Mastering help

[Jimmydeez]

So I got back my records first masters.

They sound great to me but I have no idea what to listen for at this stage in the game. If any of you guys who know about mastering could help out it would be greatly appreciated.

It definitely sounds better then the mixes but I want to make sure I am not missing anything here. I posted WAV versions of the songs on soundcloud. You can hear them here:

http://soundcloud.com/jimdesanto/sets/soldier-on


Thanks in advance to anyone who helps out. I just don't know what to tell the mastering engineer at this point.

[paulscape]

Listen to it on as many different systems as you can - in the car, on your ipod, on a quality home stereo, out of a tiny crap portable CD player. Does it still sound great in all those places? One of the important things about mastering is ensuring it plays evenly and sounds its best no matter where it is being played.

[Jazzydave]

Listen to it on as many different systems as you can - in the car, on your ipod, on a quality home stereo, out of a tiny crap portable CD player. Does it still sound great in all those places? One of the important things about mastering is ensuring it plays evenly and sounds its best no matter where it is being played.

There you have it...

[Jimmydeez]

Thanks guys! I have played in the car, my home theater system, then I bumped them down to MP3 and listened to them. They all sound pretty good.

[RockManDan]

im not mastering engineer but if done a fair amount of recording and mixing (and remixing..i can never let a project die) and i think they sound pretty good. some thoughts that i would consider listening for and maybe passing on to the ME.

Pros:
-good consistent volume levels among the tracks. it sounds like most of the compression was added on a track/bus basic and not on the whole mix, which is good. while the mixes are hot there is still a little room to squeeze out a couple more DB if desired, but you probably wont need it. The mixes are also fairly consistent in terms of one isnt significantly boomier or brighter than any other, which is good. HOwever, there is nice variation in terms of space and use of reverb. The vocals are the throughline that stay the same sonically throughout the songs, and the other instruments change from track to track.

cons:
the first thing i notice, and it may just be the system im listening on, is that the overall spectrum is just a hair dark. If i were mastering this i might bring up a touch of real high end, like maybe 10k. Not too much, just enough to help the acoustic and percussion pop out a little bit more and also to define the consonants in the vocals. Also, some tracks are just slightly boomy in the lowmids/upperlows. This isn't anyone's fault. Actually its good to leave that stuff in there at the mix stage sometimes and let the ME worry about making it all sit right. ON some tracks it helps the drums and bass sound big and fat, but in others it has the efffect of making the acoustic a little muddy. Some judicious use of eq and maybe a little band-specific compression could solve this exactly. Its the type of sound that may sound great on some systems, but on others it might woof out a smaller boombox.

Overall, though it sounds great. Your mixing engineer did a great job maintaining consistency. I like how the vocals are not burying the rest of the instruments. Too many people panic that the lyrics will get drowned out and the vocals are pushed way too hot. these tracks have a good balance that i think reflects a fun live show where the vocals are just sitting with the band well. 90% of mixing is arrangements, and i think your arrangements are good and help all the instruments to all fit with one another. Outside of a few eq tweaks here and there, I think its pretty much ready to go.

hope this helps. One final piece of advice - dont be afraid to be done. You'll probably start obsessing over small things that you think will make or break the track, but most people probably wont notice. trust the judgement of the professionals you hire, and let the music stand on its own. if you can let it go, you'll be more inclined to get excited about playing these songs. whereas if you micromanage and overproduce, by the time you get to playing these songs live, you'll be sick of them.

Good Luck -Dan

[Jimmydeez]

Dan - thanks so much. That really helped alot. The only thing I have noticed is that track 6 seems to be the loudest and I was thinking that two other more intense song would be louder.