me it takes a lot of effort to just get in the ball park which I find frustrating.

I look forward to reading your progress on the research 

[Alan Starkie]

Read up on loads of mastering techniques and every tuitional video I can find.

Lots of great stuff out there.

The one most important thing I'm finding is the art of subtlety when mastering.

I've mastered the same track about ten times now and I've found the best results using (in this order) -

Low cut

Hi shelf

Bass harmonic exciter

Compressor

Multiband compressor

Clipper

Maximiser

So far sounding good.

Most importantly, I've definitely discovered that once you can hear a plugin working - back it off so you can't any longer and that will be the correct level. Maybe still a little too hot sometimes.

The sum of all the plugins has the desired effect though.

Still need to read up on saturation and valve plugins too.

Not finished by a long way but the benefits are huge.

I thought my mastering was quite good. It wasn't.

Watch this space.

[Boydie]

That is the fun ( and frustrating ) thing about mastering

When you have something you sussed for one track you pretty much have to go back to the drawing board for the next!

[digger72]

I found this useful. I don't have all the plugins, but  have some which do similar jobs.

[Neil C]

DevyE re

I agree totally with your assessment Alan as I've come to the same conclusion using these tools. I have found Ozone to be brittle sounding, T=Racks boxy/muddy and Waves confusing and just believed it was my poor mastering skills. I'm sure in the right hands these tools can get great results but for me it takes a lot of effort to just get in the ball park which I find frustrating.

I'm lazy and just use Ozone presets. You can hear the difference between them and I select the most natural for the song add a touch of maximiser and bobs your uncle. Not as loud as many but as an amateur they sound alright for me.
If you want pro invest in time and money or pay someone I guess..
 
Neil

[Jamie]

Hi guys, after a period of hibernation and reflection, I decided to upgrade my recording kit and bought pro logic x. I've had it for three weeks and I've managed to record keys,vox, guitars etc getting reasonable results.BUT,now to the mixing and mastering, I now realise how little I know about the techy stuff related to these elements of recording. In my old studio (boss br1600 a studio in a box) I just used the various plug ins that gave me chains of effects that worked pretty well with minimum knowledge. Now when I see how many options I have in the various eq, compressors etc that I don't know what I'm doing. Help! Can you recommend some reading/tutorials etc that could get a complete novice started on this area of mysticism and magic!
Cheers
Jamie

[tone]

Hi Jamie

I've not properly looked at logic x yet, but logic 9 has loads of channel presets you can use to get started. You can still access them in logic x but they're buried under 'settings' (this is on the channel strip on the left) -> legacy -> logic

Or just click on the top left icon (labelled library when you hover the mouse pointer over it) and go to legacy there.

Plenty there to get you started I hope. Good luck

[beckylucythomas]

I'm a Logic Pro X user. I'm pretty new with it, and pretty new to the whole music production thing, so I can't teach you anything complex, but if you want the absolute basics (and I mean basics!) of finding your way around logic I could help... Let me know if that might be useful to you... I'm sure you'll also have offers of help from people who are much more advanced than I am!