Doni Music

Mastering and Compression

Mastering and Compression

Mastering and compression is something that is often confused as being much more difficult of a concept than it actually is. There is some theory involved, but it really comes down to critical listening, a technique that can only be ‘mastered’ with a good pair of monitors, a good room (a good recording room) and a very good ear. We already talked about monitors, and a ‘perfect’ room may be something that is impossible for many producers, but if your room is at least sort of square then you are probably in good shape. The trained ear is something that can only get better with practice. With that said, there are still some practices that you can apply to master and compress your tracks much better.

It doesn’t get overly technical either, so don’t sweat it. One important thing to remember is to always try new things. I’m giving you a good starting point, but feel free to run with it and blaze your own trails when you are mastering your productions. Remember, the only thing that matters is the end result, so you can experiment with different ways of approaching that result to generate different effects. It’s always a must to send you mixes to be listened to by many different people of different tastes to listen to your tracks before publishing them. It’s also good to poll people, to get an idea of what sounds weird to people and what sounds good. Often times, what ‘we’ think sounds good, actually doesn’t. Who knew?

EQUALIZATION:
To understand equalization, you need to understand that there are 3 main ‘parts’ of the sound spectrum that you need to be concerned about. These main parts are Bass, Mid-range, and High-end. When you are writing music, it is important that you consider that each sound you place in your mix takes space in your mix. So, if you have too many sounds around the Midrange, for example, then all those sounds will drown each other out. They are taking up space in the mix. The same goes for the other main parts of the mix. Listen to the example below (fig X). In this mix, there is a bass-line and a synthesizer-line. Listen to the first example. In the first example, the synthesizer line doesn’t have any equalization done on it, so there is too much power in the Low end or the Bass frequency. Listen to the next example. In this example, the synthesizer has been EQ’ed and the low end has been reduced. Listen to how much clearer the bass sounds! Remember to keep EQ in mind when composing your music

RECORDING UNDER 0 DB:
Recording under 0 Decibels is very important if you don’t want too much distortion in your mixes. This is true for individual recordings (like a vocal recording) and when the entire mix is concerned. All sounds that go above 0 DB will distort. Sometimes producers will allow a sound to clip above the 0 DB level, but this is an advanced technique and it can be very hard to make a mix normalize properly if you don’t know what you are doing. But knowing what you are doing isn’t that difficult, you just need to practice the next method I am about to tell you.

USING COMPRESSORS BEFORE MIXING DOWN:
If you use the compressor properly on your master output properly, you can tame overly clipped mixes and still get the raw distorted sound you want. Using a compressor isn’t as much science as it is art (it is actually, but we don’t want to confuse you this early on). You want to use your ears and play with the right parameters to make your mix come out clean. Let me use one of the songs from my debut album, “Milagros”, to demonstrate. In this track, I wanted everything to sound very distorted and spacey. I found that I couldn’t get the sound I wanted out of my samples if I kept them below 0 DB. So, I put a compressor on my master output track and played with the levels until the sound was coming through the way I wanted, but under 0 DB. This would mean I could get the sound I wanted, but I wouldn’t wreck any speakers in the process. The compressor let’s us see and effect how high a mix comes above the 0 DB mark. The picture to the left shows a mix well over 0 DB. Note the location of the arrow in the center. Now see that the mix is well within the 0 DB mark. Note the location of the arrow now. We have compressed the mix down below the 0 DB mark. It’s a complex process that we do not need to get too deep into at this point. Just keep these ideas in mind when you are producing.

MASTERING SOLO TRACKS:
Sometimes a drum sample or a vocal just doesn’t pop out of the mix with as much authority as you want it to. There is a great plug-in that I use to add some much needed juice to individual tracks. It’s called the Vintage Warmer by PSP. To be honest ,I’m not even sure how this works, but it basically pumps your tracks up and gives them new life. Doing this, combined with the compressor technique above makes for a seriously tempered mix.

http://www.pspaudioware.com/

MASTERING THE MIXDOWN:
After you have crafted a beautiful mix, you need to temper it to perfect. Many producers use mastering compression tools to make their tracks sound as vibrant as possible while still staying well under the 0 DB mark. This allows the mix to sound better on more speakers on average. Many people make the mistake of bringing their mixes too close to 0 DB because they want a “loud” sounding mix. But the problem is, loudness is controlled by volume, not how much juice you give a mix. If you turn up the volume on a mix that is close to 0 DB, it just sounds noisy. If you turn it up on a well mastered mix, it sounds full and wonderful.

So what kind of software should you use to master your mixes? I went through a few different applications before I stopped upon one that really worked great for me. The application is called Ozone by iZotope. Before I found this application, mastering was a difficult, imprecise game. I just played around until things sounded right. Well, with Ozone, I still find myself playing and tweaking to make it sound perfect, but Ozone has so many different features that you can control to master your mix.

Now, let’s face it, Ozone is not for beginners, not by a long shot. But, when you get to the point where you will be publishing your tracks, it might be a good idea to check out iZotope Ozone.

Check them out at: http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/