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Subject: Mastering a mix CD...

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Original Message Date: 28-Aug-02 @ 04:45 PM Edit: 28-Aug-02 | 04:54 PM - Mastering a mix CD...

Steve Roughley

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I have been given the task of mastering a DJ's mix to go on CD. Overall the quality is good enough so EQing will be limited to removing slight hissing and rumbling every now and then. The only thing that really needs fixing is the overall volume that fluctuates from track to track. The mixes themselves are spot-on, it's just the way that each track has been mastered differently causes the mix to become quiet in places and louder in others. I don't want to add too much more compression, as this is a house music set, so all the tracks are already CTF. I was thinking of using subtle limiting, but have not done this kind of thing before, so I am not sure. Does anyone know the best way to get the overall levels fairly equal? And does anyone have any other tips for doing this kind of mastering?

Regards.

Steve.

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Message 11/30 28-Aug-02 @ 09:53 PM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

psylichon

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My advice would be to load the whole CD into your DAW and level match it with automation (envelopes would allow precise control, just a couple dB between songs) You wouldn't have to go nuts, just a smooth transition from quiet song to loud song and vice versa. Then put the L1 over the whole thing with no more than 3 dB of reduction, put split points at the beginning of each track, bounce each track down seperately, and burn all tracks Disc-at-once. It would take at most 2 hours even if you're anal about it.

psylichon

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Message 12/30 28-Aug-02 @ 10:08 PM Edit: 28-Aug-02 | 10:10 PM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

Steve Roughley

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Cheers for your replies, but I think I explained the situation incorrectly. All of the levels are correct on the original DAT. It's not the actual track levels that needed adjusting, they all sounded, and were, peaking at around the same level. It's just that different tracks sound more quiet or loud due to the way that they were mastered before they were pressed to vinyl. So I was just looking for a way to get the overall dynamic range sounding equal throughout the mix. I managed to do this simply by using the L1. This didn't affect the tracks that were already heavily compressed very much, but it boosted all of the less compressed tracks quite effectively. It's no Steve Powers job, but it sounds good.

Thanks again for all of your help!

Regards.

Steve.

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Message 13/30 29-Aug-02 @ 04:27 PM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

Steve Roughley

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Thanks for your help guys. The DJs were very impressed, especially as I finished it within an evening. This should definitely bring me more work.

Regards.

Steve.

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Message 14/30 29-Aug-02 @ 05:04 PM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

prox

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congrats Steve. :-)

I have another question regarding how much compression you can put on a track.. when is it enough? I'm a bit hard on the compressor sometimes and I'm afraid that this will make my tracks sound like a sick dog when they are being played on a big system. Sometimes my tracks are like -1 db all over and a bit muffled.. I know, it's not good.

sorry for stealing your thread Steve

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Message 15/30 29-Aug-02 @ 07:50 PM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

Steve Roughley

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Well, the best advice here is to get used to your monitors and guage for yourself. This might not sound too helpful, but every track needs different attention, as does every style of music, and so on. There are no real rules. So the best thing is to find out how your speakers act. Add compression as you see fit then listen to the track on as many different systems as possible, all the while taking note on the differences from system to system. You'll get the hang of it.

Sorry I couldn't be more helpful. I am just speaking from experience. Someone here might be able to help a bit more.

regards.

steve.

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Message 16/30 29-Aug-02 @ 07:55 PM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

bedwyr

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easy way to guage it, load a favourite track into wavelab and have a look at the wavefrom, then compare it to the big block of colour that is your over-compressed track, and you can use wavelabs analyser to check the peak and average rms of your track compared to other ones. not gonna tell you everything, but it's a little guide.

hi prox!

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Message 17/30 30-Aug-02 @ 03:07 AM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

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YEAH GET SOIME COMPRESSION MULTIBANDED ON THE BOTTOM END AND YOU CAN PUMP THAT A BIT BUT JUST Raise the top-end 'smack' (sorry bout caps)

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Message 18/30 30-Aug-02 @ 04:23 AM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

damballah

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there's that "vintage meter" thing free from psp, behaves more like a traditional VU and gives you an idea of relative loudness. everyone tries to get stuff peaking as close to 0 dbfs as they can, but the peaks don't tell you shit really. i prolly didn't tell you shit, either. anyway...

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Message 19/30 30-Aug-02 @ 11:49 AM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

proximus

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Thanks for the tips.

I guess you just gotta use your ears \ or compare with other tracks of that genre.. hehehe.

I agree that different tracks and different genres should be mastered differently. Like trance and house is simply begging for heavy compression (I think) but other genres like ambient prefer a nice touchey-de-compressa.

Sometimes I push the track so far that it destorts a little little bit.. distortion is relative.. when distortion occurs, the signal can be distorted it's just that you don't hear it.. because it's distorted just a bit, but the distortion still is there and someone else might hear it. So, what I thought was that if it distorts a little on my speakers then it might sound like a sick dog if it's being played on a big system..

If you don't have peaks but everything is -1 or -3 then it tells you something.. it tells me that my track looks like a blue block in Sound Forge and that something is a bit overcompressed.

hi bedwyr!

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Message 20/30 30-Aug-02 @ 11:49 AM - RE: Mastering a mix CD...

prox

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I use T-racks by the way.. maybe multiband mastering is better?

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