Brxdsky
Member
- Joined
- Dec 20, 2020
- Location
- Massachusetts
This is my first post on the forums. Please excuse any mistakes I make.
I am 19 a second year college student, pursuing my bachelors degree in Audio Engineering and a Live Sound Certification. As of May 2020, I began doing freelance mixing, with rates going for $10 per song. I figured since I'm charging $10/song, no one can complain about it if I make some beginner's mistakes. Since then I have worked on around 50+ tracks and complete 2 entire projects. In the last week, I have been hired by a local studio to be their in-house engineer based upon the need for an engineer and my education. I have been able to cement myself by designing hybrid mixing workflows and improving the setup (the studio was previously doing everything in-the-box despite having two full racks of gear and a historical console). This studio is owned by a prominent figure in the music industry, and a lot of my work will be recording artists and having their music distributed through a deal with Sony. Two days ago I had a recording session with Ol' Dirty Bastard's nephew
. I am slightly nervous for this as while I have improved so much as a mixing and recording engineer in the last 3 months (which were spent learning at school and continuing to do freelance mixes for $10), I remain doubtful of my own abilities. I don't expect anyone to have all the answers for me. What I am looking for is critiques and feedback of a mix I did 3 months ago. It was part of the first complete project I have done, and it was a proud moment for me. Once the project was released, I was embarrassed. Soundcloud actually DESTROYED this song. This is an entirely separate issue from the mix, but I am dogsh*t at mastering.
Mastering Issue: I have been mastering myself by exporting my mix leaving -3dBFS of headroom from 0 in Pro Tools. Then I bring the song into a mastering session in Pro Tools, using minimal processing: EQ (cuts around low end, boosts on high end), light compression (Waves SSL G-Comp) and a Limiter (Waves L1+ UltraMaximizer). I am told that Soundcloud's mastering levels are from -8LUFS to -14LUFS, so I mastered the whole project to have a dynamic range of -14LUFS - the waveform looks like a brick. Very lost on this, and any advice or tips would be appreciate. One thing I noticed after the fact was that the masters are .wav files while Soundcloud converts everything to .mp3, greatly compressing the file. I've been searching for ways to achieve a dynamic range of -8LUFS to -14LUFS without creaking waveforms that look like bricks, and won't sound puny on Soundcloud after Soundcloud add its own processing (jerks).
Things you should know about this song: It was mixed entirely in-the-box. It was recorded by a down south rapper, who has since been incarcerated (not even sure if he's heard it). It relies heavily upon autotune. Knowing what I know about compression now, I have realized that vocals with an overall ratio of 10:1 are definitely over-compressed. Since then I have began using lighter channel & bus compression in my mixes.
My Signal Chain for each vocal looks like this:
Mono Vocal Track with an output being sent to a bus: | Waves Tune Real-Time | REQ6 (Subtractive EQ: low-cut with a cutoff freq. of 73 Hz, peaking EQ to reduce mud at 350 Hz) | RDe-esser | RCompressor (Quick attack & release, ratio of 2:1) | 304EQ (2 dB boost at 3.5kHz, 1 dB boost of treble) | BF76 (Ratio of 4:1) |
SENDS: 2 different reverbs and 1/4 Note Delay (H-Delay)
Vocal Bus: | REQ6 (Minimal Boosts at 3kHz and 10kHz) | SSL G-Comp (Ratio of 4:1, attack of 1 ms, release of 1.2 s) | Ozone Stereo Imager (40% width) | RDe-esser again
I attached the final master, and the reference track.
Please feel free to tell me any wrong moves I made and feel free to be as critical as possible. I am searching for guidance, and I wouldn't be opposed to having my work trashed as long as it serves as an important lesson to helping my career.
The Soundcloud Version (embed isn't working for me): Rated R Da Chief - My City
I am 19 a second year college student, pursuing my bachelors degree in Audio Engineering and a Live Sound Certification. As of May 2020, I began doing freelance mixing, with rates going for $10 per song. I figured since I'm charging $10/song, no one can complain about it if I make some beginner's mistakes. Since then I have worked on around 50+ tracks and complete 2 entire projects. In the last week, I have been hired by a local studio to be their in-house engineer based upon the need for an engineer and my education. I have been able to cement myself by designing hybrid mixing workflows and improving the setup (the studio was previously doing everything in-the-box despite having two full racks of gear and a historical console). This studio is owned by a prominent figure in the music industry, and a lot of my work will be recording artists and having their music distributed through a deal with Sony. Two days ago I had a recording session with Ol' Dirty Bastard's nephew
Mastering Issue: I have been mastering myself by exporting my mix leaving -3dBFS of headroom from 0 in Pro Tools. Then I bring the song into a mastering session in Pro Tools, using minimal processing: EQ (cuts around low end, boosts on high end), light compression (Waves SSL G-Comp) and a Limiter (Waves L1+ UltraMaximizer). I am told that Soundcloud's mastering levels are from -8LUFS to -14LUFS, so I mastered the whole project to have a dynamic range of -14LUFS - the waveform looks like a brick. Very lost on this, and any advice or tips would be appreciate. One thing I noticed after the fact was that the masters are .wav files while Soundcloud converts everything to .mp3, greatly compressing the file. I've been searching for ways to achieve a dynamic range of -8LUFS to -14LUFS without creaking waveforms that look like bricks, and won't sound puny on Soundcloud after Soundcloud add its own processing (jerks).
Things you should know about this song: It was mixed entirely in-the-box. It was recorded by a down south rapper, who has since been incarcerated (not even sure if he's heard it). It relies heavily upon autotune. Knowing what I know about compression now, I have realized that vocals with an overall ratio of 10:1 are definitely over-compressed. Since then I have began using lighter channel & bus compression in my mixes.
My Signal Chain for each vocal looks like this:
Mono Vocal Track with an output being sent to a bus: | Waves Tune Real-Time | REQ6 (Subtractive EQ: low-cut with a cutoff freq. of 73 Hz, peaking EQ to reduce mud at 350 Hz) | RDe-esser | RCompressor (Quick attack & release, ratio of 2:1) | 304EQ (2 dB boost at 3.5kHz, 1 dB boost of treble) | BF76 (Ratio of 4:1) |
SENDS: 2 different reverbs and 1/4 Note Delay (H-Delay)
Vocal Bus: | REQ6 (Minimal Boosts at 3kHz and 10kHz) | SSL G-Comp (Ratio of 4:1, attack of 1 ms, release of 1.2 s) | Ozone Stereo Imager (40% width) | RDe-esser again
I attached the final master, and the reference track.
Please feel free to tell me any wrong moves I made and feel free to be as critical as possible. I am searching for guidance, and I wouldn't be opposed to having my work trashed as long as it serves as an important lesson to helping my career.
The Soundcloud Version (embed isn't working for me): Rated R Da Chief - My City