Daniel Sokolovskiy’s Blog: posts tagged Mixing and mastering

Check the low end

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 18:39:50 +0100

How can I improve my mix and make the kick and bass sound clean?

Daniel

Quite often upcoming producers send me their tracks for feedback and ask how to improve a mix. Today, I’d like to share a simple, yet one of the most effective tips for improving a mixdown that beginners seem to forget about — check the low end.

You see, when certain frequencies overlap each other, they might create some phasing issues or a muddy mix especially in the kick-bass area.

What is sound
Phase cancellation explained

The problem is many samples that you most likely use in the production has a lot of unnecessary frequencies in the lower end. For example, let’s take a listen to a typical TR-909-like hi-hat:

Hi-hat loop

Sounds like a mid to high-frequency range hat, right? Well, take a look at its spectrum:

Picture 1. Hi-hat spectrum

There’s a lot of low-end frequencies too! And the same applies to snare drums, ride cymbals, noise sweeps, and many other sounds that appear to be a mid to high, but in fact, include a lot a lower end as well.

The solution is simple.

First, make sure to actually check the spectrum of a sample you use. Second, if there is anything unwanted — cut it with a high-pass filter. Like this:

Picture 2. Hi-hat EQed

Hi-hat EQed

You can certainly cut below 200 Hz in most cases

You can certainly cut below 200 Hz in most cases and sometimes even below 500 Hz. You probably won’t even notice this audibly, but it does make a huge difference for the kick and bass mixdown.

It’s safe to say that I use EQ on pretty much every channel (or a group of channels) in my projects and I would recommend doing this too.

Mixing and mastering when dealing with record labels

Wed, 20 Jul 2016 08:24:05 +0100

When you send a finished track to a label, would you mix and master yourself, or would they prefer to have all the individual tracks and mix it themselves? And do most labels have an in-house mastering engineer who would master the track?

From the previous question of Hamish Strachan

Great questions as I see many producers get confused with it.

Basically, mixing was a part of the post-production process as originally it comes from acoustic music where they use a process called multitrack recording — each instrument is recorded separately and then consolidated in a “mix”. But electronic music is different — you are a composer, sound designer, producer, and half-engineer all at one person. It’s both art and science.

In electronic music, mixing is considered as a part of the production process, which means that when you saying “I’ve finished a new track”, it supposed to be mixed already. This is your duty along with making a great track in the first place. That’s why labels expect to receive demo with a proper mixdown as a single audio file.

Mastering is a different story. Usually, record labels accept non-mastered tracks and offer “in-house” engineer’s service, but it can be kinda tricky. That “in-house” engineer doesn’t necessarily have to be a staff member, most likely it’s a 3rd-party specialist, just someone they trust.

Some producers think that getting mastering done on a label saves their money. In reality, it’s not really true. Usually, all contracts are written in a complex language that only lawyers can understand, and somewhere between all those rubbish, it says that all production costs will be deducted from the income.

Speaking about the contracts, see this: “Label re-released a track without my consent. Is it okay?”

Let’s say, you’ve got a $100 of pure revenue from the sales. Most record labels deals imply 50:50 share, so both you and the label get $50 each. But if you have mastering done by the label, audio engineer’s fee will be deducted from that revenue. Same applies to a custom-made artwork and other expenses.

Best practices

To summarize, I advise the following:

Make a proper mixdown by yourself, it comes with experience and trained ears.
If you want to make mastering on a label, make sure to send them a single audio file, rendered in uncompressed WAV or AIFF formats, 44.1 kHz, and 24 bit.
Ask label to tell more about their in-house engineer: what’s his name and where you can listen to examples of his work. Usually, credible labels work with the best engineers, so this is not a problem, but not every smaller label can afford it simply because not every release generates enough income to cover the expenses. As a result, smaller labels either do their own mastering (usually by a label owner himself) or hire low-cost external engineers — and most likely, in both cases the result is mediocre.
If you dealing with a smaller label, find a mastering engineer to make mastering for you. Here is the list of some trustworthy names to get started. This way is not much more expensive than doing mastering on a label but gives you more control over the result.

Having mastering plugins on a bus while writing and mixing

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 08:31:14 +0100

A couple of questions about mixing and mastering. I have read advice that you should have a mastering plugin, e. g. iZotope Ozone, on your master bus while writing and mixing so that you are hearing a more finished sound. Would you suggest this, or do you prefer to mix first on a clean bus, then master?

Also, if and when you send a finished track to a label, would you mix and master yourself, or would they prefer to have all the individual tracks and mix it themselves? And do most labels have an in-house mastering engineer who would master the track?

Hamish Strachan

Hamish, I don’t know who advised putting mastering plugins on a master channel while writing music, and although I’m not saying it’s wrong, I would not suggest doing this.

Order matters

Every track has its production cycle, and each stage has a specific purpose:

Stage	Purpose
Composing	To get some basic ideas to work with: melodies, vocal, etc
Sound design	To make each individual part sounds great
Arrangement	To tell a story on a 2-dimensional timeline
Mixing	To make all separate parts sounds great as a whole in a 3-dimensional space
Mastering	To make a master copy for a further distribution

It is important to understand that each next step is not designed to fix the issues caused by a previous step. For example, if the lead is too loud, you have to go back and change the mixdown accordingly rather than trying to fix it while mastering. Or if the kick is too dull, you have to change the sound in the source rather than trying to fix it on mixing or on a mastering stage. That’s why music production goes in this direction, not in reversed order.

“The Biggest Home Studio Lie We Tell Ourselves”, Graham Cochrane

But what the point of adding mastering plugins while your track is only half-finished? In order to make a quality mastering, you have to have a quality mixdown in the first place, not vice versa.

I’m not alone in such thinking, and I’d like to put these quote here from two credible engineers:

“Limiting the main output bus during mixdown is a whole different kettle of fish because the main purpose of full-mix limiting is simply to boost the subjective loudness within the digital headroom. As such it’s usually much faster-acting, and the goal is usually to make as little difference to the mix balance as possible. Furthermore, setting up a limiter for the best results is usually a delicate process, where small shifts of the input level and plug-in controls can make big differences to the sound. So on the basis that mastering limiting shouldn’t normally affect mix balance, and that it adds to the already considerable complication of creating a decent mix, I usually recommend that this process be left until after mixdown.”

“Why shouldn’t I use mastering limiting during mixing?”. Mike Senior, Sound On Sound Magazine

“The best thing you can do if you are mastering your own material, is to consider mastering as a separate process and give it the attention it deserves, at the proper time. When mixing you should only care about mixing. You really shouldn’t worry much about how loud the final mix will be. [...] Then when you’ve got a great mix going, you can bounce it down to a stereo file and park it for mastering.”

“Should You Master While You Mix?”. Graham Cochrane, The Recording Revolution Blog

Music producer ≠ mastering engineer

I would also like to clarify one thing: not every music producer is a good mastering engineer, and not every engineer is a music producer at all. Basically, these two are very distinctive roles that require a different set of skills and equipment.

Of course, you can learn how to do it yourself, but is this what you want? Next, are you going to master graphic design to make your own cover artworks? You surely can, but does this agrees with your goals as a music producer?

I have a simple principle: don’t do shit. I have a digital reflex camera, but I won’t take pictures of myself for a press kit. I have some skills in graphics, but I won’t design a logo for myself. Same applies for mastering, and many other fields. Just because the fact that I have a camera, graphic skills and mastering plugins doesn’t make me a great photographer, designer, or engineer. Let professionals do this job, those who dedicated their lives to doing these things great.

Professionals

As for your second question, it deserves separate advice which I’ll go over next time.

Speaking of professionals: ‘Daniel Lesden’ logo is designed by Nebojša Nađj, press photos are shot by Anatoly Shostak, and the website is made at Mirai Art Studio. I’m happy that I’ve been worked with these people, and proud of the results. Be sure to check out the list of recommended audio engineers, too.