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Creativity => Artistry => Topic started by: Ragnar on May 29, 2013, 11:42:35 pm

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on May 29, 2013, 11:42:35 pm

I'm working on remastering leafo's album to challenge myself or something. I'd like to do this for people for $$$ in the future.
 
here's the original
 
http://leafo.bandcamp.com/track/muff (http://leafo.bandcamp.com/track/muff)
 
and here's what I did with it
 
http://tindeck.com/listen/uzwu (http://tindeck.com/listen/uzwu)
 
(not sure why the bandcamp version is different than the one he sent me)

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on July 28, 2013, 12:22:25 am

um so I've been making my own tools on the pc to help me produce musics/alter the texture of the sound. Here's something I was messing around with
 
https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/plaza-custom-waveshaper-mix (https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/plaza-custom-waveshaper-mix)
 
here's the original
 
https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/plaza-original (https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/plaza-original)
 
I dunno maybe it won't translate on other people's speakers/headphones but it sounds really DENSE to me (at expense of some of the treble but I think I could remedy that with more work)

Title: how my mastering
Post by: ATARI on July 29, 2013, 08:08:27 pm

on my studio monitors (which aren't the best mind you, but still pretty decent m-audio studio monitors), the second mix just sounds muddy (too much low-mids) and like it was ripped from youtube (artifacted sounding I guess?).   I dunno, I like the sound of the original better, its much more crisp 

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on July 29, 2013, 08:19:12 pm

you're probably right, I guess I still have a ways to go
 
I hate how as far as vst equalizers go it seems the more efficient/more bands you can use the more microscopic the screen is. I wish I knew how to hack stuff like that
 
ReaEQ doesn't even REGISTER more precise values than what the screen allows, even if you switch to your VST host controlling it with sliders/directly inputting the frequency values etc.

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Unt on July 29, 2013, 08:44:29 pm

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking for, but all producers I know use parametric EQs (with 6 or so adjustable bands) and prefer to avoid visual feedback unless it's too hard not to. If you're trying to get rid of nasty harmonics try setting a high Q and amplitude, sweeping the frequency range until the frequencies are isolated.

Other good practices with EQ: I tend to cut everything other than bass drum and bass at around 180-500hz depending on what fits the mix/when the sound starts to get negatively affected. I'm a bit more frugal with this on the snare drum if I want to preserve the punch (not so much on 808 style snares). Another good technique is to only cut frequencies, not boost them (subtractive EQing), some people do this because it aids being visually clear on how an arrangement fits together and it does seem to make methodical sense. Additionally, a good tip I was taught by a lecturer is that minimally boosting ~5000hz increases the "presence" (sorry for a stupid vague musical term) of most sounds. He told me that producers of Mowtown era used this a lot even on master because it makes mixes sound very immediate, but conversely you can use this to your advantage if an instrument sounds slightly too harsh.

I don't post a lot on these forums so sorry if this is information overload, but thought I could offer some help so got a bit carried away! Also remember these are all just general rules so don't let them take priority over ingenuity and experimentation..

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on July 30, 2013, 08:11:07 pm

yeah I just realized how awesome notch filters are and I think that was the missing part of the equation. I'm just notching for now without doing anything else and even though it doesn't sound much different somehow it's easier to listen to, which is awesome.
 
I'll try the custom waveshaper again but only after a lot of notching out frequencies and stuff
 
but yeah this is cool EQing now feels like I thought it would being some elite sound marine sniping out offensive frequencies
 
also I'm using my own customized script in ReaJS and I don't know how to draw the curves so no visual feedback except for numbers and a little line to tell me where 0 db is lol

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on September 20, 2013, 01:21:44 am

ok another try
 
http://tindeck.com/listen/nryy (http://tindeck.com/listen/nryy) here's the original
 
 
http://tindeck.com/listen/ahru (http://tindeck.com/listen/ahru) and where I'm currently at

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on September 24, 2013, 01:00:51 am

so I uh made my own compressor, well a mod of one, but it's pretty unique how it works.
 
 
http://tindeck.com/listen/twab (http://tindeck.com/listen/twab) original
 
http://tindeck.com/listen/zwzq (http://tindeck.com/listen/zwzq) current version
 
I know it needs more mid or something but I'm still working on it

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on December 09, 2013, 12:18:40 am

ok learned a lot since last post
 
http://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/brought-to-you-by-the-letter (http://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/brought-to-you-by-the-letter) mastered
 
 
 
 
http://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/brought-to-you-by-the-letter-1 (http://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/brought-to-you-by-the-letter-1) pre-mastered

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on December 23, 2013, 01:35:43 am

https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/brought-to-you-by-the-letter (https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/brought-to-you-by-the-letter)
 
learning some weird FFT stuff/trying to exploit wackass digital audio quirks

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on January 26, 2014, 12:22:33 am

tried mastering a track on soundcloud that I liked
 
https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/spelunk-by-lukestark-mastering (https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/spelunk-by-lukestark-mastering)

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on January 27, 2014, 01:27:51 am

https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/fk-bt-dub-mastered-again (https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/fk-bt-dub-mastered-again)
 
clipping is intentional

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on January 27, 2014, 01:29:38 am

.

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on March 09, 2014, 10:21:12 pm

https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/accra-funk-possible-final (https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/accra-funk-possible-final)
 
okay, so I did some more experimenting with custom compressors and I think I've finally got the sound I want, and can get it pretty loud without ruining the track
 
again clipping is intentional

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Biggles on March 10, 2014, 10:27:16 pm

sounds decent to me. what's your overall approach to mastering looking like these days? i really don't know shit about it aside from Put Some Compressors And Eq And HighPass 30hz Heh Heh. seems like you've been putting in work.

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on April 02, 2014, 01:14:56 am

original:
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX0Fqgx1ouk&feature=kp (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KX0Fqgx1ouk&feature=kp)
 
trying to make one of my favorite tracks off Analord really chunky. Also it was never released on CD so the source material isn't all compressed/produced to fuck yet
 
my ver:
 
http://tindeck.com/listen/ghlq (http://tindeck.com/listen/ghlq)
 
edit: forget that version, listen this
 
http://tindeck.com/listen/bsxy (http://tindeck.com/listen/bsxy)
 
 
plz download and play in your music program of choice instead of tindeck player

Title: how my mastering
Post by: Ragnar on April 30, 2014, 09:01:57 pm

original
 
http://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/coinscape-dry (http://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/coinscape-dry)
 
mastered
 
https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/coinscape-mastered (https://soundcloud.com/supergrandmatales324/coinscape-mastered)