Skip to main content

Could someone give me an idea of what chain you would use to obtain commercial volume levels specifically rap & r&b.(It a db war). The technique i use now is to lower the bottom end with multiband compression(c4)to reduce overload, compress everthing else about 6-9 db then eq the bottom in back in. I know there is no fix all method but there has to be a something thats commonly done. Also before someone responds with let the proffesionals do it. I have. This is for demo purposes.

Comments

Thomas W. Bethel Sun, 01/04/2004 - 04:27

(Dead Link Removed)

There is a very good thread by Michael Fossenkemper on this subject.

Without hearing your music it is IMPOSSIBLE to give you accurate advice on what to do. Every song is different, every recording is different, every person has different equipment and different ways of achieving the same results. Not to mention different ears and different results they are trying to achieve.

What you are describing sounds like it might work in some situations. Again without hearing your music and what is sounds like BEFORE you attempt to master it one can only speculate on what to do.

No one is telling you to go to a professional but it is like calling the local art supply store and telling them you need some additional paint to finish up your masterpiece and can they recommend some color to use. If they can't see the picture then cannot recommend a color.

There are no "magic" ways of doing anything in mastering. If you were to give the top 10 mastering engineers the same piece of music and ask them all to "master it" you would not find any two people doing it the same exact way.

Since all mastering houses have different people, different equipment and different ears on the people doing the mastering they would all approach it differently. The results may or may not sound the same but they would all approach it in a different way.

Much of mastering is based on experience. Maybe something you did a while back on another project that did not work on that project will work on this one. Maybe you have found that this particular recording studio has a hole at 100 Hz in their monitoring chain and therefore everything they bring you is over done at 100 Hz, maybe you know that the producer is looking for a sound that will overwhelm club goers and doesn't car about how this mastering sounds in a car or on a boom box.

I hope you get the idea. If you can post your music somewhere I for one would be happy to listen to it an give you some suggestions and I am sure that there are others here that would do the same thing.

Hope this helps.

Thomas W. Bethel Sun, 01/04/2004 - 10:16

Originally posted by itsme:
My music is at http:// "Ghetto" is what i did "The Rock" was done by a pro. I really didn't focus on eq, just volume. Didn't want it to be a low level when played after other music.

I listened to your stuff.

It already sounds very good. Are you wanting to do more to it? According to my Dorrough Loudness meter you are already pushing the envelope. Although I am sure your stuff sounds better strait off the computer or from a CD you have a very nice MP3 sound and the bass sounds very well defined and does not sound mushy or muddy. The compression sounds good as well and the whole piece is very well done with good panning and good placement of the voices.

What else are you trying to do with it?

Michael Fossenkemper Mon, 01/05/2004 - 15:41

It's good that you are trying different approaches to achieve what you want. If level is your goal, then having lots of things do a little is better than a few things doing a lot. If your using good gear that is. If you don't have access to great gear than sometimes it's best not to use it. sometimes changing your chain will work better on somethings. like eq, comp, limiter. or comp, eq, comp, limiter. try it all different ways. master it one way and then completely change your chain and try it again. then listen to them all and see what is achieved by having things in different places.