Members ElectricImages Posted July 25, 2008 Members Share Posted July 25, 2008 Hey guys, I was just wondering what guidelines you use as far as how to divide between mixing and mastering. I have been playing with home recording for 5+ years now but I have never sent anything out to be mastered, and even the few times I have recorded in a true studio is has been a pretty budget affair so everything was mastered in house right away. I know a big, somewhat unfortunate, part of the modern mastering process is playing with multiband compression on the whole stereo mix to increase the "loudness" so to speak, and assume it also include a general eq'ing (if not done via the multiband compression) and maybe some overall tone type effects. I also have heard some mastering engineers on this forum and elsewhere state that they want a dynamic mix given to them, not something that has already been compressed flat and killed, as it is their job to do that well. But how dynamic is "dynamic"? If parts of the song average around -20dB while others average around -5dB, is that a fair dynamic range or is it smaller / bigger than you might expect. What other guidelines might one follow in preparing a mix for mastering? I am currently working on recording an EP for myself, and I am thinking I will probably try to master it myself (I know everyone highly recommends you have someone else master your stuff, but I don't know if this will turn out substantial enough to warrant the investment... it's something I would consider if I am really happy with the finished mixes). I have "mastered" songs for myself numerous times in the past but it has basically blended into the mixing process and only involved me tweaking some compression on the overall mix. So I don't really have any feel for what a pre-mastered mix should be like... it's hard to study because, well, you never really hear them since all that gets released is the mastered, squished up version. So, any guidelines / advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Kyle DiSanto Posted July 25, 2008 Members Share Posted July 25, 2008 Hey man, Check out Izotope Ozone III. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Chefmike8888 Posted July 25, 2008 Members Share Posted July 25, 2008 Even better, check out the free mastering guide (Downloadable PDF) to Ozone.Even if you don't have Ozone it still contains some good info. Mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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