Mastering exercise for everybody !

[LarryQualm2]

PC, are we allowed to adjust or is this a set-in-stone "competition" sort of thing? I'm thinking this is open in the sense of it being more of an exercise open to "corrections"? I wouldn't recommend sporadically littering the thread ...maybe add versions to our original post?

 

[Tony Carpenter]

@audiokid Heya Chris, nice master!. Biggest difference I think yours has over mine at least is you boosted the bass drum some more than me. I am sure there are other differences too, but I am not that clever . Nice to be kept in company though. I said to Leigh (wife) maybe I can start charging to master now? LOL..

Tony

 

[pcrecord]

PC, are we allowed to adjust or is this a set-in-stone "competition" sort of thing? I'm thinking this is open in the sense of it being more of an exercise open to "corrections"? I wouldn't recommend sporadically littering the thread ...maybe add versions to our original post?

You are allowed to do anything, of course, the subject is mastering, I'd be surprised to receive a remix with different groove and all.. but having fun while learning is the goal here..

 

[LarryQualm2]

You are allowed to do anything, of course, the subject is mastering, I'd be surprised to receive a remix with different groove and all.. but having fun while learning is the goal here..

Nooooooo, not your mix! I'd f that up for sure!

This, I mean:

I'll add it as a second version to my op too.

I'm also looking to do the best version I can. Not in a competitive way either, and it could be based off what someone else has done. So, I kinda have a side initiative going on here too.

 

[bouldersound]

Here's my quick swipe at it. I didn't master for maximum loudness, I targeted -14dBLUFS with 1dB of true peak headroom.

WAV file here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x9kAynTAWlxSS9UvX_973YSdO5z9Q46E/view?usp=sharing

MP3 file here:

 

[audiokid]

Here's my quick swipe at it. I didn't master for maximum loudness, I targeted -14dBLUFS with 1dB of true peak headroom.

WAV file here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x9kAynTAWlxSS9UvX_973YSdO5z9Q46E/view?usp=sharing

MP3 file here:
View attachment 19994

Nice work. You've tackled the harsh sss on the vox really well.

This is precisely why I couldn't be a mastering engineer. If I can't go back into a mix to fix the problematic spot without effecting everything else in the overall track ... its a constant loosing battle to me.

If I had more time I would have tried to sidechain an EQ on the sss. Maybe that would be the trick. I'd love to hear how you tackled those sss?

Again, really nice work, boulder

 

[bouldersound]

Nice work. You've tackled the harsh sss on the vox really well.

This is precisely why I couldn't be a mastering engineer. If I can't go back into a mix to fix the problematic spot without effecting everything else in the overall track ... its a constant loosing battle to me.

If I had more time I would have tried to sidechain an EQ on the sss. Maybe that would be the trick. I'd love to hear how you tackled those sss?

Again, really nice work, boulder

Thanks. While I don't automatically apply multi-band compression, I'll do it if I feel it's worthwhile. In this case what I used was a little different, ReaFIR in Compressor mode. I suppose you'd call it spectral compression. It doesn't compress predefined frequency bands, the frequencies that are compressed are dictated by what actually exceeds the threshold. The threshold itself is a frequency curve.

This is what I do on my home system. When at other studios I might use a dedicated de-esser, multi-band compression or putting an eq on a compressor's side chain.

 

[LarryQualm2]

Here's my quick swipe at it. I didn't master for maximum loudness, I targeted -14dBLUFS with 1dB of true peak headroom.

WAV file here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x9kAynTAWlxSS9UvX_973YSdO5z9Q46E/view?usp=sharing

MP3 file here:
View attachment 19994

Very nice.

 

[pcrecord]

Hey guys I thought I should post a video to make the invitation to participate in the mastering exercise.
So here it is, in case you'd want to watch it

 

[bouldersound]

@pcrecord

Marco, do you produce your videos with 48kHz or 44.1kHz audio?

 

[DogsoverLava]

I'm going to try too!

 

[pcrecord]

Marco, do you produce your videos with 48kHz or 44.1kHz audio?

48khz

 

[DogsoverLava]

On this I too felt challenged by not having access to the mix, but I think that this itself is part of the challenge and highlights what mastering is. I didn't take a too technical approach to things - I had three major objectives. 1 - Warm it up a bit. 2 - Tame some of the sibalince and some of the consonant sounds while leaving enough in for the overall vocal effect (thinking a lot of this was done intentionally. 3 - Tame some of the dynamics that made this pop a little too brightly as a mix for me - so some compression where appropriate but generally keeping the range.

I don't have a large enough toolkit or vocabulary for Mastering - I generally EQ, compress/limit while doing most of the heavy lifting in the mix process. Looking to learn more. (and keep the adage that it must be and remain musical, and adjustments must first add to the musicality of the song.)

 

[bouldersound]

Here's a 48kHz version in case you include the audio in a video. No sense putting it through any avoidable sample rate conversions.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1a9pCv1gF9dAKBKGxreo-a7_tBzMhHNmb/view?usp=sharing

 

[Davedog]

Pre-mastering prep. I liked the mix enough not to mess with it. The song has an Ian Hunter/Mick Ronson vibe to it with a touch of Peter Gabriel. I didn't try and bring up the levels to mastering levels but simply added the few things I generally use to prep a track to go to the mastering engineer I usually use.

 

[Davedog]

I hit this one just a 'bit' harder....LOL

 

[kmetal]

Im enjoying everyone's work here!

 

[LarryQualm2]

FWIW I did another. Tried to focus on a few weak spots. Remove some sharpness, add more air - more airy transparent compression, Bring the blast down some.

 

[bouldersound]

FWIW I did another. Tried to focus on a few weak spots. Remove some sharpness, add more air - more airy transparent compression, Bring the blast down some.

View attachment 20039

It's quite loud (-9dBLUFS, which I think is normal for a CD master). I was noticing on my system that the highs seemed rather harsh, perhaps distorted. My LUFS meter showed a True Peak level of +1dBFS. I turned the gain down a few dB in my DAW and the harshness went away and the master sounded good. As I understand it, some converters don't have headroom built in to accommodate waveforms that reconstruct with levels above 0dBFS, so they distort. If you're mixing through a DAC that does have the headroom, you might not hear distortion that other listeners hear. Also, compressed formats like mp3 can raise the True Peak level slightly. That's why I always leave a full 1dB of headroom.

 

[LarryQualm2]

It's quite loud (-9dBLUFS, which I think is normal for a CD master). I was noticing on my system that the highs seemed rather harsh, perhaps distorted. My LUFS meter showed a True Peak level of +1dBFS. I turned the gain down a few dB in my DAW and the harshness went away and the master sounded good. As I understand it, some converters don't have headroom built in to accommodate waveforms that reconstruct with levels above 0dBFS, so they distort. If you're mixing through a DAC that does have the headroom, you might not hear distortion that other listeners hear. Also, compressed formats like mp3 can raise the True Peak level slightly. That's why I always leave a full 1dB of headroom.

Thanks man. I'll take a look and tell ya. Listening back, to me it's not so harsh ...as in buzz-saw high mids ..it's just too loud there. Back in a bit.