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Sorry guys, I'm trying to upload this old article from Home recording magazine but Tapatalk isn't working out. I'll try again
Man! There's gotta be an easier way to upload pdfs/files here. Anyways, sorry if it's not too clear but here is an article making a case for 85 db as a standard average listening level. I'll be the first to say that there aren't any absolute answers and also agree with both you syrupcore and soundtestroom that monitoring at different levels on different systems should be part of mixing/mastering process.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/cvg70u2t7d543jm/recording article.pdf
If you don't want to read through the whole article, basically an industry group of mix engineers got together to standardize the average listening level that would be high enough to overcome most frequency response curve losses, but low enough to avoid long term hearing damage and listening fatigue. The specific mention of 85 db is the very first sentence of 2nd page:
@Nu2moro When you get an IPad you'll have to get a 2nd job to keep up with all the apps you've been missing out on!
@thesoundtestroom: You're right about testing mixed/mastered tracks on various devices. A stock car stereo and Apple earbuds are two things everyone should listen to their tracks on, because that's how many people listen to music.
The truth of the matter is, too many people overemphasize mastering. It's the final mix that's most important, because a very bad mix can't be fixed in mastering. Your mixdown should sound as good as possible, and mastering should be applied as lightly as possible.
A good resource are these two guides: mixdowns & mastering
Yes....final mix is very important. Everything should be perfect in this stage or mastering wont do squat....the only thing I mix in headphones is stereo effects and panning...but I still double check on other systems. Here's another mix done in the mastering app. The first one was a little harsh with the cymbals (I did this with headphones...it's late here so I had to...lol.)
The original purpose of mastering was to optimise a recording for different media. Vinyl, CDs, radio, cassettes, mp3, etc., all have different frequency response curves and dynamic response characteristics. Processes like Dolby noise reduction were only really appropriate for tape, so they were added at the mastering stage, not in the mix.
Does anybody know if the new mastering app or the upcoming Izotope-ish one has FFT frequency analysis? I couldn't see any in screen shots and dont remember seeing it in soundtestroom's demo? It would be helpful to be able to plop in a song by an artist/producer you like and A/B it with your mix. Obviously our ears are the best judge but doesn't hurt to have an additional visual reference. I'm starting to appreciate the convenience that this new app seems to offer and if its easy to switch from one song to the next, that would be great to listen to one professionally mastered song as a reference flat with no coloration then back to your song and make adjustments as necessary.
I would say this app is more by ear than visual. You can see the waveform and set AB markers but there isn't a spectrum analysis tool. Move the sliders to hear the sound change but you have to process to affect the waveform. It is easy to switch between processed / unprocessed tracks which is nice.
Positive Grid's Mastering App will have visual waveforms present while applying effects. Also, the ability to apply the order in which the effects are located in the signal chain. Here's another render I did using AudioMastering...it seems to be ok, but could still use some work. Still....nice to have something new to work with.
@trueyorky and derek - thanks for the info guys! Dont have anything that needs immediate mastering so I might hold off for izotope one.
@derek - cool stuff man. Keep up good work!
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@Simon - Mastering vs mixing - macro vs micro perspective. How does this song blend with your other songs on album, on radio, in club, basically overall feel whereas mixing is dealing with tiny details. I remember the first time I ever recorded with my old band, I always wanted more guitar in the mix, more more more haha. Obviously the drummer wanted more drums, singer wanted more vocals. We were all caught up in the minutia of our parts instead of caring about the overall mix. Then about a year ago, I started trying to learn how djs and remixers approached music and by default they naturally had a feel for how and what songs needed overall. I think thats why some of the best producers were former djs (Dr. Dre, lot of EDM guys). With all this being said, (i think i may have mentioned this already but f it) my fave producer, alan moulder, has said he strives to mix an album so that his mastering engineers barely move a finger.
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@Simon 100% Spot on..any studio worth it's weight will have two or three sets of monitors, far field and near field and possibly those little cube ones..
Mastering is not mixing. You fix things in the mix, that is, uncool notes, low hi hats, tiny guitars and so on. If you are still undecided about your mix then it is really not ready for mastering. It is only when you are 1000% sure about your mix that you should go to a mastering engineer or you DIY mastering. The mastering engineer will not fix an out of tune note. Mastering is typically done on a single audio track hence why this mastering app is built for one audio track. I mastered my album The World As One now on iTunes so my tip to anyone thinking about mastering their tracks is get their mixing done first BEFORE they go into mastering mode. As the name suggests, your MASTER copy is what you should play to the world
@soundtestroom - are you refering to the mixcube? The same producer I mentioned above, alan moulder, has said in interviews that he mixes on one tiny cube at low volumes in addition to other reference monitors.
Alan Moulder and Geoff Emerick love on the same day?
buys @gjcyrus a beer
Haha, thanks man! I'll take a Guiness
I posted this before on an older thread but just in case, here is a Q & A with Alan Moulder from diff guys on this recording forum. You'll be happy to hear that he is a big believer in using whatever is available. So I'm sure he'd be on the side of not caring at all about 16 bits vs 24 bits
http://repforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,34538.30.html?PHPSESSID=956p48ccd377rsfla5c9odcfr1
Oh, one more thing. Next to probably Dr. Dre's drums, I love the drum sounds Alan got off of JAMC's Honey's Dead. And one of Alan's biggest tricks is using blending drum samples with live bands. Thus my love for Auria as they have DrumAGog.
Mastering has more of an effect than most musicians seem to realize. My first lesson was in the late seventies recording to 2" fat tape and mixing out for mastering. We tweaked all the sounds and eq, added compression and made it sound the way we wanted it to. We got the master back and it was crap. The guy said (his name was Bob Ludwig) take most all eq, effects and comp off, basically go flat and take everything off and send him a mix level only version. The master we got back was 100 times better than we could have ever imagined. The power, clarity and in your face of the record was truly night and day amazing.
I learned back then that mastering is actually half the sound of an album. It's not just the " legal" level BS and track spacing etc, it a bloody art in its own right. Mastering can make or break a record so act accordingly. I have played on and mixed a few dozen albums in my day and I still get the pros to master it properly and bring out the shine as only they can.
My 2 cents.
@Stewart - whoa! You had Bob Ludwig master your album?? Thats cool! I'm pretty sure he had a big part to play in the mastering. Did he impart any words of wisdom aside from just telling you to always use a good mastering engineer?
Yes. I learned allot from Bob and I have never forgotten. One thing i remember clearly is the song matters most and you cannot improve a bad song with mix or mastering. In other words crap in is still crap out just with a bit more shine. Seriously, mastering is so much more than people today seem to realize. Most people give credit to us producers when in fact half that sound and power came from the mastering process. It's not just Eddie that got Zepplins power going, it was a combination of both Eddie and Bob ( and Zepplin of course).
I just wanted to impart my observation of how important a good masterer and the mastering job is. Its so much more than making it broadcast quality as someone stated earlier. Although that is indeed part of the mastering process, mastering done right is literally like adding color to the drawing and bringing it to life.
Much the same as you cannot learn common sense, with art though you have it or you don't. You cannot learn it as you must be truly born with this gift.
Hi, some news about Audio Mastering future:
http://audio-mastering-studio.blogspot.com/2013/05/what-to-expect-in-next-versions.html
FYI and FWIW, Steve Turnidge recently published an excellent book on the art of mastering. I need to study it. Art comes from within, yes, but knowing the tools takes study and instruction.
@Stewart - thnx for feedback. So simple but brilliant advice. @dwarman - Who's Steve Turnridge? Is he a mastering engineer too?
"Mastering" and "Mastering by Bob Ludwig" just aren't at all the same thing!
If you have access to someone like that then your take on mastering is going to be quite different. I worked as an asst at a mastering studio for a while. The ME had some nice gear and he almost always improved the sound/polish/consistency of the record but I can't imagine it was anything like what someone like Bob Ludwig would have done. Truth be told, if he was sick or on vacation or too drunk I'd be left to do the sessions and quite frankly, particularly in comparison to the handful of Ludwigs in the world, I didn't know diddly shit about mastering. I sure did make it louder though. Which is to say "Mastering" and "Mastering by Bob Ludwig" just aren't at all the same thing!
I reckon the take away is: know your mastering engineer and if you want the kind of magic/art @stewart is talking about, be prepared to pay for it.
If you can afford a mastering engineer then go for it. About a year and a half ago I was charged £500 for mastering an album of about 12 tracks. That price is the bottom end of the spectrum though. I didn't have the dosh so I read up on mastering (Mastering Music at Home by Mitch Gallagher is a good place to start) and did the mastering myself. Like with every thing in life you must persevere and good results will come. This mastering app won't make your music sound like it was produced by Quincy Jones but hey it's a good place to start.
I'm loving this discussion!
I think there seem to be two broad churches of opinion. On one side, those who think that mastering is either an unnecessary extra step, or at best something that should have a very light touch on the finished track. Then there are those who feel that mastering is critical to the whole process, and almost as important as the general placement of the elements in the final mix.
I found it fascinating that @Stewart would report that Bob Ludwig sent the tape back to be remixed flat! That's a good lesson right there.
Reverb and other time delay effects produce phase artefacts that do interfere with the effectiveness of the final mastering. If you are (for example) maximising the loudness of the track, all those reverb tails will be raised too, which can result in the reverb taking over. This is especially critical when recording music with vocals, because our ears are most attuned to that sound and can instantly hear any artificiality. Less critical when producing instrumental music.
I've recently been mastering a whole bunch of old tracks dating from the late eighties, and I have been amazed at the dramatic improvement I've managed to obtain by applying modern mastering techniques, such as mid/side processing of harmonics.
(Of course, much of this is very subjective, so to illustrate my thinking on this I'm uploading to soundcloud a set of before and after tracks for you to listen to. It might be of interest to those who haven't had much experience, and maybe those who have can let me know what they think of my efforts! I'll be back when the upload completes.)
Here's the unmastered track, from 1989.
And the mastered track from 2013. All opinions welcome.