Making your laptop audio punch like Vinyl

[anonymouse]

With a minidisc in hand of what I expected would be my best sounds yet I just returned from an audition in a club. My tunes sounded like a big washy muddy mess. All the detail and dynamics just disappeared.

It still sounds like production quality in my headphones.

I was being mixed against vinyl 7" that just sparkled and cut through the air with energy and bite.

This was my first time making everything in Live.

I also put the master through Ozone 3 - so i was smugly expecting I would blow people away with my 'hardware sound'. But I was hugely disappointed. I've made a lot of stuff with SX in the past and it worked well on this same club's PA. I know this is not Live's fault, rather it is my own lack of knowledge on mastering.

So I'm hoping to get some tips from anyone who has converted to laptop soft audio and has found ways of injecting their tracks with the energy and dynamics that hardware and vinyl have.
(not just advice like "use an exciter" or "whatever sounds right" but info on what I need to boost frequencywise and perhaps what choices I need to make in terms of placement of tracks in the stereo field.

I can't monitor on a large system, so i need some scientific guidance on how to treat my masters.

[wilsonrx]

For a start ditch the headphones when mastering - they are serious no no. 'Phones are fine for composing a new tune or playing about with synth settings, but for mastering they will make the job impossible. Get yourself some monitors - even cheapo ones are better than headphones / hi-fi systems.

Some other quick rules I follow:

1) Panning: Keep all bass, bassdrum and snare drums panned centre. Spread the other sounds out across the stereo field: some just a bit left, others further left and some more as far left as they can go & do the same going right. Try to imagine the sounds are being played by a 'band' and all the band members are sitting spread out in front of you.

2) Low-cut: Use a low cut of around 90Hz for EVERY SINGLE element of your track, this will remove nasty sub bass and give you increase headroom. To many sub frequencies will make the mix sound muddy - a very low EQ cut can actually make the track sound a lot punchier due to the extra headroom.

3) Compression: Don't go mad with compression, but drums certainly need it, vocals and lead sounds also benefit from it. This will give your track a punchy sound - you are playing it out in a club so it needs the "loud" effect. Don't go overboard though as it will make the track sound a bit flat.

4) EQ: Get yourself a spectral analyzer (I think thats the right name) and place one on each channel. It will tell you what frequencies your sounds are actually making so you can then see (as well as hear) which sounds are clashing with each other; I find it best to write down all the frequency ranges each sound uses so you can see which ones conflict with each other. Its best to only ever use EQ for cutting frequencies - boosting them can often make the sound peak too much, which in turn requires more compression. If you absolutely can't seperate two sounds using EQ alone, then try panning them .

5) Mixing Down: Set up a loop in your track during the "noisiest" part. Zero all your levels for each channel. Now bring up the drums until the master peak level meter is just under half way. Now bring up the bass until it sounds in balance with the drums. Next go through each of your remaing channels; do the "loudest" first such as vocal, then lead synth, other synths, etc.. Once you have got all your levels back to a position you are familiar with, bring up the drums and the bass until the master peak level is reaching the top (avoid clipping!). This will give your track even more of a punchy feel which is something most dance tracks will have done.


I do use exciters and enhancers too, but like you say they are a small piece of a bigger jigsaw.

[dallas!]

Not sure where your based Mr Mouse, but there's a UK mag, Computer Music I think which had a feature a month or so ago on Mastering like the pro's. You might be able to get a back order?

[Chris J]

minidisc is not the best medium either, burn a CD instead

[innerdreamrecords.com]

With a minidisc in hand of what I expected would be my best sounds yet I just returned from an audition in a club. My tunes sounded like a big washy muddy mess. All the detail and dynamics just disappeared.

It still sounds like production quality in my headphones.

I was being mixed against vinyl 7" that just sparkled and cut through the air with energy and bite.

This was my first time making everything in Live.

I also put the master through Ozone 3 - so i was smugly expecting I would blow people away with my 'hardware sound'. But I was hugely disappointed. I've made a lot of stuff with SX in the past and it worked well on this same club's PA. I know this is not Live's fault, rather it is my own lack of knowledge on mastering.

So I'm hoping to get some tips from anyone who has converted to laptop soft audio and has found ways of injecting their tracks with the energy and dynamics that hardware and vinyl have.
(not just advice like "use an exciter" or "whatever sounds right" but info on what I need to boost frequencywise and perhaps what choices I need to make in terms of placement of tracks in the stereo field.

I can't monitor on a large system, so i need some scientific guidance on how to treat my masters.

There is a pretty good article in Computer Music this month on mixing - as far as mastering if you don't know what you're doing you can fuck it bad. What your describing sounds like a mix problem though.

Get some monitors, headphones are out.

[musick]

For a start ditch the headphones when mastering - they are serious no no.

I second that, and they also can blowup your ears.

2) Low-cut: Use a low cut of around 90Hz for EVERY SINGLE element of your track, this will remove nasty sub bass and give you increase headroom. To many sub frequencies will make the mix sound muddy - a very low EQ cut can actually make the track sound a lot punchier due to the extra headroom.

A lot of dance tracks have the kick around 70 Hz. I would not high-pass the track with the kick on it at 90 Hz, more at 50 Hz.

[innerdreamrecords.com]

A lot of dance tracks have the kick around 70 Hz. I would not high-pass the track with the kick on it at 90 Hz, more at 50 Hz.

You have to use your ears here, while 50hz might work on some kicks on others you might have to roll it off up to 100hz. Take everything as far as frequency cutoffs with a little license. There are charts around with fundamental frequencies and harmonic frequencies on them for each instrument - learn those and how to apply them to your mixing.

[anonymouse]

I'm in Tokyo. I'll try to get my hands on Computer Music.

I did make the major mistake of being overconfident and using headphones to master. That is the first and last time I do that. I put too much trust in Ozone.

Thanks a lot Wilsonrx and others for the detail. It is exactly the kind of hitlist of focus I was looking for.

I guess it does boil down to certain rules but, ultimately, you must monitor on the highest quality speakers and soundspace you can afford as the true final test.

This was my first time not doing that. I used to walk around a room with speakers in different places and check out the stereo shape and dynamics. I thought I was mad, but now I know better.

_____

But Chris J, Minidisc is KING

You can record at wav rate, mp3, wma or atrac.
The recordings I had were wav.

As a small live recording device it is unbeatable - you just can't get a better portable. The durability, price and re-recording capabilities of the media are unique. Plus, my new (3rd) portable now has 1 GB discs that are dirt cheap.
Sorry, I just love minidisc, and couldn't recommend anything better as a medium for live recording, cheap storage or demos. I don't think the media has anything to do with the crappiness of the master I made.

[anonymouse]

Just incase you were wondering, I wasn't doing dance style; but it was more uptempo than I am usually comfortable withl.

Rhodes, Flute, Bass n drums in a Dub/Hotel Costes type vibe. Some of the original recordings of the rhodes player were not very well miked. Plus too much modulation.

[mikemc]

With a minidisc in hand of what I expected would be my best sounds yet I just returned from an audition in a club. My tunes sounded like a big washy muddy mess. All the detail and dynamics just disappeared.

All of the advice here is well taken. not sure if you are on Windoze or MAC, but http://voxengo.com has a free download freq analyzer VST for windows.

The main deal with the low cut is made apparent with the freq analyzer-- there are below normal lows that get thrown in that end up adding signal levels without really adding any audible value.

Another other thing is-- it might not be your stuff at all, when you say you "were being mixed against vinyl" sounds like you did not have control of the mixing. So, surely the turntables were coming into the mix through separate channels which EQ or other processing may have been applied-- what did the vinyl sound like in your phones?.

[anonymouse]

.. but are there ANY headphones that could be used for mastering? I know there are some ridiculously expensive "cans" out there, but - waste of money?

[dave-g]

Darn fine advice wilson!! the man knows his stuff!

people are often shocked when they finally hear their tunes "in the big room" and wonder why it sounded so great in their bedroom but sucked in the club.

I DJ'd at a club that would allow local "producers" to bring in their mixes on CD, acetate, md and let them take a listen to it on the Turbosound system we had before the public arrived. Great learning experience for them and a good way for us to check out our gear.

in addition to ALL of your suggestions I used to a touch of BBE sonic maximizer to the final mix just before we sent the DAT off to be mastered. It just seemed to make things sound a little better than real life. I'm not sure I'd use it now (sold mine years ago!), but in those early techno days we'd try anything to make our vinyl sound as good as the stuff being mastered/pressed in europe.

dave-g

[wilsonrx]

Good luck with the mixdown! One thing I always find when mixing is that the frequency range of 400Hz to 1kHz is always the most crowded. This area is what gives basslines a midrange tone (rather than being a sub bass 'hum'), lead sounds get a lot of their richness from here and vocals get their depth here too. A few EQ cuts here and there can create a lot of space, and some sounds can still work even when you have cut frequencies out of them.

If EQing can't solve a problem, then the solution can often be down to how a track is arranged. If EQ and panning can't seperate sounds then see if you can stop playing them at the same time. Or maybe a synth interferes with your bass - try only playing the synth when there is no bass.

[wilsonrx]

Never use earphones at all. It isn't to do with the quality of them but more to do with the fact that your brain interprets the stereo signal differently when you have earphones on. I'm afraid I have forgotten the science of why it doesn't work - I just remember that it doesn't!

[anonymouse]

mikemc - I'll give voxengo a look.

I mostly use Sound Forge/Ozone/Audition to master or treat incoming instrument tracks. So I think I might already have the tools to do what I need to do. Problem is, I don't know exactly what I should be trying to achieve with a frequency analysis app.

Insofar as I can look at the graph jumping around the frequency range but I don't know what peaks and troughs are trouble.

Plus, I think it is the muddiness I am currently most interested in tackling.

Wilsonrx advice looks a good starting point. I am really looking for getting good distinction between different instruments and then, when I have that, looking at enhancing/exciting those sounds. I guess I am striving for a classic quartet sound, where the listener can clearly pin down where all the instruments are and they all exist in the stereo space in their own unique position.

I might have overdone it with reverb, but I barely used any.


I didn't get a chance to monitor the 7 inches through my headphones.
The sweet irony being that I spent a few weeks with the producer of the 7 inches "advising" on how to improve his mastering I consumed the Ozone manual like a bible.

Today was probably the 50th time I've auditioned new stuff in this place, I've played live there too numerous times and was happy with how everything sounded.

I think 70% of the problem was my mastering everything on headphones that weren't up to the task. My monitors are currently not available.

However, even at the best of times, agressively mastered vinyl still sounds so punchy and sharp. Is it possible to replicate that and trick people into thinking you haven't sold your soul to the laptop mafia?