What do you think of my mixing and mastering process?
Posted: Tue Oct 01, 2013 12:23 am
I feel that I am on the right path with this process but I know I am missing certain subtleties that experience provides. I am looking for insight to my method and would appreciate anyone's ideas.
I have broke the process into four sections:
(1) pre mastering
(2) first export
(3) mastering
(4) final export
I am using ableton live.
pre mastering:
I put a compressor -> EQ - > limiter on every channel.
Here is how I setup the chain:
compressor:
I drop the threshold a bit and play with the attack/release until it sounds nice.
eq:
I modify the settings on the EQ and put a high pass at (around) 200hz on every channel except the channel that contains the kick and bass
In the case that the bass portion does not do well in the sub bass region (im thinking that is around 150 and lower hz) I will EQ that area out then put a sub bass patch underneath it and modulate it to fit the missing bass portion that I took out.
limiter:
I boost it a bit if needed
I also sidechain compress the bass with the kick as needed (this seems to be a disputed technique).
first export:
I export the track at the highest sample rate and use a depth of 32 bits (on a complete side note, for some reason when I do this, it seems that the distortion of redux reduces in strength, if not almost removing it. If I export at 44100 this effect is removed, does that have something to do with exporting at a high sample rate?)
Ill listen to the render and go back and change stuff in the mix if it doesn't sound good enough (usually it doesn't and ill a make a few changes in a mix before I go on to mastering)
mastering:
After exporting, I load the audio clip into Ableton and drop a compressor -> EQ -> limiter on master.
Here is how I setup it up:
Compressor:
I usually drop compressor threshold around 25db and use high attack and release values (is the proper thing to do with the compressor?).
Eq:
I then eq according to the track, i like to boost the bass freqs a bit (1-1.5 db) and maybe boost at around 10k the same amount if i want it a bit brighter
Limiter:
Volume wars right? I boost that sucker about 1.5db.
final export
(1) 44100 sample rate 24 bit depth and POW-r 1
(2) WAV -> MP3 @ 320kbs with audacity
This is a track a did with this process Soundcloud
And that is it! Hey if you read this far thank you, I love doing this and thought this would be a place to share what I know: I really want to learn more about this!
I have broke the process into four sections:
(1) pre mastering
(2) first export
(3) mastering
(4) final export
I am using ableton live.
pre mastering:
I put a compressor -> EQ - > limiter on every channel.
Here is how I setup the chain:
compressor:
I drop the threshold a bit and play with the attack/release until it sounds nice.
eq:
I modify the settings on the EQ and put a high pass at (around) 200hz on every channel except the channel that contains the kick and bass
In the case that the bass portion does not do well in the sub bass region (im thinking that is around 150 and lower hz) I will EQ that area out then put a sub bass patch underneath it and modulate it to fit the missing bass portion that I took out.
limiter:
I boost it a bit if needed
I also sidechain compress the bass with the kick as needed (this seems to be a disputed technique).
first export:
I export the track at the highest sample rate and use a depth of 32 bits (on a complete side note, for some reason when I do this, it seems that the distortion of redux reduces in strength, if not almost removing it. If I export at 44100 this effect is removed, does that have something to do with exporting at a high sample rate?)
Ill listen to the render and go back and change stuff in the mix if it doesn't sound good enough (usually it doesn't and ill a make a few changes in a mix before I go on to mastering)
mastering:
After exporting, I load the audio clip into Ableton and drop a compressor -> EQ -> limiter on master.
Here is how I setup it up:
Compressor:
I usually drop compressor threshold around 25db and use high attack and release values (is the proper thing to do with the compressor?).
Eq:
I then eq according to the track, i like to boost the bass freqs a bit (1-1.5 db) and maybe boost at around 10k the same amount if i want it a bit brighter
Limiter:
Volume wars right? I boost that sucker about 1.5db.
final export
(1) 44100 sample rate 24 bit depth and POW-r 1
(2) WAV -> MP3 @ 320kbs with audacity
This is a track a did with this process Soundcloud
And that is it! Hey if you read this far thank you, I love doing this and thought this would be a place to share what I know: I really want to learn more about this!
