How are you mastering?

[Andrew07]

Originally Posted by brandondrury

I find it amazing that your mixes translate mega bright on NS-10s. The NS-10s I heard were extremely bright and bitey. When mixing, it hurt everyone in the room to be in there. I remember holding a magazine in front of my face to black out some of the high end. It was real pain and it was something I would expect to be exposed to in a POW camp. Maybe it's just differences in rooms or whatever.
Brandon

That's how you know they're working!

Kyle what mastering houses have you checked into? What kind of music is it? I'm also shopping around to get an acoustic/folk/rock cd mastered and we're deciding between SAE mastering and turtletone mastering...seems like the average price is $100 per song. Good luck!

[kyleevans]

Haven't checked out any of them yet. just trying to get ahead of the curve. the project is rock and pop.

[brandondrury]

I've got a buddy who owns a recording studio in Austin. (I have no idea how far Austin is from Dallas) but he may have some buddies down there.

Brandon

[Spunky Munkey]

I get everything set up track wise, volumes etc then mix down 44.1/24 same as I recorded at, then it goes into Harbal, eq to a preset filter and my own adjusting of the filter, then I use waves plugin, L1 pre-master, then a check on the mud in the low end, then back into Harbal for another look, stereo widening, then volume comparison with a reference file, then final limiting using Harbal or taking the numbers and using waves L2. If you are not familiar with Harbal it's at http://www.har-bal.com/mastering_process.php

[Smurf]

I know this is an old thread, but another alternative to Har-Bal is the AAMS software. I have just bought this and will say that I feel it is way ahead of the game. It will never take the place of a real mastering engineer, but it will make your mixes sound better 99% of the time.

You can also study the suggested settings and then go back and adjust any problem areas in the mix. They have a 21 day, fully operational download, so why not give it a try-out?

[brandondrury]

http://www.har-bal.com/mastering_process.php

I just read this. Personally, I'm sickened by their methods. (Actually, I'm sickened by the fact that people are going to read this and think it's how it's supposed to be done) This is NOT how the big boys are doing it. They actually recommend the Waves C4 preset "Too Much Limiting". That preset was entended to be WAY TOO MUCH!!

but it will make your mixes sound better 99% of the time.

I have EXTREME doubts about this thing. I'll try it out and see what happens, I guess.

Brandon

[richiebee]

I can't get teh download link for the demo version to work.

I can download the full product, but when I go to register it only takes me to their front page... if I click the register link, it takes me somewhere to pay.

R.

[Spunky Munkey]

Just as a follow up to this thread what I'm doing lately is still setting eq up in Harbal, then doing a sweep high pass eq in Wav - somewhere 40 - 60, where I like the bass sound in the mix then using wavs L2 Hi Res CD - Master quantize 24 bit, shaping normal, out ceiling set -0.1, I then adjust the threshold, anywhere from -5.0 to -2.0 depending how loud the mix is already . If I don't see movement in the out ceiling as I preview, I'm squishing and therefore I go down a notch. As long as the mix is reasonably set up already, not too much bass etc my final comes in max RMS somewhere in the mid 7's,

that's about all I do, sometimes stereo widening.

[Smurf]

I am using the AAMS software to just "even out" all of my tracks, I mostly turn off the compression, and just use the EQ and Limiter settings they suggest....it works for me. a quick way to make a bunch of songs sound even across the CD.

There is no way that these programs will replace a mastering pro, but for a home studio they will do IMHO.....

[Spunky Munkey]

I'm not so sure about the mastering pro's anymore, I've heard some mastering pro's I could do without.