Anderton Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Those of you who are considering mastering at home might find this interesting. http://www.maulbeerbaum.de/?article=121 Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
philbo_Tangent Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Thanks for sharing this. I like the idea of processing some peaks with Q-Fuzz to invisibly add harmonics.. great idea! PHil Phil Tangent Studios http://artists.iuma.com/IUMA/Bands/Tangent2/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dak Lander Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 Nice Craig. I'm demoing Harbal now & so far it does look good. Your use of it just adds to my reaction to it. Thanks. Our Joint "When you come slam bang up against trouble, it never looks half as bad if you face up to it." The Duke... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted March 6, 2004 Author Share Posted March 6, 2004 I think the first part of using HarBal is training your ears to correlate what you're seeing with what you're hearing. The second part is figuring out the right amount of correction. I don't know if I'd say it's an "easy" program to use, but once you get experienced with it, it's "fast" to use. In other words, you may be doing some pretty complex things, but it doesn't take you long to do them. Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kendrix Posted March 6, 2004 Share Posted March 6, 2004 I don't mean to quibble- However, Is it realy correct to say that samples have been "mastered". They may have been EQed to be bright. They may have been compressed a bit - just as some tracks are. However, I thought the term "mastered" would apply only to a full-up mix. We'd never say that an individual track had been "mastered" - I think. Sincerely , the semantics police Check out some tunes here: http://www.garageband.com/artist/KenFava Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Desdinova Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Excellent straight forward tips. I recently had the pleasure of having a well known mastering studio basically return most of the project because it couldn't be improved upon enough for him to take the artists money. The two most important elements of mastering are by far on each side of your head. One additional "trick" if I may, is that if you are doing everything yourself, is to think about the final process, throughout the project. As example an Acoustic guitar that will be more prominent in the mix when done might warrant a punchier microphone where if it's just going to be eventually "in the mix" a more subtle mic might be the choice. This resulting in that much less EQ in the pre-mastering stage. I totally understand (and have dealt with) "Mastered" samples and loops. Very crucial with drums where the "sample" of the snare is eq's and even placed spacially, and in a particular room. It could end up sounding terrible when placed into a kit that was recorded to sound completely different. It is a little bit of symantics, and you are right that mastering is the final step, those loops or samples can be treated as a final step and the result may not be what you want. Desdinova "...I am the one you warned me of." www.BaronAudio.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evets Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 Thanks for freely sharing your expertise, Craig. Practical and timely! (I don't know why it didn't occur to me to mix using the loudness maximizer prior to saving the file...) -Steve ----------------------------------- Sometimes ya gotta find out what it ain't, to find out what it is... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted March 9, 2004 Author Share Posted March 9, 2004 < Is it realy correct to say that samples have been "mastered". They may have been EQed to be bright. They may have been compressed a bit - just as some tracks are. However, I thought the term "mastered" would apply only to a full-up mix.>> Good points, I meant samples in the sense of loops, which often contain multiple instruments, like a mix. I don't really think of, say, guitar multisamples in a sampler as being "mastered." Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the stranger Posted March 9, 2004 Share Posted March 9, 2004 "I truly believe that what makes a good master is not the plug-ins, but the ears of the mastering engineer. The only "trick" I have is to listen really carefully to the EQ. I think EQ is the key to successful mastering, not dynamics control. Once you get the EQ right, it doesn't matter how much or little compression you add to make the music a little "louder," the sound will still be right." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJDM Posted March 10, 2004 Share Posted March 10, 2004 Just got done reading. Cool article. Congrats Craig! DJDM.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kylen Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Craig, in the interview you say this: Right now most of my mastering is done first by optimizing EQ with the HarBal program. After the EQ is right, I use the Waves L1 UltraMaximizer to maximize the level. I used to use multiband compression a lot, but found that with the right EQ and maximization, I can get the same effect but the dynamics sound much better. That's the center piece of my 'mastering' plan right now - getting the EQ right first then just using dynamics processors to adjust any final loudness or in your face sounds I might want... Now that I've had Harbal 1.5 on my desktop and it seems stable I thought I'd start using it again. Any Harbal comments anyone ? Craig has made comments in the past, how bout some other folks Phil ? Anyone else a fan of visual references while EQ'ing ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mats Olsson. Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 I'm sorry I didn't post earlier in this thread. It's a good short interview with surprisingly much information and some really good tips for recording & mixing. Two tumbs up! http://www.lexam.net/peter/carnut/man.gif What do we want? Procrastination! When do we want it? Later! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Botch. Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Thanks Craig, I learned a few things! Botch "Eccentric language often is symptomatic of peculiar thinking" - George Will www.puddlestone.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ITGITC Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Originally posted by Botch.: Thanks Craig, I learned a few things! Yeah.. me too. Like: Leave the mastering to the Pros! Yeah - I'm half-kidding. An interesting point from that interview is how often Craig says - use EQ and not a lot of plug-ins. And... the (plug ins and stuff) more you use, the more it degrades the sound. In many instances, simple definitely is better. Thanks Craig! Tom "Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent." - Victor Hugo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FULLREFUSAL Posted July 12, 2004 Share Posted July 12, 2004 Originally posted by Anderton: I think the first part of using HarBal is training your ears to correlate what you're seeing with what you're hearing. The second part is figuring out the right amount of correction. I don't know if I'd say it's an "easy" program to use, but once you get experienced with it, it's "fast" to use. In other words, you may be doing some pretty complex things, but it doesn't take you long to do them.Craig, I used Har-Bar to master my latest album and I can say, it helped immensely. Very cool tool. Overall, I like the way it came out, but there is a bit too much high end, so i just turn it down a little and it's cool. You should check it out if you get a sec. It's all available for streaming on my site. I will attest to how cool HarBar is though! One of the most usefull tools I have purchased in quite a while! www.seanmormelo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
halljams Posted July 13, 2004 Share Posted July 13, 2004 Kendrix you are hilarious. Craig that was an enjoyable interveiw to read. It is nice to hear cats like yourself talk about how you do things and your enthusiasm is like oxegen. Thanks. I pulled out "Home Recording For Musicians", the other night. That's a great book. You have helped a lot of people get started. When do we get another CA single btw? Check out SUPERVIBE Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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