Mastering&Mixing problems.

[ciw]

And also I have questions about "phasing issues".

What fishmonkey said.

On top of that, if you are playing your mix on a big stereo rig, whether different frequencies cancel or sum will depend on where in the room you are standing. So each part of the room gets a different mix, and unfortunately most of them won't be as good as you intended. This is particularly a problem with bass, which is why you should reduce low frequencies to mono.

It's also a problem with mono signals coming from two different sources - but the sound tech who set up the rig will have done their best to compensate for it, i.e. set it up so it sounds best in the middle of the dancefloor or something. Mono signals they can predict and do their best to account for. Stereo components, which change from track to track, they can't. So putting extreme stereo in your tunes (as with the delay in ozone) doesn't really help.

[fishmonkey]

This is particularly a problem with bass, which is why you should reduce low frequencies to mono.

also, because low bass is perceived by humans as omnidirectional, there is no point in attempting to "stereoize" it. this is true for sounds below about 80–140 Hz (depending on the kind of bass sound and your hearing)...

[Esbe88]

@fishmonkey thanks,well explained!

ok,so what I did was I duplicated the whole track into three,One panned to the hard left and one panned to the hard right,I put mda stereo on both of those.The third duplicate in the center with no plug ins or effects and finally I used Izotope in the master channel.
The outcome sounds wider,thicker,and silkier.But Im not sure im doing this right.Would this cause any problem?

[ciw]

If you like the sound (not only on your own system but everywhere else you play it) then you're not going wrong.

I think mda stereo (on "comb" settings - stay away from Haas, that's the same as what Ozone is doing with the delay) just applies complementary subtle comb filters to each channel. In other words, what it takes away from one band it adds to the other.

Do your left and right versions of mda stereo have the same settings?

If they do - I suspect you could achieve the same effect with one instance of mda stereo only. When you pan it hard left or hard right you are effectively ditching one channel. And the center channel is just a bypass making the effect more subtle. So all your mda could be replaced with one instance of mda set to something subtle like "Comb 10".

If they don't - then you will likely be changing your frequency balance as what gets taken away from L doesn't necessarily get added to R. You may accidentally duck or emphasize some parts in the mix. Nothing wrong with this so long as you are happy with the mix afterwards.

The thing to be careful of is that delay setting in ozone. For the reasons we all mentioned. The Haas effect is pretty awesome when you first hear it (and nice as a special effect) but probably a bad idea for general mixing as it's hard to control the outcome.

Glad you like the result

[ciw]

Oh one more thing. Some general guidelines I read once...

Be careful not to overdo stereo anyway, whatever technique you use. Your monitors and head should form an equilateral triangle about 1m per side. The soundstage should all form a cohesive 'image' in between the monitors. It shouldn't be stretched so wide it has holes and gaps in it. Those will appear anyway when it's played on a system with speakers wider apart!

Rules are there to be broken of course but I think this one is accepted good practice.

[Esbe88]

@ciw the thing is,in my system it sounds fine,but Im worry because I sent the track for a compilation album,and was released today.I went on head and downloaded to double check my track and listened.So far so good,but when I uploaded the album to my Ipod and listened to it again my track volume was half the actual volume was.This got me tripping out lol.I dont know if its just my ipod or something i did in mixing.Im really hoping this didnt happen to the audiences who downloaded the album.

-If anybody has time to download the album and check to see if it does the same, here is the link

http://thefindmag.com/?p=14318 (free download btw)

Im on track number 9 (09. Thank You – Esbe) dont mind the silly title lol
It might not be your favorite cup of tea and not the best mastering yet but I would appreciate some tips on it after hearing.

@ciw yes,left and right version of mda has the same setting on "comb 55"
I will try that with one mda stereo on "comb 10"
I have much more to explore and practice!

And for that delay setting in ozone,Im not ganna touch that thing for awhile haha.

thanks you guys once again.This has been really helpful

[Tarekith]

Make sure you have Sound Enhancer and Sound Check turned off in iTunes Playback preferences.