09-10-2013, 11:50 AM (This post was last modified: 09-10-2013, 11:50 AM by Voelund.)
(09-10-2013, 10:39 AM)Olli H Wrote:
(08-10-2013, 07:53 PM)juanjose1967 Wrote: The problem was that while mastering (I'm still striving not to damage the mixes) I added too much wideness to the trebble range and that's what made sound like that.
In my opinion: as a mixer your shouldn't be thinking that you'll fix some issues as a master. If you think as a mixer that the mix is not wide enough or something, you should solve that issue with mixing tricks. You also have better possibilities to do that without causing any phase issues. For example as a mixer you can apply widening trick only to drums, or only to band but not to vocals. At mastering phase that kind of things are almost impossible.
But when you think as a mixer "now it's perfect", have a break and come back later as a mastering engineer.
But I would suggest to use only "home-made mastering": add limiter and boost the peaks near zero, shave couple of desibels here and there, check the overall frequency balance when you hear the limiters effect.
Again Olli wrote what I thought of writin.
I can add: my masterin chain usually has a comp first, shavin 1-2dB of, as Im told it sounds more natural than limitin.
Then a phase linear eq, ususally only addin little air, meanin 2-6 dB boost 20 khx with lowest q. Then limiter, tryin diffrent shave offs and when it starts to sound squezed, back off 1-2 dB. Thats one way to do it.
Other road to choose, simply upload your 2bus file and ask people to crank it up
Old ears, old gear, little boy inside love music and sounds and my wife, not necessarily in that order
Lesson learned! no more mastering experiments for the time being!
I've given more brightness to the snare and voice... and don't worry, Olli... the schoolbell won't be hurting your ears
In fact I believe (and I've also read this in a book) that if the mix is ok, there wouldn't be any need to add more fx, so I will only try what you guys suggested.
By the way, can you recommend some book about mastering for me to learn a little bit more about it?
I think your mix is quite close, but still the lack of brightness with vocals bothers me. I would love to hear the singers eyes sparkle. I think that in this song one should have bright, young and optimistic vocal sound. That establishes the mood of the song.
By the way, do you use headphones for mixing? I felt that you should still add about 3 dB brightness at 3-5 k area with broad q-setting to vocals. But if you're using headphones that are not so flat, but have built in brightness boost, then you won't hear the problem I'm refering to.
Yes, I use headphones most of the times because having teenagers at home means having loud music or tv all the time and I can't hear what I'm mixing properly.
But anyway, I've applied the changes you suggest to the vocals. Let's hope that it's ok now!!
I like the mix--the second one is better, btw. I like them because they are warmer than the original posted on Mixing Secrets. Hard song to stay warm with really, but you did a good job.
