Hi all,
I've always been interested in the concept of mastering recordings for the purpose of playing on car systems, home audio, etc. I get to the point where I EQ all of my recordings, put on any digital effects, etc., but they always seem "narrow" to me when I play them in the car or at home. I
assume this is because they need to be mastered, but I don't really understand what the process does, let alone what's involved in actually mastering a recording.
Here's my set up:
I record directly to a Korg D3200 Digital Multitracker.
I then do all the EQing, compression, effects on the board and burn to CD.
- I burn using the highest possible format and it ends up at high-quality
WMA files once the CD is "ripped" by my computer.
I load the WMAs into Cool Edit Pro 2.1 to trim the intro and ending
I then save at the highest possible quality settings as MP3s
There is a function on Cool Edit that supposedly does mastering, but it's more of a Pan/Expand kind of thing. Sometimes it sounds good, sometimes it doesn't.
Does anyone know a tried-and-true method of mastering at home?
Re: Mastering
By: Digital Man to Nathan Pendleton on Fri Jul 04 2008 01:03 am
I haven't, actually! The only reason I'm going between WMA and MP3 is because MP3 works better with more formats. I can upload it online, put it on an mp3 player, etc. I suppose I could make two separate copies (the raw data is initially in WAV format) one for the internet and one for distribution on CD, but I much more prefer to use MP3s. I always used constant bitrate ... is there a real difference between that and variable?
I'll definitely check out wavelab. I might see if they've got a demo I can look at or something. Is the mastering function you're talking about built into wavelab or is it a plugin or addon of some type? Thanks again!
Re: Re: Mastering
By: Trash80 to Nathan Pendleton on Fri Jul 04 2008 09:28 am
What I do is just straight recording to the multitracker, then I mix it
down to just basic stereo L and R from there. Even when I do full panning, like two guitars playing the same thing but one 100% left and the other
100% right, it doesn't sound as "wide" as some of the commercial recordings I've heard. Could be psychological, but it really brings out the amateur qualities recording quality-wise, at least to me.
I have a friend who used to record to digital and then he transfers it to a reel-to-reel tape machine for mastering. I have no idea what that accomplishes, but in the end, his mixes sound a lot more powerful and
closer to a commercially printed CD than mine.
Could it just be that I'm expecting too much?
There is something about recording to MP3 format that just diminishes
the sound. Record to wave, or to the CD directly if possible and
Sysop: | MCMLXXIX |
---|---|
Location: | Prospect, CT |
Users: | 325 |
Nodes: | 10 (0 / 10) |
Uptime: | 130:42:40 |
Calls: | 501 |
Calls today: | 2 |
Messages: | 218425 |