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HI all,

First of all, this is my very first post and I would like to thanks everyone on this forum for their help and for the knowledge they share...

Here's my question / problem:

I have made an old demo 5 years ago and I want to remaster it because it really sounds...crappy.

Back in the days I didn’t have enough space on my computer so had to turn all my songs to mono to make my CD... I didn’t know anything about compression or any mastering tips.

So I want to remaster those old songs to make them sounds better. (At least I have the instrumentals so I can re do all the vocals...)

I only have the final mono mixed tracks.
So what I'm trying to do right now is this and i would like to know if its a good trick or if you have better ones to give to me:

First, I took my mono track and I have duplicated it 5 times in my sequencer so I can separate most frequency. It gives me the chance to play with some panning to give me some fake stereo sound.
keep the bass in the middle, the highs panned on the right, etc.
It gives me the chance to make some compressions on each group of frequencies. Added some reverbs in the highs and pumped the bass / kick drum around 80 Hz.

When I listen to the result, it has a wider sound but not enough for me.
Finally, i add my mono track on the top of it to keep the sound I little more glued together and I make a final compression on the master bus.

The result is better than the original (which definitively sucks) but could be better.

Any tricks on this?
Is my solution really bad? (I'm definitively not a pro at mastering)

Thanks a lot guys.

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Comments

anonymous Wed, 12/11/2002 - 19:38

Yes thats a good solution but the problem is i only have the final mixed track so i cannot separate the Keyboards or any instruments from the wav file.

Im gonna play with some pannings and some stereo reverbs on the chorus and on the ad-libs that i will re-record. I can do that since i have the instrumental separated from vocals.

I know i should go back to the studio and re-do everything but its not really possible.

I could take out all the bass from the original with the EQ and record some bass over it but usually, when i do my mix, i keep my bass in the middle so that wont really help...

Well, maybe there is no real solution and i will keep my beats mono with only the vocals using some stereo. At least they will stand out from the rest...

anyway, thanks for your help.

(Désolé pour mon mauvais englais...)