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Written and compiled by Music Tech Magazines mastering experts

Mastering The in-depth guide for the creative m

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MasteringThe in-depth guide for the creative musician

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Mastering with Liquid MixChoose from 60 ClassiC modern and Vintage ProCessors to refine your mixes

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: FOCUSRITE, the FF logo, LIQUID TECHNOLOGY, LIQUID MIX CONTROL, LIQUID MIX and the LIQUID MIX 16 logo are trademarks of Focusrite Audio Engineering Ltd. DYNAMIC CONVOLUTION is a trademark of Sintefex Audio Lda. All other product names, trademarks, or trade names are the names of their respective owners, which are in no way associated, connected nor affiliated with Focusrite or its LIQUID MIX products and which have not endorsed Focusrites LIQUID MIX products. These other product names, trademarks, and trade names are used solely to identify and describe the third party products the sonic behaviour of which was studied for the LIQUID MIX products, and to accurately describe the functionality of the Liquid Mix products. The Liquid Mix products are an independently engineered technology which utilises the patented process of Dynamic Convolution to actually measure examples of the sonic impact of original analogue products upon an audio stream, so as to electronically emulate the performance of the original product studied. The result of this process is subjective and may not be perceived by a user as producing the same effects as the original products studied.

Liquid Mix has become a standard fixture in countless studios. Its convolution-based emulations of pro-audios finest EQs and compressors means that its not only a must-have for mixing, but a hugely powerful mastering tool.

Liquid Mix includes:

Emulations of classic mastering processors.

Tactile control - Allows you to switch off your monitor and let your ears do the work.

Internal sidechain EQ - Additional control of your compression response.

Sample rates of up to 96khz (Liquid Mix 16) and 192khz (Liquid Mix).

Build your own 7 band mastering EQ by combining emulations from up to 7 different classic EQs.

Total recall of all settings replicates the switches that replaced dials on mastering versions of classic hardware.

Welcome

Welcome W elcome to the fth in the MusicTech Focus series titles that examine in great detail a speci c aspect of music-making, recording and editing. Those of you whove picked up previous editions will know that until now weve taken a look at the capabilities and features of speci c software digital audio workstations: namely, Abletons Live, Reason from Propellerhead, Logic from Apple and Steinbergs Cubase. This edition, however, is something special

MusicTech Focus: Mastering addresses what many consider to be the dark art of the music production process. Mastering is the nal aspect tracks are recorded, edited, mixed and then mastered for release on CD, as an mp3 le or in any other of todays many available media formats. A well-mastered track will really shine sonically, lifting it way above the sound achieved by tunes that lack the sparkle only a mastering engineer with well-honed skills can add. Trouble is, not many people know how to go about it.

In this issue of MusicTech Focus, you can demystify the whole mastering process by reading through the collection of features and Workshops, interviews and additional information to equip yourself with a raft of new tools with

which to master your music. Written by some of the best audio engineers and producers in the business, it offers a real insight into how to take your music to commercial quality and make it anything but ordinary. I hope you enjoy it.

In the meantime, do let us know what you think of the issue (my email address is below) and look out for the next in the series: our MusicTech Focus on Pro Tools will be available on 2 April 2009.Paul Pettengale Editorial Director

A well-mastered track will shine sonically. Trouble is, not many people know how to go about it.

www.musictechmag.co.ukAnthem Publishing Ltd Suite 6, Piccadilly HouseLondon Road, Bath BA1 6PLTel +44 (0) 1225 489984Fax +44 (0) 1225 489980 [email protected]

Editorial Director Paul [email protected] Deputy Editor Lewis [email protected] Editor Kai [email protected] Editor Alex [email protected] Editor Matt [email protected]

Contributors Hollin Jones, Mo Volans, Mike Hillier, Mark Cousins, Jon Margulies, Brian Smithers, Grant Bridgeman

Art Director Jenny [email protected] Director Simon [email protected] Director Jon [email protected]

Subscriptions to Music Tech MagazineTel +44 (0) 870 444 8468Email [email protected] (12 issues) 71.88UK basic annual rateSee pages 68, 95 and 100 for more subscription and back issue details.

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All content copyright Anthem Publishing Ltd 2009, all rights reserved. While we make every effort to ensure that the factual content of MusicTech Focus is correct we cannot take any responsibility nor be held accountable for any factual errors printed. Please make every effort to check quoted prices and product speci cations with manufacturers prior to purchase. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or resold without the prior consent of Anthem Publishing Ltd. Music Tech Focus recognises all copyrights contained within this issue. Where possible we acknowledge the copyright holder.

Focus

CONT

ENTS

MUSIC TECH FOCUS MASTERING

132 PAGES OF PURE MASTERING!

13 Mastering Workshops, including

30CompressionDont harm the dynamics

64ReasonPropellerhead perfection

96Pro ToolsA high-end helping hand

78SonarPolishing your tracks

52EQExemplary equalization

20Logic &

WaveBurnerKey mastering

methods

126Secret ToolsThe stealthy way to de ne your own unique sound34

CubaseSparkling Steinberg

VU

ON YOUR

Turn to pa

ge 130 to

nd

out whats

on this iss

ues

MusicTech

Focus DVD

.

4 Mastering MusicTech Focus www.musictechmag.co.uk

Contents Mastering Focus

006 An introduction to Mastering Explaining the fundamentals

014 Mastering basicsTenets and theory of the process

020 Studio WorkshopMastering in Logic & WaveBurner

024 Studio Workshop Mastering with Ableton Live

028 Ten Minute Master Linear phase EQ

030 Studio Workshop Mastering compression

034 Studio WorkshopMastering in Cubase

038 Ten Minute Master mp3 compression

040 Studio Workshop Mastering limiting

044 Studio Technique Mastering with hardware

050 Ten Minute Master Metering

052 Studio WorkshopMastering EQ

056 Interview Metropolis Studios

060 Hardware Roundup Guide to choosing monitors

064 Studio Workshop Mastering with Reason

068 SUBSCRIBE! Save money and get your issues delivered direct to your door

070 Studio Technique Mastering loudness

078 Studio Workshop Mastering Cakewalk Sonar

082 Ten Minute Master Parallel compression

084 Software RoundupPlug-ins for mastering

090 Studio Workshop Mastering with middle and side

094 MUSICTECH MAGAZINE Your unmissable monthly dose of news, reviews and tutorials

096 Studio Workshop Mastering with Pro Tools

100 BACK ISSUESPrevious editions still available

102 Interview The Exchange

104 Studio Technique 50 mastering tips and tricks

110 Studio Workshop Audio restoration

114 Ten Minute Master The importance of dither

116 Studio Workshop Mastering IK T-RackS 3

120 Studio Workshop Mastering with Bias Peak

124 Ten Minute MasterFile formats

126 Studio WorkshopSecret tools of mastering

130 On your DVDVideo tutorials, tools, software, project les and more!

Full listings

132 PAGES OF PURE MASTERING!

Interviews

6 Ten Minute Masters including

56MetropolisA history of mastering for world-famous artists & bands

FeatureMastering Loudness: how to match commercial levels 70

102The ExchangeMastering with

hot new acts

Mastering basics: explaining the processes 14Feature

Reviews

38mp3 CompressionSound good at low bit rates

50MeteringLend me your ears...

Interviews

Reviews

Interviews

60Monitor RoundupOutput devices of distinction

84Software RoundupMastering plug-ins

MusicTech Focus Mastering 5 www.musictechmag.co.uk

From the days of cutting vinyl to modern digital downloads, mastering has always been an essential part of the production process. Mark Cousins charts its history.

A guide tomastering

BIOGRAPHY Mark Cousins is a

composer of production music for BMGZomba. His work has been used on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.

T here are few parts of the audio production process that are steeped in as many misconceptions as mastering. Some believe that mastering is a mix-saving glue, capable of repairing any number of faults embedded in the mix as well as delivering the polish and loudness that you seem to hear only on commercial CDs. Others, though, will tell you that mastering is incapable of such miracle cures, being, in fact, far closer to the mechanical task of duplicating CDs than the creative pursuits of writing, recording and mixing music.

In truth, the role of mastering lies somewhere between these extremes. Like all parts of the production process, mastering has witnessed fundamental changes over the last 25 years, both in respect to the rise of digital technology and the growing number of musicians and project studio owners adopting the techniques of mastering in their work ow. Understanding the route that mastering has taken over the years, therefore, is vital to unlocking its relevance to todays music-making.

Pressing issuesThe traditional model of a mastering engineers role was formed back in the days when records were cut to vinyl. As youd expect, there are fundamental differences

between cutting vinyl and compiling and processing a collection of audio les to make a CD. Firstly and most importantly a disc-cutting lathe (used to create the master disc from which copies are pressed) is a highly sensitive and expensive piece of kit. Investing in one, therefore, was a serious business, and few would risk letting the tea boy loose on such important equipment.

By contrast to the relative simple job of transferring zeros and ones to a digital CD, theres a real art to pressing music to vinyl. Despite what some hi- buffs

might tell you about the pleasure of listening to vinyl, it is, without doubt, a somewhat awed medium, full of various restrictions as to what can and cant be reliably transferred to it. For example, the practice of placing bass in the centre of a mix stems largely from vinyls inability to handle a heavily one-sided image. Equally, the

like all parts of the production process, mastering has witnessed changes over the years.

6 Mastering MusicTech Focus www.musictechmag.co.uk

IntroductionMastering past and present

A guide tomastering


Monitoring tipsWhile you can produce a mix using half-decent speakers, its almost impossible to achieve satisfactory mastering results with a cheap set of nearfields. Ultimately, the importance of effective monitoring is illustrated by the role of critical listening as part of the mastering process: identifying every detail in the recording as well as having the ability to hear, for example, even the smallest amounts of compression or a minute EQ boost of 0.5dB.

dynamic response of vinyl is much more variable than that of CD: a recording might need some compression to lift it above the poor noise floor, while at the other end the dynamic spectrum, the loudest signal a lathe can tolerate is nowhere near as exact as the 0dBFS standard of CD.

Its easy to see why the process of cutting to vinyl was a very specialised task, leaving few people willing to attempt DIY mastering. Professional mastering engineers refined their art, cutting louder records yet retaining (if not enhancing) the definition and detail present in the original mixes. As a result, they were kept busy by the constant stream of clients eager to utilise their skills and knowledge.

The equipment required to deliver the final production master to a CD pressing plant remained highly specialised and expensive until fairly recent times. Whats more, stringent quality control standards meant that masters had to be delivered to exacting technical specifications. Until the early 1990s, the principal format for delivery was Sonys PCM-1630 system, which stored the digitized

audio on U-matic videotape along with a burst of so-called PQ data (denoting CD track numbers, start times and so on) at the beginning of the tape.

parts of the processAlthough it was arguably less crucial to process a mix being pressed to CD, engineers would still spend time compressing, EQing and levelling masters for their target audience (a process that technically should be referred to as pre-mastering). It might have been the case that several different engineers had worked on the album in different studios, resulting in noticeable differences in the tone of the final mixes. By using a variety of different signal processors and approaches for each track, the mastering engineer could produce a homogenous listening experience and, crucially, a CD that sounded great wherever you played it.

The mastering engineer was therefore the perfect gate-keeper of the music industry, with a precise understanding of what a release-quality CD should sound like as well as being capable of ensuring that the mix translated well to any number of different environments. This is perfectly illustrated by the problems of ensuring that a mix is as radio-friendly as possible. An FM transmission will be highly processed through expensive multi-band Orban processors, both as a means of ensuring that the transmission is carried effectively, as well as giving the stations sound its own identity (this usually meant that is was louder than the competition). However, the

mastering engineers refined their art, cutting louder records yet retaining definition.

controversy The loudness warsis dynamic range really that important? turnmeup.org certainly thinks so

From the earliest days of pressing music to vinyl, the listening public as well as experienced engineers knew that louder records sound more alluring and exciting to the ear. In the days of disc-cutting lathes, though, the maximum level that could be cut to disc wasnt as absolute as that for CD (fixed at 0dBFS), leading many engineers to invent a variety of processing and cutting tricks to press vinyl as hot as possible. When the CD format arrived in the 1980s, the emphasis almost reverted to preserving the dynamic range of the source recordings, with the majority of commercial releases receiving only the lightest touch of compression to pull the mix into shape.

Thanks to a combination of marketing pressure and the general ignorance of musicians, producers and listeners alike, this sensibility was again lost by the early 1990s. As a result, many mastering engineers were forced into using techniques such as brickwall limiting to increase the average level of the music on a CD and, therefore, its perceived loudness. Of

course, as the actual maximum level of a CD is fixed at 0dBFS, this loudness boost is purely a trick of the mind; as hard as you push any master, all tracks have a theoretical limit as to how much level they can achieve. But despite this, the so-called loudness war got under way, with masters being increasingly pushed closer to distortion (perhaps best exemplified by Metallicas recent Death Magnetic album).

While all recordings can benefit from a degree of loudness enhancement, over-compression and limiting have negative side effects. Despite the immediate impact of a loud master, the results become increasingly fatiguing over ten minutes or more of listening, resulting in the listener turning down the listening level and negating the extra level applied to the master. Dynamic range forms an important part of the energy, life and enjoyability of music, from the contrast between the introduction and the first chorus of Nirvanas Smells Like Teen Spirit (a CD that escaped the first battle in the loudness war) to the slow, emotional crescendo through U2s With Or Without You.

Many of 2008s most popular CDs verge on distortion, yet there is a growing movement towards masters that have more dynamic range, especially as listeners begin to realise that music produced in this way is far more enjoyable to listen to.

What a difference a decade makes! Compare the relative amount

of compression and limiting applied to an original 1989 CD release

and a relatively conservative re-mastering from the late 1990s.

Modern mastering has

moved closer to creating a

wall of distortion. in this

illustration you can see

how much the limiter has

flatlined the louder parts of

the track. Below is the

actual transient distortion

that this creates.

8 Mastering Musictech Focus www.musictechmag.co.uk

introductionMastering past and present

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Plenty of I/O 2 mic/guitar inputswith preamps, 6 TRS analog ins, 10TRS analog outs, S/PDIF & phones fora total of 10 inputs and 14 outputs.

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CueMix FX software Advancedgraphic control for on-board mixingand effects with tabbed design andprecision peak/RMS metering.

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Musictrack Limited 2 The Granary Buildings Millow Bedfordshire SG18 8RH Tel : 01767 313447www.musictrack.co.uk

Monitoring tips Mastering facilities tend to invest a great deal on their listening environment, often opting for expensive three-way midfield or farfield monitors. given their distance from the engineer, its vital that the room is treated so that its as neutral as possible, with bass traps employed to catch problematic standing waves and various forms of acoustic treatment fitted to refract or absorb reflections. Computers will also be located in a dedicated machine room, preventing unwanted fan noise from masking quieter elements of a mix.

TECHNIQUE Special deliveryAppropriately formatting and presenting your master for duplication

There are several ways in which your finished production master can be presented for duplication, but certain techniques are more appropriate than others depending on the quantity you need. For small runs using one of the duplication companies often advertised in the Classified pages

of MTM, perhaps its often acceptable to duplicate the CDs from a suitable master that you have burned onto CD-R. If you choose this route, youll need to ensure that your CD authoring software will burn to Red Book standards, as this will ensure that the finished CD will be playable on all domestic CD players. As part of the Red Book standard, your authoring software will write the appropriate IDs, durations and marker

points for each of the tracks (known as the PQ encoding) as well as the all-important ISRC and UPC/EAN codes that are vitally important for tracking the copyright of your material if its a commercial release.

When it comes to burning your production master, follow a few simple guidelines. Use high-quality branded media and try to perform the burn at the slowest speed (ideally 1x) your writer will support, burning the complete CD in a single pass (often known as Disc at Once mode).

Even if its a good burn, most large-scale pressing plants wont accept CD-Rs for large-scale commercial music CD replication. If youre serious about mastering on a commercial level, you need to look to using a delivery format such as DDP (Disc Description Protocol). The DDP file can be a burned DVD (containing the raw audio data and PQ description) or, better still, delivered to the plant via FTP. The catch, however, lies in finding software that will export to DDP standards, which in most cases means using a dedicated mastering DAW such as Prism Sounds SADiE or buying a DDP export add-on for existing Red Book applications such as Bias Peak Pro.

Whichever delivery format you choose, though, its important to ensure that both the case and DVD-R/CD-R are labelled appropriately particularly, to denote the fact that it is a production master. Ideally, you also need to include client and artist information, as well as the nature of the files stored on it (Red Book, DDP and so on). It might also be beneficial to include a printout of the PQ list with any comments or other information you feel appropriate.

For large-scale CD replication, you may need to consider delivering

your final master in the form of a DDp image. this is the most

reliable way of delivering data and helps to ensure that errors are

kept to an absolute minimum.

if youre authoring a CD-r for a short run, make sure that

your software is fully red Book-compliant. popular choices

include steinbergs WaveLab and Bias peak pro.

heavy-handed Orban processor made it vital that a mastering engineer understood how a track was handled, optimising it to limit the damage caused by the processing.

The final cut?A significant revolution in mastering came as a result of two technical developments: the rise of affordable CD writers and the introduction of TC Electronics Finalizer. Prior to these developments, mastering was exclusively a specialist activity due to the cost of the equipment involved, but after them, any musician could put together a Red Book-standard audio CD with little more investment than a few thousand pounds. The Finalizer was significant because it offered many of the tools previously found only in mastering studios (namely, multi-band compression and brickwall limiting) in a 1U package, enabling many users to start experimenting with the sound of pre-mastering.

Equipping a greater number of musicians with the tools required for mastering has undoubtedly been an empowering development, radically changing the way music is produced, distributed and listened to. Put simply, the routes to market have become far more diverse, no longer restricted to physical CDs or the radio, but also via downloads, streaming from social networking sites, digital TV and radio and so on. As a result theres now far more music being produced and listened to, making it somewhat

unfeasible for it all to be exposed to a mastering engineers scrutiny and signal-processing tools. While this has led to a drop in quality to some extent, it ultimately enables a greater number of musicians to compete and produce professional-sounding music for relatively little outlay.

plug-in powerOf course, since the release of the Finalizer weve also seen an increasing number of plug-ins designed as mastering solutions. Although professional mastering engineers still enthuse about the positive attributes of mastering through analogue signal processors, it has become possible to replicate many of the sounds of these expensive processors (variable-mu compressors or particularly transparent and musical equalizers) using software alone. Equally, there are plenty of contemporary mastering tools (the ubiquitous brickwall limiter and linear-phase EQs, for example) that have come about as a result of developments in digital processing and the tangible benefits theyve brought.

Possibly as a result of the plethora of software-based mastering signal processors, though, some musicians arguably lost sight of some of the important functional aspects of mastering in preference for an obsession with signal processing at the pre-mastering stage. Rightly or wrongly, therefore, the misconception is that the real skills of mastering revolve around how to apply a multi-band

Musictech Focus Mastering 11 www.musictechmag.co.uk


www.musictechmag.co.uk

Monitoring tips Large nearfield monitors will give an accurate and detailed sound rather than one that is flattering. You might need to augment these with a subwoofer to be clear on any information that sits below 80Hz in your final master. simple acoustic treatment systems will also help to tame unnecessary colouration, often making a significant difference to the sound you hear from the monitors. get to know the sound of your monitors and how commercial music behaves when played through them. its often essential to listen at a fixed monitoring gain, as your perspective will change (especially with respect to the amount of bass) depending on how loud you have your monitors turned up. For you to remain objective, this might involve working at a lower level than you expect to, but it will also mean that you can work for longer periods of time without making mistakes.

TECHNIQUE Bits and piecesKey techniques and approaches to mastering in the digital domain

Of all aspects of music production, mastering is probably most concerned with the issues of handling music in the digital domain, from the use of high-grade audiophile converters to working at high-resolution sample rates and bit depths.

Arguably, a large part of this interest in a digital signals integrity revolves around trying to preserve the nuances of the original recording while preparing it for production. For example, although 16-bit resolution is adequate for most recording activities (tracking, for example), its important to handle the final master at a minimum of 24-bit resolution to prevent losing or overtly quantizing discrete details in the mix. Likewise, many mastering engineers will upsample the masters beyond the 44.1kHz resolution most mixes are supplied at to 96kHz, so that the mastering process doesnt add unwanted aliasing artefacts.

If mastering is being carried out using analogue processors (as it still is in many commercial mastering facilities) its vital that the digital-to-analogue converters are of the highest

quality (likewise, with any analogue-to-digital conversion,

too). Mastering engineers will therefore use expensive converters from the likes of Apogee, Prism Sound and Lynx, all of which are famed for their detail and accuracy. As well as the importance of good converters, its also vital that the whole system is clocked from a rock-solid master word clock source. An unstable clock results in small distortions (otherwise known as jitter) that will affect details such as imaging and the depth of the soundstage, as well as creating small but unwanted amounts of additional harmonic information.

Despite the desire to handle masters at the highest possible resolutions, all mastering engineers are well aware that the end results ultimately need to be reduced (downsampled) to a 16-bit, 44.1kHz master for writing to Red Book CD. By being fully in control of this process, though, a

mastering engineer can ensure that the downsampling process is performed without detrimentally affecting the master. In particular, it is vital that some form of dithering is applied, so that distortion in low-amplitude signals (reverb tails and so on) is disguised by the discreet application of noise.

An unstable word clock can result in

small amounts of jitter distortion,

upsetting the imaging and detail of

the original recording.

High-grade A/D and D/A

converters are vital to the

mastering process, ensuring that

the depth and detail of the original

master is preserved.

compressor, for example, or, worse still, what limiter to use to make a track louder than everything else. Although these tools and techniques are undoubtedly important, the overall approach falls significantly short of matching the skills and engineering attributes weve discussed.

Meeting standardsSo what is good mastering and what are the real thought processes that we should be applying in the studio? Firstly, good mastering concentrates on preserving (if not enhancing) the audio quality of your recording, ensuring that what the listener ends up hearing is as close to the original intention of the music, without it being compromised in any way. Of course, given the limited reproduction capabilities of most domestic music systems, this may mean applying some compression to reduce the dynamic range or the removal of the extreme lows, but ultimately, the overall quality shouldnt suffer too greatly.

On a mechanical level, good mastering relies on ensuring that the masters are delivered to the next stage as effectively as possible. If youre pressing a commercial CD, this might mean delivering the project on a DVD-R in DDP format (see the Special Delivery box on page 11 for more information on this). On the other hand, if youre delivering the project for use on the internet, understanding the ins and outs of file compression will be important in ensuring that the file reaches the listener in an effective way. In both of these examples, success wont be judged purely by the quality of your signal processing, but also by your ability to understand the relevant technical standards and apply them to the material youre presented with in an appropriate fashion for that particular format.

Although many pundits would like us to believe that the traditional album appears to be a dying art form, its also important to remember that the mastering engineer plays a vital role in defining the overall feel of the product, from creating a sound that defines the project as a whole to the musicality involved in pacing, levelling and ordering the tracks on the CD. Even minor elements such as fade-outs, gaps between tracks, poor edits, clipping, clicks and other unwanted noises can all be significantly detrimental to the pleasure and enjoyment of listening to an album in the order the artist intended, so a good mastering engineer has to watch such details like a hawk. MtF

software-based mastering

has enabled many

musicians to master in their

own studios, although

professional facilities still

favour the use of dedicated

analogue hardware.

12 Mastering Musictech Focus www.musictechmag.co.uk


Mastering MasteringCreate a world-class

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The need for expert masteringservices is ever-growing asmusicians create and release theirown recordings as CDs, SACDs,MP3s or as part of a DVD productionin stereo or surround formats.

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Multi-track or stereo, with or withoutanalogue mastering chain, setup iseasy with SADiEs flexible mixing androuting

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Prism Sound and SADiE: used by the worldsleading mastering engineers and studios.To find out more why not attend the Mastering Mastering TourRegister at www.sadie.com/MasteringMastering

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Following a few simple step-by-step objectives will help anyone taking their first steps in mastering. Mark Cousins outlines the essentials.

Mastering basics

www.musictechmag.co.uk14 Mastering MusicTech Focus

BIOGRAPHY Mark Cousins is a

composer of production music for BMGZomba. His work has been used on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Five.

Mastering basicsMastering basicsMastering

A lthough some unscrupulous, self-seeking audio engineers might try their hardest to perpetuate the myth that mastering is some form of dark art practised only by a few highly skilled individuals, it can, in fact, be broken down into a number of achievable steps, each with its own clearly de ned objectives and techniques. Rather than being scary and complicated like the proverbial brain surgery or rocket science of popular metaphor effective mastering is something that we can all engage in, enabling our recorded output to match the loudness and sheen of a commercial release.

As with most things in life that require a little learning and perseverance, half of the battle is knowing where to begin, so in this feature were going to take a look at the basics of mastering, dividing the task into its key stages and seeing how we can use our existing equipment (a DAW, a few plug-ins and some CD authoring software) to create a nished master.

Ideally, mastering should always follow the mixing stage, and although it might be tempting to immediately apply some sweetening EQ, compression or limiting across the main stereo outputs of your DAW, this kind of practice should be avoided at all costs. Of course, if you need to deliver a pre-release mix or, indeed, get a better understanding of how the mix might behave once its put through a mastering compressor then its ne to use this quick x approach to mastering. However, if you want to be really objective, always master after the mix.

DitheringArguably the rst step in mastering, therefore, is to render the nished mix as an audio le. The simple rule is that quality counts, so ensure that your nished, exported le is at the highest quality (rendered at least at 24-bit, 44.1kHz resolution). Dont leave any processors applied to the stereo buss and, most importantly, ensure that theres no unnecessary peaking or distortion. Youll also need to ensure that the duration of your bounce isnt too short

Mastering basics

MusicTech Focus Mastering 15

STEP-BY-STEP How to effectively apply equalization to your masters

4 Another sweetening boost has been applied, although this time to the top end of the track to increase presence and air. For each track you master, try to establish the most appropriate frequency for a top-end boost. Sometimes it might be as low as 8kHz or even as high as 16kHz.

5 Now we turn our attention to some of the timbral problems in the track. In this example weve had to attenuate some of the low mids around 200Hz to remove muddiness that is glaringly evident in the original mix. A relatively wide Q value has been used to keep the results broad.

6 In cases where the timbral problems in your track relate more to a specific instrument rather than a broad range of frequencies, youll need to use a tighter Q value. On this track, the snare was slightly too prominent, so weve used a small dip around 3kHz coupled with a narrow Q.

1 Its a good idea to take a proper break from mixing your tracks before you spend time critically listening to them in preparation for the application of EQ. Start by using a spectral or FFT analyser to help identify timbral properties of your track, as well as instruments that might be too prominent in the mix.

2 Most tracks suit some level of subsonic control, both to tighten up the bass and to utilise the dynamic range as effectively as possible. Use a high-pass filter to roll off below 2030Hz (although youll need a good set of monitors to establish any negative side effects of this action).

3 Now move through the principal frequency areas of your track, adjusting the equalizer as necessary. Start with some broad sweetening boosts. In this case weve applied a shelving equalizer to apply a boost below 80Hz, although if the overall mix is bass-heavy, this might be better as a cut.

PRE-MASTERINGAny signal processing that you apply during the mastering process is technically known as pre-mastering. In a professional mastering suite, for example, pre-mastering is performed as the tracks are recorded into the DAW that the production master CD will be created from. Any fades, therefore, are applied after the masters have been run through compression, EQ and so on.

leave a bar or so pre-roll to ensure that the start point isnt corrupted, as well as a few bars post-roll so that reverb tails and suchlike arent cut off in their prime.

One area that seems to confuse beginners and more seasoned engineers alike, though, is the process of normalizing a master, either as the nal mix is being rendered (some DAWs give you the option to Normalize after Bounce) or as an additional process during mastering itself. Assuming that youre applying some form of level modi er later on (a compressor, limiter or even an equalizer) it isnt important to normalize your source recording. Indeed, given the fact that every gain modi cation can degrade your audio to some extent, it should always be the aim to refrain from any form of unnecessary or unwanted treatments. It may sound like a hideously well-worn clich, but its true to say that in just about every area of audio editing, less is more.

Listen hearOnce youve assembled your masters, its worth spending a little time listening to them, identifying any faults (wobbly bass, for example) as well as establishing how youd like to atter the sound with additional signal-processing treatments. As is the case with every part of the

recording process, a clear goal or set of sonic objectives yields far better results than simply stumbling upon the right settings.

Master mindSignal processing in mastering generally centres on three types of processing: EQ, compression and limiting. Of course, it isnt essential that your master is subjected to all three, but its almost certain that even the best mix will need some degree of tightening in these three key areas.

Load your stereo mix le into a spare track in your DAW and start to experiment with the key signal-processing elements one by one, ensuring that each ts

into the puzzle in an appropriate way. The equalizer will, of course, correct the timbral qualities of your track, both by removing (or taming) unwanted frequencies, as well


Mastering BasicsGetting started

As is the case with every part of the recording process, a clear set of objectives yields better results.


STEP-BY-STEP Manipulating your masters dynamic properties

1 Were going to use three stages of compression in this six-step walkthrough to control a variety of dynamic issues in our master. The first stage is gentle, single-band buss compression to control overarching dynamic changes, as well as helping the mix glue together.

2 The settings used on the buss compressor have been kept relatively light and discrete a 2:1 Ratio, a high Threshold (to account for the wide knee of the compressor kicking in early) and an Auto Release setting. At the most, only about 3dB of gain reduction is being applied.

3 A multi-band compressor, placed after the buss compressor in the signal path, offers an even more powerful way of shaping both the dynamics and the timbre of the track. The first step is to set the crossover points between the bands to optimally divide the track into its constituent components.

As youre exporting the nal mixes from your DAW, ensure that

the les are at least at 24-bit, 44.1kHz resolution and that the

length of the bounce provides some pre- and post-roll to capture

the start and end points of the track correctly.

as providing broad, subtle boosts to sweeten the overall sound of the mix. A typical pro le, for example, might involve a high-pass cut at around 30Hz to rein in subsonic components, a 12dB shelving boost at either end of the harmonic spectrum (usually 80Hz and 10kHz), and some form of strategic cut in problematic parts of the midrange.

As with all types of signal processing in mastering, the exact approach and settings will vary from track to track, so its important to nd your own settings rather than just adopting a few hypothetical ideals. The other important point to emphasise is a lightness of touch unlike mixing, even the smallest amount of cut or boost will have a big and far-reaching effect over the entirety of the master. On

the whole, most mastering re nements will be in the 13dB range, so if you start going above this, you know you may be overcooking your settings.

To the limitCompression and limiting both modify the dynamic characteristics of your track, attening its dynamic range, for example, adding body and punch, and creating a greater sense of loudness. Start with a compressor to control broad dynamic changes (the quiet and loud parts of the track) and massage the track together, giving it a greater sense of body.

If youve got more serious problems with the mix that equalization hasnt corrected, you might even want to turn to a multi-band compressor, which splits the track into three or more frequency bands before compressing each band individually. Using a multi-band compressor enables you to direct the compression more towards speci c parts of the mix adding more compression to the bottom end, for example, to tighten up a sloppy bass line.

CODES & COPYRIGHTAn ISRC code is a unique identifier for sound files transferred onto CD and are used to track the copyright of the material recorded on it. The code itself is 12 characters long, divided into a country code, registrant code (or record company, in other words), the year of registration and the unique five-digit ID of the track. FR-Z03-98-00212, for example, denotes a recording of French origin, released by Mercury Records in 1998.


16 Mastering MusicTech Focus

Using a multi-band compressor enables you to direct compression towards specifi c parts of the mix.

4 Working through each band in turn, we can start to direct the compression towards specific frequency areas in the mix. In the example above, were aiming to make the compression in the low end of the mix far heavier to rein in an otherwise wobbly bass line and kick drum.

5 Use the Gain Makeup controls to restore the balance between the four bands, particularly if youve applied more compression to one band than another. Used in this way, a multi-band compressor is also a powerful spectral tool, enabling you to manipulate the level of a particular frequency band.

6 The final stage of gain control is the limiter, which is used to control the peak energy within the track with the intention of increasing the overall loudness. Try backing down the Threshold control until it starts to tickle the peak transients of the track without introducing too much distortion.

RED BOOK CDVarious standards have been developed for the CD format, based on the application it is to be used for. A Red Book CD, for example, denotes that it is an audio CD, whereas the Orange and Yellow Book standards describe a data CD used by computers. The Red Book standard includes a number of stipulations, including a maximum running time of 78 minutes and a limit of 99 tracks.

A limiter is usually the last device in your mastering signal-processing chain and is a vital tool for increasing the relative loudness of your master. A limiter concentrates on peak energy in a track, squashing short transient spikes and increasing the amount of headroom thats available, enabling you to increase the overall tracks level by as much as 6dB. A limiter will also enable you to specify the nal output level of the master, usually around -0.10dBFS.

Once youre happy with the signal processing, bounce the nished version as a new le, with the signal processing permanently written into the audio.

By the BookWith your masters processed accordingly, you can now determine the track order using suitable Red Book CD authoring software. This is an important part of the mastering process, when you get to top-and-tail the sound les, apply fade-ins or fades-outs, set the running order and space between tracks, as well as segueing any songs that need crossfading.

Although its easy to be drawn into heavily processing your masters, its important to remember that how the tracks on your album sit together forms a big part of the feel of the end product. For example, try to leave a millisecond or so of silence at the start of the le to ensure that the CD player doesnt clip the start when it de-mutes at the beginning of playback.

Likewise, the ends of the tracks need to be clean and of an appropriate length, possibly requiring a small strategic fade-out to remove any unwanted noise. If you intend to perform a proper fade-out over a number of bars, this is also best done as you compile the CD (rather than at the end of the mix) as it will enable you to spend

time nding the appropriate fade length and curve. Dance tracks may have different considerations, as crossfading may be more desirable.

Dither and deliverThe nal part of the mastering process is the creation of a nished production master appropriate for release or manufacture, whether its a CD-R for duplication or an audio le for delivery over the internet. Having spent

A typical order for processing your masters. First, the track is

equalized and compressed, with the limiter being the last device

in the signal chain. Experienced mastering engineers might make a

different choice, but novices should try this sequence to start with.



its important to remember that how the tracks on your album sit together forms a big part of the feel of the end product.

DITHERDither is a discrete amount of noise thats applied when a signal is reduced from 24-bit to 16-bit resolution. Without dither, a 16-bit signals lowest amplitude components can sound grainy, whereas with the application of dither, the perception becomes smoother (although technically noisier, of course). Given that youre effectively adding noise to your recording, dither should be applied only at the last stage of mastering. In most cases, this is when the CD is being burned.

Fades should be applied only when youre assembling the nal CD.

Dont attempt to apply fades before this point.

Dithering should always be applied

at the very last point in the

mastering process, usually as the

CD is being burned.

STEP-BY-STEP Assembling the Red Book CD master

1 To assemble the finished Red Book CD master were using Bias Peak, but you could use any other suitable Red Book authoring application. First, open all the pre-mastered files for the CD in Peak, then select File>New>Playlist Document.

2 The playlist area is used to assemble the audio files, with start times, fades and so on, into a finished CD. Use the Add Region icon at the top left-hand corner of the screen to add the tracks one-by-one. See page 120 for more about mastering with Peak.

3 With the tracks imported, we now need to ensure that the tracks are topped and tailed accordingly. You can use the Trim Event Tool (which appears when you move towards the tracks start or end points) to alter the size of the track.

4 Any fades or crossfades should always be carried out as youre assembling the finished production master. In Peak, we can easily drag back the red volume nodes to create fade-outs, or even slide one track over another to create a crossfade.

5 If youre producing a CD for commercial release, its vital that you also include ISRC codes for each track (and, should you want to, CD Text information). Click on the small CDTXT checkbox to enter this information for each track.

6 Click on the Burn icon in the right-hand corner of the playlist area to burn the project to a CD-R. Ensure that you use good-quality media and write to the disc at the slowest possible speed. Youll need to enable the Dither option if youre working from 24-bit files.

authoring software might be able to handle dithering as part of the nal burn, but alternatively you might simply want to export a single le to be posted at a very low bit-rate on a MySpace or Blogspot site. However, its important to remember the overarching order of service signal processing (or pre-mastering), fades, and, nally, dithering to 16-bit, which should be adhered to at all times. Dithering before the creation of fades, for example, negates the point of dithering in the rst place, while fades that are placed earlier in the mastering cycle will affect the quality of compression during a fade-out.

Master masteringLike many parts of the recording process, mastering is easy once you have an understanding of its principal objectives. However, just like the skills of mixing or micing drums, true mastery of the art takes time and practice. The engineers at Metropolis Studios (see the interview on page 56) spent many years accumulating their experience. Their most important skill? Having the con dence to know when to stop processing! Following these step-by-step guides, though, should enable you to kick-start the learning process, using the Workshops in this book to re ne your knowledge even further. MTF

the majority of its production lifecycle as a high-resolution le, you will, of course, need to reduce the master to 16-bit, 44.1kHz resolution, which will involve adding some form of dithering to remove quantizing distortion on low-level signals (see the 10 Minute Master on page 114 for more information on dithering).

Of course, the speci cs of what you do in these last stages will depend on both the software you have and the end delivery format. For example, your Red Book


www.musictechmag.co.uk18 Mastering MusicTech Focus

Like many parts of the recording process, mastering is easy once you have an understanding of its principal objectives.

.

TECHNIQUE The rights and wrongs of referencingHow to compare your nished product against a commercial CD

If youre trying to make your output sound like a commercial recording, its inevitable that youre going to compare your work against a commercial CD at some point. Indeed, referencing other music is an important grounding exercise, but its important to establish a few basic rules, as well as ascertaining what you can realistically achieve from the process.

Firstly, you need to be clear about the type of music youre referencing, ideally matching the genre and musicality of the type of music youre mastering with something from a commercial release. Different genres, of course, will have radically different approaches to mastering a dance track, for example, might be heavily compressed, while a classical release will have a relatively light-handed touch. Also remember that even given the opportunity to source a stylistically similar recording, no two tracks will be exactly the same, so reference the tracks broader qualities (dynamic range, bass and treble) rather than its exact sound.

As you progress through the mastering process, set the monitoring level for each track so that their loudness (rather than peak level) is comparable. At first, this may mean reducing the reference track by as much as 68dB (a loudness meter helps as a reference), but as you begin to compress and limit your tracks, you may need to restore this level difference. Remember that the loudness of the track will have a big difference on the perception of treble and bass, so be wary of making any snap judgements in this area unless the relative loudness levels are balanced.

As you master, avoid any quick-flicking A/B comparison; get to know the broader feel of the reference track and your master over a longer duration. As youd expect, any track will have marked differences in its tone and loudness throughout its duration, so its important to get a grip on the average of these qualities rather than any instantaneous measurements. Better still, spend the early part of the session just listening, identifying the key qualities early on before you start manipulating your master. Only make comparisons once youve almost finished your work. Indeed, this is much closer to how a professional mastering engineer will work, using a broader understanding of how commercial music should sound informed by many hundreds of hours listening rather than straightforward point-to-point comparisons.

Dont make any judgements about your mix in relation to a commercial CD unless

the relative loudness has been matched. Use RMS metering or a dedicated

loudness meter so that you can turn down your reference track accordingly.

STEP-BY-STEP Assembling the Red Book CD master

1 To assemble the finished Red Book CD master were using Bias Peak, but you could use any other suitable Red Book authoring application. First, open all the pre-mastered files for the CD in Peak, then select File>New>Playlist Document.

2 The playlist area is used to assemble the audio files, with start times, fades and so on, into a finished CD. Use the Add Region icon at the top left-hand corner of the screen to add the tracks one-by-one. See page 120 for more about mastering with Peak.

3 With the tracks imported, we now need to ensure that the tracks are topped and tailed accordingly. You can use the Trim Event Tool (which appears when you move towards the tracks start or end points) to alter the size of the track.

4 Any fades or crossfades should always be carried out as youre assembling the finished production master. In Peak, we can easily drag back the red volume nodes to create fade-outs, or even slide one track over another to create a crossfade.

5 If youre producing a CD for commercial release, its vital that you also include ISRC codes for each track (and, should you want to, CD Text information). Click on the small CDTXT checkbox to enter this information for each track.

6 Click on the Burn icon in the right-hand corner of the playlist area to burn the project to a CD-R. Ensure that you use good-quality media and write to the disc at the slowest possible speed. Youll need to enable the Dither option if youre working from 24-bit files.





Users of Logic Express 8 wont have access to WaveBurner, so after pre-mastering you need to use another CD authoring package. One option is to use Apples iTunes software. Youll need a lossless encoder (like the WAV option found under the Import settings of iTunes General Preferences) to ensure that quality isnt compromised. To burn the CD, assemble the tracks into a playlist and select the Burn Disc option.

Power Tip

Logic studio Workshop

G iven Logics capabilities across the entirety of the production process, it comes as little surprise to nd a series of features dedicated to the process of mastering, from plug-ins such as the Multipressor multi-band compressor and the Adaptive Limiter to its very own Red Book authoring package WaveBurner. However, despite such an exhaustive set of features, it isnt immediately obvious how Logic and WaveBurner best integrate into the mastering work ow.

This Workshop will focus on these mastering features and highlight what we feel are the best and most appropriate uses for these tools in terms of mastering. Of course, this isnt the only way to master in Logic, but it does offer a good starting point which you can adapt to your own needs whether youre using the slimmed-down Logic Express 8 solution or creating fully Red Book-compliant CDs using Logic Studio, WaveBurner and a range of third-party plug-ins.

Export taxArguably the rst stage of the mastering process is to render each of your Logic Projects (weve included one to get you started on the coverdisc) using the Bounce to Disk button located on the Master fader. Ensure that the

length of bounce (set by the relative size of your cycle points) encompasses the full duration of the song (allowing for a bar or so pre-roll at the start of the track and enough time at the end to account for reverbs decaying and so on) and that any processing across the stereo buss is bypassed. In the Bounce to Disk dialog you should set the resolution to at least 44.1kHz, 24-bit and, most importantly, avoid applying any dithering at this stage. 1

With the desired project mixes rendered, we now need to explore the pre-mastering signal processing in other words, adding equalization, compression and limiting to make each mix sound more like a commercial CD. If youre a user of Logic Studio, you could turn to WaveBurner at this point and complete the entirety of the mastering process in that application. However, given the comfort offered by working in a familiar environment and

Logic and WaveBurner With a wealth of mastering plug-ins and an integral Red Book CD authoring package, Logic is one of the best DAWs for mastering. Mark Cousins demonstrates why.

Logic has a number of excellent plug-ins speci cally dedicated to the task of pre-mastering.

the sheer exibility of Logic, its often bene cial to apply pre-mastering processing in Logic. Indeed, if youre using Logic Express 8, this is the only solution available to you.

To get started with this tutorial, lets get our pre-mastering session under way by creating a new Logic project with two or so audio tracks, importing the various original mixes as required. 2

Plugging inLogic has a number of excellent plug-ins that are speci cally dedicated to the task of pre-mastering, so well explore each in the typical order that theyre applied in mastering. Equalization comes in three principal forms: Channel EQ (used for a range of timbral adjustments), linear-phase EQ (which offers a more transparent equalization free of phase adjustments), and Match EQ (which can be used to assimilate the EQ pro le of a reference track and apply it to your mix). Of the three plug-ins, Channel EQ is often the most suitable for day-to-day mastering equalization, with the high-pass lter used to rein in any sub-sonic bottom end and a number of small nips and tucks performed across the frequency spectrum to tighten up the mix. 3

Dynamic control comes in the form of the standard Compressor plug-in (especially useful now that the Circuit Type feature has been added for more retro-style compression), the multi-band Multipressor plug-in, and the Adaptive Limiter. Although most users tend to immediately instantiate a multi-band compressor such as Multipressor for mastering, try using the standard Compressor to bring some of the body of the track into line, using the Opto mode and relatively low Ratio and Threshold settings.

The Multipressor is useful if the compression needs to be accurately directed perhaps to compress the low end of a mix to tidy up an otherwise oppy bass line while the Adaptive Limiter is used to attenuate peak energy and bring up the average level (or loudness) of the track. 4

As well as the principal signal-processing tools, theres also a range of great plug-ins in Logic that come to life when mastering. For enhancing the top or bottom ends of the mix, look at the Exciter and SubBass plug-ins respectively (found in the Specialized plug-in folder). Useful stereo options can be found in the Direction Mixer and Stereo Spread control, either to reduce or enhance the width of a stereo signal or even produce a stereo output from a mono source.

Power Tip


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follow this

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In addition to the traditional signal-processing plug-ins, its also bene cial to use Logics comprehensive range of metering plug-ins to gain an overview of your mastering processing and assess how it compares to a commercial release. In the case of all of these analysis tools, its probably best that theyre instantiated across the main output fader so that any track youre currently listening to (either your own master or a reference track, for example) is metered accordingly. The Level Meter provides an expanded version of the main channel meters, with the Peak & RMS mode displaying a useful combination of both the averaged loudness levels and peak readings. Even better still is the Multimeter, which comprises a spectrum analyser, correlation meters and goniometer in a single plug-in. 5

Let it burnOnce youve nished your pre-mastering activities, render the le as you did the initial mix in other words, without dither and at a high resolution, ready to be assembled into the nished CD.

With the pre-mastering rendered as an audio le, you can now turn to WaveBurner to assemble the tracks into a nished CD. Once youve opened WaveBurner, click on the Import icon in the top left-hand corner of the interface to import the various tracks for your nished CD. You can do this track-by-track to assemble the CD in its nished order or import multiple les and use the Region List in the bottom left-hand corner to re-order the audio les as required. 6

Along with ordering the tracks, youll also need to top-and-tail the les accordingly, changing both start and end times as well as applying any fades or crossfades. Moving to either end of the region in the Wave View area, you should be able to snip the start and end points of the tracks accordingly, cutting out the bar or so of silence

Pre-mastering your files in Logic enables you to work in a familiar environment, using Logics various plug-ins including the Multipressor, Channel EQ and Adaptive Limiter to process your files accordingly. Once youve finished processing each track, render out a new version with the compression, EQ and so on written into the file.

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assemble the CD in its nished order or import multiple les and use the Region List in the bottom left-hand corner to re-order the audio les as required. 6

Along with ordering the tracks, youll also need to top-and-tail the les accordingly, changing both start and end times as well as applying any fades or crossfades. Moving to either end of the region in the Wave View area, you should be able to snip the start and end points of the tracks accordingly, cutting out the bar or so of silence

Audition the track or mix with and without each component of processing by bypassing active items in WaveBurners plug-in list using the tick box on the right. You can also drag plug-ins up and down the list to change the order of processing, as well as hitting the [Delete] key to remove selected ones. Finally, you can use the Plug-in Chain menu to save and recall multiple devices.

Power Tip


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Logic Studio Workshop Mastering with Logic and WaveBurner


we left at the start as well as setting a more precise end point. For accurate editing (especially important at the songs start) you can always use the Zoom tool to expand the display at the current playhead point. 7

Fades are applied to each track using volume nodes at either end of the region; drag the node backwards or forwards accordingly to set the desired length of the fade. You can also re ne the curvature of this fade if necessary using the other small node that appears part-way along the length of the fade. Crossfades between tracks are automatically created when you slide one region back across the timeline, so that it starts before the previous track has nished. Again, you can also use the small nodes to change the contours and duration of this fade accordingly. 8

Dither onAlthough most of our processing should have been applied in Logic, its also worth noting that WaveBurner can utilise plug-in processing, both to individual tracks (referred to as Region plug-ins) or to the output of a CD (referred to as Mix plug-ins). To instantiate a plug-in across a particular track on the CD, rst click on the region and then select a plug-in from the dropdown menu labelled Add Plug-in. WaveBurner supports both the complete set of Logic plug-ins and, of course, third-party Audio Units. Use mix plug-ins either for effects that you

want to apply globally (perhaps applying a limiter to some pre-release mixes, for example) or for the aforementioned metering options we looked at in Logic. 9

With the nal running order assembled, initiate a burn to create the nished CD. Note that weve strategically left off dither up until this point, as ideally, dither should be applied only after any fades have been created. In WaveBurner, dithering options are found under the Bounce tab of WaveBurners Preferences (WaveBurner>Preferences). Pick from one of the three dithering options, which Logic will use as it creates the nal 16-bit CD. 10

CD burning can be initiated from the Burn icon, ideally using the slowest possible burn speed to ensure that the transfer is as error-free as possible. 11

Going furtherFor those taking their rst steps in music production and mastering, Logic Studio is an ideal starting point, enabling you to produce Red Book-compliant CDs without additional software. As your needs grow, you might consider investing in some dedicated mastering plug-ins (maybe a limiter or some modelled vintage EQ and compression) to augment the sonic results you can achieve using Logics own set of audio processors. If youre working with commercial replication facilities, you may also need to consider delivering the nished masters in DDP format rather than as a Red Book CD. MTF

Once youve rendered the pre-mastered files they can be imported into WaveBurner to piece together the finished CD. WaveBurner has a full set of authoring tools, enabling you to edit start and end points on each region, create fades and crossfades and even apply further plug-in processing.

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Studio Workshop Mastering with Logic and WaveBurner


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If you absolutely need to get more volume out of your mix, its worth considering a psychoacoustic processor such as the Oxford Inflator or the UAD Precision Maximizer. These devices can increase the perceived loudness of your mix without applying additional limiting.

Power Tip W hether or not composers making music in the digital domain should master their own work is an unresolved topic of open and often very fraught discussion. Conventional situations see people landing rmly on one side of the debate or the other, but in one particular situation theres very little dispute: if youre one of the many DJ/producers out there who depend on Ableton Live to both create and perform music, youll occasionally need to master your tracks to some extent if you want to use them for a gig.

One of the advantages of digital DJing is that it enables you to perform material thats still very much a work in progress. Even if you dont have every part worked out, its possible (and fun) to use effects and real-time looping to mould an early version of a track into an effective part of a live set, or give a few samples or beats youre considering incorporating into an existing project a public airing. The advantage of playing your stuff at various stages of the production process is that youll get real-world feedback about how it works on the dance oor and how it sounds in different contexts and over different sound systems.

However, if you want your rough tracks to stand up against nished masters, youve got to do a little work to give them a ghting chance. Bringing up the overall level is a must, and youll probably need to do a bit of EQing as well. In this article, well look at a practical approach to mastering on-the- y to get your works in progress up to scratch before you pack your gig bag.

Quality controlMost of the time, mastering is performed as an entirely separate process from mixing, although there are some advocates of real-time mastering (applying mastering plug-ins across the master buss as youre completing a mix). Of course, the simplest method of ensuring that your masters are successful is to make sure that your mixes are of the best possible quality to start with.

While Lives sample rate converter is respectable, its designed to be extremely CPU-ef cient (it can take any audio le and convert the sample rate on-the- y to match the rate in the Preferences dialog). Such CPU ef ciency

mastering with liveWhether youre in the studio or performing live, applying a few finishing touches to your tracks will help them shine on the dance floor. Jon Margulies polishes up.

if you want your rough tracks to stand up against nished masters, youve got to do a little work.

comes at the cost of a certain amount of aliasing and distortion that will affect the quality of your masters, but this negative aspect can be overcome to some degree if you address it early enough in the composition process. Whenever youre converting sample rates within Live, always use high-quality sample rate conversion. This uses a more complex (and therefore better quality) conversion algorithm at the cost of slightly higher CPU usage. It can be enabled in Clip View by activating the Hi Q switch. Enabling the Hi Q switch in the Audio tab of the Preferences dialog will ensure that any new clips that are recorded or imported have Hi Q enabled by default.

Excessive warping can also lead to sound quality issues that you wont be able to x during mastering. The simplest way to avoid unnecessary warping is to record instruments and vocals at the tempo at which you want to use them. This may sound obvious, but Live makes it so easy to change tempo that its often overlooked.

Giggers with attitudeWhen youre mastering a one-off to play at a gig, theres not a great deal of bene t in making mastering a separate process. The goal is to work quickly and effectively, and since youll probably be coming back to do further mixing and arranging, you might as well save the extra step.

The problem with mastering a tune youve just been mixing is that you usually have very little perspective on what it sounds like anymore especially in relation to commercially mastered tracks. The solution is to listen to a reference track a mastered song by a different artist to calibrate your ears. For this purpose, create a new track in the mix youre working on and name it Reference. Turn off the Track Activator switch to mute the new track. 1

Next, drop a song from your library into this track. Pick something in an appropriately similar style. This will enable you to A/B your mix and the reference track simply by hitting the reference tracks Solo switch. 2

Now start to build your mastering chain. An essential tool for a one-off master is a brickwall limiter such as the UAD Precision Limiter or the Waves L2. For a quick master such as this, multi-band compression is probably best avoided unless you already have a degree of experience with it (its easy to make things sound worse with one of these, so you really need to take your time if you choose to use one). 3

What you will probably want in addition to the limiter is a bit of EQ perhaps you need to add some sparkle to the top, beef up the low end or cut some mud from the low mids. Your EQ should be placed before the limiter.

If youre finishing an album rather than doing a one-off master, its a good idea to mix all of your tracks without any additional processing and then do the mastering offline as a final stage. This enables you to listen to the tracks in relation to each other while making final adjustments to the EQ and loudness, ensuring that they add up to a cohesive whole.

Power Tip

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Lives built-in EQ probably isnt the best choice for this task. When mastering, its very important to use a really transparent, musical EQ such as the PSP Neon or the UAD Pultec. If you have to work with a less than stellar EQ, its important to keep your boosts as minimal as possible; try to make adjustments by cutting instead (for example, its possible in some cases to brighten up a mix by cutting muddy low frequencies). Once youve cut these frequencies you can make the whole mix louder by turning up your limiters input stage. 4

At this point, its a good idea to put your mastering chain into a rack. The easiest way to do this is to [Shift]-click to select every device and then use the Group command. 5 Now you can turn your mastering processors on and off with one click (using the racks on/off switch), so its easy to A/B your mix. 6

What youll do next is A/B your mix against the reference track, making adjustments to your mastering processors as you go. The problem here is that as you

switch back and forth between your mix and the reference track youll be hearing them both through the mastering processors. Thats not what you want: you want to hear only your mix through the mastering chain. What we need, then, is an easy way to turn the mastering processors off every time we turn the reference track on.

Lives remote control functionality is the perfect solution. Enter the key map and map a key on your computer keyboard to both the reference tracks solo switch and the mastering chains on/off switch. 7

Striking this key now will simultaneously solo the reference track and turn off the mastering chain.

As you make EQ adjustments, Spectrum (Lives built-in spectrum analyser), can be a great ally. The main

component of this device is a display that shows the frequencies of an audio signal along the horizontal axis and the amplitude along the vertical. (Bear in mind that Spectrum does not process the signal, its simply a measurement tool.) 8

If you can hear the differences between your mix and the reference track but need some help guring out which frequencies to cut or boost, Spectrum can be just the ticket. To use it, drop an instance of Spectrum into the

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Some plug-ins have a built-in facility that enables you to load two different settings for the plug-in and toggle back and forth between them. In Live its easy to emulate this behaviour using keyboard remote control, just like we did with the mastering chain and the reference track. Load two instances of the plug-in, turn one on and one off, then map the on/off switch for both of them to the same key on your keyboard. Now you can flip back and forth between the two settings with a single keystroke.

Power Tip

Pay close attention to your signal routing at the mastering stage its all too easy to accidentally leave something out of your processing chain!

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if you have to work with a less-than-stellar eq, its important to keep your boosts as minimal as possible.

Studio WorkshopMastering with Ableton Live



master track after your mastering processors. Clicking the unfold button in Spectrums title bar will open up a jumbo display to make reading the graph easier. 9

In shortOnce youve got Spectrum connected to the master track you can use your new keyboard shortcut to switch to the reference track. Examine its EQ characteristics in the graph then switch back to your mix and take a look at the differences. Dont expect to be able to copy the EQ curve exactly, but this visual guide will help steer you in the right direction.

When youre adjusting the loudness of your track, bear in mind that you may not be able to get it as loud as a commercially mastered track (or, rather, you might be able to get it as loud, but not without degrading the sound quality to some extent). Over-limiting tracks starts to produce audible distortion that has an unpleasant ragged quality. It can be dif cult to discern at rst, so listen carefully.

If youre in any doubt, err on the side of caution and opt for a little less limiting and a slightly quieter track. After all, you can always use the mixers volume control at your gig to compensate for a slight difference in volume. A slightly quieter track that sounds good is always much preferable to something thats deafeningly loud and overly distorted, particularly if its playing back through a powerful club PA.

Final tweaksOnce youre happy that your processing is not lowering the overall gain of the nal mix, bring the volume of your master track up to 0dB. You may have brought the master down during mixing to prevent clipping, but that isnt necessary now, as clipping will be prevented by the limiter. Another important task that has to be performed before you head off to your gig is to check for mono compatibility. You cant be sure that the sound system will be properly running in stereo, and its a shame to have some part of your track suddenly disappear if its out of phase.

If you dont have a mono switch on your audio interface or speaker controller, this is easily achieved using Lives Utility device. Drop Utility into the master track and drag the Width control down to 0 per cent. 10 This is what your track sounds like in mono. Now you can toggle between stereo and mono simply by turning Utility on and off. MTF

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Over-limiting tracks starts to produce audible distortion that has an unpleasant ragged quality.

When mastering in any DAW, restraint is key. You want to preserve the dynamic range of your project as much as you can. If you actually want something to sound distorted, apply this effect at the mixing stage, not at the mastering stage.

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Linear-phase EQEQ is arguably the most often used tool in the studio but what does linear-phase EQ offer? Grant Bridgeman tweaks the levels.

T he equalizer is one of the most essential tools of the modern studio, serving both creative and corrective purposes. It can be applied in gentle tweaks or swathing broadsides, enabling you to build exactly the right sound in your mix. Each EQ has its own personality and sonic qualities, making certain devices very desirable while others are abhorred.

The digital revolution and the ever-increasing power of modern processing has resulted in the emergence of convolution-based devices such as Focusrites Liquid Mix, which can emulate many classic EQs as well as other devices. And thanks to these

developments in technology, it is also capable of something that was just not feasible with analogue electronics working as a linear-phase device.

Phased outDespite having a name that wouldnt sound out of place in a sci- B movie, a linear-phase EQ does exactly what its name

implies it enables the attenuation of the frequency balance of an audio recording without altering its phase relationship. The aim is to make the equalizer completely transparent, enabling rapid transients and the stereo image of the audio to pass through it without suffering phase distortion.

The phase shifts of a normal equalizer are an inherent side effect of their operation and generate some of the character that makes speci c pieces of equipment very desirable.

One view is that phasey qualities are imparted on a sound through harsh EQ processing, but its far more likely that comb ltering already present in the original recording (due to room re ections, mic placement and so on) is coming to light only when the material is being EQed.

The phase shift that occurs in non-linear devices can occur in either analogue circuitry or its digital equivalent, because both systems use the same fundamental techniques to achieve the EQ. A simpli ed overview of the process is that part of the audio signal is sampled from the main audio path, delayed slightly (depending on the frequency) and then either added to or subtracted from the main audio signal to create the respective boost or cut.

Delay lineIn the case of an analogue EQ device, it is the characteristics of the components that de ne the

EQ parameters. As the audio signal is applied across a capacitor as an AC voltage, the different frequencies within the signal result in the capacitor charging and discharging at different rates, shifting the phase of differing frequencies by differing amounts. This, coupled with the speci c characteristics of the capacitor/inductor/resistor

network, de ne the frequency, bandwidth and rolloff of the EQ stage. Thus, when the signals are recombined, certain frequencies are out-of-phase, cancelling each other out and creating an EQ cut.

Not all digital EQs are phase-linear, with many designs based on the same principles as an analogue system. An IIR (In nite Impulse Response) lter as found in most digital EQ plug-ins uses a shift register to delay the sampled audio signal, while the length of the delay controls the frequency of the EQ. They therefore demonstrate the same phase issues as an equivalent RC (resistor-capacitor) circuit.

To achieve a linear phase response across the full frequency range, a different approach has to be adopted and its one that can be undertaken only within the digital domain. It also requires some fairly intensive processing power, which is why devices with this capability are only now becoming widely available. They utilise a technique known as FIR

When using an analogue EQ (a high-pass filter, in this case), a phase shift occurs at the

frequencies close to the knee of the filter.

Logics Linear Phase and Channel EQ have

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