mastering mastering question

first off, i'm using protools. i'll have a mix that i'm happy with and when i go to bounce it to a .wav, it will sound completely different (using itunes with the same speakers and headphones), and also considerably softer than other songs in my itunes library. for example, the bass drum will be squashing the bass and the snare will be squashing a synth in a similar frequency (or vise versa), or an entire part will suddenly sound muffled and squashed and then revert back to normal.. all of which will not be heard prior to the bounce. admittedly i don't know too much about mastering, so i could be completely overlooking some important finalizing steps, perhaps having to do with dithering (which i know nothing about), compressing the overall mix, sample rate conversions, etc.

any help would be greatly appreciated.

Could you upload it for us?

hi I am new here, but would like to help...

1.Are you sidechaining the bass to the kick?

2.Whats on your master bus and how much gain reduction are you getting on your Limiter?

3.I've used PT in the past and it shouldn't sound different from the DAW session / unless your doing some conversion...

Silly question really, but are you normalizing your track when you bounce it?

  On 8/17/2012 at 9:38 PM, Squee said:

Could you upload it for us?

http://soundcloud.com/satellite-destroyer/crying-man

this is the non-mastered version, meaning i just bounced it straight from the original session. i should mention that it's not just this track, i've never been satisfied with my bounces.

  On 8/18/2012 at 12:26 AM, Dan C said:

Silly question really, but are you normalizing your track when you bounce it?

not that i know of.. i don't see it listed as an option in the bounce menu (if that's where it would be).

  On 8/18/2012 at 12:20 AM, GarthKnight said:

hi I am new here, but would like to help...

 

1.Are you sidechaining the bass to the kick?

2.Whats on your master bus and how much gain reduction are you getting on your Limiter?

3.I've used PT in the past and it shouldn't sound different from the DAW session / unless your doing some conversion...

1. not with this song, but have in the past with the same varied results on the bounce

2. with this song i used multiple busses, all with various plugins enabled, reverb, eq, and compression to name a few. i haven't been using a limiter for anything really, should i be?

3. that's exactly what i was thinking, too.

sounds like you've got your track settings all messed up (in terms of each track's individual volume). try turning using a spectrum analyser plugin to see where the different frequencies are too loud/quiet and adjusting the volume of each track accordingly. also check your bounce settings to see what effects (if any) are added during the bounce. you could also try turning everything down and bouncing the track to purposely be too quiet and then importing the too-quiet mix into an external sound editor (audacity etc) and normalising, EQing etc in there.

If the sound changes after rendering then maybe it`s a rendering problem? Some plugs won`t work properly using offline render, so compare realtime/offline rendering results. Also you can try to change interpolation settings. I`ve never seen protools though so those are just guesses.

I think the sound of that track is quite good, maybe a bit too confusing in mids, but that might also be the fault of too much reverb.

  On 8/20/2012 at 5:35 AM, zemudene said:

If the sound changes after rendering then maybe it`s a rendering problem?

Certainly sounds like it ! If a DAW makes a file that sound different from when you hear it in realtime to rendered then there's some serious problems there, and as it's something as high profile as Protools I can't quite believe that the DAW's the issue. You haven't got iTunes set to add some wacky EQ post-processing have you ?

Which version of Pro Tools are you using? I am not up to date, and only on LE, but I have never had problems like this. In my experience the PT bounce is pretty reliable.

If you bounce the file and then open it in something other than iTunes, does it sound correct?

It will sound different because however you like it the sound you hear is being coloured by your monitors i.e. digital to analogue. In order to avoid that you have to render the track at 32-bits.

Do you sometimes just hit the keys at random to see what pops out ?

  On 8/20/2012 at 3:49 PM, The Bro said:

It will sound different because however you like it the sound you hear is being coloured by your monitors i.e. digital to analogue. In order to avoid that you have to render the track at 32-bits.

I recommend at least 83 bits if you are mastering directly for brain, with no monitors involved.

  On 8/20/2012 at 3:49 PM, The Bro said:

It will sound different because however you like it the sound you hear is being coloured by your monitors i.e. digital to analogue. In order to avoid that you have to render the track at 32-bits.

Wow, that's nonsense. Sorry.

I prefer 8 bits

  On 8/20/2012 at 3:49 PM, The Bro said:

It will sound different because however you like it the sound you hear is being coloured by your monitors i.e. digital to analogue. In order to avoid that you have to render the track at 32-bits.

i render all my tracks at 33 1/3 bits for easier vinyl reproduction