Jump to content
IGNORED

Mastering: Rooms, Stereo, Layering


Guest nbven

Recommended Posts

Guest nbven

Hey, MusicMakers!

 

Let's share in this thread some awesome plugins, techniques and tricks in the field of mastering that you guys found by experience, listening or reading.

 

Most interesting parts for me is the drum kick room (bassy drum kick is my current struggle :/), sound layering and stereo (separation Left-Center-Right, reverberation), sound/volume balancing, sound equalisation and richness, and ofc loudness.

 

Let me start with some of the cool stuff I found useful.

 

Sound richness:

I've been recording guitars for a long time, some of the guitar recording techniques I transferred to synth recording, like double tracking, it really makes sound reacher and adds more vibe, especially if you play around with eq and modulations and make it slightly different on one and the other track. It also helps to add some real sound to the virtual synths.

 

About layering, rooms and stereo I'd like to learn more from you guys, but I mostly do typical stuff like kick - center, second layered kick could be a bit off, snare a bit out of center, bass depends on the composition. It's actually very sensitive part of mastering, since it can be very dependant on the composition, but it would be nice to share special tricks, techniques and cool things you tried. For example, I really like this part in Clark's tunes, when he makes snares left and right with no center and modulates it over time with different EFX. Maybe you guys noticed something more detailed and cool, come on give us a share :)

What plugins you prefer for this stuff, I did hear a lot about Waves Center, thinking about trying it out. Anyone tried?

Currently I am using native plug-in in logic pro X for this, I find it good (maybe because did not try anything else)

 

EQ and loudness are the beasts. I think this is very vast topic to discuss. The best advice I've been given is to use layering and completely cut frequencies that are not required or not used by the instruments + not to overlay. The biggest problem I am experiencing is when one instrument overlaying another and it partially disappears from the track. Usually LFP and HFP are helpful for me to completely isolate sound frequencies. I'd say it can be combination of everything. EQ really helps a lot to put an accent for particular instrument and double tracking.

Loudness, unfortunately, is not a friend of mine, usually just playing around with compressors and limiters. All of those plugins are logic pro x native.

 

Sound/volume balancing is also interesting part. I have only one pair of studio monitors but what I usually do is I am trying to lister my tunes on every media I have: monitors, car speakers, 2 pair of headphones, button headphones, laptop speakers, TV. After listening I make notes and try to understand where sound has to be balanced/fixed, where do I have too much of HF or LF, or where I cannot even hear the instrument properly. Or sometimes I am just lazy and skip all of this parts :D

 

That was everything that came to ming just now, but I'd be glad to hear your tricks, tips and experienced suggestions!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.