Mastering question

One of my producer friends got a couple of his songs mastered by a professional mastering engineer. He bounced each song down to one stereo wave file, which he gave to the engineer to master.
Can the engineer really master a song properly in high quality with only one wave file of the entire song? I thought you needed (or at least it would be better) to give the engineer each seperate track within the song.
Anyone know anything about this field?
Thanks in advance!

I would think for the best or close to the best mastering you would need ALL instruments on individual tracks.

You can master using only one wav file but it wouldn't be anywhere as clean and nice as individual tracks completely mastered and rendered to a single wav.

Mastering requires a completly mixed down song. You don't master seperated tracks. They basically master the final wav/dat. It's somewhat expensive (usually the cost is $100-$200 an hour), but crucial to the sound of the final product. If you're going to press it to vinyl, you almost have to master to avoid major issues. Vinyl can only record up to a certain dB level, so you might have to cut out the bottom end and in turn cut out some of the highs to offset the thin bottom. If you *REALLY* need to hear the difference I can send you a pre-mastered and a final master but you'll have to give me some time to pull some out

Also, if you're going to master an LP you have to do it all at once. Please do not try mastering each song. It will give the entire lp a consitant level and feel if you master all at once. Another thing to remember is mastering to CD and to Vinyl is different as well

It seems as if there are two different opinions on this.

1. "You can master using only one wav file but it wouldn't be anywhere as clean and nice as individual tracks completely mastered and rendered to a single wav."
This is what I thought.

And

2. "Mastering requires a completly mixed down song. You don't master seperated tracks."
This is what my friend told me too.

Also, I've been wondering, is it really that hard to master your own tracks yourself? It seems as if, from what I've heard, that mastering is a very specialized field that only some people can do...

I've read that mixdown = taking all of the individual tracks and rendering them to one stereo wav file.
mastering = taking the entire song file and tweaking it.

Mastering is really important because you don't want one song to be louder than another on a CD.

I would like to know how hard it is to master stuff yourself too.

A real mastering engineer will have a properly balanced listening environment, not to mention years and years of experience. Just making your music loud is easy, but proper mastering takes time to learn.

equi-knocks wrote:mixdown = taking all of the individual tracks and rendering them to one stereo wav file.
mastering = taking the entire song file and tweaking it.

I had to re-read my stuff and equik-knocks is correct.. I had it all twisted, sorry.

There is "mixing" and "mastering"

The mix is done to get all the instruments to the right levels, pan, EQ settings, FX. The mastering is the FINAL touches on the mixed down file. If you are given a crappy mixdown file, mastering will not help it, in that case the two processes overlap. Back to mixing again.

Anders wrote:
Also, I've been wondering, is it really that hard to master your own tracks yourself? It seems as if, from what I've heard, that mastering is a very specialized field that only some people can do...

I wouldn't try it. It's more complex than it seems. It is a specialized field, and unless you understand the dynamics of vinyl, it will be hard for you to ensure you master meets the requirements (if you're going to vinyl). It might end up too with too much bass, too many highs or no mids. I have some pretty awful sounding test presses that will scare you into spending the $$...lol.

If you're going to CD, you *MIGHT* be able to squeek by using some type of compression and a maximizer. If you're doing an indy CD, with the quality of mixtapes etc.. these days mastering might not be worth the $$. If worst comes to worst use a wav editor and master the entire record/cd (all 10 songs) as one session and then split up the wav after, that way you can balance the levels. It will be a bit time consuming, but at least your CD will be balanced.

Maserting can do a lot to your song. It can bring the vocals up a bit, it can add that "punch" to your kick and it can give the song that warm/loud feeling you get on some majors. You can even do radio edits if need be. The adjustment/equalization of the volume is also nice, but you don't need to do all. You're going to have to go in with an idea of what you want. The engineer isn't going to take a song and put it into "master mode"...he's going to ask "what are you putting in out on? What kind of sound are you going for" etc... Take in a CD (if you're doing hiphop, take in hiphop) and use that to compare the mastering for the bass and highs. One problem many people make is they are used to hearing hiphop in a car or club, and when listening to it on monitors they expect the same bass. If you're not used to mixing or mastering expect to think "the vocals are too loud and there isn't enough bass"...then you're ready for vinyl. This is why I say take a CD, so when you think the vocals are too loud...pop in The Roots or Jay-Z (Jay-Z if you like his music or not has amazing mixes) and you'll notice theirs are also. The needle touching the record adds bass, don't forget.

If you're going to drop the money do some research. Don't assume a $200/hour pricetag = quality. I've had some bad mastering done to me over the years....

Personally, if you are only going to press a CD or MP3 I would do the best mixing job possible so the ONLY thing I'd be doing is adjusting the volume of each song so they are the same when mastering (if you do). If you use protools and certain plug-in (ultra bass max.) save the pre-sets and you'll be close enough. You might end up saving $500-$1000 on mastering the lp which you can use for promo. I wouldn't waste $$ tweaking the eq's etc...going to CD. Mixing will be enough. If you're going to vinyl, you're holding a loaded gun to your head if you don't master......

...and if you're selling to a major...they won't let you decide anyhow

i agree with lamp.

individual. its better

Aight, thanks a lot people!

Just thought I'd add my .02 as there seems to be some confusion(although samplerate and others already stated this).

Both of these processes are necessary to get a professional result but mastering is the processing of a stereo track. If you sent a "session" mix to a mastering house you will be getting your session mix back with a "we don't mix your tracks for you" note. Some places can do both but you'd best be sure of what you're asking them to do cuz it'll cost more.

Again, these ar two different processes, there is no "one or the other" both are necessary.