Mastering&Mixing problems.

[Esbe88]

Hello everyone,Im new to this site and looking foward to be part of this community!

So,Ive been working on my projects and trying to master the tracks in ableton live,using the Izotope ozone.In almost everycase,whenever I try to wideing the track with multiband stereo imagine with only O.2 db delay(ms). The Audio seems to Pan on the left side slightly.Is this normal?? If not,How do I correct it?
I just want to Wideing my music without my drums and other elements of sounds panning slight to the left.

[Klauser]

Hey bud, welcome to the forums,

I might have misunderstood you a bit, but I would usually try and get my tracks sitting in the correct stereo places when mixing the track, and not at the mastering stage. Sometimes I emphasise or reduce my stereo mix at the mastering stage, just subtle adjustments. I have never used izotope so can't really help with that plugin specifically. But I would say that you should maybe get most of your stereo placement done when mixing the track.

Hope this helps somewhat

[Esbe88]

hey Klauser,thanks for the tips.That is helpful but I had to delete some files in processed files in ableton due to low memory space i had,and now I have missing files when i open the projects lol.I would love to go back and mix em right.
But when I was mixing process, it was sounding right and normal.So it has something to do with mastering with izotope.I look it up deeper into it.
thanks for your tips =)

[oddstep]

its really bad luck you've deleted files. check out the utility device, I use that for making the sides louder than the middle..

[lunabass]

...I try to wideing the track with multiband stereo imagine with only O.2 db delay(ms).

did you mean 2ms delay not 0.2db delay? .. the latter doesn't make any sense.

i dont know anything about ozone but it sounds like you're hearing the Haas/Precedence Effect - if a sound is reproduced through 2 speakers and 1 side is delayed by more than 1 ms, the sound will appear to come from the side without the delay. if the delayed sound arrives after 30-50ms, it will be heard as a distinct echo or repeat.

it's much better to use panning and widening of individual tracks within a song instead of just trying to widen the whole song in mastering

[Esbe88]

@oddstep. yes,very bad decision I have made lol.But,Utility sounds very helpful!! I should of thought of that already.Thank you =)

@lunabass. I did meant 2ms delay.Sorry about that. 0.2ms delay to be exact.
I think The Haas/Precedence Effect makes alot of sense in this case.I will go do my homework now!

Btw im really liking this forum.Its been really helpful so far! makes me realize i have so much more to learn haha.

thanks for your share of knowledge guys=)

[oddstep]

@oddstep. yes,very bad decision I have made lol.

I am sure it wasn't a decision, I once "decided" to delete 4 months of music during a late night spacehead hard disk tidying session. It's the repeating of the mistake that counts isn't it.

[c33]

I tried Izotope Ozone5 recently. It looks like it's capable of doing a lot, but it's also pretty complex and I have so many pieces of software and things to learn right now that I don't think I'm at the level of experience to make the most of it at this time. I also think Ableton has plenty built-in tools available that could achieve the results I'm looking for.. I just need to get more educated, experienced, and better at what I'm doing. One of the users on this forum has some good articles and advice to offer on the subject (http://tarekith.com). And check out the book called "Mixing Secrets for the small studio" (I still need to continue reading it). There's a reason many Audio Engineers have 4+ year degrees. Mixing & Mastering can be an incredibly baffling, scientific, mathematical process.

trial & error.. trial & error

[oddstep]

absolutely. mixing is a skill and an art like playing an instrument, mastering the same again. one thing I continuously did wrong for years was turn stuff up because I wanted to make them more X when I should have reduced volumes/ cut frequencies elsewhere - which got me into an arms race between mixer levels and heavy limiting.

[grooverb]

Got some really interesting stuff on here. Cheers guys

Yeah mixing is a real art form, and often less is more. I got the Dance Music Manual which has lots of useful info. Well worth a read if you get the time, and its a good reference book as well.

[ciw]

I think the 'delay' in ozone's stereo imager just delays one channel, like a haas effect. I'd stay clear of this if I were you as it will cause phasing issues. Or if you must, then do it only for the higher freq bands and only a tiny delay.

You could probably do a better job of widening with your own rack. Use two instances of EQ3 in a parallel rack to create a crossover (or more transparently you could use two instances of ozone, just for the crossover functionality). On the high freq band split into l/r and add a subtle chorus to one side only. Also try dropping mda stereo (good free plugin) onto the hf band (before the split and chorus). This will take tweaking, especially of the band crossover point.

Really good stereo image comes from recording, mixdown etc like others have said. Ozone is useful but only for reducing stereo image IMO, and quick dirty mastering. The exciter is sometimes handy too. Outside of that, better results can be achieved using separate plugins for all the individual components.

[Tarekith]

I would just caution to go easy on the widening if you decide to use something like Ozone to do it. I spend a lot of time REDUCING (or rather correcting) stereo imaging when people send me tracks because they've over done it with some tools like that.

A little goes a long way.

[Esbe88]

I agree with mixing/mastering as art form.I used to just use preset masterings.As my ears developed over the year through music,I realized that presets arent ganna cut it anymore.Once I got more serious about mixing,it was like whole new field for me to learn.Especially for the heavy sample based music I do,lots of layers of dusty elements.You can imagine how many compressions and EQ's goes down in that area lol.

@c33 thanks for referring the site http://tarekith.com...ill get on into that.theres alot of good topics to go over.

@c33&grooverb - cheers grooverb!! Im seriously considering getting those books.Im ganna need it.

@ciw - that's a quite the technique,I will try that out.And also I have questions about "phasing issues".What is that exactly and how do I know if I have that issuse? because I ran into those topics while searching for a solution about my image widening problems.Correct me if im wrong but,It suppose to cause like a phaser sound effect to you track or something?

@Tarekith -Thats exactly what I dont want to happen to my music.Ever since I started using Izotope for mastering,I been real self conscious about my mixings.Its like am I over doing it? or is this how it supposed to sound? lol
Anyways,Im off to go read your articles on your site.thanks in advance for your help!

[fishmonkey]

And also I have questions about "phasing issues".What is that exactly and how do I know if I have that issuse? because I ran into those topics while searching for a solution about my image widening problems.Correct me if im wrong but,It suppose to cause like a phaser sound effect to you track or something?

"phasing issues" refers to the fact that sound waves interact differently as you shift the phase. two signals exactly in phase will add together, two signals exactly out-of-phase will cancel each other out. phases in between those two extremes may result in comb filtering, where some parts of the signal add, and others subtract. this is especially true if you are shifting the phase of a complex signal that contains a range of frequencies, because the amount of phase shift affects different frequencies unequally. e.g. a very short delay will cause comb filtering for higher frequencies (shorter wavelengths), but won't affect lower frequencies as much.

unintentional phasing may colour the sound in a way you don't want, and may also cause unwanted peaks and troughs in the track that mess with your dynamic range.

[Tarekith]

Well said!