I'm working on an edit that we've done of ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down," and no matter what I do, I can't seem to get a satisfactory final mix. For "mastering," I'm using the mastering chain and W1 limiter, which is like the Waves L1 limiter. Please listen to the track and tell me what you would do to get this track sounding more dynamic, less muddy, and just better in general. Thanks!
ELO "Don't Bring Me Down" (Stavros Edit 11/24 version)
And also feel free to let me know if you like the track, production issues aside!
Help with "mastering": song inside.
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leedsquietman
- Posts: 6659
- Joined: Sun Nov 19, 2006 1:56 am
- Location: greater toronto area
More dynamic - less compressor, less ratio, less threshold and slower attack. You need to make the compressor breathe in time with the music, it is breathing out of sync, so play around with the attack and release times. I would also maybe take half a dB out of the limiter gain, the levels are not too hot but sometimes that can help clear things quite a bit.
I don't know if this is the mp3 encoding, but the high end seems very brash. There is some minor clipping going on too, possibly caused by the mp3 encoding (no more than 2 consecutive samples, so not too bad but better avoided). I analysed it in Soundforge 9 and Harbal. In terms of EQ, you have too much information in the 20-35 Hz range which is just muddying the sound. Hi pass filter at about 40 Hz and also drop your 50-120 Hz range by -1 to -1.5 dB. Also you high end is pretty intense, the 11-13 Khz range in particular which is why the mp3 encoding sounds brash on the cymbal end, dip that out 2-3db and boost the 500-800 Khz range by a db or so, that is lacking.
It's hard to gauge from an mp3 file because encoding issues occur, but typically, I high pass the sub bass from 40 Hz (as it won't be heard on most sound systems but muddies the bottom end and uses bits that could be better used in the lo-mids, mids and mid-highs) if it's a 320 Kbps mp3 you can allow a bit more lo and highs in, so highpass 30Hz. Set your limiter to no more than -1db on a file you are going to encode to mp3, otherwise clipping and artifacts can occur and if you are using lo bitrate mp3, shelve the higher frequencies, start at around 12 Khz for 128, 14 Khz for 192 etc. Otherwise your cymbals and sometimes fizzy high frequencies on synths is too harsh.
I don't know if this is the mp3 encoding, but the high end seems very brash. There is some minor clipping going on too, possibly caused by the mp3 encoding (no more than 2 consecutive samples, so not too bad but better avoided). I analysed it in Soundforge 9 and Harbal. In terms of EQ, you have too much information in the 20-35 Hz range which is just muddying the sound. Hi pass filter at about 40 Hz and also drop your 50-120 Hz range by -1 to -1.5 dB. Also you high end is pretty intense, the 11-13 Khz range in particular which is why the mp3 encoding sounds brash on the cymbal end, dip that out 2-3db and boost the 500-800 Khz range by a db or so, that is lacking.
It's hard to gauge from an mp3 file because encoding issues occur, but typically, I high pass the sub bass from 40 Hz (as it won't be heard on most sound systems but muddies the bottom end and uses bits that could be better used in the lo-mids, mids and mid-highs) if it's a 320 Kbps mp3 you can allow a bit more lo and highs in, so highpass 30Hz. Set your limiter to no more than -1db on a file you are going to encode to mp3, otherwise clipping and artifacts can occur and if you are using lo bitrate mp3, shelve the higher frequencies, start at around 12 Khz for 128, 14 Khz for 192 etc. Otherwise your cymbals and sometimes fizzy high frequencies on synths is too harsh.
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Great advice, thanks! I took quite a bit of your advice but still wasn't satisfied, and I realized that there was just way too much compression going on in the first place. I dropped all compressors and EQs and started over, referencing your post here and there, and I think we've made a lot of progress. The new version is below. Any new feedback would be greatly appreciated! Thanks Again!
ELO "Don't Bring Me Down" (Stavros Edit Take 3,156)
ELO "Don't Bring Me Down" (Stavros Edit Take 3,156)