Editing And Mastering Original Recordings, Beginner Basics Options

[horvath]

I just finished recording a new CD of original songs using a Roland VS-1880 Digital Recorder. Now I want to take those tracks, edit them and master them on my Mac G4 (OS X) and I'm educating myself on the processes involved.

Is the editing process where I would equalize the volumes of each song, so each is at the same level? Or is that part done in the mastering process?

Also, one song has some background noise (a car passing by - lol!) that is audible at the ending of the song, as it fades to 0db. Agian, is the editing process where I would remove that? Or would I best eliminate that in the mastering process?

Any knowledge shared about all this is greatly appreciated - I presently have ZERO understanding about editing and mastering.

Thanks.

[Synthetic]

well, yes and no for best results... there are a few apps designed for mastering... wish I could remember the names of them... but anyhow, they let you take a CD worth of tracks and see all the waveforms for each track and then you can use cmpression, eq, limiter, expander and such as needed to make all the tracks flow sonically.... but, this is not a must have or do method.... you could use the mastering options of the Roland but you will need to have good ears and "fresh" ears as you want to make tracks sound equally loud in volume and you might even want to try to give them a uniform sonic impression to make the cd sound more cohesive rather than a collection of songs.... make sense?

If you are really serious about your music and can afford it... i would look into getting a professional to master your tracks for you. Some can had for as little as $100 bucks for CD and others go as much as $1000 or more... just depends on the person you ask. Note... before mastering though... its a good idea to leave some headroom in your final mixes... meaning don't try to maximize all the levels and don't over use compression on the whole mix because this makes it more difficult for the mastering process or mastering person. There is a good interview I did with Mr. Seva (mastering engineer) that you may get some nice tips from here on the site.... look it up hmm don't know any books right off hand though

This post has been edited by Synthetic: Sat 11 Oct 2003, 00:46