RPM - Mastering - Status

[Martin Naef]

Hi Romain

On 26.02.2012 10:43, Romain / rXg wrote:
> http://rpm.music-bar.org/2012-02-26%20mp3%20preview/
> Thank you Martin,
> Your work always impress me :)

You're welcome. It's just a pair of fresh ears that does the trick... ;-)

> Now that you did some work on it  what will you advice me to do or to
> correct for the next time when I'm mixing my own song ?

I think your mix is fine. You might want to watch the bass a bit - I had 
to cut the low content by quite a bit (actually, that was a problem with 
nearly all tracks) to clean up the mix. It's not easy to spot with 
regular size monitors, but the frequency analyzer made it quite clear, 
and everything sounded better once I applied some high-pass filtering.

Other than that, you might want to clear a bit more space for vocals in 
the mix, especially during the high-power section. There is not much I 
can do about that at the mastering stage.

> Anyhow I listened to the other tracks they sound very good  ...
> Maybe you mentioned it in the past but what do you use in general  for
> mastering ?

Software, essentially. I'm using Samplitude for all my mastering tasks 
including the generation of audio CDs.

I don't always follow exactly the same procedure. For this session, each 
track had its own pair of compressor and EQ from the Focusrite Liquid 
Mix - a DBX 160 and a Manley Massive Passive emulation. Some tracks also 
used the transient shaper from Samplitude (AM-Pulse) - in some case to 
emphasize the attacks, in others to smoothen them a bit.
In general, compression wasn't set up aggressive, but I applied EQ very 
liberally to force a common sonic footprint.

The rest of the chain was in the master section and shared the same 
parameters. First, a touch of multi-band compression was applied 
(Cakewalk's LP64). Then back into the Liquid Mix, this time with a LA-2A 
emulation in limiter mode. Next step was a hint of tape emulation 
(Samplitude AM-Track). And finally into the limiter (Cakewalk Boost11).

None of the compression stages really do a lot - usually just 1-2 dB, 3 
if it's a bit hot. The final limiter also shaves off only 1-2 dB 
typically, and only on occasion. But in total, the compression adds up 
quite a bit.

I have to admit, it was quite a bit of fun to run a larger mastering 
project. It's been a while since I've done anything in the electronic 
music domain.

(Now, a quick addition, then exporting the project...)

Martin