The Importance of Mastering!!?

TFunk13 wrote:I'm a recording engineer and I can't stand when people bring in a 2-track on cd and rap over it. They don't understand that the vocals have to be mixed with the entire track. It's like recording karaoke. It doesn't sound natural at all.

thank you..but sometimes you get lucky and it sounds good

Science wrote:

TFunk13 wrote:I'm a recording engineer and I can't stand when people bring in a 2-track on cd and rap over it. They don't understand that the vocals have to be mixed with the entire track. It's like recording karaoke. It doesn't sound natural at all.

thank you..but sometimes you get lucky and it sounds good

that track no more drama by mary j blige produced by dre was recorded like that and many others. some producers dont want people messing with their ideas so they only give them 2 tracks. i just mixed a track that way this week. if u r dealing with quality people with skills its not a problem.

Hi again!

I got a different question concerning mixing/mastering...

Sometimes when I've mixed a track there will be some big peaks in the audio file.
The mix sounds good, but it just so happens that there are some peaks...

Now my question is:
Is this okay?! (the peaks)
Have I done something wrong in the mix?
Or is this the kind of thing that is fixed when mastered?

are the peaks like clipping(i.e. over 0 dB) or simply loud spikes in a wave form? depending on what software/bit rate as well as other factors, digital clipping may introduce artifacts(noise) that may or may not be pleasant or desired. in digital after 0dB, there is no where for the ones and zeros to go, so the computer/robot/mpc makes stuph up about the whereabouts of the ones and zero's. there's no harmonic distortion or limiting/compression like tape/analog, it's pretty random error associated.

if digital clipping, i would suggest to lower the master and bounce without the peaks or maybe compress whatever is clipping(i.e. kick drum, bass) before the final mix. headroom is a good thing to have when recording/mixing/mastering, specially when working in a digital domain. the mastering engineer can't really undo a peak, he can limit or compress it and even make it more audible. he has really good ears and speakers, maybe he can pick things you missed. try a mix with peaks, one without, it's easy to make a track louder in the mastering.

hope this helps.

mastering is like sending a super model to wardrobe and stylist, she's already hot as hell, but still needs her features accentuated and embelished.[/quote]

brownbagit wrote:are the peaks like clipping(i.e. over 0 dB) or simply loud spikes in a wave form?

There is no clipping! I'm not that much of a newbie!

There are some pretty loud peaks though, which means that when I normalize the track I don't gain much...

Have I done something wrong in the mix?
Or is this the kind of thing that is fixed when mastered?

Don't normalize your mixes. Large peaks can mean something is too loud in the mix. Either lower whatever it is that's so loud, or use compression to level it out.

some producers have been known to spend ages taming these rogue peaks- im talking the ones that last milliseconds so they can then raise the average level of their tracks without clipping

greg

dubmunkey wrote:some producers have been known to spend ages taming these rogue peaks- im talking the ones that last milliseconds so they can then raise the average level of their tracks without clipping

Yeah, the peaks only last few milliseconds, and the mix sounds good.
However, the level of the mix is a bit low because of the peaks...

Do these peaks get fixed (squashed) when mastered?
Or am I supposed to fix it in some way during mixdown??? Is it possible?

Beat God wrote:

Science wrote:

TFunk13 wrote:I'm a recording engineer and I can't stand when people bring in a 2-track on cd and rap over it. They don't understand that the vocals have to be mixed with the entire track. It's like recording karaoke. It doesn't sound natural at all.

thank you..but sometimes you get lucky and it sounds good

that track no more drama by mary j blige produced by dre was recorded like that and many others. some producers dont want people messing with their ideas so they only give them 2 tracks. i just mixed a track that way this week. if u r dealing with quality people with skills its not a problem.

i didnt know that.......wow and that song sounds great.!!

Yeah, the peaks only last few milliseconds, and the mix sounds good.
However, the level of the mix is a bit low because of the peaks...

Do these peaks get fixed (squashed) when mastered?
Or am I supposed to fix it in some way during mixdown??? Is it possible?
>>>>>>>>

well the producer i was reading about spent ages scanning the wave form for the peaks- and we're talking milisecond long spikes here- zooming in on them and removing them- i guess through volume or compression-= actually volume makes sense...

greg

That's a task a mastering engineer can handle quickly. The less compression you add to finished tracks the better - if you're going to get your project mastered in the end.

well the producer i was reading about spent ages scanning the wave form for the peaks- and we're talking milisecond long spikes here- zooming in on them and removing them- i guess through volume or compression-= actually volume makes sense...
>>>>>>>>>>>>>

oh anders, forgot to say- this is done because they dont want any rogue peaks triggering any buss compression or limiting and messing up parts of the tune...
greg

Thanks for the reply greg!

Do you ever get these kind of "rogue" peaks?
Do you do anything about them or do you just leave them?

yeah- if you record as near to 0 db you can with no clipping- try and get your highest peak no higher than -0.3db you shoudl when you scroll across the wave see your peaks or use the sound forge (or equivelent) function which locates the highest peaks....

these will look like single or double lines (often not very thicker) that are as tall as the display- ie is taking up all available headroom- ive found sometiems you can have loads of these so its often wise to find where they come from- usually drums- then you can tame the offending element in that track and hopefully coax more headroom out of it- this is a final stage kinda thing though when you are trying to get your tracks a bit louder but find something is messing with your limiter/compressor

greg

TFunk13 wrote:I'm a recording engineer and I can't stand when people bring in a 2-track on cd and rap over it. They don't understand that the vocals have to be mixed with the entire track. It's like recording karaoke. It doesn't sound natural at all.

I second that. I call those "Dump and Burns" take a vocal, DUMP it on a 2 track and BURN it to cd.

There isnt much engineering to do there. I hate those also. But I make a lot of change doing that. Change....not real money.