Red Mastering Studio
Blog Post
3 Essential Tips to Prepare Audio Mixes for Mastering
- By Red Mastering Studio
- •
- 10 May, 2017
- •
Red Mastering Studio of London is a top-notch organization, which specializes in fabricating quality as well as affordable services of mixing and mastering.
Mastering could be defined as the final stage of audio production, which has dramatically evolved or developed over the past few decades. It is mainly done to improve the structure as well as clarity of the track and prepare it for the ever-changing commercial industry. In the earlier times, ‘music mastering’ was simply a process of conversion.
Evidently, after the advent of digital technology, many steps like compression, equalization, stereo enhancement, noise and clutter reduction, etc. were incorporated so that a recorded mix could achieve the much-needed sparkle and transform into something that could successfully keep its quality across a variety of media formats.
However, before all the musicians out there decide to indulge in this procedure, let me inform them that it is a challenging and time-consuming task to undertake. Most of the veteran artists have admitted that without necessary competence and technical skills, one can never do professional music mastering. Thus, it would be viable to hire experienced and reputed engineers. Apart from having the utmost aptitude, these experts use high-quality equipment and treat the songs in a functional as well as acoustically tuned studio, which guarantees desirable outcomes.
Well, I am sure that a lot of readers out there must have concluded from the above-mentioned description that music mastering is a sort of magic that could convert bad and faulty songs into heart-touching tracks. If you are one of them, let me assure that you are wrong. To achieve the best from this process, you need to prepare your tracks accordingly. Want to know how? Take a look at the below-mentioned points.
Tips to make your Mix Ready for Mastering
- Listen to your mixes as many times as you can. This would allow you detect the minor errors or noises and you would be able to amend or remove them. Always remember to send the file that has the highest resolution as this ensures perfect results.
- According to a reputed artist in London Mastering Studio, a good mix could always be turned loud, but it's very difficult to make a loud mix good. The newbie artists always try to increase the volumes of the tracks and add special effects to them during the mixing phase. But remember, if you are doing so, you are actually ruining your songs. Altering the dimensions or adding the necessary effects is the job of a mastering engineer. So, provide him with enough headroom and let him do his job.
- Do not make a song messy by integrating unnecessary frequency buildups. Also, avoid compressing the tracks. Try keeping the mixes clean and dynamic as that would provide the audio engineer with enough space to sculpt the subtleties of the song and create the best master.
The aforementioned points are some necessary suggestions that every musician needs to keep at the back of their mind while organizing their mixes and get them mastered.
Mastering is a final part of audio production. One of the vital goals of audio mastering is optimizing the track for different formats like CD or vinyl. But recently the mastering process of CD release and digital distribution has become identical. In the both the cases producers required 16 bit .aiff or .wav file to submit. So the final product engineers are making today for the CD release are also usable for the digital distribution.
How can you make the CDs sound too good as you want?
By the process of mastering, you are able to balance each track with the other with respect to level and sound for creating a coherent and satisfying result. Most of the people mainly find the posts that indicate the people who want to get close as they are having the CD mastered by the sound engineer. Though these following tips are general and will give the advantage to anyone who wants their CDs go sound good, the mastering process is applied equally, regardless of the level of the skills.
1. Think Big Always-
Mastering is the process of making the album from a total collection of songs. Now, it is not the time to go into the details like whether the vocals are too high in one track or you can add the guitar part to the another track, will be discussed later. When the mixing is over, go to the next part! Realize about the songs that are related to each other. Check the lines for the songs, so they are having a good flow.
2. EQ and Volume Are Everything-
The equalization, talking about the bass, treble and middle balance of each of the tracks that require being at the right position before anything will start. While choosing the right type of EQ, the level requires being in the right position. But the EQ mainly influences the level that you are choosing. Sounds like too difficult? Yes, it is so. You have to adjust the EQ, repeat the process until you are satisfied. The dynamic compression is the important process.
3. Always Have an Open Mind-
Most of the professional for CD mastering give advice not to worry too much regarding the mastering the process at home. If you are thinking to do it by yourself, keep your mind free from all the misconceptions and ideas that you are having in your mind. Always try to cut the swathes through all the detailed decisions and reasoning. The mastering engineer gives the impartial option about what it is the best.
4. Match the Vocal Levels-
When you are choosing how loud each of the songs is compared with each other. It is simple yet confusing. Follow the rule of thumb for balancing the vocals. If you are not able to get the vocals for each of the tunes to sound, it will be simple as the ballpark, almost everything will be done after that. When you are not having the vocals to listen, you can pick the melodic element.
These are some of the good CD mastering tips that should be followed to get a good sound. Better, you can send the raw files to the professionals to work on it for many years.
By the process of mastering, you are able to balance each track with the other with respect to level and sound for creating a coherent and satisfying result. Most of the people mainly find the posts that indicate the people who want to get close as they are having the CD mastered by the sound engineer. Though these following tips are general and will give the advantage to anyone who wants their CDs go sound good, the mastering process is applied equally, regardless of the level of the skills.
1. Think Big Always-
Mastering is the process of making the album from a total collection of songs. Now, it is not the time to go into the details like whether the vocals are too high in one track or you can add the guitar part to the another track, will be discussed later. When the mixing is over, go to the next part! Realize about the songs that are related to each other. Check the lines for the songs, so they are having a good flow.
2. EQ and Volume Are Everything-
The equalization, talking about the bass, treble and middle balance of each of the tracks that require being at the right position before anything will start. While choosing the right type of EQ, the level requires being in the right position. But the EQ mainly influences the level that you are choosing. Sounds like too difficult? Yes, it is so. You have to adjust the EQ, repeat the process until you are satisfied. The dynamic compression is the important process.
3. Always Have an Open Mind-
Most of the professional for CD mastering give advice not to worry too much regarding the mastering the process at home. If you are thinking to do it by yourself, keep your mind free from all the misconceptions and ideas that you are having in your mind. Always try to cut the swathes through all the detailed decisions and reasoning. The mastering engineer gives the impartial option about what it is the best.
4. Match the Vocal Levels-
When you are choosing how loud each of the songs is compared with each other. It is simple yet confusing. Follow the rule of thumb for balancing the vocals. If you are not able to get the vocals for each of the tunes to sound, it will be simple as the ballpark, almost everything will be done after that. When you are not having the vocals to listen, you can pick the melodic element.
These are some of the good CD mastering tips that should be followed to get a good sound. Better, you can send the raw files to the professionals to work on it for many years.
