Hi Just thought Id put a link to this post up from a while back.I bookmarked and am finding it very useful and insightful .Thanks for the time spent on it by the way Joanne as I find the subject very complex and sometimes confusing much appreciated Hugh

https://www.joannecooper.co.za/blog/blog/options-for-mastering-your-band-in-a-box-song-or-album

Joanne did it again!

This is indeed very insightful - very concise and easy to follow Thanks for sharing!

Very informative article from Joanne. I agree that once you try izotope Ozone you will want it. The good news is that now you can lease it through Splice. I got the bundle they offer with Ozone 8 and Neutron 2 for around $35 a month.

Awesome Joanne. This is a great mastering cheat sheet for anyone.

Your numbers for RMS, DR and volume are spot on--you are a pro!

Also, I see you have Ozone 5.

A lot of producers say it is still the best.

I think it rocks.



And yes, I use Audacity 12 times a day every day of my life. It is always my "last stop."

Joanne always writes such useful, cool stuff! Thanks for sharing!

Joanne,

If you are following this, which effect do you use in Audacity INCREASE dynamic range?

I see a few possible downloads, but I am afraid because they seem sorta risky.

What do you use to do that that is built in to Audacity?

I would think that the use of an expander would have very limited possibilities. Compressors abound because almost everything recorded has too much dynamic range for whatever the distribution medium is.

At least it forced me to take a closer look at the British Channel plug in I have.

I see it has an expansion button, and I fiddled some, but don't quite get it yet.

The mid range and low end controls are nice though.



https://www.ikmultimedia.com/products/trbritchannel/

Yup... some really good, easy to understand advice here.

I use Ozone. And I use it in a way that may seem a bit controversial to some. I do know a few folks who do it the same way I do. So, take a blood pressure pill and read on.....

I import my tracks into Sonar the way they were rendered in BB and RB.... mostly RB. Unless they are especially weak sounding and looking, I work with them as they are as long as they do what I need in the context of the song. I rarely normalize at this step.

I insert Ozone into my Master Buss in Sonar and use one of my custom presets for the song. I start with the end in mind as I work. So essentially, I am "mastering from the beginning". We all know reverb and EQ are cumulative so I'm essentially working with the "you get what you hear" concept. When I finish with my mixing, and setting of levels and tweeking things in the master buss FX, my song is essentially "mastered".... or polished. I don't really like using the term "Mastered" because, as I understand it.... mastering is something done to a group of songs to make them sound cohesive such as would be expected for an album. Like they are all recorded and mixed in the same place at the same time, vs a collection of music that sounds totally uncoordinated with EQ and levels varying from one song to the next. So... it's "small "m" mastering" or polishing to me.

I export the song to my wave editor and trim the tails and THEN.... I apply the normalization to the finished product. The thing people need to know about NORMALIZATION is that it raises everything in the mix by the same amount.... up to the level you have set and it references the highest peak in the music file to do that. It is not like a limiter or a compressor that changes the dynamics in the music.

The problem with normalization is that any noise in the mix also gets raised. Usually not a problem if you have taken care in the recording process and the editing process to remove mic hiss and other junk.

So....moving along.... if there's one peak that really shoots up and it's close to the 0dB reference, you're not going to get much of a boost from normalization until you tame that single spike, or spikes. Then you can apply normalization and see and hear a difference. I like it and use it on practically all my final versions.

All that said.....

The cool thing about mixing music..... there are multiple ways of doing this. One isn't necessarily better than the next or "right" or "wrong". The only thing that matters is how the song sounds and if people like it enough to listen. It's just in how you want to do it to get the results you are looking for.

Herb,

I use a very similar process. Almost identical. If I solo each channel and they don't sound exactly right, with different EQS and tools on almost every channel, and if I look at my meters and I don't see:

LUFS 12-14 (at least)

RMS 12 (at least)

DR 9-12 (at least)

I start over.

I only use the mastering tools when it sounds good enough as a mix, just to add polish.

If it does not sound good enough as a mix, I know I have done something wrong that "mastering" will never fix--because the cake is already baked.

This is a blank template, and nothing is playing, but it is to your point that I also use templates with carefully built presets for all the instruments and meters loaded ahead of time.

I also use separate busses for instruments and vocals because it makes things so much easier in mixing.

Hi David

I don't use anything to increase the dynamic range. I generally export straight out of RealBand and then import the WAV file into Audacity where I will first normalize (to either -1.0 or -0.3 depending) and then apply Ozone 5 to the normalised track. As mentioned, if there are some "errant" peaks it is a good idea to try and tame them (using compression..JUST on that peak) before normalizing.

PS Nice to see this blog post resurface!!!

That last line..... so very convenient. I generally do not set up a unique "band" buss ...BUT.... if I have a really slamming mix and it's just too loud for the vox.....and I can't seem to pull the vox out of the swamp...... a "band" buss lets me keep all the automation exactly like it is while giving me a volume control over the "band" to let the vox set on top.

Excellent points

Herb,

It took me smashing myself in the head with a sledgehammer a thousand times on vocal mixes that would not work no matter what I did to figure that one out.

^^^^Explains some things about you David!

Yeah, some pretty severe brain damage, but it helps me read the newspaper with a smile on my face Steve.

Thanks Joanne!

Two questions....

what's a newspaper?

You can read?


Just kidding..... I couldn't resist.