mastering/loudness

its true, as i mentioned maybe earlier in this thread or another, i proposed that the mastering industry may be a hinderance to the creative aspects of the musical arts, or maybe even lead to its downfall, if it hasn't already. loudness/production quality can really make a track stand out and more marketable, but from a musical perspective it really doesnt make a difference. this is why i said what i did, because now a days you have people that focus so much on loudness/compression/quality that even if the tracks are musically shallow, they are still considered "valid" because they have been mastered well.

  On 1/19/2011 at 4:19 PM, bigfatLOL said:

its true, as i mentioned maybe earlier in this thread or another, i proposed that the mastering industry may be a hinderance to the creative aspects of the musical arts, or maybe even lead to its downfall, if it hasn't already. loudness/production quality can really make a track stand out and more marketable, but from a musical perspective it really doesnt make a difference. this is why i said what i did, because now a days you have people that focus so much on loudness/compression/quality that even if the tracks are musically shallow, they are still considered "valid" because they have been mastered well.

true

Alot of labels even expect your demos to be top notch mastered to be even considered for a release.

In the old days you could send some scrappy demos full of tape noise and they would contact you when there was something in it so you could finish it.

It's understandable, too many producers...

I don't have anything to really to add to this, just that I did a search and read through the thread and there's some very good tips in here that I've already found has improved my mixes. So thanks WATMM.

its easy. just load a super loud pro mix in the same mastering project as your song.

then use TT Dynamic Range Meter on the master buss. put your mastering chain on your songs track, not the master buss.

mute the pro track. then occasionally solo it while looking at the TT Dynamic Range meter. also, you might want to look at Voxengo span while you switch between your track and the super uber loud pro track. then you might gain some understanding of why one may be louder, or sound better, etc.

here are my thoughts on mastering and loudness:

1) Fletcher-Munson Curves (yes I know I've blathered about this alot)...the human ear/brain perceives certain frequencies as being louder than others...namely 2khz, 5khz and 10khz.

2) Two Limiters in Series...you will get smoother results having 2 limiters doing the work where usually 1 is used. A touch of light compression before the limiters is a good idea to gently tuck in peaks before the limiters do their thing.

3) HFP...there is usually lots of useless low-end eating up precious headroom...try HPFing your choon somewhere between 20-50hz.

4) Saturation...mix in a parallel 'wet' saturated signal to taste to enhance upper harmonic content.

5) Scoop Out the Mud....There is always--I repeat always--too much 350-500hz. However, leave it be if you like the old-school lo-fi vibe (it's a classic characteristic of lo-fi 90's hip-hop).

hi I discovered/rediscovered hi/loshelf filters today, I always though when the q is too low/high and it makes that 's' shape it was useless, but it actually can sound really good in a way. I kinda wish parametric EQs had more shapes to work with. EngineersFilter is interesting but the guy needs to make it with a traditional point and click interface instead of sliders for everything, and allow multiple bands per instance. Also a Q control for the shelving filters if possible. That plugin really interests me on the whole. Like is the bessel filter the real thing like with bessel polynomials (?) and all?