If your mixdown is decent, the mastering process will be much easier and less painful.
All I use on my mastering chain is a Linear Phase EQ, Multipressor and Limiter to boost loudness without sacrificing too much of the dynamics.
Have a read through this:
http://www.tarekith.com/assets/mastering.html
perhaps you're best of using a sample editor for mastering, Audacity, wavelab, sound forge, etc. ideally something that can host VSTs rather than offline processing, so you can hear what you're doing to the tune at any time.
then again, i remember that the M class suite in reason is pretty decent too, so perhaps you can apply any knowledge you get from the videos to your working methods.
...the M class suite in reason is pretty decent too, so perhaps you can apply any knowledge you get from the videos to your working methods.
If your mixdown is decent, the mastering process will be much easier and less painful.
All I use on my mastering chain is a Linear Phase EQ, Multipressor and Limiter to boost loudness without sacrificing too much of the dynamics.
Have a read through this:
http://www.tarekith.com/assets/mastering.html
I guess my main headache is getting my overall levels and EQ shit right. At the moment I'm referencing Hazard's 'Taktix', the Bad Company album 'Inside The Machine' and last years' DJ Hype Drum & Bass Arena. I suppose it depends on how you want your stuff to sound, but I would have thought by now there'd be some sort of universal standard in DnB.
2nd that dj pancake
This definitely. And if you start with your first level (say, the kick) at -3 or -6 db, then bring the others up like this, you should end up with enough headroom at the mastering stage to boost the overall level.Getting levels right isn't overly hard as long as your bringing everything up in order of dominance in the mix. For dnb, drums first, kicks and snares. Then perc, then next up, bass, then leads, etc.
i know these are merely guidelines,but id say start with the kick at -10. theres no point flirting with the red line. Having a quieter mix wont affect your balances, and you can easily just bosst everything at the mastering stage. but if its clipping, and you need to start turning things down, then thats gonna mess all your balances, and you might as well start the mix again from the beginning.
i know these are merely guidelines,but id say start with the kick at -10. theres no point flirting with the red line. Having a quieter mix wont affect your balances, and you can easily just bosst everything at the mastering stage. but if its clipping, and you need to start turning things down, then thats gonna mess all your balances, and you might as well start the mix again from the beginning.
keeping things quiet is the single best mixing tip i've ever had.
I don't think that's the most sound advice. One should not simply, "squash" the mix at the end of the mixdown simply to compensate for making the mix too quiet in the first place.
The general rule of thumb in regard to staying under 0 is always solid advice... but the Golden Rule is to get as close to 0 without clipping with ZERO compression/limiting... 'then'... when it comes time to Master, one only has to do a soft Limit and the mix will smack.
Otherwise, your track will come out sounding squashed and limited all to hell like 70% of the "dance music" around.