mastering live recordings?

mastering itself is more preferential artform however mastering a live audience style recording is more making the best of what you've got

so whats the best way to go....

sort the eq first then multiband compression then enhancement?

sort the dynamics first, enhance then eq?

give it to a grown up to sort out?

Also are there any particular mastering VST's good for this kind of thing?

Well there are lots of different ways to do mastering, and I am by no means an expert.

But the most important thing to keep in mind, for any sort of mastering, is to always to A/B tests. Make a change, and listen to it before and after the change, and really LISTEN. Otherwise you'll wind up doing all kinds of shit that doesn't do anyone any good.

So first I do some filtering. I take the different channels and cut out high and low frequencies that aren't needs. I mostly cut off low frequencies, because that's where the sound tends to get muddled in my own recordings, but it's probably different from recording to recording. So if you want a sound to be full, then don't cut anything out. But if you want it to be pushed back a bit, and to make room for other sounds, then try cutting out the low frequencies to make room for other things. And remember to A/B every change you make.

Then I cut and boost other frequencies with EQ, based on what frequency areas sound muddled/what needs to shine through.

Then for multi-band compression I like to try to divide the whole track into the general frequency areas specific to that track. So listen to the track you're mastering, and think "which frequency areas do I think of as units". Then divide the track up into those, and apply some compression to them. Remember to a/b this. And try mixing in the uncompressed signal. Just see what sounds best.

I also like to dick around with mid-side processing, but I don't really know what I'm doing for that. So for example I might isolate the sides, and then put a normal compressor on that to add some pumping. But then I put gentle multiband compressor on the mid signal to make it sound more natural, and then mix it all together.

But I don't really know what I'm talking about. I've just been experimenting with mastering recently, because I'd like to be able to master my own tracks, and I'll be explicit in saying that my tracks are not live recordings, so I don't know if there're specific things to keep in mind for that.

Here's the mastering job I've done that I'm the most happy with:

http://mostlyambient.bandcamp.com/album/a-different-place

  On 11/22/2011 at 9:04 PM, Root5 said:

really LISTEN

lol

Okay, so I realize that soundwave probably already knows more about mastering than I do, but I felt like throwing that out there in case someone has something has some advice for me as well.

i know nothing about mastering live recordings, in fact most live recordings i've ever worked with would barely even justify anything more than maybe a limiter to get the amplitude up. i will say that for me the most useful tool for both mixing and mastering is simply having something to work towards. find something you hold in high regard in a similar style (in this case a really good sounding live recording) and just do whatever you can to get as close as you can to that. really if you think of it that way there's no real right or wrong is there? of course, its all under the assumption that what you are working towards could generally be considered decent quality.

a lot of live recordings being what they are, you aren't going to be able to get crazy surgical with it, so i would assume maybe a little dynamics work (compression and/or limiting) and some eq (this is what i mean, typically this would be subtle but with a live recording eq'ing may be a little more extreme).

i use izotope ozone 4 and have never felt the need for anything more than that awesome awesome plugin. i'm of the mindset that anything more (even ozone 5's higher end packages) is overkill. i do have respect for the art of mastering but i feel the really heady gear is aimed at compensating for mixing shortcomings (lipstick on a pig kinda thing) that can, and should, be fixed earlier in the mixing stage. take that with a grain of salt though because i've never really sat in on a pro mastering session, maybe it would be a mindblowing experience that would change my opinion of it.

It would.