Ableton Forum

one thing to note--at least some pro mastering these days is done to a rendered stereo file of a good mix, not to the multitrack song itself. What I've learned is that if you start mixing your multitrack song by putting a limiter and/or compressor and eq and your master channel, you are then mixing everything through that. Sure, you can make everything louder and it might sound more even, but I think it leads to improperly set track levels. I've gotten better mixes by using no effects on the master out, carefully using compressors, eq's, panning, and volume automation on tracks to get a good mix. Then I make sure the master out volume is at a level where it is close to, but not clipping, then render out as a stereo file. Then I'll open up a new blank set, set all the track and master volumes and pans to zero, then put a limiter and sometimes an eq on the master out, and then re-render the stereo file through these master effects. Particular effect I like and I know others have used on good sounding mixes are Waves L2 and the L1 clone limiters, PSP vintage warmer or Live's saturator, Waves C4 multi-band compressor, and eq4. To my simplistic mind, mastering is a way to pump up the overall track in general to get it close to the output level of radio-ready cds (look at the waveform of some of the productions you like that are recent--its a big black rectangle in some cases). Mastering is no solution for a crappy mix, but it can help a good mix to sound better--louder, fuller, maybe with enhanced frequencies at the top or bottom...anyhow, my 2 cents.

To help you, people, here's a good advice on mastering:

http://izotope.com/artists/dave_moulton.asp?id=1

Being a mastering engineer myself, naturally I'd recommend to stay away from 'mastering' and let it be done by professionals.

The other way around, though: sometimes mastering isn't necessary. There are quite a bunch of songs that weren't mastered but sound very well, most because they've been mixed well.

Another bunch of interesting read:
http://ablyproductions.com/audio%20mastering.htm - what is mastering.

http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/co ... k/mast.php about "Fix During Mastering" syndrome. I'm very annoyed by it.

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.n ... 2E005DAF1C - This problem makes me go nuts too.

inis wrote:

jerry123 wrote:One thing worth noting is that if your tracks sound muffled, mastering is not a soultion. I would advise remixing your tracks, paying attention to the detail of individual sounds within, to try and up the quality level there. If it sounds muffled before mastering, it should sound muffled after mastering as well.

very true. Mastering can make a recording sound amazing, but it cant fix much if the original music is messed up.

Not that it applies in this particular case (I can't hear the original material to say accurately), but a poor mix is only made worse in the mastering phase. It's like maximizing the inheirent suck of the original material.

thanks for your help guys. i've been doign some reading up about live and mastering all weekend. i'm getting some pretty awesome results now - especially when piping each channel of reason's redrum through EQ4 and the Comp2 - sounds so good.

minimal wrote:

my advice is: get used to treat each single sounds in your mixes before going to the final "mastering" stage.
Mastering is kind of misused word sometimes... lots of skills, experience and gear knowledge are required to master a track, let's say "fine tune it".

It'not a ultramaximizer or any limiter that masters a track.

At the beginning I had no care of the sounds until the track was done, I thought I could have fixed everything later but after a while I changed approach, work on every sound as soon as it gets in the mix and since then I'm kind of more productive and my tracks start to sound quite pro now.
be careful with levels because if you end up with a 12 tracks song which 10 needs to be err.. leveled it's a mess and you loose track of the work!
EQ is the key, where is normally better to cut than to boost.
Don't misuse compression, maybe get some tutorials from the internet (www.digido.com for example, lots of useful and well written tutorials) to understand the basic of compression, take your time to have fat sounding tracks, you'll be more satisfied with your own work.
Another great thing to do is to pass along to some friend your tracks and let they mix them, it can be good since they hear it for the first time and can spot little errors or come up with new ideas.

WORD! and rather refreshing, you know what you are talking about.