Mastering/equipment (found.dig.med). Flashcards
Purpose of mic preamplifier
To boost a mic signal to a bigger signal without changing the sound or colouring it. Makes it louder.
Wearing headphones when recording
If you record with a mic, you must use headphones unless the mic is in a separate room.
This prevents feedback/capturing the sound of the track in the recording.
Handling mics when recording
Don’t hold condenser mics when recording. This causes handling noise. Think about quality of sound.
What is Mastering?
The final process of an audio recording is doing mastering.
Meaning = the process of taking a stereo mix and preparing it for distribution. Making it ready to be played elsewhere.
Some of what we do is adjusting the level. It might be putting in metadata. This is part of the mastering process.
Mastering shouldn’t be expected to completely reinvent the sound of your recording. Mastering is not mixing. If things are out of wack, go back and re-mix it. You have a stereo file, and you’re trying to do things that you otherwise don’t do when mixing.
Try to make it more listenable and easier to use in different formats.
Mixing vs. mastering
In the mixing stage, you’re blending tracks, panning left and right, adjusting individual instruments, compressing the voice. These are things in mixing.
But in mastering, we take a step back. We get the finished stereo file. We can’t easily pan individual instruments, or compress them. The song has been squished down to stereo, so we have a piece of music without the individual tracks.
Don’t do mixing and mastering in one step – that is, trying to master while simultaneously mixing a multitrack project. When mastering you primarily focus on the overall sound of the mix and improving that, instead of thinking “I wonder how the synth would sound with a different patch?”
Get the mix you want, mix down to a stereo file, then master as a separate last step.
What is remastering?
REMASTERING= Taking the original mixed file and enhancing it for a new context.
Is the track going to be released on radio, CD, Spotify, or played in a studio? Each of these can be mastered differently.
So, how do we match how the recording is with where it’s going to be played? - Getting something that crosses over all those different end uses is hard, because they’re all mixed quite differently.
Approaches to mastering
There are 3 ways to approach mastering:
MS. FIX-IT: This is someone who can recognise a problem with a recording. Too much bass, too little treble, etc. This person will work to rebalance things so they work better. (an EQ can be used to do things like this).
MR. MAKE-IT-BETTER: The one who knows how to add that extra pinch of spice, whether it be sparkle or fullness or depth. Giving it stereo space. Fixing it, but going beyond the original sound.
MS. NUTS-AND-BOLTS: Makes sure everything is perfectly right, and that every master has no technical flaws. Uses the least amount of processing to get the best possible result.
These 3 concepts are channeled within ourselves when mastering.
Multi-band compressor
Allows you to break up frequencies into different bands and adjust the volumes so that they’re not affecting all the other ones.
This allows you to compress elements of a song more separately.
Compressors, limiters, and expanders
COMPRESSORS, LIMITERS, AND EXPANDERS - are used to adjust the dynamics of a mix.
For adjusting the dynamics of specific frequencies or instruments (such as controlling bass or de-Essing vocals) a multiband dynamic processor might be required.
A single band compressor simply applies any changes to the entire range of frequencies in the mix.
Equalisers
Are used to shape the tonal balance.
Stereo imaging
Can adjust the perceived width and image of the sound field.
An exciter
Brightens the sound
Low end focus
Enhances the low end and tightens it up
Imager
Allows you to see the stereo image.
If we’re looking at stereo image, we can use imager to help us see the sound in different ways.
It can show a vector scope, which is used to measure the difference between channels of stereo audio signals.
For example, the graphs can show you where the sound is positioned, and how much stereo spread it has.
If you see that the sound is very monophonic and doesn’t have much stereo spread, you could add something like the spectral shaper to widen the sound.
Through this, try to improve the stereo image of the sound.
Dynamic EQ
Traditional EQ uses frequency bands with fixed gain values.
However, in dynamic EQ plugins, the game value changes depending on the input signal’s intensity.
It works the same way as a compressor or expander.
Essentially, you start by setting a threshold (dB value).
Dynamic EQ allows you to say “hey, if the signal within this filter’s bandwidth gets too loud or quiet, adjust the filter gain like so”.
It’s useful in controlling specific frequencies in your mix that are too loud, with a degree of precision not possible with a static EQ.
