Mastering songs

[prez]

Everything being said here is right on the money.One small note also is you probably want to leave some headroom in any case. During recording, keeping levels to -6db/-5db is a good. While mixing, you can raise that to -4db/-3db. This is all dependent on how it sounds. But by leaving headroom, if someone does want to master it, it makes their life that much easier.God bless.

[liamkelly]

Good thread.

[kouly]

I have heard a engineer say that cutting frequencies below 45hz is a good practice becausethere is not much musical stuff going on down there and by cutting those frequencies youtake out a lot of energy that can now be replaced by the more musical frequencies giving you that much more room to work with when it comes time to sum.Any thoughts on this practice?

[andreh]

Quote:I have heard a engineer say that cutting frequencies below 45hz is a good practice becausethere is not much musical stuff going on down there and by cutting those frequencies youtake out a lot of energy that can now be replaced by the more musical frequencies giving you that much more room to work with when it comes time to sum.Any thoughts on this practice? If you've mixed properly, your stereo pre-master will only contain frequencies below 45Hz if they ARE contributing something musical...and plenty of instruments contain meaningful frequencies in this range: bass guitar, kick drum, tuba, contrabass, piano, concert bass drum, etc. A safer high-pass at mastering would be ~30 Hz.In the home studio world, though, many of us don't have speakers or rooms that allow us to hear these sub frequencies, and an overabundance of low frequency content CAN cause problems if it's not addressed before "final" mixes are delivered. A few things you can do to avoid these problems are:1. Use a subwoofer in your monitoring chain to extend the frequency response of your monitoring setup. Room acoustical issues can still interfere with hearing sub frequencies accurately, but you'll be more likely to know if there's anything down there at all.2. Use bass trapping to improve the low-end response in your room. Do a search for "bass traps" on the internet and you'll learn a lot.3. Check low end on good headphones; they don't suffer from room issues, so they paint a more accurate picture of what's happening down low. However, they don't reproduce the super-low low "feel" frequencies too well, so you have learn what to listen for.4. Check your mixes in a listening environment where you can hear low frequencies; most home theater systems have subwoofers that will reveal a lot, even if not all the way down into the 30's.5. High-pass elements of your mix that you know have nothing positive to contribute down low. Many mixers will high-pass things like guitars, vocals, and keys at 150-200Hz. Be careful with this approach, though, or you may rob your mix of needed warmth in the 200-300Hz range.There's no doubt that high-passing your mixdown will allow you to achieve greater levels, but at what cost? Is it worth it to make things super loud at the expense of a full-sounding, dynamic mix? In some cases, maybe so; in others...not a chance. It all depends on what type of music you're delivering and for what format or type of client.HTH,Andre

[matto]

Quote:I have heard a engineer say that cutting frequencies below 45hz is a good practice becausethere is not much musical stuff going on down there.The fundamental of the low E on a regular 4 string bass guitar is around 41Hz.I would consider that "something musical"...well in most cases (insert bass player joke here ).Like Andre said it can be a good idea to use a variable lowpass filter on those individual tracks whose instruments don't contain meaningful low frequencies. But not globally on the mix, unless it's a LOT lower than 45Hz.

[coxnvox]

Do you know what the fundamental for a low B on a 5-string is, Matto?Just curious,kc

[matto]

Quote:Do you know what the fundamental for a low B on a 5-string is, Matto?Just curious,kcA little below 31Hz.

[ernstinen]

Hey Matto,Since you're now the regional manager of Hertz , what is the fundamental of the Wagner Bass Drum in EWQLSO Gold?Ern

[zircon]

As andreh said, it is good practice to roll off MOST tracks, but not all, and certainly not the master. I like to think my mixes are generally good and this is the technique I use to get a full sound w/o sacrificing dynamics.

[matto]

Quote:Hey Matto,Since you're now the regional manager of Hertz , what is the fundamental of the Wagner Bass Drum in EWQLSO Gold?I have no idea, but that thing kick serious butt...