Mastering

Over the last few months I have been learning some of the tips and tricks for effective mastering. This has been a really beneficial thing as a producer as it is now something else I can practice and learn about over time to improve. I have also done some research in to the reasons behind mastering.

Mastering is the final touches to an already mixed track that prepares it for consumer play back across different platforms. Although there is a lot of different ways in which you can master something there is one altimate goal each time you master - to make it sound as BEST you can with the mix you are given. This means increasing the dynamic and frequency range as well as making the track louder to ensure the track sounds consistent. The masting engineer is able to widen a stereo image making the track brighter and more intricate sounding.

There are some stereo types when it comes to mastering. These are some things that mastering is NOT.

• Mastering is not mixing, mastering engineers do not mix. They receive a two track stereo files that is a bounce of a multi tracked song or album.

• Mastering cannot 'fix' as bad mix. If a mastering engineer receives a 'bad' mix they will potently send it back to the mix engineer and ask they to make adjustments before they are able to master it (Parnell, 2016) . Some things that could make a mix bad include: The mix being too loud. This means that the mastering engineer has no 'head room'. The engineer needs around -3 to-6 decibels worth of 'head room' at the LOUDEST park of the mix to be able to do an effective master. This is because they need some room to comfortably be able to compress and EQ certain frequencies in the mix. It is also their job to make it mix loud no the mix engineer. This could also be related to the balance. If the track is completely out of balance they may as for the stems in separate audio files for example the drums, bass, vocals, guitars and keys in separate audio files.

• Making things loud is not the main goal- however it is part of the process.

• Mastering is essential for audio releases and is not optional in the professional industry.

• Mastering cannot be done with a preset! Mastering is something that takes real ears to fine tune and tweak. There is platforms that are cheap and allow instant (fake) masters. However, these are never going to come close to the result you would receive from a mastering engineer (SageAudio, undated).

• Mixing and mastering engineers can share jobs. It is more likely you will receive a better master from a mastering engineer that has not been involved with the mixing process. This is because by the time a mix engineer has finished mixing a song they have likely listened to is 100+ times and their ears are not in tune with the potential of how the master could or should sound.

This mastering process is very detailed and takes years to get efficient at. Although the process can be simple or seem simple, the polishing of a track or album is a very important process for the musician, the mix engineer and the consumer. This process is not creative there is little room to have any mix changing processing through the mastering process. A good master should sound exactly like the mix but 'better'. Some mastering engineers use genre specific mastering chains depending on the out come required. Mix engineers and musicians usually have tracks they like the master for the mastering engineer to use as a reference.

Mastering engineers receive a stereo audio file to work with. That means they can not change the mix at all with the stems. If there happens to be issues such as conflicting frequencies. Their job is to get rid of these things in a chain of processing. This chain usually consists of EQ, compression and limiting.

"Common techniques used in mastering include adding compression to alter the dynamics of a track; EQ so that everything sits well together in a mix; stereo widening so that each element occupies the correct position in the stereo field; and then some almost admin-esque tasks like arranging albums with fades, gaps, track markers and info, and preparing tracks for particular mediums." (Corfield, UNNOWN).

A common process a mastering engineer would use is EQ to begin their mastering chain. This EQ is usually subtle usually only by one or two decibels and is use to clear up any clashing frequencies that maybe causing muddiness. Muddiness is caused when where is too many elements of the track all siting around the same frequency. This is done with a multi-band EQ where you are able to boost and cut frequencies over the full scale of audio (20-20000HZ).

A multi band compressor is usually next in the mastering chain. This type of compressor allows you to solo different frequencies in a certain range and boost or compress them. These bands can be tailored as you listen for instance you can change your low range frequency band from 20-120hz to 20-80hz if this is where the compression is required. This is a fiddly process and takes a long time to improve at. This is because every mix is different and the cross over in compression between the 5 or 6 can differ a lot. If there is fundamental frequencies that sit right between two bands you need to decide which band you want them in. The over all goal with this process is to alter the dynamic range of the track regarding how loud each frequency band is.

Another process that can be used in mastering is a mid and side technique. This allows the engineer to spectate the stereo left and right from the mono audio information and alter it with EQ and compression separately. This can be done a few ways. One way is the traditional way by using busses and auxiliaries.

1. The first step for this is you need to duplicate your master stereo file 3 times.

2. Then you need to create 3 aux tracks

3. Mute your original stereo track and name the other two tracks MID and SIDE.

4. Send the mid track out a mono bus to the first AUX. leave this AUX panned to centre

5. Send the other track (side) to a mono bus and make the input of the other two auxiliaries that same bus.

6. Place a mono EQ on the side track and un link the sides and flip the phase on the right side of the EQ.

7. Pan the two 'side' auxiliaries left and right. This will allow you to hear the stereo Vs the mono information in the mix and allow you to effect them differently.

8. To re- record this create a new stereo aux for the 'summed audio' bus and send the three auxiliaries to it.

9. create a new 'audio track' and send the 'summed audio' to this and hit record!

Here is a really basic video of how this routing is set up!

This mid/side technique can also be set up using a decoder and encoder plug in. This separates the mono an stereo information and allows you to effect it just like this auxiliary technique. However, you have more freedom to effect the sides and mid using the auxiliary routing. With this technique you are only able to use multi- mono EQ.

The last process when mastering a track is using a limiter to bring up the over all level of a track. Some mastering engineers place this last on the mastering chain and master 'into' this limiter. This is so they don't have to go back a re-adjust anything while going through through this process. However a good mastering engineer with know that they will safely be able to place a limiter after their processing and won't encounter any problems. These problems include that they have potentially over processed or over compressed while mastering and the limiter brings up the compression making it noticeable. They could also not have enough 'head room' at this stage to use the limiter to bring up the over all loudness if they have mastered to harshly with EQ or compression.

Limiting is a whole other world. This should really add the last 'icing on the cake' so to speak. You should be able to push your mix into the limiter just a little bit to reach the over all loudness and still keep the dynamic integrity of your master. A mastering engineer at this stage will also be referencing a LUFS meter to ensure the track is suitable for play back on music platforms (refer to previous blog).

As I mentioned in my previous blog mastering involves making the over all loudness of a track suitable for platforms such as Spotify and youtube. There is software created for this measurement. This ensures consistency in volume over all audio on these platforms.

This video shows some of the ways to master for platforms. I haven't used some of the plug ins this guy uses but the concepts are the same.

I put some of this research into practice and mastered a track I recored a few months ago!

After reading about mastering I had an idea as to how I would master this mix. I used an AUX for my effects and another audio track to re-record on.

The first thing is to fix anything that stands out. This could include, muddiness or too much space in a music. Fortunately the mix I mastered is something I recored and mixed my self almost a year ago. So I knew there was nothing crazy in there that I needed to fix. However, the mix lacked a lot depth so this was a challenge.

Next I began with boosting some things I felt needed to pop out more. For instance the snare was very flat and a lot softer in the mix than the kick I. I gave it a little boost to bring out some of the roundness of the sound using a multi band EQ.

Using A mid and side technique I was able to widen the stereo image. I used the HOFFA. This is a tool that de-codes and encodes audio. It is used to seperate the mono and stereo pathways of a mix. I placed this in mastering chain followed by a multi-mono EQ. Mulit-mono plug ins allow you to separate the mid and sides as mono tracks and play then out the L and R speakers. This is super helpful when trying to create a more interesting stereo image. I boosted some of the high frequencies in to the sides and gave some more low mids in to the centre. After this EQ I put another HOFFA to encode the separation of these fequecies back into a stereo mix.

Next I used an multi band compressor to try and reduce some of the low end. The kick was really taking of the mix in some points. I was able to use this to also boost some more top end and vocal range to make the mix a little clearer.

This was sounding great however the was alot of sibilance being boosted in the top end. I went back and added a DE-ESSER to try and reduce this while still keeping the air that that mix had. It worked well to a degree then I had to reduce the compression in the top end to fix up the last few major issue with this.

Lastly of course I used a limiter to MAKE IT LOUD!

This was an effective master I feel like the mix has a lot more space and there is less muddiness in the low end now. I am keen to learn more about mid and side processing as I progress and get better at using more techniques to master effectively. This is a process I will never stop learning about. Here is an inspiration video from a influential cool masting audio engineer lady talking through her mastering process.

This video I found particularly inspiring. Many talks about her analogue way of achieving her sound for mastering. Something I found interesting was her approach in the way that she believes it is much harder to master with the digital age coming and destroying the art of mastering. This could be a reason as to why her mastering is so prominent in the industry. She has worked with different genres and still swears by mastering with analogue even for a pop record. Skip to around 7 minutes in to hear her talk about this! One of the most practical things I took away from this was to always refresh your ears while mixing or mastering even if you need to listen to music. Just something that will keep you inspired!

"Less is more" (Pernell, 2016)

REFERENCES:

Retrieved 14 August 2019, from https://www.landr.com/what-is-mastering/

9 pro mastering tips for beginners. (2017). Retrieved 14 August 2019, from https://www.musicradar.com/tuition/tech/9-pro-mastering-tips-for-beginners-227952

Basic Mastering Techniques - Teach Me Audio. (2018). Retrieved 14 August 2019, from https://www.teachmeaudio.com/mastering/basic-mastering-techniques/

What is Mastering? | Sage Audio. (2018). Retrieved 15 August 2019, from https://www.sageaudio.com/blog/mastering/what-is-mastering.php

McCracken, M., Flett, P., & Corfield, C. What Is Mastering?. Retrieved 15 August 2019, from https://www.dawsons.co.uk/blog/what-is-mastering