Professionnal Mastering

[Simsy]

Hi

I just want some advice and info.If I am getting a couple of tracks professionally mastered, should I not put any mastering inserts or compression on my master buss and just leave it all to the mastering house? Currently I have UAD stuff and the TC Powercore Finalizer on the output buss, should I take this off?

Also how much headroom should I leave for them - 6db?

Thanks

[stephentayler]

Best advice is to leave it off, but why not take one version with and one without. At least your 'pre-mastering' might serve as some kind of reference.

Cheers

Stephen

[kassonica]

Yep I don't/wouldn't use any Limiting on the master buss when sending it to mastering houses.

Also don't do any EQing either, leave it all up to them.

You can really leave up to -12db of headroom, so don't stress if it's not very hot.

Ps leave it at the sample rate bit depth as you recorded it.

[Phil O]

The best advice I can give is to give him/her a call and ask how it should be delivered. Everyone has their way of working and if you can make their job a little easier, you are more likely to get a better finished product.

Phil

[toodamnhip]

What to deliver to mastering can sometimes be simple, sometimes complex...

In general, -6 db without ANY type of 0 db limiting software is what you want to deliver...You see, mastering engineers love nice ROUND peaks, if you look at the peaks after an L3 for example, they are flattened...let mastering hard limit your digital overs FOR SURE...dont do it for them

After that, in general, try to leave off master bus compression..however, this is NOT an absolute...

Im my case, I often mix with a LIGHT master bus compression, as well as at times a multi band compression..
So, we have this fact: If you MIXED with something ON, it is very possible you compensated for it during mixing..and without it, you might indeed lose your mix perspective..for example, if a waves multi band had a dip in the mids, you might have EQed some mids back in, and to shut of this mutlti band can RUIN your mix..
As for a compressor, if you got a nice perspecitve of vocals and verb etc, you might lose that when shutting off the master compressor.
And to allow mastering to re compress could end you up with an overly wet or dry reverb field....

So, if you mixed with certain things on, you have to listen on a case by case basis as to what the effect and perscpetive damage will be if you shut it off..

If it;s a close call, I will provide mutliple versions to mastering, with careful notes as to what I think gets lost by shutting off a master bus compressor or plug in..

Another thing to say is that when I mix, I really try to use master bus compressors lightly...never having my mix SQUASH...if you do that, then turning a master compressor off or on doesnt result in such a dramatic change compared to when that compressor is OVER used...and you cna provide both versions and let mastering try to beat your original mix with its own BETTEr compression//

As in anything in life, there are no 100% simple answers...except dont round off your digital overs for mastering..thats a no no..

Does that help?

David

[Simsy]

Thanks,

You have all been very helpful and informative. I will probably not put anything on the master bus then and deliver it to him,

[toodamnhip]

By the way, one interesting thing I did recently was to take screen shots of the Multi Band that was used on the master bus so that when I presented a version WITHOUT that plug, the mastering engineer can see what the frequencies were that got dipped or boosted, and by how much....

Same thing can apply to EQ's.
You can present a version with master bus EQ if it was used, but take a picture to show the curves..hoping that the mastering engineer will have better eq's than you used, thus improving on your bus EQing...

In any event, taking a picture of plugs or even storing the plugs as presets and taking them to the mastering house, can sometimes be a clever way to get back to what you had going and even beyond...

[OftheSeven]

Have you folks ever brought in the computer to the mastering session?

I did that a while ago and it was awesome! The plus side, is you can make changes to the actual mix instead of trying to "fix" it in mastering.
The minus side, is it takes time to setup and ultimately may cost more since you're effectively mixing and mastering at the same time. It does help to go digital out directly to the ME's convertors (which are usually nicer than most peoples).

[toodamnhip]

Have you folks ever brought in the computer to the mastering session?

I did that a while ago and it was awesome! The plus side, is you can make changes to the actual mix instead of trying to "fix" it in mastering.
The minus side, is it takes time to setup and ultimately may cost more since you're effectively mixing and mastering at the same time. It does help to go digital out directly to the ME's convertors (which are usually nicer than most peoples).

Making mix stems helps a lot and is similar to bringing the computer...

You have to have a lap top based studio to bring it to mastering, unless youre willing to rip apart your studio the morning of mastering

[bongo_x]

I always use compression (not multi band) on the mix, that's part of the mix. It's something different without it. I wound never have a brickwall limiter on it though.

I rarely (almost never) use eq, and try to resist the urge. He's going to eq it better than I am, and my room might not be as accurate, or I might not know it as well. He had better know his room, that's what I'm paying him for. I usually think of the mastering guy as mostly there to fix my eq problems.

I would say most people I know follow those same guidelines.

bb

[toodamnhip]

I always use compression (not multi band) on the mix, that's part of the mix. It's something different without it. I wound never have a brickwall limiter on it though.

I rarely (almost never) use eq, and try to resist the urge. He's going to eq it better than I am, and my room might not be as accurate, or I might not know it as well. He had better know his room, that's what I'm paying him for. I usually think of the mastering guy as mostly there to fix my eq problems.

I would say most people I know follow those same guidelines.

bb

I agree with using SOME compression on a mix, but always make a mix WITHOUT it so that the mastering engineer will have a shot at beating the ITB compression I used, if he beats it, GREAT!, if not, I have the other mix

[bongo_x]

For me, the compression is part of the mix, it's not something you do to the mix, if you add it later it will change the mix. I have to mix WITH the compressor, from the beginning. Trying to explain to the mastering guy what it's supposed to sound like, and hoping it turns out that way, wouldn't really work. Other people may have a different style.

I don't try to make it sound pumped up like a mastered record. That's not the point.

bb