Mastering for submissions

[elser]

How much mastering do you typically do for your submissions? I have all the tools and know how to to send them a brick wall if I want to. But is that necessarily better? Do you think loudness influences the screeners? I would hope normalization would do the trick and leave all the natural dynamics as recorded.

[Russell Landwehr]

I think some styles and genres need some "loudness" mastering. And others would sound totally wrong with it. It really comes down to the ear. The best bet, in my opinion, is to a/b with the a'las... The screeners will be doing that.

[TheElement]

I master to like -4 rms.

Just some eq, compression, saturation, stereo enhancement and a limiter is all thats needed. Dont like too much compression. just a little. leave some dynamics.

[ochaim]

russell's right about checking your mix/master against the reference tracks.

although the screeners may not use it as their screening criteria, if it gets forwarded there's no telling how it will be evaluted by the listing party. best bet is to get it as close to a la's as possible.

[nolosolo]

I have the same question. I do know that different mastering is needed for EDM compared to classical but am pretty lost outside of that. I have read lots of posts on limiting vs normalization vs compression etc.

And what is "a las"?

I'm doing a piano solo track (digital direct) and would really like some tips to make it as realistic as possible. The mixed piano samples are real raw and boring so I added:

reverb - med. room

shifted a copy .02 sec to add some needed harmonic depth with separation

bumped the bass and treble

and limited the peaks some

Sounds better now but my problem always seems that after converting to 192 kbps MP3 and then again on Taxi down to 128 kbps, I'm back where I started with a flat, midrange, near mono track (that will inevitably get rejected do to poor production)

Is there a "magic formula" maybe to pre-push things that may not work with the master wave file but WILL work once reduced to 128kbps mp3? Or am I just totally missing something else? Thanks all!

[hummingbird]

I have the same question. I do know that different mastering is needed for EDM compared to classical but am pretty lost outside of that. I have read lots of posts on limiting vs normalization vs compression etc.

And what is "a las"?

I'm doing a piano solo track (digital direct) and would really like some tips to make it as realistic as possible. The mixed piano samples are real raw and boring so I added:

reverb - med. room

shifted a copy .02 sec to add some needed harmonic depth with separation

bumped the bass and treble

and limited the peaks some

Sounds better now but my problem always seems that after converting to 192 kbps MP3 and then again on Taxi down to 128 kbps, I'm back where I started with a flat, midrange, near mono track (that will inevitably get rejected do to poor production)

Is there a "magic formula" maybe to pre-push things that may not work with the master wave file but WILL work once reduced to 128kbps mp3? Or am I just totally missing something else? Thanks all!

hey could you post this up on peer to peer - and let us know what VIs you're using?

[nolosolo]

Hi Vikki, here you go:

http://forums.taxi.com/topic133029.html

[Len911]

And what is "a las"? Sounds better now but my problem always seems that after converting to 192 kbps MP3 and then again on Taxi down to 128 kbps

ala's= Examples given in the listings, usually with the names of particular artists and songs.

Use 320kbps.

[nolosolo]

Thanks Len!

Even at that resolution to start with, by the time it's being reviewed, won't it still get degraded as bad as if from a 16 bit wave file?

[Russell Landwehr]

I believe the screeners listen to the exact file you upload. The "re-encode" is strictly for the TAXI page play engine.