{"id":75,"date":"2015-07-11T09:36:40","date_gmt":"2015-07-11T09:36:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/waltcollins.com\/music\/?p=75"},"modified":"2016-10-23T07:31:27","modified_gmt":"2016-10-23T11:31:27","slug":"mixdown-effects-and-the-mastering-chain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.waltcollins.com\/music\/mixdown-effects-and-the-mastering-chain\/","title":{"rendered":"Mixdown Effects and the Mastering Chain"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

EDIT: October 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Note that since I posted this, I’ve become convinced that multiband compressors (like the C4 effect\u00a0I had been using) can change the music in undesirable ways, so I’ve stopped using them in my mastering process.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

In this blog post, I hope to provide some insight into my music production process for my engineer\/producer peers out there.\u00a0 Please note that this post may become a little technical if you have no experience as a recording engineer.\u00a0 If so, sorry!\u00a0 But feel free to leave a comment and I’ll try to clarify if there’s anything you don’t understand. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

I’ve been developing and honing my tracking -> mixing -> mastering process for many years now, and it’s gone through many iterations.\u00a0 I like to keep some things fluid, to bend to each song as it needs.\u00a0 However, there are some things that are (mostly) no longer fluid, like the choice of tools and plugins.<\/p>\n

Mixdown Effects<\/strong><\/p>\n

For tracking and mixing, I’ve been using Ableton Live<\/a> since I purchased it in early 2015.\u00a0 Prior to that I’d used Cakewalk SONAR<\/a> (previously called Cakewalk Pro Audio) since the late 1990s, when I engineered & co-produced the album Belt, by Naked Omaha (a Philadelphia-based alt-country band that I was the bass player in for a short time).\u00a0 I eventually opened my own local recording studio business, and we used Cakewalk exclusively during that time.<\/p>\n

In Ableton, my usual process is to record each part, then apply varying degrees of reverb and tempo sync delay during preliminary mixes, using 2 effects busses. If a specific part needs something more than just the common reverb and delay busses, I will insert additional effects directly on the track.\u00a0 This is usually for something like track-specific EQ, or a creative effect like phasing\/flange, stutter delay, decimation\/distortion\/tube, etc.<\/p>\n

My master bus has nothing on it at all, and is set at unity (0 dB) gain. I manage the overall project’s signal levels by reducing the individual track levels until my master bus isn\u2019t clipping.<\/p>\n

Mastering Process<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once I’m happy with a mix (and this can take some time!), I export the master bus from Ableton to a stereo WAV file format, and immediately load it up in Sony SoundForge<\/a>.\u00a0 I prefer using SoundForge as a dedicated mastering application, because there are fewer distractions when compared with working in a full-on DAW like Ableton or Cakewalk.<\/p>\n

In my mastering application, the first thing I do is normalize.\u00a0 This lets me work at a uniform volume level on any song, and I know how my usual effects plugins work at those levels, i.e. where the “sweet spots” are for the effect controls.\u00a0 Then I load my mastering effects plugins, and tweak them for that particular song until I like the results.\u00a0 Then I export to WAV again, and upload to SoundCloud, or wherever.\u00a0 If I need to create an MP3, I can instead export that format from the mastering application.<\/p>\n

Mastering Effects<\/strong><\/p>\n

My typical mastering effects chain in SoundForge includes:<\/p>\n