Mastering, etc...

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 11:45 pm

Just ordered two books: the Mastering Engineer's Handbook (Bobby Oswinski), and Mastering Audio: The Art and Science (Bob Katz). I've got a pile of others that have been good to me. My old standby was published in the 1970s, and is called The Recording Studio Handbook, by John Woram. It's pretty basic these days, but basic in the good way: fundamentals and clear, concise data. It's not cluttered with the technology of today, which sometimes masks the basics with options and knobs and faders and all other sorts of things. Digital was still a gleam in the corporate logo of Philips when this book was published, so everything in it is pure audio, pure acoustics, pure analog. I'm looking forward to some more in-depth information about mastering, and a better collection of digital techniques.

No hope of building a studio space any time soon, but I'll be ready when the time comes.

Shooshie

chrispick · Post by **chrispick** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:16 am

Shooshie wrote:Just ordered two books: the Mastering Engineer's Handbook (Bobby Oswinski), and Mastering Audio: The Art and Science (Bob Katz).

These are good ones.

The Katz book has deep info. You'll love it.

Shooshie · Post by **Shooshie** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:58 am

Actually, I have to correct myself. I didn't get the Mastering Engineer's Handbook by Oswinski, but the Mixing Engineer's Handbook. It seemed to get much higher reviews than the other, which actually had much information copied from the Mixing Engineer's Handbook, reportedly verbatim if some accounts are to be believed. And with Katz's book, I figured this would be a more diverse way of spending this month's book budget than buying two books on the same subject. Oswinski's mastering book reportedly is not as technical, but uses more anecdotal interviews than factual explanations. I'll take mine hard-core, thank you.

Shooshie

mediabot · Post by **mediabot** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 1:10 am

Room treatments can happen, once I decide on a decent pair of monitors. So far its a pair of Dynaudio home speakers driven by a NAD receiver. That and a pair of Grado SR325's for headphone listening and overall late-night creativity.

After a session of downloading I decided Ozone is a good thing. Here's a track called Resolutions with and without (It is a bit long, just a warning):

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplaye ... 16435&q=hi

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplaye ... 86519&q=hi

First as it was, although mutilated by the MP3 squeeze. Then with an Ozone preset applied.

'bot

zandurian · Post by **zandurian** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 2:57 am

I've found the Uad precision limiter to be a nice general tool to set overall levels after a mix is complete - much smoother and transparent limiting than the stock master works limiter

wylie1 · Post by **wylie1** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 6:41 am

Shooshie: I think you'll really like Mastering Engineer's Handbook (Bobby Oswinski)
I've read allot of pro audio books and have learned more from this one than any other.
He explains very simple tricks that you would never pick up from just listening to music.
One for example was layering multiple short verbs on vocals or recording your mix with a couple of room mikes, compressing that and using it as a verb,theres tons of good stuff in there.
I read Mastering Audio: The Art and Science (Bob Katz) twice and as far as the Science goes this is a great book but made me realize you really do need someone else to master your stuff.

Frodo: Be careful with that nail gun remember that a 2" nail will come through the other side of 1 3/4" material.
And really I'm not that stupid but it hurts like hell and couldn't play guitar for a month.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:49 am

wylie1 wrote: Frodo: Be careful with that nail gun remember that a 2" nail will come through the other side of 1 3/4" material.
And really I'm not that stupid but it hurts like hell and couldn't play guitar for a month.

Oh, fear not-- great care will be taken. I'm using a variety of nail lengths to suit the particular need. Lumber is 1" x 3", so 2" nails will work well on the corners.

For the oak floor sectional, I'm mounting the slats onto 3/4" polyboard, so 1/2" nails are being used there. Wherever possible, I'll actually be using wood screws because it will be easier to disassmble, move and reassemble elsewhere if needed.

I know the topic of mastering can go off onto a tangent, but I'm really excited about pinpointing absorption coefficients to make sure I'm getting the best out of my monitors. The few things I've done already have already improved the sound, and this is going to save a lot of time and guesswork with mixing and mastering.

Phil O · Post by **Phil O** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 7:49 am

Frodo wrote:The thing I appreciate more and more is the notion of "grooming the nest", so to speak. It's one thing to just walk in and get to work, but it's another thing to put some thought and care into one's workspace-- then to have it turn out well and function exactly as needed. $500 for one 2'x4' Auralex Venus Bass Trap? No way. I just spent $6 on lumber $34 on 6 panels of rock wool, and $20 on some pretty good looking covering material. This is going to soon cover part of a wall area 8'w x 4'h.

Yes, I agree. DIY is the way to go unless you have money to burn. I used some of Ethan Winer's techniques when I built my studio, and have some bass traps built into the walls. For years now I've lived with this 147 Hz "bump." It's really small but I'm getting fussy in my old age. So I'm gonna try the Helmholtz routine this summer. (At least that's the plan.)

The commercial stuff is very attractive, but with a little creativity the DIY stuff can look great too. My clients have commented that they like recording in my studio because it feels "cozy." I guess that's a good thing.

Phil

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 7:47 am

Frodo wrote:Frekoscope Spectrum Analyzer:
http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/ffttools/

Is it me or it's VST only?. What do you do to make it work in DP?

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 8:31 am

Hey, Dwetster; how's it goin'?

Works under VST Wrapper for me, mate.

Dwetmaster · Post by **Dwetmaster** » Tue Mar 13, 2007 9:37 am

I don't have a VST Wrapper. I' have a look into this.