EQ Magazine - January 2008 - (Page 36)

Fig. 1: Har-Bal is a mastering program designed specifically for equalization. The spectrum display identifies possible problem areas, making it easy to do corrections if you can distinguish between unwanted peaks/dips, and the ones that are part of the music. Fig. 2: iZotope’s Ozone 3 is a suite of mastering tools that works as a plug-in under Windows. ■ Consider a short transitional piece. I once mastered a CD where everything held together perfectly except for one pair of songs. They didn’t really match thematically, and putting the songs elsewhere upset the balance of the other songs that did work together. The solution: a 30-second transitional piece, mostly a drone with no tempo, that crossfaded with the end of one song and the beginning of the next. ■ Don’t necessarily normalize all the tracks to the same peak level. Normalization can work if all the songs have the same basic average and peak levels, but that’s not always the case. I generally normalize all tracks to the same level as a diagnostic tool, then listen to the complete CD. If some songs stand out as objectionably louder, I’ll bring them down in level. If all the songs seem okay, but one or two seem overly soft, rather than bring down all the louder songs, I’ll add a little dynamics control to the softer ones so they have a higher apparent level. ■ Ignore all the previous tips. The point of assembling an album is to take listeners on a journey that holds them rapt with attention. Although the above tips have worked for me, assembly is not a science. Maybe you do want two songs in the same key in a row. Don’t be afraid to cut test CDs with different orders, analyze them, and keep tweaking. name of more accurate calculations, and they may have long look-ahead buffers, making them unsuitable for automation and generalpurpose track EQ applications. For an all-in-one Windows solution, iZotope’s Ozone (Figure 2) is a great suite of mastering-related plug-ins, but you may prefer to go à la carte so you can pick and choose particular processors. Of these, Waves plug-ins get the biggest buzz for audio quality, but there are plenty of other excellent contenders from Sonnox, Universal Audio, PSP WaveArts, Sony, Cakewalk, etc. , ■ Noise reduction. This includes getting rid of hiss, clicks, and the like (Figure 3). Careful, though—noise reduction can affect the file and create artifacts. But it’s usually not a problem to get rid of subtle amounts of hiss, such as the residual effect of using lots of mic pres. ■ The occasional special sauce. I’m reluctant to use stereo wideners, harmonic enhancers, and similar plugs, but, sometimes, they can help bring sparkle to a less-than-optimallymixed song. ■ A loudness maximizer. This is a type of limiter, but use it, don’t abuse it, to trim up just a few of the peaks that prevent getting a higher average level. And if you follow the “Loudness Without Overcompression” technique described later, you won’t need much maximization at all. MASTERING STRATEGIES MASTERING TOOLS Mastering tools used to be pretty specific, but now people are even using host programs like Samplitude and Sonar to do their mastering. I’m more old school, and use the following: ■ Digital audio editor for working on individual cuts. Common Windows programs are Adobe Audition, Sony Sound Forge, Steinberg Wavelab, and Magix Sequoia. BIAS Peak is the standard editor on the Mac. ■ DAW for assembling the different cuts to check out song order, do crossfades, etc. For this, I use a multitrack host. It’s easy to just drag the cuts around on different tracks, burn a CD, and live with the song order for a while to hear if it works or not. ■ Har-Bal EQ program. This clever stand-alone program (Figure 1) is great for fixing EQ issues because it excels at identifying rogue peaks (such as peaks caused by room acoustics, microphone response anomalies, etc.). ■ EQ and multiband dynamics masteringquality plug-ins. Mastering quality plug-ins aren’t afraid to devour CPU cycles in the Being a great mix engineer doesn’t necessarily make you great at mastering—the skill set is different. While both activities are subject to Newton’s Third law (“Every action has an equal and opposite reaction”), with mixing, all the elements that need balancing are isolated. For example, if the kick drum fights with the bass, you can work on the sound of one or the other to fix the problem. In mastering, nothing is isolated, and everything interlocks. Let’s discuss some strategies for mastering individual tunes. ■ Listen to the song all the way through— several times. Don’t touch a control—just listen. Take notes. Understand what the artist wanted to communicate. I feel the purpose of mastering is not to impress a “sound” on the artist, but to bring out the best of what’s already there. ■ Fix technical problems, such as clicks or hiss. This is also your last chance to edit the guitarist’s overdulgent 32-bar solo into a svelte, four-measure statement. ■ Fix EQ problems. You’ll likely run into two types of EQ problems: specific (such as Fig. 3: Adobe Audition comes with a wealth of noise-reduction tools: click/pop elimination, clip restoration, noise reduction (shown), and hiss reduction. listening. I prefer an album that develops over time—which may involve starting off slow and easy. But that’s taking a chance in today’s hyperactive world. ■ Crossfades can be effective. Fading out one song while fading in another can ease the transition from one song to the next. 36 EQ JANUARY 2008 www.eqmag.com http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - January 2008

EQ Magazine - January 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Robbers On High Street Rafter RTX Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings Toolbox Rahim Dimmu Borgir Wu-Tang Clan Special Feature! Mastering for Musicians Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drumheads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Cakewalk Sonar 7 IK Multimedia Virtual Instruments Yamaha MSP7 Shure KSM137/SL K+H O 300 & O 800 Sonica Livetracker Apple Logic Studio Novation XioSynth 25, Audio-Technica ATH-M50, Samson G-Track

EQ Magazine - January 2008

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