deeaa
October 31st, 2010, 02:58 PM
Man,
Just been mixing for hours today.
We've been working on this Whobody EP release for like years already, and it's just 4 songs. You've heard them all here in beta form or another. We haven't worked on them like a normal band would, there have been months of gaps, but, you know, I must have done like a hundred or so mixes on them. Drums been replaced at least a dozen times each track, and must be thousands of little tweaks.
It's been pretty tiring. Now all we need is one guitar solo that is in the works, mix it in, and it's good to go mastering. I've been reading up on that too..I mean, I've mastered many a CD but still, always good to read up on stuff. So now I have test masters getting ready, doing them in 24 bit -6 level so it surely won't limit none (there's a gazillion processors on the tracks already) and it's starting to sound real pleasing to me.
This far, I've had like 6-7 processors on the master strip; last month I've been refining the mixes so that I can eliminate them one by one; remove one master compressor by doing the same effect manually on track EQ's and their respective compressors, as I really don't want to make these the usual modern over-compressed-MP3 route...I want them to have clear and well-thought out stereo images and depths to instruments, been really working hard adjusting the phases and all kinds of minute details from the choice of dithering process to small surgical paragraphic dips into some bass tones...
Well, I dunno if it's gonna be that much better in the final stage, but it's been a helluva learning experience in mixing and mastering, doing these. In the past I've used pretty heavy master effects, multiband compression and all kinds of exciters, this tÃ*me I've worked hard to get rid of that and achieve the same with as little processing as possible.
Sure the 'home studio' grade equipment in many ways hinders the possibilities of making a true 'hi-fi' record but, I dunno, I'm pretty happy how it's turning out. Maybe we're missing some of the extreme hard-hitting impact of modern pop/rock releases, but I feel happy about letting it breathe a little more.
And, it's not like we're making the songs to sell them, it's pretty much for our own delight and sense of accomplishment.
Just wanted to share the feeling of revelation...you know, I've worked in many a studio and thought I pretty well understood recording, mixing and mastering, but it seems the more you know, the more you understand how little you do know. I've just recently realized I don't really understand the concept and usage of M/S equalization in mastering for instance, but I guess that'll have to wait for the next release to come along. And, I'm starting to develop this dream of maybe one day getting to work on a 5.1 recording or mixing project. Man, audio work is endlessly intriguing! I could work as an audio engineer/mixer for living quite happily, if that were financially feasible, it's just so much fun!
The only thing I don't like is, these sound so nice in 24bit format, I just worry how are they going to translate to MP3 format, especially on websites forcing them to something like 128 or - ugh - even 64bitrates.
Just been mixing for hours today.
We've been working on this Whobody EP release for like years already, and it's just 4 songs. You've heard them all here in beta form or another. We haven't worked on them like a normal band would, there have been months of gaps, but, you know, I must have done like a hundred or so mixes on them. Drums been replaced at least a dozen times each track, and must be thousands of little tweaks.
It's been pretty tiring. Now all we need is one guitar solo that is in the works, mix it in, and it's good to go mastering. I've been reading up on that too..I mean, I've mastered many a CD but still, always good to read up on stuff. So now I have test masters getting ready, doing them in 24 bit -6 level so it surely won't limit none (there's a gazillion processors on the tracks already) and it's starting to sound real pleasing to me.
This far, I've had like 6-7 processors on the master strip; last month I've been refining the mixes so that I can eliminate them one by one; remove one master compressor by doing the same effect manually on track EQ's and their respective compressors, as I really don't want to make these the usual modern over-compressed-MP3 route...I want them to have clear and well-thought out stereo images and depths to instruments, been really working hard adjusting the phases and all kinds of minute details from the choice of dithering process to small surgical paragraphic dips into some bass tones...
Well, I dunno if it's gonna be that much better in the final stage, but it's been a helluva learning experience in mixing and mastering, doing these. In the past I've used pretty heavy master effects, multiband compression and all kinds of exciters, this tÃ*me I've worked hard to get rid of that and achieve the same with as little processing as possible.
Sure the 'home studio' grade equipment in many ways hinders the possibilities of making a true 'hi-fi' record but, I dunno, I'm pretty happy how it's turning out. Maybe we're missing some of the extreme hard-hitting impact of modern pop/rock releases, but I feel happy about letting it breathe a little more.
And, it's not like we're making the songs to sell them, it's pretty much for our own delight and sense of accomplishment.
Just wanted to share the feeling of revelation...you know, I've worked in many a studio and thought I pretty well understood recording, mixing and mastering, but it seems the more you know, the more you understand how little you do know. I've just recently realized I don't really understand the concept and usage of M/S equalization in mastering for instance, but I guess that'll have to wait for the next release to come along. And, I'm starting to develop this dream of maybe one day getting to work on a 5.1 recording or mixing project. Man, audio work is endlessly intriguing! I could work as an audio engineer/mixer for living quite happily, if that were financially feasible, it's just so much fun!
The only thing I don't like is, these sound so nice in 24bit format, I just worry how are they going to translate to MP3 format, especially on websites forcing them to something like 128 or - ugh - even 64bitrates.