Is There Anybody Out There?

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2001 11:03 am

Wow, I made a little suggestion in the Bar and Grill about a mastering forum and wham! There it is. Thanks Bigtree! So let's see who else is into it. FYI I've done a couple small mastering projects but I'm nowhere near a guru. Certainly no moderator type. Um....so I'll start with what I'm using. A 400mHz PIII, Win 98, Cool Edit Pro, Sound Forge and some Waves plug ins. Aardvark LX6 4 analog / 1 digital 24/96 I/O module. Yorkville SR300 power amp. A pair of custom made speakers (kit maybe), very similar design to KEF and Dynaudio. About 3 feet tall, two 8 inch cone drivers mounted vertically with the tweeter in between, rear ported. Also have a pair of coax Tannoy's w/ 10" drivers and a pair of Yorkville YSM 1's for mixing. I just set this up and am getting used to it. So just looking to see who else is interested in this forum and what they're using.

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2001 1:14 pm

Though I have been present at a mastering session and I could hear what was happening. I was an almost mystical experience, I heard the differences by wasn't sure how the decisions were being made. How about a step by step of a typical mastering session with thought processes included. Example: How do you KNOW there is not enough bass? How long to make a fade-out or in? I realize "typical" is a vague word but you know what I mean. <P>Thanks <BR>Randy Brown

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2001 1:18 pm

I'm running similar equipment and spend a lot of time mastering. Mostly cleaning up recordings, fixing level drop out, eq, limiting and compression stuff. Trying to get the best levels and the lowest signal to noise possible. <P>It helps to have good equipment and good monitors and to know how to use it and when to not use it. I think mastering is more of an artform than a lot of folks realize. Plus it helps to have another pair of ears to listen to the music.

Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2001 3:07 pm

Well, I don't really claim what I do is "REAL" mastering, but I am setting up a mastering room, once I convince George Augspurger to design it for me for free. I have Ed May's custom designed JBL speaker system out of his house (WITHIN 2 dB from 27 Hz to 22 kHz), and I'll need some more gear, but at least I'll be able to do a 1/2 way decent job on projects coming out of here.

Posted: Sat Jun 09, 2001 4:40 pm

The hardest thing to do is master your own work. I'm currently starting to master my own bands project. I performed parts, recorded and mixed it. I was listening to the mixes and working with some EQs and compression. The hard part is that I've been so involved in this that I can't take that step back necessary to master this thing. We don't have budget to hire someone else. I think I'll try to get an engineer friend of mine to sit in and at least listen while I work or maybe he'll do it gratis or barter. All I know is when I've mastered other people's projects I haven't had this problem of constantly second guessing myself.

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