Mastering Ideas? Options

[kundama]

hi all new to the forum so i thought i'd start with an easy one :-)

i've been writing tunes for a while now, and always get to the same stage in the prossess before encountering problems...Mastering.

getting the compositional elements right isn't a problem (well it is it just takes a lot of time but when i come to bouncing down my tunes and compare them to oh i don't know some one like prefuse 73, the quality of sound is different. They always seem to be able to get it that little bit louder than me. Obviously they've got all that fancy equipment, but i'm sure it's just a question of time again, and knowing the right steps to take.

at the moment when bouncing down i simply make sure all the volumes are right, nothing is clipping, the panning is nicely spread and there is't too much frequency intrerferance, (everything has its own space) idon't use any compression, or effects, (just a bit of limiter) because i want to keep the dynamic range. iwas wondering if anyone had any tips for me, coz iwant to put up a websight with all mi tunes on , but none of them really feel finnished, ya know.

wicked well if any one has any tips let me know
thaks for your time

take it easy
kundy

[bobdemaa]

That's excellent advice, and puts the nail on the head. I do a good amount of mastering, and even on some of the classical stuff we wind up using just a touch of limiting, although it's usally in context of the entire recording and never really more than a db or 2. For This stuff I've used L2, but prefer an outboard Summit Compressor.

I've gotten into the habit, good or bad, to mix in the box with a limiter on my master. It took me a couple of years overall to get used to it, but these days, depending on the project, I tend to leave the Waves Multiband Limiter on the master all the time. It allows me to make subtle or not so subtle eq adjustments as well as adding a nice punch and a good amount of control over how the reverbs are going to translate. not exactly an answer to your question, but it's a great plug-in.

The L2 is very good, The L3 is better. They both do a good job of not changing the character of the mix too much as you set the threshold down. I also like the Limiter in Logic, which sounds very musical to me.

Also, Lowering the threshold 3 or 4 db can have a really big effect on bringing up the level of your music without altering the character too much. The imporatant thing to remember is to A/B the differences at the same level. otherwise your ear will be pulled to the differences in volume, and not the mix itself.