Master Buss treatment

Hello everybody, preparing a track of mine for a compilation, hope they like the result and it will finally make it to the album.

I have to deliver it soon, still working on it and in the mixing process. If they finally include it in the release I suppose the track will go through mastering process, so im just wondering what do you like to use after you mix the track in the master buss of your tracks to improve it, EQ, stereo widening, multi-band compressor? Any advice would be highly appreciated, thanx in advance.

Multipressor, compression and EQ.

I suck at mixing my tracks so I always end up fixing it with some heavy EQing on the master track. I know this is probably sacrilegious but fuckit...

But hey, if it's gonna get mastered then don't compress it too much, otherwise the mastering guy won't be able to do that much to your track.

I love to produce/mix into a buss compressor from the very beginning. For creative purpose, because I love the sound of (tasteful) buss compression, It's part of the mixing process.

Mastering is a whole other story, I'd rather leave it to someone else with fresh-ears than doing it myself.

Have a great mix first, don't rely on mastering to make your tune sound good. Do whatever sounds good, just leave lot of headroom on your 2-buss.

I have no intentions of mastering the track, just improve it before i send it over. I know all these issues are of an expert, something that im not especially when it comes to mixing, just working with my ear, how much db i should leave for headroom, or it depends on the track and is an issue itself? Just to let you guys know, its and ambient track with orchestral elements.

Well, I compose at 0db, mostly without anything on the master bus. But if I am making dance music I put some compression and stuff on the master to simulate how it will sound maximized and mastered. Then when I show off tracks online in mp3 I often do a tad of mastering myself for quick attention boost. When you are dealing with labels you should hand in -3db headroom, 24bit waves without anything on the master bus if they are going to master it obviously. If it is going on vinyl you should make all bass mono and some other adjustments possibly.

I've heard to leave everything in the green when you make a mix for mastering. If it's all digital source stuff there will be no noise, so they can easily increase volume without reducing quality. But if you've got clipping anywhere there's nothing to do about it.

  On 5/1/2013 at 1:42 PM, mollekula said:

Hello everybody, preparing a track of mine for a compilation, hope they like the result and it will finally make it to the album.

 

I have to deliver it soon, still working on it and in the mixing process. If they finally include it in the release I suppose the track will go through mastering process, so im just wondering what do you like to use after you mix the track in the master buss of your tracks to improve it, EQ, stereo widening, multi-band compressor? Any advice would be highly appreciated, thanx in advance.

So, are you submitting something for a compilation, unsure of whether it will be included in the release? Or is it already confirmed as part of the compilation?

Good luck if the first, congrats if the second!

So, if it's the first one, you're sending a submission for a compilation, best bet would be to "master" it as best you can, but also mention that you have done some processing on the master buss, and can provide an unmastered version if needed.

If your track has already been accepted, then the amount (if any) processing you should do, really depends on your confidence in the label to do a decent job. I've seen compilations released where "mastering" was no more than someone running the tracks through some really shonky plugin and sending to a CD duplicaton shop. Other labels will actually get a proper mastering job done. Worth looking into I think.

Mastering is a funny one, the notion of it seems to have changed quite dramatically over the last few years.

My general opinion of it is: Don't bother.

The only possible scenario I can think of, where DIY mastering 1 track is a good idea, is if you are going to self release 1 track on bandcamp or something.

Mastering should be the absolute final process in prepairing a release. If you are submitting 1 track for a compilation, the whole point of mastering in that scenario is to compile all these tracks from different people into a fairly cohesive sounding release. Likewise if you're working on a solo release, mastering is the final stage where your tracks are finalised for pressing/duplicating.

Both these situations might require compression, EQ, Limiting, etc etc.. they also might not. Definately dont feel like you have to use compression on your master bus because that's what you've heard people do...

I think, best to focus on getting a good sounding mixdown with nothing on the master bus

Techdiff is correct as always.

Thanx for your replies guys. They say they have already accepted the track, only I had to make it larger from 3:30 to 5:30 mins. The track is from my part of a "well known" and quite successful series of podcasts, there i worked more freely and worried about nothing but the opinion of my colleagues. But im still skeptical about it and will only be sure if i see the track officially released, its gonna be a compilation of various artists from a major ambient record label, so I hope it gets released under my alias that i have worked for the podcasts previously.

On the track i had sent them the first time (i sent it off as it was used on the podcast) I had made a high shelf boost on 550hz or so of 2 db to give some more air, following by wave arts multiband-compressor that makes also some nice stereo widening. But since im reworking on the track, inevitably there have been changes in the mix so thats why Im wondering about all this stuff and whether this time i should leave the master buss blank or do the same thing i had done previously.

  On 5/1/2013 at 2:50 PM, TechDiff said:

I think, best to focus on getting a good sounding mixdown with nothing on the master bus

Don't be lazy! If you have to boost/cut more than 1-2 dB in the master buss then go back and fix it in the mix; it would sound better. As far as compression goes better avoid it out of the mix, limiters included but don't let your highest peak go above -6dBFS.

In your situation this is all you have to think about.

I think it's very reasonable to put a few db of EQ and some multiband compression on the master bus. Why worry about it? Are you sure you don't mean 5k for "air" (or even higher), though? 550 hz is pretty low.

I think it was the Rashad interview at Monolake's site where he made the distinction between processing as an artistic decision (as in, going for a particular sound), and processing because you feel like you "should". It's the latter you should avoid.

However, 2 db of EQ and various multiband and stereo imaging tweaks to me sound like artistic decisions. It's unlikely that a mastering engineer (if there is one) is going to come to the same decisions as you as to what your track needs in those areas. So go ahead and do it, I say.

Everybody likes to say, "oh GOODNESS I would NEVER compress the master bus!" but those are all people who make James Taylor albums. This is techno right?

I think it comes down to a matter of taste and experience. I wouldn't recommend slapping a compressor on a master bus until you've gotten a feel for and are accomplished with making a good mix without one. The reason being that putting a compressor on your entire mix can color the whole operation in a way that at least in my mind is harder to analyze and make use out of if you don't have a lot of experience with a compressor in the traditional sense (on a single track in a mix)

I know when I was first starting, putting a master bus compressor on as an 'easy fix' was exactly that, it might improve the overall sound of the track but more often than not careful individual track mixing/compressing/and eqing would sound better than heading straight for the finish line.

I think overall whether you have experience or not, putting a master bus compressor on when you've already taken care of the levels and character  of each individual track is the best approach and allows for the most fine tuning after the fact.

A lot of the time when I'm composing in a sequencer I'll have on a limiter just as a safety, with almost no active grain reduction happening. When the track is getting near completion I will then start to adjust the limiter and add a compressor to the master bus after I've taken care of everything else.

There is a whole other approach to this technique though, for instance I do a lot of live jamming in abelton where I'll just record everything to a stereo file as I'm going. In these circumstances putting a master compressor on with a lot of compression ( over a 4:1 ratio and -15 threshold) can create a sound you absolutely can't get any other way and sometimes make loose jammy noodling stuff sound a lot more cohesive

I'm kinda torn on this issue these days. But...

The thing about 2-buss compression is it's a huge part of the vibe and it's nice to have control over it. I hear alot of mix engineers talking about doing their own 2-buss compression to 'protect' their mix: that is, so the balance and bounce of the track isn't altered in mastering.

I'm very OCD so I have trouble leaving big decisions up to other people.

well if you're getting something professionally mastered, it makes more sense to put less master bus effects on your mix before sending it off. The reason being is that you're paying someone money to 'color' your final product anyways, so why not get more bang for your buck and give the mastering engineer something easier to work with? If you send a mixdown with no dynamic range that has been already heavily limited to a mastering engineer there is much less they can do to 'improve' your track in the mastering process. The more headroom and dynamic range you give them the better.

pro mastering isn't just about the techniques (which can often be quite rudimentary) its also about being anal about the tones that particular soft/hardware adds to the sound which is something your regular producer wouldn't delve into too much especially with the really pricey stuff

i run everything through 3 compressors. it sounds good that way.

Yeah, i boosted on 550HZ, there were no unpleasant resonant sounds going on so it slightly improved the mids and highs.

Even though Ive been making music since I was a child, and made my first electronica and sample-based trip hops experiments in 99 for a few years when i gave up for various reasons, its been only around 3 years or so when I started making music again with a more serious or dedicated approach, and its only been a couple of years that Im actually applying some post production. Id rather make music only and leave post-production to others, but i began to realize that i need to learn all that because i was getting really tired of listening to my music because it sounded awful with lots of masking going on etc. Im a loner in making music so its been pretty tough learning everything from scratch on my own. As a person who loves to make music out of emotional need to express instead of production etc I somehow neglected the post production issue, i still suck at compressing/limiting etc and have little experience with these tools in order not to destroy completely my sounds on individual rack (unless i use some with a preset or something), thus i mostly work with EQ, leveling and panning to tweak and place the sound in the mix. I know everything is essential, but i consider myself as a music experimentalist rather than musician or producer, and try to focus on compositions themselves. So when it comes to stuff I dont know well (yet) or dont trust myself, I always like to hear what others have to say about it and suggest a solution. Thanx for all of your replies guys.