Mastering Techniques

Tips & Tricks
1

Lately I have been trying to figure out this mastering thing. I’ve been learning a lot but there is SO MUCH to learn. And a bumload of trial and error.

I was wondering if anybody would be kind enough to share their mastering techniques. Even the ones that everybody should know. Just assume we all know nothing. Actually I’m pretty sure that I do know nothing about mastering.

I did find this though

A link to Synaecide’s original post on IDMforums.
http://www.idmforums.com/showthread.php?&p=66982#post66982

You have to scroll down to the first post to see the deets. But I’ll repost his thread here so you don’t have to. Again this is not my work so if this guide helped you give him some cred on the forum. Actually he didn’t create it either. He found it and I found his findings.

2

Mastering ain’t easy stuff. But I’ll be covering aspects of it in future In:Depth articles, so stay tuned.

3

depending on how you mix your track to start with mastering is different, if you have already mixed them around the 0 db range the cut the frequences below 40-50 and raise them a bell around 4k-6k then stick a limiter, if you have mixed around -6 db or something like that then stick a compressor on your master!

i do a pretty good mix to start with so that the master doesnt need too much work!

4

I’d be interested in reading about vinyl mastering specifically, you guys got any good links to share?

I know some of the basic stuff (mono bass, careful with high sibilance etc) but I’d really like to learn more about all that…

5

If you intend to print to vinyl, I would contact the place that is actually going to do the vinyl master and ask them what they want. I suspect that the nuts-and-bolts concerns like the mono bass one are going to be handled by the mastering engineer and don’t need to be handled by you.

6

Thanks for the reply, although I meant that I’m actually interested in learning more about it myself, instead of letting the engineers have all the fun. :D

It would be cool to learn some specifics on how vinyl commonly reacts to certain type of dynamics as a medium and that type of stuff, it would likely also help in preparing suitable mixes for it. Who knows, might want to get inside the dark arts of mastering myself, some day.