Mastering and Mixing

[daniel.sneed]

Anything goes when it comes to mastering, or pseudo-mastering, but a fine monitoring system and a fine tuned room is surely the beginning of the story.
And for sure, they will help much on mixing.

IMHO, as therealbigd said, the 5 to 8dB increase in highs calls a bit of rethinking.
Could be your listening environment is extremely harsh.
A test with a good measurement mic and something like SpectraFoo would be a first information step to go.
A second would be looking for acoustic reflections on walls, on furniture, on equipment ...
A third would be considering monitoring equipment accuracy and whether it fits the room or not.
And then the real tuning work begin !

A long way, but I believe absolutely worth it.

[conleycd]

Anything goes when it comes to mastering, or pseudo-mastering, but a fine monitoring system and a fine tuned room is surely the beginning of the story.
And for sure, they will help much on mixing.

IMHO, as therealbigd said, the 5 to 8dB increase in highs calls a bit of rethinking.
Could be your listening environment is extremely harsh.
A test with a good measurement mic and something like SpectraFoo would be a first information step to go.
A second would be looking for acoustic reflections on walls, on furniture, on equipment ...
A third would be considering monitoring equipment accuracy and whether it fits the room or not.
And then the real tuning work begin !

A long way, but I believe absolutely worth it.

I hear what you're saying... but I don't think room acoustics account for what I'm talking about. Albums can be very well mixed but the mastering engineer (on rock/pop recordings) is making the overall curve brighter. The volume shift is always going to happen with the compression added in the mastering state. The brightness is what I'm talking about.

Most rooms that are not acoustically treated suffer from problems that are the result of standing waves that develop at low frequencies and then build up at octave intervals with each reflection. So rooms that aren't well treated tend to have problems with either phase cancelling bass or "boxy" sounding bass and muddy mids.

There are few rooms that treated well would be sucking up high frequency. Also, acoustic treatment affects primarily the reflection of the frequency not the presence of frequency.

All that to say... I think mastering engineers have a bright knob that they apply to most rock/pop mixes that is at least 3db in the high to air frequencies.

CC

[therealbigd]

as i said, it is those frequencies that your ear best percieves in making your mixes louder. so yes, this is probably true.
so true, in fact, that in Sony's CD Architect, their red book mastering software, there is an "enhance" plugin that applies a boost in these areas, and a cut further down.

however, it may well be a room thing. it's not just about standing waves. if you have a room full of basic damping material, like curtains, rockwool, funkyfoam (auralex) etc; the trebles will be well absorbed, and the bass not so well, so a bassy, muddy sound can be expected.

finally, what monitors are you working from?

[conleycd]

as i said, it is those frequencies that your ear best percieves in making your mixes louder. so yes, this is probably true.
so true, in fact, that in Sony's CD Architect, their red book mastering software, there is an "enhance" plugin that applies a boost in these areas, and a cut further down.

however, it may well be a room thing. it's not just about standing waves. if you have a room full of basic damping material, like curtains, rockwool, funkyfoam (auralex) etc; the trebles will be well absorbed, and the bass not so well, so a bassy, muddy sound can be expected.

finally, what monitors are you working from?

Hi there,

I have my room pretty much figured out. I have good membrane bass trapping, diffusion, and reasonable absorption. I have pretty much followed Jeff Cooper as though he were an author of the bible in his text Building a Recording Studio - which in my opinion is the "Gold Standard" of construction. I have included reasonable diffusion as well which was not as popular at the time of Jeff's text but is helpful in smaller rooms.. My room ratio is correct and I have over 1500 cubic feet which is really the minimum space required.

I monitor on NS10s with a Transnova amplifier and a pair of Dynaudio BM5a (plus a getto blaster). I also monitor at low levels which everyone who I respect does (as best as I can tell the best manner of monitoring) - I can't find anyone to disagree.

The truth is, brightness (as you have confirmed) is part of the mastering process. To be honest, I would rather a slightly darker original mix and let the Mastering engineer brighten it than being too bright and having him/her try to fix that.

Outside of the basics of mastering, I don't know much about the "magic" but I would love to know the positions of their bright knob and how much they crank that (or their combinations of bright knobs). That's all I'm saying.

Take care.

CC

[therealbigd]

a ha! mixing / mastering on NS10s are we?

NS10s are a little over-generous on the top end, and a little stingey on the bottom end. result: when you think the mix is right, you'll reference it on something else and there'll be less treble and more bass (as the ns10s have been compensating). most top engineers agree that NS10s are mega, but you have to learn them. this means being able to listen to them, and know what's really going on. once you master this, the world is your oyster.

if you want to know the workings of the enhance knob, and don't have CD Architect, let me know. i'll do a spectrum analyser test on it sometime. may not be a while, as the PC is in a box. but once i get fusion on the mac i'll do it and PM you the graphs.

if you do have it, do it for yourself!

[conleycd]

Yup,

NS10s are as you said. That is why I also have the Dynaudio BM5as to compare. However, for whatever reason - certainly not because they are flat - but if you can make it sound good on those they sound good else where. I also don't Master anything that I mix. How could I compare my setup with a guy who has a perfect room and a set of monitors that cost the same as a great sports car. Not to mention ears that have heard everything and prior to mastering likely played an instrument proficiently, engineered, and mixed for longer than I have been alive. Just can't compare.

CC

[gearboy]

I heart NS-10Ms. Honestly one of my favorite pieces of gear ever.

Jeff