MehrZ212, post: 429675, member: 49118 wrote: Enjoy

well, i tried but i didn't. too much mid range and geeze, how loud do you need to make it? if i were shopping for an ME i sure wouldn't pick you based on those samples of your work.

and i must mention after perusing your "tips and tricks" section, everything you advocate is subjective, yet you give the impression they are facts. for example, i would never compress a kick drum. i know i sound harsh, but if you want to represent yourself as something, you better deliver.

everyone's an ME these days ... but not everyone does it right.

Kurt Foster, post: 429677, member: 7836 wrote: well, i tried but i didn't. too much mid range and geeze, how loud do you need to make it? if i were shopping for an ME i sure wouldn't pick you based on those samples of your work.

and i must mention after perusing your "tips and tricks" section, everything you advocate is subjective, yet you give the impression they are facts. for example, i would never compress a kick drum. i know i sound harsh, but if you want to represent yourself as something, you better deliver.

everyone's an ME these days ... but not everyone does it right.

Thanks for your comment, as you know tone and loudness are also subjective, therefor I don't mind at all to give a client whatever tone and loudness they need for their masters as long as it's not that much out of the ordinary. Of course everything is subjective, I didn't write otherwise, some people compress kick drums, some don't.

I can appreciate the time and effort put into your book, the problem I have with it is that it's far too condensed - I don't believe that you can teach someone to master in a 24 page text, or, even 100 pages for that matter, either - and that it's subjective to what you've done (or learned yourself) and not based on mastering as a general principle and process-dependent upon the different styles of music.

I also think you are guiding readers to make their final output far too hot, especially when the standards are changing (and changing fast) in the broadcast world right now, but also because with the way you are describing things, there wouldn't be much dynamic range left. I suppose if you had stipulated that this was a "guide" to mastering strictly to compete with the loudness wars going on in modern pop or rap, then I could have probably accepted it more, but what about acoustic music? Bluegrass? Jazz? Classical?

I also didn't see any mention of conversion, monitoring, or room acoustics, which all play a major factor in mastering.

I will say that your explanations of what the various tools are, might be considered valuable by some readers, although I can't help but to shudder when I think of Multi-Band GR in the hands of so many rookies. :confused:

I'm sorry, but I just don't see this as anything but another quick and dirty "how to", aimed at those who users who - perhaps more than anyone - should be using the services of a real M.E. instead.

IMO of course.

DonnyThompson, post: 429686, member: 46114 wrote: although I can't help but to shudder when I think of Multi-Band GR in the hands of so many rookies

(y)

DonnyThompson, post: 429686, member: 46114 wrote: you are guiding readers to make their final output far too hot, especially when the standards are changing (and changing fast) in the broadcast world right now, but also because with the way you are describing things, there wouldn't be much dynamic range left. I suppose if you had stipulated that this was a "guide" to mastering strictly to compete with the loudness wars going on in modern pop or rap, then I could have probably accepted it more, but what about acoustic music? Bluegrass? Jazz? Classical?

i agree .....

DonnyThompson, post: 429686, member: 46114 wrote: I also didn't see any mention of conversion, monitoring, or room acoustics, which all play a major factor in mastering.

i went to the site and saw a pic of the "mastering room" ...nice gear and furnture but little in the way of room design or treatments that i could see. i may be wrong but it appears to be a very nice home studio, not a pro mastering room.

DonnyThompson, post: 429686, member: 46114 wrote: I can appreciate the time and effort put into your book, the problem I have with it is that it's far too condensed - I don't believe that you can teach someone to master in a 24 page text, or, even 100 pages for that matter, either - and that it's subjective to what you've done (or learned yourself) and not based on mastering as a general principle and process-dependent upon the different styles of music.

I also think you are guiding readers to make their final output far too hot, especially when the standards are changing (and changing fast) in the broadcast world right now, but also because with the way you are describing things, there wouldn't be much dynamic range left. I suppose if you had stipulated that this was a "guide" to mastering strictly to compete with the loudness wars going on in modern pop or rap, then I could have probably accepted it more, but what about acoustic music? Bluegrass? Jazz? Classical?

I also didn't see any mention of conversion, monitoring, or room acoustics, which all play a major factor in mastering.

I will say that your explanations of what the various tools are, might be considered valuable by some readers, although I can't help but to shudder when I think of Multi-Band GR in the hands of so many rookies. :confused:

I'm sorry, but I just don't see this as anything but another quick and dirty "how to", aimed at those who users who - perhaps more than anyone - should be using the services of a real M.E. instead.

IMO of course.

This is not a textbook or hand book for mastering, What made you assume that? It's a set of a few tips on using plugins for mastering, nothing to do with monitoring etc.. Please pay attention to the title and content.

MehrZ212, post: 429693, member: 49118 wrote: This is not a textbook or hand book for mastering, What made you assume that?

You're kidding, right? The title of your thread is MASTERING YOUR MUSIC USING PLUG INS...

And monitoring is EVERYTHING when it comes to mastering... perhaps you should re-title your book "having fun with plug ins"... because when you use the word Mastering in the title, it absolutely lends to the notion that the book is about mastering.

MehrZ212, post: 429693, member: 49118 wrote: Please pay attention to the title and content

the title is "Mastering your music with plug ins." not "tips on using plugins for mastering" so that in it's self is misleading. it looks to me as if the whole thing is designed to drive traffic to your website where you can solicit for business. had you posted your ebook to a independent site where people aren't subject to solicitation for downloads we wouldn't be having this conversation. i already downloaded your samples so i could look at the waveforms. perhaps Audiokid will let you post your ebook here too. you don't need to drive traffic to your site to make your point. the readers and moderators are pretty diligent in regards to keeping SPAM off RO.

MehrZ212, post: 429693, member: 49118 wrote: This is not a textbook or hand book for mastering, What made you assume that?

i assume nothing. i smelled SPAM at the OP. perhaps the title? "Mastering your music with plug ins." ?

at the top of the thread, you presented yourself as an "expert" whether you meant to or not. obviously, you probably don't know any more about it than the average reader. adding insult to injury, what you are telling people to do, does more harm than good. i really have issues with this. while i enjoyed the performances contained in some of your examples (i especially liked the cover of Merle Haggards "Ramblin Fever") what you apperantly did to those performances made them pretty unlistenable in my opinion. there's enough crappy sounding music on the internet already without your help.

just because you can afford a few pieces of nice gear and some new pretty studio furniture doesn't give you the credibility you are trying to "assume". in the end your product doesn't live up to your hype.

I too, took time to listen to some samples on the site. The dance songs sounded very good (well I should say as expected for the style) but when getting to other styles it wasn't so nice.
Too much compression, levels too hot. Yeah the game is changing... ;)

I didn't download the book and I respect the idea of sharing thoughts and ideas about Mastering and to be honest, we shouldn't judge the book by the results you have.
Since 'sound's good' meen a thousand different things for a thousand of ME, you might just have created a great tool for those who make the same style in which you excel.

But for me, NO BOOK is gonna train my ears to be a good ME. If that book existed, the writer would be a millionnaire and Professional ME wouldn't have any job left !!

Kurt Foster, post: 429705, member: 7836 wrote: the title is "Mastering your music with plug ins." not "tips on using plugins for mastering" so that in it's self is misleading. it looks to me as if the whole thing is designed to drive traffic to your website where you can solicit for business. had you posted your ebook to a independent site where people aren't subejct to solicitation for downloads we wouldn't be having this conversation. the readers and moderators are pretty diligent in regards to keeping SPAM off RO.

i assume nothing. i smelled SPAM at the OP. perhaps the title? "Mastering your music with plug ins." ?

at the top of the thread, you presented yourself as an "expert" whether you meant to or not. obviously, you probably don't know any more about it than the average reader. adding insult to injury, what you are telling people to do, does more harm than good. i really have issues with this. while i enjoyed the performances contained in some of your examples (i especially liked the cover of Merle Haggards "Ramblin Fever") what you apperantly did to those performances mad the pretty unlistenable in my opinion. there's enough crappy sounding music on the internet already without your help.

just because you can afford a few pieces of nice gear and some new pretty studio furniture doesn't give you the credibility you are trying to "assume". in the end your product doesn't live up to your hype.

Kurt, I think we all missed the most important 2 words in the title : your music.
To me this imply working on your own music and not doing it professionnaly
So he might have been right, we should have paid more attention to the title :D

(I'm just teasing here .. )

pcrecord, post: 429708, member: 46460 wrote: Kurt, I think we all missed the most important 2 words in the title : your music.
To me this imply working on your own music and not doing it professionnaly
So he might have been right, we should have paid more attention to the title :D

(I'm just teasing here .. )

teasing aside, the site presents itself as a pro mastering studio, not a project room. there's plenty of pontification already. bad info gives everyone a black eye if left unchallenged. while you liked some of the dance clips, i myself hear a lot of mid range resonances and peaking .... all that should be smoothed out. pretty sad when an "ME" doesn't know they are supposed to to ring out resonant freqs.

Kurt Foster, post: 429710, member: 7836 wrote: while you liked some of the dance clips, i myself hear a lot of mid range resonances and peaking

I didn't go that far in my analysis. I just pictured the songs in a club playing on a PA with a smilly EQ and thought it would sound good..
Nice catch Kurt, I still need a lot of ear training to do ;)

homie needs a pair of Auratones! really, his monitoring set up is not what is called for.

• Paradigm Studio 60 floorstanding reference speakers
• Yamaha A-S500BL Integrated Stereo Amplifier
• Yamaha HS50M
• KRK 12S

Paradigms? are you kidding me? home speakers? for mastering? a -10 home hi fi amp? you're killing me! lol! this alone forces the conclusion he hasn't got a clue what mastering is all about. i would say he needs to spend less time playing with plug in packages and more time building a real monitoring system.

Thanks for posting and for taking the time to write the Ebook. The problem I see is that you are telling everyone how professional you are and yet your "mastering studio" looks like it is in your living room on one wall next to your kitchen. Having equipment and plugins does not a mastering engineer make. This is not a flame but I think you need to take a giant step back and read what you are writing and how you are coming across in your Ebook. You also need to make you "mastering studio" a bit more professional if you are going to post pictures of it on the WWW. Some of us have spent more money on acoustics and monitoring than you have in your whole setup. Again not a flame. Please take this as some constructive criticism and not as a put down.
One note is that if you would move your mastering console out from the wall more and move your speakers out from the wall you would have a much better sound field and the bass would be a lot more realistic. Just a suggestion.