Hello,
I am a veteran Linux user (Opensuse/Tumbleweed) since around '08.
I also am very familiar with music, sound design and music production (back to the old days). I am new to Renoise (since 2022) and digital music production.
I am making a solo gig of digital-to-digital avant-garde electronic-noise music on a zero-budget as a side-project.
Any useful tips mastering in Renoise/Linux would be very helpful. Would this be easier on Mac? A comparable project would be someone like hrastprogrammer.com
I am sure this is possible but am uncertain what tools are available to “check my work.” Meaning, I am mixing/mastering myself and don’t know how to baseline myself…meaning doing/fixing something with the correct intended result. The intended result being a consistent sound in Laptop/Stereo/Phone/Car.
Any guidance would be appreciated.
When I listen to other tracks, my mixing/mastering testing levels all seem relatively low. I know how to fix this but am assuming the other track EQ levels are insanely high.
You have everything you need inside of Renoise already to both mix and master. So if your Linux build can run Renoise, you’re off to the races.
No need for fancy plugins. They won’t make or break your mix/master.
The problem is more outside of the box. What does your room sound like, is it treated? What are its flaws? I 'm talking about frequency bumps/holes. Followed by the accuracy of your monitors. And are those a good fit for the room you are in?
But above all else it is how developed are your ears? I’m not talking about your hearing range. Though that has something to do with it as well, of course. But can you hear the problems? It takes skill & practice. And honestly, not everyone can.
But before you get to mastering your stuff, you need to get your mix right. Which is more a matter of arrangement than anything else. Anyway, see this excellent thread for advice on mixing.
No. Other than until it sounds good / the way you want it.
Seriously, that is all there is to it. If your sound needs a 20dB boots to sound good, it needs a 20dB boost.
Now 20dB is a lot! and there may be serious other problems. But in general, just massage things until they sound good. Don’t pay attention to the numbers. Listen to how it sounds / how it feels. That’s it.
So you know how to mix? You’re familiar with filters, compressors, limiters and so on?
Definitely not.
What are you doing in your master track? Are there any limiters, maximizers or clippers? That’s what you need in case you want to increase the overall volume. Just put the native Renoise maximizer in your master track and boost the volume as much as you desire (provided you’ve got a proper mix - mono mixing helps a lot to achieve that goal), but don’t overdo it. It also helps to activate “Auto Gain” while mixing to avoid distortion.
In the master track, there are filters. I am maxing out the individual track volume and bringing up the EQ…though not very high (0>5DB).
The main problem I am finding is the experience of the sound is not consistent from platforms of car/phone/headphones, etc. With other more professionally mastered tracks, this is not the case though it is not the same genre of music.
I meant easier on Mac due to availability of software, etc.
I neither know your music nor the way you’re mixing, but I assume it’s because you’re not using a limiter, maximizer or clipper in your master track and therefore there are a lot of peaks holding back the overall volume. Get rid of the peaks and you’ll get a more consistent volume. I would recommend to compress every single track slightly (to avoid peaks as much as possible) and to limit or maximize the signal in your master track. If you boost the volume before threshold you’ll gain more loudness, but the more you boost the more you lose dynamics. So it depends on your goals how intense you should do it. And if you mix in mono before you’re about to master, you’d ensure as much as possible that your music will be also well balanced through laptop speakers, kitchen radios, car speakers, headphones or whatever, regardless if it’s a mono or stereo system. My “2 cents”…
I don’t know if Mac or Linux is better for music production and software availability. Both are not best for that matter. But if you just want to achieve a more consistent loudness of your music, you won’t need anything else than Renoise.
Ok, I am still searching for Linux software to aid me in doing this. I have found a Loudness plugin for Renoise. I need it to be more technical because, on my production machine in Renoise it sounds fine but on other platforms, I am encountering the loudness problem. Perhaps, I am not pushing the EQ enough on the master track.
@garf has it. A/B referencing. Find a track, or tracks in a comparable style to your own. Bring them into the project you’re working on, use the spectrum analyzer to analyze the reference tracks vs your own. This should prove very instructive and assist in mixing and mastering decisions.
As @TNT said, compression, clipping (distortion in razor mode acts like a clipper) and limiting (the maximizer is a limiter) throughout your signal chain can get you as loud as you need, but it’s a balancing act and can certainly be overdone to the point where your signal degrades.
I’m not a Linux user currently so I don’t know if any free loudness meters for Linux, but I imagine something exists. Check out the airwindows plugins for some great free utility and fx plugs that integrate seamlessly with renoise gui and can help with mixing and mastering
If you have competing content in the time and frequency domains, this will also limit the volume you are able to achieve. Composition and arrangement makes a big difference here. Aim to minimize overlap in time and frequency of various elements within the music
You can compare your music to pink noise. Music is basically a form of structured pink noise and the frequency distribution of pink noise is more or less ideal for humans. Otherwise, reference tracks. Renoise has a great spectrogram. I use it religiously
Ok, but I am still searching to reach a solution via software. Back to the platform angle, I know there are Windows and Mac programs outside of Renoise that can help me accomplish this…
It doesn’t, only on Mac or Windows. But maybe @pictureposted can check if there’s an alternative for Linux. Anyway, I don’t think the result will be satisfying if the song won’t be mixed properly before with all the work in terms of filters, compression and limiting. There’s no “magic button” in any program…
Thanks, gentlemen, for your comments but as I stated, I am looking for a method to test so I can generate consistent results across platforms. The only method I can think of is software.
The track is mixed and I don’t know what properly means technically because as I’m sure everyone could agree, there are many ways to accomplish a task.
