Mastering my own track
Mastering my own track Posted on: 05.10.2010 by Roseanna Hascall Ehy guys. I suck mastering my own track could you tell me what i can do to improve the sound of this song?http://soundcloud.com/calvin-campbell/c-users-andrea-desktop-gulp I believe it's sounds too high. Or maybe not!What do you believe? I used Ableton. Thanks | |
Breana Singerman 12.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Filterkat
I just believe you should be making a clear distinction between the two, if you don't more people are just going to start getting more confused than they already are. I've also had the pleasure of working in the studio with Bob Katz when I was in FL and he never had to do a mix down, and that goes for a number of studio's I spent time in. There's really no such thing as a "bad" mix down, if that's how the artist wanted it to sound, that's their decision. Most good mastering engineers would spend time talking with the artist and trying to figure out what they want to achieve with their track and what they are trying to convey so they can go about their job all the better. And if the mix down really is that "bad", then maybe the artist should go back into the studio and try to make the mix down sound as good as they can before sending it out to get mastered. Now, I understand that mastering should and will make your track sound better, but if you give them a better mid down to work with then they can master your track all the better. Now, the mastering can give some advice to the artist like, "If you turned down the bass 3db, I can get a lot more out of the low end" and so on, but for them to go and do a whole new mix down is unheard of. I know that studio's do offer packages to do mix downs AND mastering, but you didn't state that in your original post. Just trying to clear things up is all. Cheers mate and keep up the good work! |
Random X 12.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by photojojo
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Janyce Jardon 12.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Nephew
sure if youve been making tracks for 7 or 8 years, im sure by that stage you got the whole "mix down" thing down pact... but what about the guy whos been doing it for 1 or 2 and hasnt quite nailed it yet, studios know this and arent going to lose a potential customer, just because his mixdown isnt up to scratch so essensially, and technically, yes you are correct with regards to "traditional mastering", if you have a perfect mixdown, then all you need to send them is the one stereo wav file with a few db headroom, but a lot of the smaller independant studio's have essensially let go of the concept of seperate mixdown/mastering as it is not cost effective for them. theyre not going to deny a potential client and say, "umm your mixdown isnt up to scratch, you need to keep working on it and try again, better luck next time" a lot of studios these days will ask for a copy of the track to be mastered, and if the mix down isnt up to scratch theyll just do both. |
Breana Singerman 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Filterkat
A mastering engineer should never, ever ask for stems or for the session to be broken down to it's individual tracks, all they need is the stereo mix down to work with. |
Janyce Jardon 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Coldfuzion
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Carlee Pickard 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Filterkat
Do you mind if sometimes I hit you up with a couple questions here and there via private message? Especially so I don't harass everyone else on the community s by posting my dumb questions! |
Carlee Pickard 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Filterkat
Congrats once again man! That's awesome! |
Janyce Jardon 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by calvin01
with regards to the top 100 thing... do u mean top100 on like radio or charts and stuff? well if you get on any kind of top 100 list, you know your either not doing too bad, or your making commercial crap that the masses love... you should be making descent money from royalties by that point, and its also a great thing to be able to put in your CV/Resume... helps alot with getting booked for gigs and all that... but before you get to that point, you either have to spend bullshit amounts of money on publicity/promotion, have a really large fanbase... or make some really great music. |
Shakita Salyers 29.03.2013 | To go with what many have already said mixing and mastering should be kept in mind throughout the whole production process. Elements that are off are only going to be amplified in the post-production process especially at mastering stage. Shiny turd ... lol If you want a loud mix, this should be kept in mind right from the start, using subtle compression on certain elements and making full use of the frequency spectrum. Invest into learning the basics of mixing. When it comes to mastering, we really recommend having an external pair of ears master your mix. For one, throughout the production process you become accustomed to your track and get used to the way it sounds. An engineer will be able to spot certain things that you won't. Similar to proofreading a book. Also, mastering takes time and should be done in the right environment, time that could be best spent producing and finishing more tracks. There are many an online mastering service and we recommend Phat Mastering as one of them. However as mentioned in this thread, you should really be mastering your music once you have the basics of mixing nailed! |
Breana Singerman 12.12.2010 | Couldn't agree more, gave me a good head start on everything and I'm starting to get tracks signed as well, couldn't have done it this soon with out the prior studio knowledge. |
Janyce Jardon 12.12.2010 | definately dont regret it one bit, learned so much about good compression, EQ'ing, how to record things and mix them down, stereo imaging, even a lot about mastering... i wont say im a wizard when it comes to all of it, but ive had 3 tracks out of 5 for my upcoming EP that i sent to the studio i worked for, both a "mastered" version i did myself, and then one with headroom for them to potentially master, and yeah, 3 out of 5, he said, just use your masters... there really good quality. the other 2, he just told me to go back and fiddle with the compression and sidechaining a little coz it sounded a little crowded in some spots where i had heaps of parts going... but anyway, definately dont regret it, and i met some amazing artists and people along the way as well... sure we didnt have big artists come in every day, but once every couple of months, youd get an artist or band come in and the whole studio is giddy for the whole time there day. arent too many people that can say, i heard pendulums new album 4 months before its release and got to hang out with the group for a week, or i helped EQ the temper traps "sweet disposition" and convinced them to use a particular outboard reverb unit with a nice plate on it. so no, definately dont regret it, but definately dont regret leaving either, dont have to deal with other peoples rubbish tracks which i couldnt really care less about, and now i have time to pursue what i want to do, producing my own tracks, and DJ'ing them/playing them live to an audience... definately wouldnt have gotten this far this quickly though if it wasnt for what i had learned at the studio. |
Breana Singerman 12.12.2010 | Ha! Don't even get me started on half the rubbish getting signed and released. I hear a lot of tracks that people are working on and I believe "Solid start, need's a bit more polishing and missing an element or two but a good foundation" and then a week later it got signed as is, horrible mix down and all! You may be glad you don't work in a studio anymore, but you don't regret it I bet with how much you learned. |
Janyce Jardon 12.12.2010 | Ok ill agree with that... if you want your track just mastered, you only have to send a stereo wav with enough headroom for the mastering engineer to work with... but you have to have a good mixdown to do so... you cant polish a turd... well you can, but then its just a shiny turd... and if you want to pay for a shiny turd, thats fine... but if your someone just starting out with all this music production buisness, id reccomend wait a while until you perfect your production skills before you go off and get your stuff mastered, and believe me it takes a few years... ive heard some rubbish mixdowns in my time done by amateurs, and we had to go do the whole mix down again ourselves before we sent it off to the mastering engineer... lol just a convo between me and one of the other engineers one evening in studio... Other audio engineer- "they really want to get THIS mastered?" Me- "yep" Other audio engineer- "so you mean like... this is actually going to be released? On CD?!?" Me- *sigh* "yep" Other audio engineer- "Its going to be a long evening ... get him to send the stems, got a lot of work to do before dave will even touch this..." god am i glad i dont work for a studio any more... |
Breana Singerman 12.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Filterkat
I just believe you should be making a clear distinction between the two, if you don't more people are just going to start getting more confused than they already are. I've also had the pleasure of working in the studio with Bob Katz when I was in FL and he never had to do a mix down, and that goes for a number of studio's I spent time in. There's really no such thing as a "bad" mix down, if that's how the artist wanted it to sound, that's their decision. Most good mastering engineers would spend time talking with the artist and trying to figure out what they want to achieve with their track and what they are trying to convey so they can go about their job all the better. And if the mix down really is that "bad", then maybe the artist should go back into the studio and try to make the mix down sound as good as they can before sending it out to get mastered. Now, I understand that mastering should and will make your track sound better, but if you give them a better mid down to work with then they can master your track all the better. Now, the mastering can give some advice to the artist like, "If you turned down the bass 3db, I can get a lot more out of the low end" and so on, but for them to go and do a whole new mix down is unheard of. I know that studio's do offer packages to do mix downs AND mastering, but you didn't state that in your original post. Just trying to clear things up is all. Cheers mate and keep up the good work! |
Random X 12.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by photojojo
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Janyce Jardon 12.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Nephew
sure if youve been making tracks for 7 or 8 years, im sure by that stage you got the whole "mix down" thing down pact... but what about the guy whos been doing it for 1 or 2 and hasnt quite nailed it yet, studios know this and arent going to lose a potential customer, just because his mixdown isnt up to scratch so essensially, and technically, yes you are correct with regards to "traditional mastering", if you have a perfect mixdown, then all you need to send them is the one stereo wav file with a few db headroom, but a lot of the smaller independant studio's have essensially let go of the concept of seperate mixdown/mastering as it is not cost effective for them. theyre not going to deny a potential client and say, "umm your mixdown isnt up to scratch, you need to keep working on it and try again, better luck next time" a lot of studios these days will ask for a copy of the track to be mastered, and if the mix down isnt up to scratch theyll just do both. |
Breana Singerman 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Filterkat
A mastering engineer should never, ever ask for stems or for the session to be broken down to it's individual tracks, all they need is the stereo mix down to work with. |
Janyce Jardon 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Coldfuzion
|
Carlee Pickard 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Filterkat
Do you mind if sometimes I hit you up with a couple questions here and there via private message? Especially so I don't harass everyone else on the community s by posting my dumb questions! |
Janyce Jardon 11.12.2010 | haha, thanks dude, yeah im still in shock about it a little... but it feels good to finally be getting somewhere with my productions, ive been producing for like 7 years now, and only really started taking it seriously the last 2 or 3 years... heres a link to the track on soundcloud... http://soundcloud.com/filterkat/filt...moustache-v1-0 like my page if u want... ive got about a dozen tracks which i havent posted yet, coz there meant to be for my upcoming EP/Album thingie... but ill be starting to post a few of them up because most of them are done and mastered and i want to see what people believe of them... so yeah... thanks again... hope u like the track |
Carlee Pickard 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Filterkat
Congrats once again man! That's awesome! |
Jolyn Brunello 11.12.2010 | im only getting started so its nice to have a bit of insight as to what to do if my ideas come together. good luck with that mate sounds promising |
Janyce Jardon 11.12.2010 | yeah, beatport top 100 is a tricky one... beatport is great for sales as even though if your tracks are fairly "underground", a lot of "underground" DJ's like digging and searching for new tracks on beatport to play in their sets, and it IS possible to make some money through selling tracks on beatport... however you either have to own a label, or get signed to one because doing single releases on beatport isnt very cost effective. you can also look into paid promotions, in where you pay beatport a certain amount (whatever your budget limits you to) and depending on how much you pay them, they will suggest your tracks to artists when they are looking in a particular category... or when you get those emails saying "hear exclusive new music", they may decide, depending on how much youve paid them to put you in their newsletters... if you pay them enough, theyll even do a feature article on an artist/label which is displayed directly on the beatport home page, and all this can lead to increased sales and potentially getting in the top 100... I am currently looking into this for my label, as we are scheduled for our debut release for all 5 artists at once, so im going to try get a descent "promotion budget" to try and get our stuff heard more... another good way of getting your tracks heard/bought is if youve allready got them on beatport, upload it on soundcloud, and share/send the track to all your favourite underground AND "big name" DJ's and artists... a lot of the time you wont get a reply from the big guys... but once in a while, if they like the track, they might ask you for it or ask if you would like to send it to them or where they can buy it... this happened to me recently, where i sent a track to a few "big names", and i got a reply from Tommy Trash (Australian DJ who mixed the latest Ministry of Sound Annual 2011) and DJ Chuckie (Dirty Dutch Records) who were both interested in playing my track, and DJ chuckie even offered to help me release it and was interested in doing a remix... so there you go... (still rather exited about this as it only happened a few days ago :P) ... if you wanna get heard, dont be scared to send your tracks around to big names, and you nearly have to spend as much time doing all this stuff as you do on actually making your tracks... its basically a full time job :/ |
Jolyn Brunello 11.12.2010 | ^^thanx. i meant the beatport top 100 as it was mentioned in the thread before.i was under the impression that there was not much money in the sales of tracks unless they reach mainstream-like success and an artist used this to boost profile and get dj bookings which in turn made them the dough. |
Janyce Jardon 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by calvin01
with regards to the top 100 thing... do u mean top100 on like radio or charts and stuff? well if you get on any kind of top 100 list, you know your either not doing too bad, or your making commercial crap that the masses love... you should be making descent money from royalties by that point, and its also a great thing to be able to put in your CV/Resume... helps alot with getting booked for gigs and all that... but before you get to that point, you either have to spend bullshit amounts of money on publicity/promotion, have a really large fanbase... or make some really great music. |
Jolyn Brunello 11.12.2010 | also keen to know what a track that makes top 100 would bring to an artist?. |
Jolyn Brunello 11.12.2010 | if i was to send a track to a mastering engineer do i have each track or stem bounced down that's already been eq'ed,should all separate parts be at a certain db.just curious |
Leeanna Ayla 11.12.2010 |
Originally Posted by Tekki
EDIT: Plus I trust Drew |
Random X 11.12.2010 | cheap & quality usually do not go hand in hand. |
Leeanna Ayla 10.12.2010 | Drew's got a buddy offering some pretty good deals. http://djranking s.com/community /showthr...lity+mastering |
Pasquale Mccallson 10.12.2010 | If I were you I would leave the mastering to the pros. Unless this is just an experimental project where you're trying to learn to master. I had a guy do a 17 track album for about $400 and the difference was amazing. |
Roseanna Hascall 02.12.2010 | Thanks for your reply!Yes I know it's not my job to master my own track...but...i don't have a label so first I have to smash a great song on web (i mean make one reasonable good).I find out how to create better sound with ableton effects....thats my mastering!ahaha well I like the bass but the song isn't good.... |
Janyce Jardon 01.12.2010 | well either get someone pro to master it, or spend 4 years at college getting an audio engineering degree... then you can master your own tracks... and other peoples on the side for cash jobs... definately helps me pay the bills when i dont have a busy club season or im in production mode... Otherwise... if you want the overall level of the track to sound "bigger" try putting a Maximizer and Limiter on the parts of the track you want to sound bigger... maybe play around with a multiband compressor also? you may need to ajust the seperate channel levels to compensate as sometimes it may mask the rest of the sounds that arent maximized... you could try chucking a maximizer on the master track also... but usually this is a big no no as it muddles/distorts and ducks/emphasizes certain parts of the mix you dont want it to and you have far less control than you would with individually maximizing seperate tracks... (p.s. id try a maximizer on that kick) thats why you should do it on the seperate channels instead... otherwise... descent production... i like the bass sound... |
Random X 25.11.2010 | Well... First have to finally finish a track I'm proud of before I'm sending it 'round. |
Efrain Scharr 24.11.2010 |
Originally Posted by Tekki
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Random X 24.11.2010 | +1 on getting the label to do it! |
Efrain Scharr 24.11.2010 | DON'T master your own tracks... BIG MISTAKE. Either pay to get it done, or have the label that signs it get it mastered for you!! This is yet another problem with music today... I remember when I started out many years ago we had to spend $150 to get a track mastered. Prices have come down a lot since then, but just make sure you are getting a real mastering job done and not some hokey digital job from your friend who has some neat plugins that he ripped from rapidshare... Not trying to be mean, its just a word of advice. If you want to succeed in producing this will be something you will need to spend the cash on if the label isn't going to get it done for you. Its just ONE of the things that sets the amateur kid from the kid who may actually go somewhere. I was once this kid, and I spent that money... Decide for yourself what you want out of producing... |
Tressa Schemenauer 23.11.2010 | I noticed that the track sounds full / complete on my phones but not on my sets of monitors... I haven't analyzed it but I'm almost certain that with all of the FX you've generated some phase cancellation issues. These can muddy up the mix because the left channel and right work in opposite phases and cancel out sounds. This doesn't happen on phones since the left and right channels never interact. You could use an analyzer such as PAZ http://www.waves.com/Content.aspx?id=233 to check for this. Cheers. |
Rita Ghoshal 10.11.2010 |
Originally Posted by Cameluntu
Get a snare sample. Put a reverb on it and make it reeeeeealy long, many seconds of reverb time. 100%WET record that sound to a new track. Now REVERSE what you've just recorded. finally position your rising reverse reverb effect wherever you believe it fits, job done! |
Charolette Landicho 03.11.2010 | lots Of VST u can buy. many great reverb Vsts out there |
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