One For Staffy Options

[Saoirse O'Shea]

Thought you might want to hear what your on-going Route 66 recording might start to sound like as a mastered track Staffy. Note this isn't a full master - not least as I'm working of your tracking mp3 rather than the mixed wav and have returned this as a compressed mp3.

 1staffy_Route66_PreSonus_Master_Mix.mp3 ( 6.63MB ) Number of downloads: 326


Also I don't have a reference track as to what you want the final to actually emulate so I've just imposed my own idea - sort of Dianne Reeves meets Abby Lincoln. (OK maybe not .)

It's only the first couple of minutes - I had to cut the file in half as the whole file is a bit on the big side at nearly 14 Mb.

If you have any questions as to what I've done to it fire away. If you want I can expand this in to a Mastering Log. (YEs sad ME person that I am I keep a log .)

For those who haven't heard Staffy's original file see this thread

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[Saoirse O'Shea]

What follows is not quite the mastering log we use (and I've excluded our internal stuff like pricing etc). Our log is pretty much short hand settings and looks a bit like this:

EQ - LP Son All @27Hz 12 dB 8 v, Mid only 220 _1.1 0.3, 1200 2.0 3.2
MP Flux L only 110 -1 0.2, 550 -1.1 2.2.

That's so that we can replicate what we've done should we have to at some point in the future. As such it may not mean much to anyone else and wouldn't necessarily translate well to other equipment anyway. I've added additional comments explanations as well in parentheses as well.


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Client: In house sonoris LP test {partly done as we were messing with the Sonoris LP eq's mid/side capabilities that day).

Track: 'Route 66- Staffy'

Original: MP3 Required final format: MP3 [for upload to GMC]
Track length: 5:56 approx 6mb MP3. Reformat and upsample.
[We don't master mp3 files, only uncompressed 24 bit. As this was an MP3 I have to first both reformat it to a Wave and change it from 16 to 24 bit. I change it to 24 bit as our mastering sequencer runs internally at 24 bit which gives me a much better noise floor than 16. I then upsample from 44.1 to 96k. I use 96k for a master as it provides more upper end clarity and shifts the Nyquist up beyond audible.]

Reformat- RB8 Pro, soft clipping in [as I'm reformatting a compressed mp3 I want to watch any over shoots, limiting etc. Staffy's levels are generally ok but there are a couple of transients that over. They aren't a problem though as they are fast transients. I'm going to take the RMS down at gain stage on the EQ. Soft clipping here is mainly for those transients.]

Upsample - internal DAW to 96 [I'm doing this all 'in the box/ITB' else I would upsample on the Lavry AD/DA, also shift from 16 to 24 and gain stage on the Ibis at the same time. I generally don't go above 96 as it I don't think the quality improvement is worth the additional processing cost. Upsampling, shifting to 24 bit and format changes here will all have to be dealt with at the end when I re-convert to 16/44.1/mp3.]

Monitors and meters to K14 [I don't use peak meters for mastering. I use the K system and usually set out at k14 for rock/jazz. Monitors are pink noise calibrated on the K system. This means that I can accurately set, maintain and repeat spl, volume etc for mastering. This is important both wrt the Fletcher Munson effect and also so that I am much less likely to clip on transients.]

Normally a client would supply me with a reference track - a piece of music that they like the sound of that they want their recording to be like. As I didn't have one I've just shot for what I wanted - which may or may not be at all what Staffy wants! ME's usually allow for 1 or 2 re-masters to account for this sort of subjectivity - i.e. You give me 'Highway to Hell' as a reference track and I produce a master, you say I want more volume/bass/whatever and I'll do that for free. You then say 'great I want less X' and I do that for free. You then say, 'well it now sounds like ACDC but I wanted Nirvava' and I say 'Fine but it will now cost you. You've used up your 3 lives.'

Import into sequencer. No errors from sequencer. Save EDL point 1.

1st audio play - impression - nice live jazz track of 'Route 66'. Quite a bit of low end and sub not a lot of upper end air. Some instrument handling noise. Audience noise at intro and outro - very little in the song. Sudden cut to digital black at end.

2nd audio play [for timings etc] - 0-0:26 intro, talk over, vocal/guitar, background audience.
:26-1:52- band. Some essing. Quite a bit of sub.
1:52-2:34 - bass. As per, handling noise [handling noise here isn't really an issue as it can be taken as part of the bass players style]
2:34-3.38 - vocal scat
3:38-4.42 - guitar. Note 4.33-4.40 - body resonance bass or guitar?
4:42-5:54 outro. Note: 5:05-5:12 noticible sss'ing plus 'ps' and 'ts' - de-ess if possible. Outro long enough so all instuments fade ok. [De'essing isn't that easy at mastering - I'm kind of hoping that I can get at the vocal separate to the bass and guitar here to do this. Outro is fine, everything decays to ambient naturally rather than being truncated.]
5:54-5:56 - sudden sharp fade to digital black. [at the end of a single track like Staffy's this isn't an issue and just marks a cut off point. If this was an album/ep I'd ask Staffy to insert room ambient level rather than fade to black at the start and end of tracks. Digital black within a recording however can cause issues as it can confuse compressors wrt threshold - in this sort of case I'd have to edit out the digital black and replace with ambient.]

Son lp eq master buss [insert a sonoris linear phase eq on the main stereo]. Play back monitor main L, R [monitor audio on the main, the left and the right channel in isolation. I'm checking both the mono and stereo mix AND also if I can get the vocals isolated a bit from the guitar and bass so I can be a bit more surgical for any de-essing'.] Voc on main [great I can].

Stereo- pass out the sub bass at 35Hz, take it down 12dB per octave all channels [I'm looking to see if I can reduce the sub bass and so open up the mix a bit.] LP Shelf +3Db 8k [starting to think about de'essing this so setting up to side chain a compressor. Female vocals tend to ess most between 6.8-8.2 kHz. I'm using a LP eq here as I want to make it quite surgical. Note that this is only on the mid channel - won't have much affect on bass and guitar which are mainly side]. LP low pass at 12k 12dB. All ms. Gainstage change to attenuate @-2dB [taking the RMS level down now to give me some head room and reduce chance of clipping later].

Save EDL point 2. [EDL- edit decision list. This lets me recall the sequencer and any suitable plug-in, including their settings, to this state. I can also edit the EDL off line.]

Playthrough 1- see previous comments. [Note I'm AB'ing what I've done against the original - no point in making a change if it doesn't actually improve on the original.]

correct LP hpf to 27, 12dB, mid. Baxandall LP high shelf at 7k mid, to add air using Algorythmix Red LP EQ. Wide MP q on 1.4 gain of @ 1 dB mid channel. Bass on right channel - MP eq to reduce resonance at 5ooHz wide q. [Baxandall curve (sort of a soft rising z shape starting at 7kHz here and peaking at about 22k with a final gain of 1dB) as I'm trying to add some high end as the mix sounds to be mainly bass and mid range and I'm also going to lose some high end with de'essing later. I've also now inserted a minimal phase eq - in this case a Flux EPure - for wide q work.

Save EDL point 3.

Playthrough 2 - better to me. Previous shelf at 35 was taking out too much sub bass. Opening it up had made the handling noise more apparent hence the minimal phase eq cut at 500 on R. Reducing the bass has left more room for the vocals but it's also made the essing a bit more prominent so will have to de-ess.


Third - mid channel - side chain LP cut narrow q 6dB at 4.4 K and 7.2 to side chain comp for essing.
Two Side chains at 4.4 andl 7.2kHz v. narrow q to comp take EQ gain up to +6. Comp to take out most essing and plosives. [again I'm doing this all on the mid channel where most of the vocal sits. I've swept the eq a bit and decided most of the essing is at 7.2 and I've increased the eq gain here on a very narrow q. This should make the 'esses' etc really jump out for the compressor and let it clamp down on them. I'm using the comp to gain reduce rather than eliminate as personally I think over de'essing at mastering can make the vocals sound un-real and artificial. This is also why I'm doing it on the mid rather than the entire mix - this way there will still be some sibilance on the side spill. Compressor here is a mastering grade wide band comp. I don't tend to use a multiband/split-band as I tend to think they cause phase issues, create artifacts and can end up sounding un-natural.]

Add compression and upward compression after eq [some very minimal compression here ratio of 1:1.2, threshold -27, medium attack and medium release. Incoming at 0.2 final gain at -0.3. I'm just really trying to add back a little bit of oomph and transient movement to the bass without sitting on it too much (poor bass player probably hates me as most of my taking away has been at his expense) plus a bit of upward to de-compress the entire mix a little. ]

EDL point 4.

Playthrough 3 - generally better to me - bass ok and no longer dominating, vocals clearer and less congested. Current level @-14dB needs to come up a bit. No obvious clipping at present.

Gain stage to keep peak level at or below -.5 (to allow for mp3 conversion) - crest ok at 12dB [I did the gain stage here manually just by listening for overshoots rather than watching the meters]; peaking at @-0.8 with no clipping. Limiting - not required [not everything needs to be brickwalled limited for maximum loudness. IMHO limiting this track would do it more harm than good]. Downsample to 44k dither to 16 re-render and format change to mp3 320 bit rate. MP3 checked on Reaper 64 bit.

Total time - approx 55 mins.

What I haven't done which I would normally do on a full master -

No actual editing of the waveform; no fades; not as many playthroughs; no redbook; no spectrum or spectrogram check; didn't spend much time fine tuning the eq and used my first hunch as to which to use when and where; very little time on gain staging; no error checking; biggest omission - no discussion with Staffy as to what he wanted/would like . (Sorry)

T

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