mastering an album vs song

[dahkter]

Hello,
I'm okay wtih mastering on a song by song basis.
However when you're doing an entire album, is it wise to use one final limiter with the same setting across all songs to give it some sort of a cohesion as a whole?

 

[Sonorous]

Yes i think it's smarter to master the whole album

 

[StressWon]

Hello,
I'm okay wtih mastering on a song by song basis.
However when you're doing an entire album, is it wise to use one final limiter with the same setting across all songs to give it some sort of a cohesion as a whole?

what up D! Need to get up soon homie!

Yeah, Actually the Waves L1, or L2 are really the best bet. I'v been touchin up my next albums and it works well. Use it if ya have it, if not,,hit me...

 

[Relic]

harbal.com

 

[LDB]

You have no choice but to master each song individually. Singles usually come out well before an album is finished. You have diff't songs with diff't vibes and instrumentation so they have to be mastered differently to an certain extent. A Jazz song won't be mastered in the same way that a Hard Rock song would! As far as the album goes, after mastering each individual song you want the volume level from one song to the next to be the same. You don't want to go from track 2 to 3 and have to reach for the volume because it's either to loud or not loud enough. That's why you don't dare do any normalization until all tracks have been mastered. Normalizing is what will get the volume of each song at or around the same level.

Harbal can do both if you master each track individually using the "batch load feature.

 

[dahkter]

thanks Fellas
And yo Stress, I should hopefully be done with this project in three to four weeks, after that, AOK for a collab, for sure.
And LDB, nice breakdown, very logical, makes perfect sense.