Tips To Mastering a Track
Ok - this is a long form post on a micro blog (square peg in a round hole - I know).
I've worked in professional studios before (but not as a professional musician, producer or engineer). That said, I've amassed 25-30 years worth of futzing with electronic music and recording devices.
Within that time I have a accumulated mental list of things I try to keep in mind when it comes to mastering. I'm not getting younger, so I thought it would be good to put some of this down somewhere before dementia finally claims me (and maybe even share it). Here it goes - keep reading for random beginners tips on mastering your recording:
Tip 1 - Bounce your audio dry (like how Elwood Blues orders toast):
Keep your audio channels as dry as you can afford. I know you may have spent a mint on that killer Eventide reverb VST (or just spent a ton of time trying to pirate it) but unless the effect is a dire requisite for a given audio track (e.g. a delay or reverb that specifically and directly affects the timbre of the audio track), either turn off your sends, set everything to dry or just delete your effects from your DAW.
This includes compressors, stereo imagers and, unless you are Flood or someone of that calibre, I recommend no EQing any individual track or audio channel as that lends itself to creating mixes that are muddy, complicated or otherwise difficult to manage.
Just set your track levels and panning and be sparing with the effects like reverb, delay and overdrive.
Tip 2 - Get the stems:
In order to better control your mix, once your levels and panning are set, bounce your audio tracks individually to your audio source of choice (.WAV, .AIFF, .OGG for you space wizards reading this). If your track contains 24 stereo tracks of audio, you should start mastering with 24 stereo track of audio.
Tip 3 - Track each drum like it is it’s own instrument:
If you want further control of your mix, you’ll have assigned each element within your drums to its own audio track (just the way recording engineers will mic individual drums in a drum kit). One of many benefits this will give you is the ability to fine tune levels of each drum element through the progression of the track, as well as add some stereo breadth to the mix by letting you pan individual pieces of your overall drum track.
Tip 4 - Find a reference and listen to it
Whether you’re producing hip-hop, trance, house or Norwegian black metal, you and/or the artist you’re producing has an idea of what they want to sound like, based off of some previous recording they have in their mind’s ear.
This is not to say, you’re biting someone’s style. Regardless of genre, all popular music is influenced one way or another by other popular music. There’s no shame in admitting this - its part of modern music.
Whatever the influence is, try and find a recording (album, single, collection of songs) that you or the people you’re producing feel contains qualities of what you’d want your finished track to sound like.
Now that you have your reference template, listen to it. Try to pick out parts of the recording that you/your artist find appealing. Make note of this and try to emulate some of these production nuances in your mix.
Tip 5 - Dealing with EQ
Here’s where the rubber begins meeting the road. Depending on your budget and available equipment or software, you’re going to have access to at least one kind of (hopefully several kinds of) equalizers.
How you will eventually use EQ with your mix largely is determined by what kind of music you’re producing. That said, there are a few commonalities you’re probably going to hit - regardless of the kind of track you’re working on.
I. Kill the low, low end
Run your mix through a shelving EQ (or a parametric EQ if you’re feeling extra). Set this EQ to a high pass filter and use it to cut everything from 20-30Hz range. This is all low-end signal that, though you’re probably not going to hear is taking up space in your mix and needs to go.
II. Add “air” to your mix
Similar to the above step - place an additional shelving EQ into your mix, this time, instead of cutting, we’re going to boost the gain to the 7-12kHz range. This will have the effect of opening up your mix. However, be careful not to go overboard with the gain in this step as doing so will make your mix sound extremely harsh (unless your end goal is to produce the first ever banger in the new, burgeoning, dental-surgery wave EDM genre in which case, Bob’s your uncle).
III. Apply surgical cuts and boosts
For the rest of the mix, apply a parametric EQ with cuts and boost to the rest of the signal to maximize or minimize aspects of the mix you need to accentuate or de-accentuate. For this, having a handy cheat sheet to where different signals lie within the overall EQ range can be handy. Fortunately, I have that covered in a post located here.
Tip 6 - Dealing with Compression
Compression is not all about side chain gain pumping the crap out of your track (unless you’re only intending this track to ever be played in a crowded dance club or you’re building some new sonic weapon for the US DoD that induces mass vomiting through extreme low frequency modulation, in which case, sidechaining is the only thing).
I. Single-band compression
One of the least complicated options to compress your track is to use a single band compressor across the whole mix. It’s a method that adheres to the principle, “a little goes a long way”.
In this case, setting your compressor to a ratio of around 2:1 and a gain boost of +3-4 db will provide enough gain on the low end of the track without overdoing it.
Increase the compressor’s attack and reduce its release settings if you need some breathing room to the mix.
If you’re planning on adding something like a stereo maximizer to your track, now would be the perfect time to do so once your compressor settings are set.
II. Multi-band compression
Using a multi-band compressor is much more complicated but it gives you that much more control over the compression of your mix.
Keep in mind that if you’re using a multi-band compressor, you don’t necessarily need to use every band. Use as many or as few as you feel necessary.
A simple practice is to apply a dedicated compression band to your low ends, mid levels and highs. Setting the low end ratio to 2.5:1 while keeping the mid and high level area of the mix at a ratio of 1.5:1 to 3:1 should keep you from over-complicating your mix. As with a single-band compressor, keep your gain boost to +3-4 db at maximum (and tend to err toward a lower boost when using a multi-band compressor.
Tip 7 - Add loudness with limiters
Back in the day, you used to have to worry how the track you’re producing would sound across a spectrum of mediums. Your Phil Spector-esque wall of sound 60s pop track was going to have its dynamics affected one way by FM radio and another when pressed to vinyl. Things were complicated then.
These days, if you’re producing music in your bedroom especially, you’re target media is the Internet - in which case we just need to adjust for loudness. In which case, this is where limiters come into play.
Note - the limiter should be the very last thing you add to your mix’s signal chain before finally cutting the master. Consider this the bookend to your track.
Regardless of the type of limiter, you’re essentially configuring it to act as a ceiling for the transient peaks of your mix. This is achieved by modulating the limiter’s threshold and its gain boost/reduction settings. A limiter should boost the volume of your mix no more than between 4-6 db (though in 2018, this probably sounds like a rather conservative range).
If you’re working in a fully digital environment, clone your mix, mastering devices and all to a second stereo channel and disable the limiter. Compare and contrast the mix with and without the limiter in place. This can give you a better idea of how to fine tune your limiter settings to get that ceiling raised or lowered to where you need it.
Finally, if you’re mixing an album’s worth of tracks together, note the final db level your mixes and be sure to try and keep loudness consistent across the entire work.
Tip 8 - Forget you ever read this post
Slightly serious, slightly joking here. The thing about music, like any form of art - there’s no ‘right way’ to do anything. This post is simply a collection of tips that might help a beginner unfold the complex process of mastering a studio recording. Take away from this post only whatever makes sense to you. The rest of experimentation, trial, error and success and that is where the artistry lives.
