The big MASTERING topic

[Semmi78]

I´m looking for ways to master my recordings made on my Korg Trinity. The Korg has plenty mastering effects but the final product is well..., not really what I wished. I just miss the balls in the recording. They sound so flat and that´s not due to the fact I use flat sounds or something like that. And ´Korg+flat´ are both things that not work together. I want to do this on my PC. This is a 2,4 ghz 800 FSB, 512 DDR400 dual channel memory and blabladiebla. fast enough. The most important fact is that I´m running XP with a Creative Audigy 2 (basic version) soundcard.
My first question: has anybody experience with this soundcard together with music recording (audio) and synthesizers?

Furthermore the software I want to use/choose:
-Cakewalk 9.0: I´ve always used cakewalk as my editing software. Very easy in use and more stable than Cubase and others. It´s mainly used for midifiles. It has audio editing possibilities too.
-Reason: this is a new professional studio package from propellerhead. I had a demo of it, it looked great but as soon as I played the demo´s I only heard trance, dance & r&B stuff. This really turned my interest in this product off. It is meant for a wide audience, so please, make demo´s for a wide audience.
-Logic: Many musicians use this. A bit more professional than Cakewalk.
Is there someone with experience?

In a nutshell:
I compose my songs in a external Trinity. The finished product should be mastered to sound like a ´real´ and polished recording.

Please feel free to give some tips, experiences etc.

Semmi

[maJ estY]

Gear Talk. :roll:

[Over The Edge]

Try downloading some of the Waves 14 day trial mastering software
and see if you like 'em. I've got a Renaissance package with the
Waves compressor and eq which I believe will yield the pro results
you're looking for.



FL
www.franklucas.net

[Over The Edge]

Here's the site:


www.waves.com


Hope this helps. :D


FL
www.franklucas.net

[Enigma™]

moved to gear talk

[Enigma™]

I've only used Cakewalk and Logic extensively so here's what I can tell you:
Logic is a MIDI masterpeice - you can get anything to control anything with anything. It's simply amazing for midi, but the big problem is with all this power, you have to learn how to use it. *Kurzweil is a perfect example*
It certainly does have the ability to record and edit audio as well, but it's a primairly midi based engine.
Pro Tools, is the same thing but for audio instead. It has support for midi control, but it can edit the HELL out of audio. Again, for certain things, it's a tad difficult to learn certain things, but it's generally speaking pretty good.
Cakewalk would be the middle end recording platform where it has ample support for both Midi and Audio but also is reasonably simple for what you want to do with it.
I personally would recomend SONAR version however because of the plugins.
Obiously you have a fast computer, so I don't think that would be a problem either and as you said "You already know it" so you're already good to just record some stuff :)
That's my 2c on it :)

[Rexx]

An important factor when mastering is the monitoring.
Getting the right amount of bottom end and highs comes with setting up your system monitoring flat. No loudness, no eq. (unless you need eq to achieve a flat response)

Listen to your favorite music and get a comfortable listening volume.
Now mix your material keeping balance in mind.
Too much of anything is bad.
There really isn't any rules etched in stone.

I like to mix lead vocals center panned and I spread the backup harmonies 9 o clock 3 o clock or hard left and right.
Some like to mix the drums more in your face.
Also with drums you need to get a good balance and panning.
It's obvious you should designate sounds where they would be on a real kit and set the Kicks center.
Bass also mixed center unless you are going for a Beatles nostalgia.

Overall levels:
Some like to get their cd as loud as posible before clipping.
I use Waves L2 and it does this quite well but I tend to prefer my recordings to not be crunched into a pipe wave with little dynamics.

I've mixed my stuff bad for so many years I was bound to figure out a better way. 8)

[Semmi78]

Sorry!!! I haven't thought about the gear topic.... :oops:

[Darkon]

I use Sonar for recording, Sound Forge for editing, and Waves for mastering...and if you want to burn redbook CD's look into CD Architect. :)

I use some other plugs besides the Waves set but they are the best in my opinion. Also got some software synths and samplers flaoting around ;)

Darkon

[Over The Edge]

Anyone here use the Alesis Masterlink. Looks like a cool piece
spec-wise.



FL
www.franklucas.net

[Tigerfolly]

I´m looking for ways to master my recordings made on my Korg Trinity. The Korg has plenty mastering effects but the final product is well..., not really what I wished. I just miss the balls in the recording. They sound so flat and that´s not due to the fact I use flat sounds or something like that. And ´Korg+flat´ are both things that not work together. I want to do this on my PC. This is a 2,4 ghz 800 FSB, 512 DDR400 dual channel memory and blabladiebla. fast enough. The most important fact is that I´m running XP with a Creative Audigy 2 (basic version) soundcard.
My first question: has anybody experience with this soundcard together with music recording (audio) and synthesizers?

Furthermore the software I want to use/choose:
-Cakewalk 9.0: I´ve always used cakewalk as my editing software. Very easy in use and more stable than Cubase and others. It´s mainly used for midifiles. It has audio editing possibilities too.
-Reason: this is a new professional studio package from propellerhead. I had a demo of it, it looked great but as soon as I played the demo´s I only heard trance, dance & r&B stuff. This really turned my interest in this product off. It is meant for a wide audience, so please, make demo´s for a wide audience.
-Logic: Many musicians use this. A bit more professional than Cakewalk.
Is there someone with experience?

In a nutshell:
I compose my songs in a external Trinity. The finished product should be mastered to sound like a ´real´ and polished recording.

Please feel free to give some tips, experiences etc.

Semmi

Boiling mastering down to it's basics, all you really need is a multiband compressor and a .wav editing program. I personally use Sonic Foundry's Sound Forge 6.0 for .wav editing. I use DirectX plugins for the effects programs, and although I've got a full mastering toolkit on my Roland V-Studio, I'll still run .wavs through some plugins to come up with a really nice finished product. I use the Waves Masters bundle, as well as the Waves Native Gold and the Renaissance compressor. TRO 082403 (http://exit3.i-55.com/~tigerfolly/media/TRO%20082403%20VBR.mp3) uses this mastering setup, and I think the finished product sounds pretty good.

I feel cheesy, that's the second time today I posted that link.

[Semmi78]

He guys, many thanx. This will help me in choosing the right program. If I have further questions i will post them soon!

:lol:

Semmi

[Over The Edge]

Hey,

Here's another EXCELLENT program for mastering.


http://www.steinberg.net/en/products/audio_editing/wavelab/index.php?sid=0




FL
www.franklucas.net