Mastering an album

Mate, no offence, but you may not get a response with a post this vague, from an experienced mastering engineer. A bit of detail - what format, how it was recorded, where, what your goal is, what equipment, etc etc - please be detailed, this is a detailed topic.

To give you the simple answer for finalizing a track when you cannot send out to a mastering studio - peak up at -0.3dB, settings are there to make sure everything fits creatively, so its not something that can be communicated in terms of numbers, and after its mastered (by a mastering engineer), its finished, so yeah just leave it.

Beginner to beginner

So you are a beginner and I am a beginner, let's help each other at our simple level:

liveit777, post: 365986 wrote: Hi guys.... I need some mastering tips. First, how loud should a song be after it's mastered and stuff

I normalize everything to -1 db. Just seems to work for me. Trial and error got me there.

liveit777, post: 365986 wrote:
Second, should I put the same master settings on each song on the album

I use the same VST plugins on every track, but tweak the individual settings for each song. For example, a ballad and a rocker will both have the same compressor on them, but the settings for the rocker is different from the ballad.

liveit777, post: 365986 wrote:
And last, is there any other tips or tweaks any of y'all have to do to a song after it's mastered, or do you just leave it?

Here's what I do, in order. I am no good at this, really. The Pros here can help much more.

After loading the studio master in;
1. Chop off junk at beginning and end of song.
2. Apply fade-out to end if needed.
3. Apply a very quick fade in at the beginning. I always do this. Leave a split-second of silence at the beginning and fade it up. Seems to stop popping at the beginning of my tracks.
4. FX:
Puncher
Sonic Maximizer
Main compressor
Peak Master...
...in that order.

Puncher and Maximizer generate harmonics that add punch and treble-bass enhancements.
The main compressor is usually set to just catch the peaks: attack time real short, ratio 1.5:1, release slow, and threshold pretty high. My meters barely twitter on the compressor.
And Peak Master is the brick-wall compressor. Never shall a signal go above what Peak Master allows. It's a great safety features for amateurs like me.

5. Render those FX.
6. Global analysis
7. Normalize panning.
8. Normalize to -1db.
9. Save file.
10 Wipe hands on pants.

I hope this helps. I am not very knowledgeable about mastering, and this procedure is just the product of trail and error, mostly error! :rolleyes:

But it should get you started.

Cheers;
-Johntodd

PS The post above mine was posted while I was writing mine. Listen to that guy, he's good!

It's always interesting to see what's been said on this kind of posts! Rock on! Quick Tip - invest in your art with professionals who know what they're doing... I know... this is a "shitty" answer... but as Jeemy said... it's really necessary more details about what you want! Just one more thing: Can you copy or paint Pablo Picasso?! Well I believe not... but you can start by getting some clues, right... Is that enough?! Nahhhh... You have to learn from the bottom what to do, how you do it, and how things work, right... So since you're in the first step... getting some clues, be more specific... ask the right questions - or just deliver the work to a professional and value your art as it should be valued!

Cheers!

leopoldolopes, post: 366014 wrote: It's always interesting to see what's been said on this kind of posts!

Truth is...I found something that sounds good and I'm afraid to change it. :)

A Pro would do much better than that.

JohnTodd, post: 366015 wrote: Truth is...I found something that sounds good and I'm afraid to change it. :)

A Pro would do much better than that.

I can't argue with those settings of yours... It's your thing and I respect that as much I respect someone who want to learn how to it... I just think that we have to try to orientate people to the right path...

There is nothing wrong with trying to do everything yourself.
But the first step towards professionalism is to start cooperating with others.

Cheers,

Herbeck

There are literally hundreds of posts on this subject. Some time spent with the search function would be in order.

Best of luck!

ps. There are NO magic numbers and no magic ways of doing mastering. It takes a great room, great speakers, great equipment, a trained ear and lots and lots of experience to do the job right. Maybe pay for a track or two at your local pro mastering studio to see how someone does it before attempting to do it yourself.

I have never used a formula, I do what the song demands. Know your tools, and let the music guide you.

For us here, for a 4-track demo or single with EP songs:

OK - we do it ourselves, bill out at £30 p/h ($50 or so)

Decent - £250 / $400

Excellent - Could easily pay £1000 and it would be worth it, if I produced mixes of a quality that would benefit

[[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.musicthi…"]A Mastering Engineer's Guide to Final Mixdown - MTT - Music Think Tank[/]="http://www.musicthi…"]A Mastering Engineer's Guide to Final Mixdown - MTT - Music Think Tank[/]

Here's a neat little article, courtesy ASCAP's The Dean's List.