Here are some basic tips to consider for your mastering session but very necessary for the smooth running of your session and ultimately saving you time & money. Consider the song order for your album in advance before you walk into the mastering session, the last thing you want to do is sit in your mastering session deliberating which song is going first on your CD or what song should come next. You don't want to be making these important decisions at the last minute. Also take the time finalize your Song titles & Album title i.e. correct song names & spelling, this may sound extremely basic & obvious but you wouldn't believe the amount of times when these "small" issues have held up the whole session. These little things will help make your mastering session run a lot smoother and also make the whole process of getting the grace notes and metta data for iTunes & CD text a lot easier.
One question I get ask quite often is, "what file format & what sample rate to bring the audio files in for the mastering session?" The best thing to do is bounce all your songs/files in their original session file format. For example if your digital work station (DWS) session is set to 48khz - 24 bits - Wave files, than bounce your file at 48Khz - 24 bits - Wave. The reason for this is anything you do in the digital domain that requires extra bit or sample rate processing affects the sound, especially sample rate conversion and bit re-differing. The first area that gets affected is the top end (Hight Frequencies) and the other is your stereo image. You will notice that top end will sound harsh or brittle and the image can seem smaller both in width and depth. By width I mean how wide the stereo image in your mix can be & by depth I mean how 3D your image can feel, this is mainly because all the tails of your effects (reverbs, delays) get affected and because you can't hear them, the whole image will sound and feel smaller or less 3D. This also includes upsampling, i.e. converting 44.1Khz to 88.2Khz. You're not getting any major benefits from this process, if anything you're doing more harm than good to the quality and integrity of your audio, you're better off starting the project/session at a higher sample rate from the beginning. Don't get me wrong there are times when sample rate conversion is necessary like when you need to get a 48khz version of your song to the video house for your music video and your file is at 44.1Khz for example, But we're talking about getting ready for the mastering session & preparing your audio files so that your session goes smoothly and you don't waste time & energy correcting the audio in mastering.
Should I use Analogue, OR Digital EQ?
This is a question I get asked quite a bit and the simple answer is, use both. No, I'm not sitting on the fence for this one it's just the truth. Both Analogue & Digital EQ's are great depending on what you need done. For example if you need to remove a very narrow section of the frequency spectrum i.e. 400hz and only 400hz. Then you would use a digital EQ with a very narrow Q or a notch filer and only affect the frequency of 400hz. Digital filters are great for this because you can narrow the Q right down to.01 of an octave and attenuate just the frequency need. Where as an Analogue EQ or filter would find it incredibly difficult to narrow the Q down so tight and therefore affect surrounding frequencies, which are not ideal if you just want to work on one specific frequency, i.e. 400hz. On the other hand if you wanted to add presents to a vocal track so it can cuts through the mix better, you would use an Analogue EQ with a wide Q. The main reason for this is because Analogue EQ's affect not just the fundamental frequency, i.e. 3khz. It also affects the harmonics of the fundamental i.e. 3khz (fundamental) 6khz (1st harmonics) 12khz (2nd harmonics) therefore giving you a much more nature & sweeter sounding vocal track, not a harsh & brittle sounding vocal track that a Digital EQ would give you. This is a very general example but you get the idea. The main point to take away from this is, if you need to work with a very small and calculated section of the frequency spectrum use a digital EQ or Filter. But if you want to affect a larger area and keep the sound feeling "Natural", than use an analogue EQ. Also you'll find you get a much sweeter sounding top end if you use an Analogue EQ for adding present & air to a mix or instrument.
I hope this information helps & makes your next CD mastering session an enjoyable experience like it should be. By the time you get to the mastering stage you really just want to be focusing on the bigger picture, so the more the smaller issues are sorted the easier the whole process will be.
About this Author
Oscar Gaona at Studios 301 has over 20 yrs experience as an Audio Mastering Engineer working with some of the worlds most successful musicians, so to learn more about Audio Mastering and how to get the best results for your music visit Oscar Gaona.com
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