Big day tomorrow –– It's here!

[b1j]

Tomorrow's the day I have a two-hour session with a mastering engineer in town. He's going to master my current project while I ask questions and take notes. He'll be working in Pro Tools, and I'll have my laptop open with Studio One. I have two objectives:

1) Get feedback on my mix, and –– assuming it doesn't need a wholesale overhaul –– get my song mastered. That will be a nice milestone for me.

2) Learn enough of the process to be able to return home and attempt to master it myself in Studio One. Who knows where that might lead...

[Acousticado]

A big day indeed! As if everything about this home recording hobby isn’t already enough of a mindbender, the mastering process will likely be too! Really hope you achieve your goals. I recall a song I’d heard of yours already sounded really good from all perspectives, so you’re well on your way. Good luck!

[Eastbound]

Nice, Id be interested to hear the difference and what changes he made. If he's only making changes on the master bus or individual tracks?

Also, what integrated LUFS level you end up at on the songs. Seems like most pro mixers/mastering engineers are making stuff as loud as possible. My acoustic guitar tracks end up -16 to -18 LUFS in most cases

[TheGITM]

I suspect he will focus a lot on the frequency bands across tracks and look for areas of unwanted overlap. One of the hardest things (from back when I was in a studio as a musician with a producer/engineer) was understanding how each range of frequencies in each track need to come together in the mix so as to not cancel out each other, 'swamp' each other with muddled overlap, or swell too much pushing a given frequency to the forefront.

I recall our engineer spending a fair amount of time during the tracking setup to reduce that issue before going to tape (yes, we recorded to tap back then!)... he used EQ and gating a LOT in the setup which help keep sounds from 'bleeding' into one another across tracks.

Should be a fun experience!

[b1j]

I have the master now. It was fun watching him work. I learned that I do NOT expect to try to master anything in Studio One any time soon. Maybe he was trying to impress me (he did), but he pulled out so many gadgets for tiny nudges here and there that I lost the thread. Also, I'll never have 95% of those tools.

Anyway, I've heard it on my monitors and headphones, and it sounds really good. It's LOUD. I compared it to some classic masters, like Abbey Road and Led Zeppelin for sheer volume. Then I tried it against acoustic pop tracks like Michelle, In My Life, Over the Rainbow by Eva Cassidy, and others like them. It's louder than all of those.

I would typically listen to any of those songs with the volume gain at about 11:00 on my Motu M6, maybe 11:30. When I listen to my new master, it's as loud at 11:00 as all those other songs are at 1:00 or 1:30. Of course I can turn it down for my song, but I'm going to speak to the engineer about this. I'll go try it in my car, too, for another comparison.

Am I planning to share it here? Absolutely. Just can't figure out how to get it on a post. Typical of me.

[Acousticado]

Originally Posted by b1j

I have the master now. It was fun watching him work. I learned that I do NOT expect to try to master anything in Studio One any time soon. Maybe he was trying to impress me (he did), but he pulled out so many gadgets for tiny nudges here and there that I lost the thread. Also, I'll never have 95% of those tools.

Anyway, I've heard it on my monitors and headphones, and it sounds really good. It's LOUD. I compared it to some classic masters, like Abbey Road and Led Zeppelin for sheer volume. Then I tried it against acoustic pop tracks like Michelle, In My Life, Over the Rainbow by Eva Cassidy, and others like them. It's louder than all of those.

I would typically listen to any of those songs with the volume gain at about 11:00 on my Motu M6, maybe 11:30. When I listen to my new master, it's as loud at 11:00 as all those other songs are at 1:00 or 1:30. Of course I can turn it down for my song, but I'm going to speak to the engineer about this. I'll go try it in my car, too, for another comparison.

Am I planning to share it here? Absolutely. Just can't figure out how to get it on a post. Typical of me.

So glad it worked out for you, and interesting that it seems you’ll have your songs mastered in the future. I assume the cost is not extreme and worth it. This was your first time. Do you think you may gain the skills eventually?

As for sharing it, I’d love to hear it. I did hear one song by you. Where did you host it? There’s always SoundCloud or YouTube. Uploading to a SC account is easy, and equally easy to include within a post. I can help guide you with linking a SC or YT song within your post if you need it.

[Acousticado]

What did he think about the accuracy/quality of your mix? Did observing his process help you learn anything that will help with your mixing?

[Glennwillow]

Best of luck! You will learn a lot!

- Glenn

[b1j]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

So glad it worked out for you, and interesting that it seems you’ll have your songs mastered in the future. I assume the cost is not extreme and worth it. This was your first time. Do you think you may gain the skills eventually?

As for sharing it, I’d love to hear it. I did hear one song by you. Where did you host it? There’s always SoundCloud or YouTube. Uploading to a SC account is easy, and equally easy to include within a post. I can help guide you with linking a SC or YT song within your post if you need it.

Mastering this one was a trial balloon to see if I could learn enough by watching to be able to fly solo in Studio One on future songs. Not likely any time soon. You know how we always hear that only a fool would master his own mix? I now see why. Mixing and mastering might share a sliver on a Venn diagram, but what they don’t share would fill a career.

As for cost, it ain’t cheap, but I chose the in-person option. If I just gave a mix up to them, it would costs a lot less. I can see doing this from time to time.

For sharing, my hope is to put it somewhere that won’t compress the life out of it. The mastering engineer gave me steps to share it here on AGF via a Google Drive to keep it as a .wav file. When that didn’t work, it was already Friday afternoon, so I’ll wait now until Monday to see if he can talk me through the steps and troubleshoot why it didn’t work.

I might even try to put it on SoundCloud despite how they beat songs down, just to let it join my few earlier efforts.

You’re asking me about my song Crystal Voice, and how well I remember your kind words for it when I put it on Show and Tell. An earlier mix is on SoundCloud. Last night I A/Bd it with the same mix in Studio One, and the SoundCloud version sounded like I was hearing it through a bedsheet. Oh well.

https://soundcloud.com/user-664150955

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by b1j

For sharing, my hope is to put it somewhere that won’t compress the life out of it.

In case you don't know about this- you can put things on soundcloud with downloads enabled. If you embed it here or people just click on it on soundcloud, they'll hear the low bitrate version, but if they download it, they can hear whatever quality you uploaded. Upload the full wav file and anyone who cares can check it out in full quality.

[b1j]

Originally Posted by Acousticado

What did he think about the accuracy/quality of your mix? Did observing his process help you learn anything that will help with your mixing?

I suspect that because I was paying for a mastering-only session, he largely deferred to me with regard to the mix. He often asked me if I was happy with this or that aspect of it. Overall he seemed to think it was within bounds of a masterable mix, and we focused on getting that done.

He did gently, skillfully “insist” that I disable the compressor and limiter I had on the mix bus. Actually, he set it up so that it was “my” idea. He had asked for one file as is and a second one without the mix compressor. He showed me the wave forms side by side for these, and it was clear we’d have more to work with without the dynamic inserts. He was OK, though, with the individual compressors I had on two guitar tracks and the bass.

His staff did ask me for an mp3 of my mix before they quoted terms for their various levels of service. The way they put it made me think they might have put on the brakes if the mix was problematic.

One comment he made was that there is much less dynamic range than in a typical pop song, which stands to reason because it’s a sonata with acoustic guitars. But there are two sonic climaxes that jump out at you, and we tried to honor them.

Still, my early read is that the whole track may be a bit hot, not from a LUFS perspective — he hit that on the head — but that it might benefit from quieter quiet passages. The service included one revision, so if I still feel that way next week, I’ll raise that question to him. For this, it will behoove me to hear what some finger style players like Doug Young think about it, so I’d better find a way to post it (and then hope somebody listens to it: Crystal Voice drew three views and one comment!).

He also said that despite only having acoustic guitars and an electric bass, there was an even spread across the frequency spectrum, with instruments distinctly holding their own ranges. I had intentionally tried to allocate frequency regions to one guitar at a time, so I guess that paid off. He was able to take advantage of this to bring out the separate voices even more. That surprised me. He seemed to have as much flexibility as I had had with my mixing faders. But his methods were far more surgical.

So, all in all, I suppose I did take away some mixing insights.

[b1j]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

In case you don't know about this- you can put things on soundcloud with downloads enabled. If you embed it here or people just click on it on soundcloud, they'll hear the low bitrate version, but if they download it, they can hear whatever quality you uploaded. Upload the full wav file and anyone who cares can check it out in full quality.

Doug, maybe your ears were buzzing. See my most recent post, where I said I’d love to hear your take on the overall dynamics presentation of the piece.

So you’re saying SoundCloud lets you upload an uncompressed .wav file? That’s news to me. I’ll give it a look. Thanks.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by b1j

Doug, maybe your ears were buzzing. See my most recent post, where I said I’d love to hear your take on the overall dynamics presentation of the piece.

So you’re saying SoundCloud lets you upload an uncompressed .wav file? That’s news to me. I’ll give it a look. Thanks.

Yeah, just upload the full quality file. They'll still convert it and stream it low bit-rate, but if you check "allow downloads" under the Permissions panel, then anyone who downloads it should get your original file.

Glad to check it out.

[b1j]

Well, I have three files:

CD-res, 16 bit/44 kHz: 67 MB .wav file
"Hi-res," 24/96: 220MB .wav
"Streaming" master: 12 MB .mp3

SoundCloud says the maximum is 4 MB uncompressed. Who knows?

I just uploaded it, but I didn't see any place to allow others to download it. I'm listening to it now in headphones and it sounds fine. I'm sure I'll critically compare it with the monster files soon.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by b1j

Well, I have three files:

CD-res, 16 bit/44 kHz: 67 MB .wav file
"Hi-res," 24/96: 220MB .wav
"Streaming" master: 12 MB .mp3

SoundCloud says the maximum is 4 MB uncompressed. Who knows?

I just uploaded it, but I didn't see any place to allow others to download it. I'm listening to it now in headphones and it sounds fine. I'm sure I'll critically compare it with the monster files soon.

Hmm, well, I'm not sure I've uploaded full length songs, so that might be a limitation. But I thought Barry had done some full-length tunes that way.

Here's the screen with the download checkbox. You can even do it by editing an existing upload:

Screenshot 2024-05-10 at 9.59.30 PM.jpg

There's always DropBox/Google Drive, etc. You can also send files up to 2 Gig directly to individuals via WeTransfer (free). Not good for sharing with the masses, but a good way to share files with targetted people.