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MUSIC PREPARATION
The mastering process will bring out a lot of detail in your music, unfortunately, it will also bring out the imperfections. While almost any problem can be improved in mastering, it sometimes means something else has to suffer because they share the same frequency range. Here are a few tips for the most common problems we encounter during mastering. Most of this is common knowledge among engineers but since a lot of artists are mixing their own material these days this will be of help.
Please, Please, Please, no mp3's. You absolutely must bounce your mixes as .wav or .aif. Think about it, a 4 min song is roughly 40mb as uncompressed audio. A good mp3 is roughly 7mb. Where did the data go? 3/4 of your audio data got thrown in the garbage.
1. Leave some Headroom.
Please try not to use any stereo buss or “mastering” type processors or plug-ins on the entire mix. This includes the T.C. Finalizer, Waves L2, Maxim, ect. These things are better left to the mastering engineer, and if used in the mixing stage, can really tie his hands as far as how much life he can bring to the music. A good guideline is to let the material peak at -5 db (digital). This leaves the mastering engineer a little room to work in.
2. Vocal Sibilance
Pay close attention in the recording and mixing stages for vocal sibilance. If every time the artist says a word with an “S” in it, it jumps out at you, you may have a problem when it comes time to master. Remember that everything becomes a little clearer and more apparent after mastering and so does the “S”. This can be fixed to a certain extent but not without damaging the other instruments in the same frequency range a little. The best cure is a de-esser on the vocal track in the mix or some careful subtractive eq, with a narrow bandwidth. The harsh part of the “S” lies somewhere between 6 and 9 kHz. A good way to find out where the “S” lies in your material is as follows:
a. Make sure your speakers are not turned up very loud.
b. Set up a loop on the recorder around a particularly “S” heavy section.
c. Set the bandwidth (or Q) control on your eq to a relatively narrow position.
d. Set the frequency control to 6 khz
e. Boost the eq gain control anywhere from +5 and +10 db depending on the material.
f. Sweep the frequency between 6khz and 9khz and stop where the “S” is harshest.
g. Bring the gain back to 0 db and listen to readjust ears.
h. Slowly turn the eq gain down until the “S” is not so harsh.
i. Listen to a before and after to make sure what you did helped and didn’t hurt the track.
3. Distortion
Listen very closely for different types of distortion. It is one of the few things that can not always be fixed in mastering. If an instrument sounds crunchy, check back through any plug-ins or processors that may be overloading or being pushed too hard. Always check the meters on your master fader to make sure they are not being disintegrated and are peaking around -5db (digital).
3. Fades
It is always best to leave the fades to the Mastering Engineer. You can give detailed timing information if need be. Most people don't have an accurate enough listening environment to hear the very quiet tails of the fade and usually they just cut off abruptly. If you must perform your own fades, use headphones so you can hear these tails.
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