The mastering process can be a little intimidating. The whole process, understanding the meters and what plug-ins to use. Presets can go a long way, especially if you’re working with powerful plug-ins, but it’s also great to actually know the “tricks of the trade” and what’s actually happening to your audio. I’ve gone into this...
I know how you feel. You’re confused by loudness and scared to over-compress your mixes during mastering. But at the same time you also like mastering. Mastering is fun and allows you to get punchier mixes and louder songs. I bet you also don’t understand all this loudness jargon though. Like -16 dB LKFS, EBU...
If you’ve ever been intimidated by mastering in your home studio, you’re not alone. It’s one of those things you sort of understand but you’re still scared that you might be screwing stuff up. Luckily, this is a topic that’s popular every so often here at Audio Issues so I’ve got quite few articles for...
EQ this week. In the following interview we talk about: The difference between EQ’ing during mixing and mastering. Using corrective EQ on the mix bus when your individual EQ’s fail. What to do when you can only use a broad Q. When to use “colored” analog EQ and when to use “clean” digital EQ. Using...
EQ, whether it’s during recording, mixing or mastering is all about balance. Balance between the lows, mids and highs. You don’t want a boomy acoustic guitar sound. But you don’t want a shrill and trebly sound either. You want some of the boom, and some of the shrill. You want that balance between the frequencies...
Every once in a while I get asked why I don’t talk about mastering. I do a little bit, but I tend to focus more on mixing. The reason is, there’s somebody else who is just so much better at it than me. So I usually let him do the talking. Next week Ian Shepherd...
This is a guest post from Barry Gardner, mastering engineer at SafeandSound online mastering I have lost count of the number of times where I have seen the word mastering appear in the same sentence as the word mixing. The reality is they are 2 very different procedures within the realms of audio engineering and...
There’s something about taking something you love, like your music, and making it better than you ever thought. It’s like the Extreme Makeover shows. For example, they take a rundown house and create a paradise out of it for the family. New furniture, new architecture, new everything. How about we do that to your music?...
I saw the new Batman movie last month. I’ve mulled it over in my head for a while. I liked it, but it didn’t quite stand up to the quality of The Dark Knight. The Joker story is just too good to beat. Anyway, I just really like the new Batman movies. But there’s one thing...
A year ago I thought I was a decent enough mastering engineer. I mean, it wasn’t so hard. You only needed 3-4 things really. Gain. EQ. Compression. Limiting. No worries I thought. I got this. Turns out I was more of a Episode I Anakin than an Episode VI Luke. I had the instinct and...