Ok, I've seen some of you come close to addressing this topic but no one has attacked it head on. So I'm gonna share my preferences and maybe this will spark some of you "more experienced" cats to respond.
1. Intro--Mastering is more of a preference than any other thing in the process of making music. It all boils down to what the individual likes.
2. Getting started--Make sure that you have several different ways of listening to your music, try to have as many different forms of speakers as possible. Headphones to 15" subs to a boom box to some car speakers. It wouldn't hurt to have someone thats as much into music as you are sit in with you to provide a 2nd opinion.
3. Organize your music--Make sure that everything, your samples, your instuments, your vocals, your timing, your effects are all right where you want them.
4. First Compression--most engineers don't do this but I like doing it for personal preferences. This step is refered to as "pre-mastering". This is where you do some "multiband compressing". The idea here is to make your music sound tighter, more rhythmic, and cohesive. Here I use a relatively equal amount of compression on five bands (HF, LHF, HLF, LF, SUB).
5. EQ'ing--Here my goal is to SHAPE my music. As with step#4, I'm not trying to make a big difference but to fine adjust my sound.
6. Here's a good place to listen to your mix. You have done some compressing and EQ'ing and your mix is starting to come together. Have your partner evaluate your work so far. Try to be open-minded to his suggestions.
7. Limiting--Here you want to set your limits to 0db's but I usually set mine to -1db's to allow room for peaks. Remember, you're setting your avg. peak to 0 you don't want to over-limit but you do want it borderlining.
8. Normalisation--This is like a part2 to limiting. Normalizing identifies and automactically adjusts the gain of the rest of the signal. I usually set it to -1dB's.
9. Final Tweaks--Make sure that everthing is in order, set your playlist, use an audio editor to get rid of any popping or other noises in between songs or whatever needs to be done.
10. Final Listening--Listen one more time and decide if youre happy with the final mix. Either go back and adjust or get your CD-RW warmed up.
11. Burn it to disk. Always make a back up.
Like I said earlier this is my method. There are several different ways to do this and I suggest that you play around and decide which way is best for you. Hopefully this has helped someone.
holla back,--dac
1. Intro--Mastering is more of a preference than any other thing in the process of making music. It all boils down to what the individual likes.
2. Getting started--Make sure that you have several different ways of listening to your music, try to have as many different forms of speakers as possible. Headphones to 15" subs to a boom box to some car speakers. It wouldn't hurt to have someone thats as much into music as you are sit in with you to provide a 2nd opinion.
3. Organize your music--Make sure that everything, your samples, your instuments, your vocals, your timing, your effects are all right where you want them.
4. First Compression--most engineers don't do this but I like doing it for personal preferences. This step is refered to as "pre-mastering". This is where you do some "multiband compressing". The idea here is to make your music sound tighter, more rhythmic, and cohesive. Here I use a relatively equal amount of compression on five bands (HF, LHF, HLF, LF, SUB).
5. EQ'ing--Here my goal is to SHAPE my music. As with step#4, I'm not trying to make a big difference but to fine adjust my sound.
6. Here's a good place to listen to your mix. You have done some compressing and EQ'ing and your mix is starting to come together. Have your partner evaluate your work so far. Try to be open-minded to his suggestions.
7. Limiting--Here you want to set your limits to 0db's but I usually set mine to -1db's to allow room for peaks. Remember, you're setting your avg. peak to 0 you don't want to over-limit but you do want it borderlining.
8. Normalisation--This is like a part2 to limiting. Normalizing identifies and automactically adjusts the gain of the rest of the signal. I usually set it to -1dB's.
9. Final Tweaks--Make sure that everthing is in order, set your playlist, use an audio editor to get rid of any popping or other noises in between songs or whatever needs to be done.
10. Final Listening--Listen one more time and decide if youre happy with the final mix. Either go back and adjust or get your CD-RW warmed up.
11. Burn it to disk. Always make a back up.
Like I said earlier this is my method. There are several different ways to do this and I suggest that you play around and decide which way is best for you. Hopefully this has helped someone.
holla back,--dac
