Mastering Mayhem

Gareth, thx for your detailed reply, I wish more people would have been as specific as you I’m definitely excited to try some of your suggestions, thanks for being willing to share.

sebastian6 said
I’ve been noticing that my final mp3 isn’t quite as loud as some of yours. I’m normalizing up to -.1db, so it’s not like I’m leaving a lot of headroom.

Hi friend. Really, there’s no need to follow the trend of compressing the sh!t out of your tracks. Louder doesn’t mean better. Please google “Loudness War” articles.

Here is a good post demonstrating a loss of depth due to excessive compression.

And another great post regarding reverb tricks.

fifty_tons said
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
Now I’m no mastering expert, but I thing that’s just wrong.

Hi there, maybe check this one out

simaudio said

fifty_tons said
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war
Now I’m no mastering expert, but I thing that’s just wrong.

Hi there, maybe check this one out

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/sep11/articles/loudness.htm

Hi

The thing is, pushing the volume too much (compression, limiter etc.) will kill sound frequencies, therefore making it sound “different”. While that sound may be great for some songs, it might not work on others.

The bad thing is that engineers who like the over compressed sound can achieve the exact same sound without making the song louder, but those who aren’t big over compression fans don’t really have a choice if they want to keep the volume up to today’s standards.

Also, I do think that over compressing makes a lot of room for compromises. (compromising sound over volume)

That’s just my opinion though

Cheers,

Chris

For me music without dynamic is a pink noise. If volume level swings only between 0 and -3 db it’s not for people with healthy ears. I like room and air in music, but to make things louder use rather mix not mastering. Use eq to divide freq between instruments, use sidechain compression to bring up drums, place instruments in panorama, do not overuse reverbs/delays. Mastering is only polishing not holy grail of engineering. And remember also one thing. Radio stations often use broadcasting processors and if your overcompressed material will be played on air it will turn into crappy noise