Its one thing being the master of something, its another mastering it. while the prior may be true, mastering in audio is something that takes years to perfect and even then you become more aware of the intricacies that are associated with it.
No one will argue that digital technology has done many things to empower musicians to control their recordings. Today, the group's artists are less dependent on high-priced recording professionals, with many excellent sound projects that have never been seen inside recording studios.
But while the average modern laptop rig can run around the Monastery, the knowledge and expertise of the old school engineers has not yet been included in a plug-in. Some of the best jobs are left for professionals, and many will assume that mastery is one of them. Certainly, if your budget allows, a professionally proficient engineer is worth his weight in gold. Although I will try to provide some basic suggestions about the proficiency process, remember that it is a skill that takes many years and special talent to master.
What is it?
Mastering can be defined loosely as refining the levels and balances of a piece of music, preparing it for replication and broadcasting. This includes optimising the average volume level and the top of a track, using compression and balance to achieve a level consistent with other records. Other tasks that a skilled engineer usually handles include cleaning up unwanted noises (clicks, pop-ups, etc.), arranging tracks into a final sequence, placing appropriate space between the grooves and insert the track marks and other codecs needed to copy.
In the same way that anyone can set up some loops and create a track, it's not hard to plug in a main compressor and adjust the track parameters on the road. But mixing and mastering are two different things. Mastering is really an art form: a blend of technology, sound, educational ears and musical intuition. In the right hand, the smallest equalizer increase or compression can have a big impact on the entire score. A proficient engineer will make subtle decisions about sound balance, offering the most important frequency bands of different aspects of the record and achieving a mix of high bass and high frequencies. This can create more punch and make music better.
If you visit a mastering studio, you may be surprised at the sparsity of most of them. Unlike large recording studios with walls full of classic equipment and flashing LED lights, engineers who master the best of his settings are relatively modest issues. Part of this is because simple room acoustics: Wall brackets can actually have a negative impact on the acoustics of the room and the ability to create a sound-neutral environment to monitor mixing. . Although their studios are not proud of the device's rack, the device you see doesn't usually have many devices out of price. Most skilled engineers are custom partial signal processing equipment: discrete, type A electronics, vacuum tube circuits and other components close to the leading audiophile equipment, rarer than Professional audio processing devices.
With the advent of high-end software and mastering plugins, more and more studio owners are embedding their toes and experimenting with mastering their works. The most skilled engineers honed their skills over many years of practice, but if you are realistic in your expectations, you may find that a little experimentation will be a valuable learning experience. Even if you finally decide to follow the expert, you will be better prepared to know what to expect from them.
One of the first things to realise is that mastering is NOT mixing. Although most fluent compressors can focus on tight frequency bands, mastering does not handle tracking or other aspects of individual tracks in a mix. So before you even consider mastering, it's important to incorporate a mix that is as clean as possible. Keep everything in perspective, with good balance, panning, and no distortion. Use minimal compression on individual instruments, but even more importantly, don't add compression to the final mix. The more you squeeze the mix, the less dynamic range you have to master. One of the most common mistakes is to create a mixture that does not have enough space to allow headroom. Less experienced mixers tend to try to be as hot as possible, with peaks up to -1 dB or even 0 dB. But most proficient engineers will tell you that a minimum of 3 to 6 dB of available space is essential. Ideally the highest level of your mix should not exceed -3 dBFS.
When you have a mix you are satisfied with, it is time to start a proficiency test. Your main tools will be dynamic handling (compression and limit) and balance. With both, a little is more than enough. Perhaps one of the most important things to note in mastering is dynamic range. It is also the most common error and is something that experienced engineers are more likely to experience sometimes. Dynamic range is defined as the difference between the quietest and loudest sound in a recording. When compression is added to a track, louder sound will be reduced. When those louder sounds are crushed, the difference between the smallest and largest sound of your sound. Reduce your dynamic range, and with all your music, articulation and nuances. The lightest sounds were brought up, and the loudest sounds were limited, and the result was a piece of music that everything was the loudest, all the time.
Ask any veteran engineer what their biggest complaint about radio today is, and they will complain about the disappearance of the dynamic range. The past few years have witnessed an unfortunate tendency to pump the overall level of tracks higher and higher, in addition to increasingly compressing the false assumption that bigger is better. With a main compressor, you often want to start with a fairly low compression ratio. With a multi-band unit such as AVID's Multi-Band Pro Dynamics, start at a ratio of about 2: 1 and slowly (repeat: slowly) bring it up. Rarely, if any, you should end up with a ratio of more than 5: 1.
EQ is coupled with compression in mastering. A very accurate multi-band graphic equaliser can compensate for changes in frequency balance caused by the compression application. For example, adding compression can make the sound a bit muddy, in which case, you use EQ to cut a little lower mid range (about 300 Hz). Or maybe the compression made the mix sound a bit boring. Add a little high frequency EQ, about 12 kHz, can add some light and sparkle. A bit of cutting at about 5 kHz can eliminate some harsh aspects of drums and guitar parts. Of course, all are just examples; Your mix will dictate what needs to be done and your ears must be the deciding factor.
While you are fine-tuning, you should also compare your mix with a CD or sound or ears; The best thing is that this material has a frequency balance and is a bit close to the music you hear like your music. This will help provide you with a reference point, which is particularly useful after you make subtle changes in an hour or two. Can you do your own mastering? You can try. Would it be good as a master engineer can really do? Of course not. But taking a moment to listen seriously about how these tools affect your mix is ​​a great way to get used to what mastering can do for your music. And just like adding too much compression or EQ to an instrument is a great way to learn what not to do, experimenting with plugins to go a long way to educate your ears about those. What you expect from mastering and how to tell engineers to master from a bad person. As always, it all comes from using your ears.
So while you may think that you have the best plugins it realistically comes down to having the space and the ear tuned to the slightest of nuances that come with mastering.
Don't let this discourage you though because all of the greatest engineers started somewhere and below are some links to help you on that journey
IZotope Inc. (2018). 10 Tips for Mastering if You're Not a Mastering Engineer.
Retrieved from https://www.izotope.com/en/blog/mastering/10-tips-for-mastering-if-you-are-not-a-mastering-engineer.html
Katz, R. A. (2015). Mastering audio: The art and the science. Burlington: Focal Press.
Owsinski, B. (2008). The audio mastering handbook: Second edition: The Audio Mastering Handbook. Boston, MA: Thomson Course Technology PTR.
Owsinski, B. (2013, January 23). Audio Mastering Techniques.
Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/mastering-tutorials/Audio-Mastering-Techniques/109358-2.html
Owsinski, B., Merton, O., & Tanamachi, M. (2015). The mastering engineer's handbook(3rd ed.). Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning PTR.
Rogers, J. (2017). Audio Mastering Secrets.
Retrieved from http://audiomasteringsecrets.com/Audio_Mastering_Secrets_PREVIEW_10.pdf
Teach Me Audio. (2018). Basic Mastering Techniques.
Retrieved from https://www.teachmeaudio.com/mastering/basic-mastering-techniques/
Waddell, G. (2013). Complete Audio Mastering: Practical Techniques. New york: McGraw-Hill Education.