Mastering for Spotify…What Am I Missing?

AudioGus

@Tarekith said:
Or if your song is quieter than -14LUFS, they will turn it up as much as they can until it either hits -1TP or -14LUFS, which will likely be pretty quiet compared to other songs (if you even care about that, some don't).

I always just listen to albums, so as long as it is internally consistent at birth I am happy.

Tarekith

That’s a good point, Spotify does take into account if you’re listening to the album or just a single song when deciding all this too.

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Tarekith

It's so quiet!

Kidding. I'm not able to listen to it yet, looking forward to peeping this later today

shinyisshiny

Heres my take :

https://www.dropbox.com/s/2v6yx48mc9pc6gi/Duke Wonder - Dawn - Shiny Quick Master.wav?dl=0

Mastered pretty hot, but i always tend to do so. Also, used airpods, not at the studio today.

richardyot

@Tarekith said:
Ok, here we go:

https://tarekith.com/downloads/DawnStereo-Master.wav

A few caveats. This was quick and dirty since I'm doing it for free Had this been a paying job I would have asked the artist if it was possible to make a few changes before I started. Namely lowering the bassline and snare a couple dB since those are both pretty loud in the mix. Also, as mentioned by tja, the file is clipping a little bit it sounds like, so lowering the master fader in the DAW by 3-6dB before exporting would help that too.

And yes, I applied 16bit dither too, though just triangular with no noise-shaping since this was already a 16bit file. If anyone can hear a difference in this song with or without dithering in ANY normal listening circumstance, I will give you my entire mastering studio.

Really good job. I loudness aside, this does sound much better than the original - much more rounded and pleasing. Whatever EQ you applied, it was very effective.

(Edit: Oh I see you posted the EQ curves, very interesting).

ChancedMusic

I don’t have headphones with me right now so I’ll have to listen to the new versions later. Thanks everyone for chiming in on this. Didn’t expect to spark such a lively conversation.

seonnthaproducer

@DukeWonder said:

@Tarekith said:

@DukeWonder said:
Why is it then that they recommend that you leave -2dB TP headroom instead of -1 if your track is louder? I’ve never understood that part.

I don't know enough about their transcoding process to say for sure, but there's potential I suppose for intersample overs as part of it as you get loud material near 0dBFS. -2TP seems REALLY conservative to me, but I guess they are just giving you a larger safety net.

FWIW most labels I work with ask for -1TP if anything, and I've never had one come back complaining about distortion or anything like that.

Awesome, thanks again for the insight.

Agreed as well. Thanks @Tarekith for the detailed insight into mastering.

Tarekith

Welcome to Sunday on the internet 😂

tahiche

@Tarekith said:

@DukeWonder said:
Why is it then that they recommend that you leave -2dB TP headroom instead of -1 if your track is louder? I’ve never understood that part.

I don't know enough about their transcoding process to say for sure, but there's potential I suppose for intersample overs as part of it as you get loud material near 0dBFS. -2TP seems REALLY conservative to me, but I guess they are just giving you a larger safety net.

FWIW most labels I work with ask for -1TP if anything, and I've never had one come back complaining about distortion or anything like that.

@Tarekith are you a professional “mastering” engineer?. I’m looking to master an album and hadn’t thought about asking around in this friendly forum…
It’s a self-release so I have a limited budget but I do want some outside mastering. Both for the “objective listening” factor aswell as for a “pro” touch.
Have any of you reached out for pro mastering for your tracks?.
Cheers!

Tarekith

Yes, I’ve been a professional mastering engineer for almost 20 years now.

Full details on my services here: https://tarekith.com

ChancedMusic

An update here. I am nearly finished mastering my new beat tape and I am having a lot of success with taking the advice that has been presented here. I removed a compressor from my master chain and added in 4Pockets SideBand Remix. I’m excited to hear what it sounds like once it’s released.

AudioGus

@Bob said:
Damn, I will need to buy TBC but it’s so expensive and I don’t produce music on my cheap windows laptop.

I am now just sending my iPad audio output into my cheap laptop running TBC while working in BM3/NS2 etc. Works great! The cheapest windows anything can run one instance of TBC. Also, iZotope is having a Black Friday sale.

klownshed

Interesting tips in here :-)

I regularly struggle with matching the overall loudness of my mixes with commercial releases. I wish I’d never heard of LUDS!

I’m going to try and remix/finalise/‘master’ my last song and try and follow the tips here to see if I can get a bit closer to a process I can match to going forward.

These days, as with many of us around here, I’m also having to find spare time when the kids/wife allow to try and make music so it’s always a bit rushed and almost exclusively on headphones. I sort of know what I should be doing but don’t have enough time to do it properly so end up rushing and cutting corners. and when I do think I’ve cracked I end up feeligng abject disappointment when I play the mix back in the car!

And then I chase my tail trying to fix if and end up making everything worse

klownshed

@jonmoore said:
All of the Mastering the Mix plugins are useful for those who self master, but at the very least their Reference plugin is essential (there's a bundle discount available).

https://www.masteringthemix.com/

LEVELS is one of the free choices at pluginboutique when you buy any plug-in. I'm thinking about getting Audiothing Motor for £8 and getting LEVELS free.

jonmoore

@klownshed said:

@jonmoore said:
All of the Mastering the Mix plugins are useful for those who self master, but at the very least their Reference plugin is essential (there's a bundle discount available).

https://www.masteringthemix.com/

LEVELS is one of the free choices at pluginboutique when you buy any plug-in. I'm thinking about getting Audiothing Motor for £8 and getting LEVELS free.

I should add that I tend to recommend the Mastering the Mix plugins for those that are less accustomed to mastering as they're guides as well as tools. But overall I'm a firm believer in using saturation and compression on individual tracks and busses and then using a far more transparent & gentle setup for the limiter on the final master (I generally use Pro-L). I think this does a good job at maintaining perceived loudness whilst keeping LUFS in the zone for streaming services.

You do of course require an EQ treatment on the final master too and for this, I tend to use a linear phase EQ and only cut frequency ranges with that. If you find yourself having to boost frequency ranges at the mastering stage, those deficiencies are far better remedied on mix busses or individual tracks. For me, a mastering EQ is something that's far better utilised for fixing things like problematic compound emphasis resonances.

But as I've mentioned earlier, of all the Mastering the Mix plugins, the one I use most often is REFERENCE. The great thing about matching your masters to a set of reference tracks is that it levels the playing field in terms of deficiencies in your monitoring setup, be that a treated space with speakers or headphones. Seeing as you're matching tracks you know and love through the same monitoring setup as your final master (and if those reference tracks translate well across a myriad of playback devices), you can have increased confidence that your masters will translate well too (although nothing beats actually playing your final master through a variety of devices (both headphones and speakers).

Bob

@AudioGus said:

@Bob said:
Damn, I will need to buy TBC but it’s so expensive and I don’t produce music on my cheap windows laptop.

I am now just sending my iPad audio output into my cheap laptop running TBC while working in BM3/NS2 etc. Works great! The cheapest windows anything can run one instance of TBC. Also, iZotope is having a Black Friday sale.

That’s great to know!
So does TBC work as standalone? I don’t have any DAW installed on my laptop to use it as a plugin.
The other plugin I’m interested in is REFERENCE from masteringthemix, but that is to be used inside a DAW.
Sadly TBC is not included in the black friday sales, only TBC2 and not cheap 199 🤯

AudioGus

@Bob said:

@AudioGus said:

@Bob said:
Damn, I will need to buy TBC but it’s so expensive and I don’t produce music on my cheap windows laptop.

I am now just sending my iPad audio output into my cheap laptop running TBC while working in BM3/NS2 etc. Works great! The cheapest windows anything can run one instance of TBC. Also, iZotope is having a Black Friday sale.

That’s great to know!
So does TBC work as standalone? I don’t have any DAW installed on my laptop to use it as a plugin.
The other plugin I’m interested in is REFERENCE from masteringthemix, but that is to be used inside a DAW.
Sadly TBC is not included in the black friday sales, only TBC2 and not cheap 199 🤯

It is bundled in Ozone 9 Advanced or Neutron Advanced which are also 199$ (On sale) and do give other things (I got Ozone 9 Advanced to get TBC2).

I don’t think TBC2 works standalone but anything that hosts a vst should work (Reaper etc)

It is pricey but can possibly save you many hours of frustration if you are anything like me.

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