question about mastering

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Adrezonar
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question about mastering

Post by Adrezonar »

First of all, I've been dealing with the topic for quite a while. I just noticed that I really can't get any further without feedback. friends always just say it sounds good ... and there are definitely some cracks in this area. that's why I just want to ask here.
so, to the patient

this is the copy of my text on bandcamp

So now I've remastered "Ghost". I had it mastered by this dolby algorithm on soundcloud as a test. unfortunately i had forgotten to remove the dc offset beforehand, so it just had to be new. Unfortunately, I found out that you can't re-master a song after uploading it again, so I went back to it myself. i think i have learned a lot by now, but without feedback i have no idea whether it will work elsewhere? That's why I would be happy to receive feedback from you

I'll add 2 links here ... I really don't want to get any clicks through here, so really just learn something, so sorry for that

old one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAEH5e8dPZg (I only gave the youtube link to compare how it sounded first)
NEW ONE: https://soundcloud.com/user-738240652/ghost

and it's really all about the feedback, but don't know how I could show it differently

greetings, André
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MyLoFy
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Re: question about mastering

Post by MyLoFy »

Hey André,

I'm not really an expert in mastering, but it's always a good idea to have another set of ears listen to your stuff. Having heard your own track during mixing/mastering hundreds of times can make it difficult to spot issues.
Your track is really nice, I like it!

IMO these are the most important items to consider when preparing a track for publishing:
  • Dynamics: are good, DR is 7, which is fine for the genre. No pumping or overcompression as far as I can tell. dBTP is 0, there is no clipping or intersample peaks
  • Frequency Balance: IMO the sub bass is a bit too strong and the high end could use a bit of a sparkle. There are resonances around 1k and 4k I would cut. LSP stereo EQ has a resonance function that is excellent for sweeping and finding unpleasant frequencies and then cutting them. Also the amount of reverb you're using makes them build up and then more difficult to control. There are probably too many instruments competing in the 1k area (saw bass, whistle, marimba-like sound), that's perhaps easier to address with an EQ in the mix. Also, EQing the reverb bus could help (EQ before reverb)
    During mixing/mastering I like to take a look at LSP spectrum analyzer. If the graph is close to a horizontal line it's close to the pink noise spectrum, which is good as a general orientation. Also, I try to listen to reference tracks while mixing/mastering to compare how professional stuff sounds and looks like on the meters/analyzers.
  • Stereo Landscape: Is fine I think, could be spread a bit more in the top end with mid/side eq. Bass is nicely centered which always is important
  • Loudness is around -12 LUFS which is fine for most streaming platforms
  • Portability: Always a good idea to listen to a track on different systems. I just listened on headphones and (smallish) speakers, and it seems that the sub disappears on the speakers. I would try to add a tiny bit of saturation (eg totape5 or chow tape model) to either the bass or the master or both, just to add a few harmonics to the bass. That will trick our ears into believing that there's a fat bass coming out of the tiny speakers.
If you wanna dig deeper into the topic there's a lot of ressources in the web, I personally enjoyed https://themasteringshow.com/ with Ian Shepherd, but it's totally unrelated to FOSS or linux.
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Re: question about mastering

Post by sunrat »

The low bass is indeed too overwhelming. I compared it to a very bass-heavy album I have (Roisin Murphy's "Roisin Machine") and your track has about 6dB more in the 50 Hz region! That can happen when mixing/mastering on smallish monitors. Always listen to your masters on a variety of speakers, headphones, and in the car if that has good audio.
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Adrezonar
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Re: question about mastering

Post by Adrezonar »

Thank you MyLoFy and Sunrat for your answers. you definitely help me with it.
Ok, bass down ... I always tend to turn in too much of it. I made the lowcut at 25hz. Should I turn off the 50 Hz completely or just turn it down?
Where I find it a little difficult to deal with is the point with the annoying resonances. Can you possibly recommend a suitable eq for? I always try to filter it out with a normal eq, which always twists the sound too much for me. Anything where you can specifically block the disruptive frequency? I had looked for it before but didn't really find anything.
I have only just added a sound-neutral monitor just for my music, which was absolutely overdue. I usually only hear most of the tonal details when I am working in the car. there i listen to different music most of the day. So theoretically it can only get better now.
I continue to try on the song and try to implement everything you suggested to me...

greetings, André
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