Hi Sonic Academy team,
Can you give me some information on the kinds of processes and techniques that are used during the mixing and mastering stages of tracks that are released on the major labels, in order to get them sounding so full, pounding, clear and to get that awesome seperation between each element of the track?
What i mean is…when i purchase and listen to wav’s that i have bought of commercially released tracks from major labels, the sound is simply awesome, so i presume these have been through processes such as perhaps being engineered and mixed by the labels in-house/contracted engineer(s), and i presume that in most cases, these tracks sound SO good because they are mixed and mastered by specialist engineers using high-end plug-ins and/or outboard?
Can you give me some advice on what you typically have to do to achieve a sound that is comparible to this? For example, is there any way that you can get the same level of sound in your own home studio if you had high-end plug-ins/expensive outboard and knew what you were doing? Or do you think realistically, you have to use third-party specialist engineers to achieve such a good quality of sound?
As a hypothetical example - if you guys released a proper track on a label to sell, would you always end up getting the track mixed and mastered by third-party specialist engineers(s) before being released and sold?
I can provide clips of tracks where i think the sound is amazing and must have been engineered by a specialist if that would help - then you can tell me what you think has been done to the track to get it sounding that amazing!
Let me know your thoughts?
Regards,
David.
Its not about the gear its about talented producers and hard work.
making sure every sound in every part of the track sounds awesome with the right fx then making sure its perfectly balanced.
im sorry there is no easy answer to your question… if it was easy im sure there would be a ton more great sounding tracks.
he’s right david. there’s no magic way of doing this. i spend hours upon hours practicing and believe it or not IT DOES PAY OFF. the last thing you should think is that some mastering engineer is going to save your track from sounding dull. doesn’t work like that.
not only are those producers you’re talking about mad talented they probably been doing it for a loooong time!!
practice like a maniac and when your done practicing…wake up and practice some more.:w00t:
check out Demac’s tech tip on stereo width. that’s a nice one imo!!
Yes i agree with what you have both said - but perhaps i didn’t really phrase the question as good as i could have!
Here’s a more direct question that kind of gets straight to the root of what i intended to ask:
If you downloaded the current Beatport Top 100 tracks, how many of those tracks do you think have come straight out of the producers home studio computer, without the producer sending the track off anywhere else for any external processing whatsoever?
i.e. i’m trying to get a feel for whether ALL top producers eventually send their tracks off for some kind of external processing before they release them - or are some top producers SO GOOD that they release their tracks direct from their home studio computers without any external processing whatsoever?
Lots of people get their tracks mastered by a 3rd party but its only the last 1-2% of getting the tracking sounding good.
Some really big artist might employ a mix engineer… although this is more likely in pop records.
every constituent part needs to be right before you get to the mixing stage… then mastering should really only be about getting the levels up without damaging the sound.
Theres no magic trick its just perfectionism on each part of the process
Thanks Phil.
Just a bit of feedback for you - I’ve been a fully paid member of Sonic Academy from the early days, and i’m really impressed with the way the site/service seems to be going from strength to strength!
Some of the tutorials you’re banging out now are superb, and the new stuff you’ve added such as the live session has been really good.
Love the way you reply quickly directly to subscriber questions in this part of the forum as well - really useful!
It’s great to have some experienced producers to ask direct, specific questions to - well worth the subscription fee i think!
Keep up the good work lads!!!
thanks for the feedback… weve been working hard getting artist content… lots of stuff in the pipeline from some cool producers.
some more live stuff coming too.
[quote]davidmclean (12/06/2012)[hr]Thanks Phil.
Love the way you reply quickly directly to subscriber questions in this part of the forum as well - really useful!
[/quote]
+1
[quote]davidmclean (12/06/2012)[hr]or are some top producers SO GOOD that they release their tracks direct from their home studio computers without any external processing whatsoever?[/quote]
impossible to really know this. i guess they could be a top notch mastering engineer as well as great producer. hard to tell unless you know of some pros that do both.(doubt many do though)
chris agnelli might… in the last part of one of his tutorials it looked like he was mastering his track.
yeah i’ve never actually downloaded a proper .wav file of one of the Sonic Academy guys productions - to see how it compares when the file played on my home studio system is top quality?
I’m presuming the tutors on this site don’t make their tutorial tracks available for download as .wav files / 320kbps mp3’s - so can’t really make that comparison!
i’m guessing that even producers who are very good at mixing and mastering themselves, would always send their tracks off for some external mixing /mastering before releasing it for general sale though - just to get that extra little sound quality even if the track already sounds really good!
i guess once you get to the top you do pretty much anything even just to get that extra 1% quality into your productions!