Fanu talking in depth about mixing and mastering, essential reading!
http://fanumusic.com/about-mastering/
http://fanumusic.com/about-mastering/
Fanu Talks Mastering
- Thread starter Howitzer
- Start date
saganspirit
Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2014
Interesting but he doesn't really mention dynamics much apart from squashing etc. I guess that's what his clients request so he has to deliver what they want.
cross-over
New Member
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- Jul 18, 2015
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- Cardiff, UK
Thanks for the article but I was wondering I have some finished tracks in Logic Pro X and the only way I can currently get them to not clip when recording leaves them sounding very quiet. Is the solution to quieten the parts that clip until I can get the whole track at a more similar level so I can increase the overall volume?
fanu
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2011
If the dynamics side of things is bad, I usually tell that to the producer and ask him to consider improving it before I start mastering it.
I like being nice; e.g., if I hear that the beats are too quiet or the snare isn't cutting thru, I don't go for mastering it first and then telling them "Yeah you should mix it again, then send to me, and I'll charge you extra for mastering it again" (which does happen in this game)...I always tell them to improve the mix first.
saganspirit
Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2014
Fairplay to you Fanu for doing that (a lot wouldn't).
I think we're fast approaching the day when there are 2 Masters - one for club play (being heavily compressed/limited etc) and one for streaming (particularly Spotify and Youtube which have been Loudness Normalised) with more dynamics.
What do you think?
I think we're fast approaching the day when there are 2 Masters - one for club play (being heavily compressed/limited etc) and one for streaming (particularly Spotify and Youtube which have been Loudness Normalised) with more dynamics.
What do you think?
fanu
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2011
It makes sense. However, I've seen bass music getting a little bit less loud recently, which is great. I don't think people are trying to go THAT loud anymore in general. I say if we dropped the general level just by 5 dB or so (which is a lot in a way), it'd all be way more pleasant to the ear (and we could also fit a lot more sub in there, just like old jungle used to have).
saganspirit
Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2014
Absolutely spot on man about having more sub. Even though Noisia are (rightly) held up as being great engineers, I think they pushed it too far. They're not the only ones. Too many tracks have had that ridiculously loud top end and then just low mids (without an actual decent sub end) to get the loudness. It's good that things are starting to change though - albeit slowly.
fanu
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2011
Yeah man. Man has a tendency to take what he learns to the extreme, every time, just to see how far he can push things, but even though the results are pretty maximal, they're not necessarily better, and loudness is definitely one of things that impressed producers to a great extent and made many crave for it, but they also failed to see that loud does not equal good, so the sound quality got sacrificed in the process. It's like extreme bodybuilding: ppl see how far they can take it because they're obsessed with it.
I'm not into naming names, but take any contemporary song that's been pushed to the max, play it on a PA, and then play some old jungle after that (don't do level-matching by watching the meters because the old stuff isn't as squashed – do it by ear), and you'll realize how much fatter and nicer the old shit sounds. If you leave the muscle-flexing aside and only judge by ear, older stuff wins in many respects.
Sure, if you play some über-loud Nöisiä tracks first, then play some older shit and don't touch the gain, the older stuff sounds weaker because it's quieter, but if you bring it up....boom.
I'm not into naming names, but take any contemporary song that's been pushed to the max, play it on a PA, and then play some old jungle after that (don't do level-matching by watching the meters because the old stuff isn't as squashed – do it by ear), and you'll realize how much fatter and nicer the old shit sounds. If you leave the muscle-flexing aside and only judge by ear, older stuff wins in many respects.
Sure, if you play some über-loud Nöisiä tracks first, then play some older shit and don't touch the gain, the older stuff sounds weaker because it's quieter, but if you bring it up....boom.
