In this edition , we will be dealing with mastering a mix with nothing more than few readily available stock plug-ins to get your tracks sounding radio-ready , loud and punchy . To carry out the mastering process efficiently , it is essential to have a great sounding recording that has been mixed very tastefully . The track picks up almost all of its character and feel during the recording and the mixing stages . Therefore , mastering a track that has been poorly recorded or mixed won ' t do it any wonders .
Beginner ' s Guide to home studios : Mastering
MALIK ARSHAQ
In this edition , we will be dealing with mastering a mix with nothing more than few readily available stock plug-ins to get your tracks sounding radio-ready , loud and punchy . To carry out the mastering process efficiently , it is essential to have a great sounding recording that has been mixed very tastefully . The track picks up almost all of its character and feel during the recording and the mixing stages . Therefore , mastering a track that has been poorly recorded or mixed won ' t do it any wonders .
The first step would be to import your mixed out track and a commercially available track , as a reference track , into your DAW . Make sure that your reference track is pretty much the same genre or sound that you ' re going for in your track . It ' s also advisable to mix and record with the same reference track in mind because it will help you get closer to achieving the kind of sound that your favourite bands have managed to pull off . Now , bring down the level of the reference track ( having been mastered already , it ' s going to be a lot louder ) so that it matches your mix in loudness . After having set both the tracks to approximately the same loudness , switch back and forth between your mix and the reference track to try and spot the differences when it comes to tonality . The aim of this comparison is to make your mix sound more like you want it to by tweaking very mildly with an equalizer . For example , your track might not have enough air or you might have to roll off the low end a little or maybe certain frequencies stick out like a sore thumb . Make sure that while you are cutting or boosting certain areas , the difference in gain shouldn ' t be more than 2dB because this process is just done to very subtly fine-tune the overall mix while all the in-depth EQing is done in the mixing phase . After this step , your mix should start sounding more similar to your reference track , in terms of its tone .
The next plug-in that we ' ll be using is a simple compressor . We will be employing a technique called parallel compression which simply means that we will routing our mix signal to another return track with an aggressive compressor on it . This way we ' ll be achieving a balance between our dynamic mix signal and the relatively punchier and more squashed signal from the compressor . Set your compressor ' s ratio to 3:1 and bring the threshold down until you see an average gain reduction of about 5dB . Now adjust the amount of the clean signal being sent to compressor until you have the perfect blend that is punchy and exciting as well as dynamic .
The final step involved in mastering your track is bringing its level up to " commercial loudness ". The " loudness war " has been quite prevalent in the industry : the louder the mix , the more attractive it is . But at the same time , making your track too loud will distort it and destroy the dynamics that you worked hard to achieve while mixing . We will be using a limiter to bring up the level . Set your ceiling on the limiter to around -0.5dB and keep bringing down the threshold until your RMS level reads around -9 or -10dB. Make sure that gain reduction on the limiter isn ' t much more than 1 dB on the heaviest or the loudest part of your song because this ensures that your mix isn ' t too heavily compressed and retains all of its nuances . After following these steps , your mastered mix should sound very similar to your reference track and should sound just as interesting and bang-on , even at lower volumes .
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