Learning to Master Tracks

Is it really hard?

Any books on Doing so?

It is very difficult. It takes years of training to be DECENT at it. And the best have been doing it for decades.



There are some books out there, but I would personally stay away unless thats your calling.

[quote]howiegroove (03/04/2010)[hr]It is very difficult. It takes years of training to be DECENT at it. And the best have been doing it for decades.



There are some books out there, but I would personally stay away unless thats your calling.[/quote]



Im 17 and i wanna learn as much as possible! i might give it a go! but Full sail Classes are a little expensive

Howie I really struggle to understand your position on this, this forum supposed to be about helping each other to learn!



Agreed, it takes practise (what dosnt?) but why would you stay away from it?

Seriously why won’t you explore at least the basics of it? When it could help you with your productions! A lot of it is actually an exact science, that can be applied at any stage of production!



Subject 1, it’s great that you wanna get in to this much ‘unloved’ subject. I’ve covered some basics of it at uni, the consensus is that you need to invest time and loads of it, acquire some ‘critical listening skills’ and basically have a lot of patience because you’re not gonna become good over night.



As far as I know, one of the best books is by Bob Katz called… ‘Mastering Audio’

I’ve also bought recently ‘Mastering Music at Home’ by Mitch Gallagher, it seems to be more accessible but not as detailed.(i’ve only skipped through the pages tho) You can also find some books on critical listening, just heave a look on amazon.



You obviously can’t learn to master just by reading books, so you gonna have to get on with it, more you do it better you become :smiley:



Ask your mates if you can master their productions for them so you not always working on your own tracks (its difficult to get a ‘distance’)



Anyhow the books ive mentioned are a good start



Good luck! :smiley:




Basic mastering isn’t hard

Professional mastering is very hard.



It’s a skill that will take you many years to become good at, but it’s a very valuable skill to have, if you are willing to put the time in to learn and go down that route.



There is a mastering tutorial in the Sonic Academy Video tutorials, it should give you an over view as to basic mastering, but learning this will not make you a professional in mastering.

It is good enough for the producer who wants to bring out his own tracks so that they’re at a level loud enough to play in the clubs without clipping etc, but it wont get you the kind of quality you’d hear from more commercial known tracks.


[quote]Subject 1 (03/04/2010)[hr][quote]howiegroove (03/04/2010)[hr]It is very difficult. It takes years of training to be DECENT at it. And the best have been doing it for decades.

There are some books out there, but I would personally stay away unless thats your calling.[/quote]

Im 17 and i wanna learn as much as possible! i might give it a go! but Full sail Classes are a little expensive[/quote]so is the equipment… VERY expensive. the good shizzle i mean.

First off…Subject…you in Orlando? I live in a suburb of Orlando! But I’m friends with Francis Preve and we talked about school and stuff. He told me personally that he believes that Full Sail is overpriced and there are better academic institutions out there.



And Second… Seanl. I think there are people out there that dedicate their lives to mastering music. Many dont have it in them, however, if you do, please by all means go for it. If its your calling, then try it out. But I have Mr. Katz’s book. It helped me understand audio and where my sounds should be in my mix, but it doesn’t teach you how to master. I’m not against it though. It’s just not for everyone. And if you do decide to master (here we go again), I feel that the real deal is mastering on outboard gear. SSL Consoles, Eventide equipment, etc. If you do, then there is one thing for sure, people can’t knock you for mastering in the box.



But yeah, don’t listen to uncle Howie. If its your calling, go for it dude. I’ll root you on. Just make sure its what you really want to do.

[quote]howiegroove (03/04/2010)[hr]First off…Subject…you in Orlando? I live in a suburb of Orlando! But I’m friends with Francis Preve and we talked about school and stuff. He told me personally that he believes that Full Sail is overpriced and there are better academic institutions out there.[/quote]



No im actually from California, but ive been to Florida a multiple of times and visted Full Sail and it was very intriguing, I want to be able to do it all Make music, Mater it, Distribute it, and DJ. Yeah i also believe is over priced. Im surrounded by artist over here and producers and even some famous Music Masters who work with people such as Rusko, The Tender Box (UK hit), Diplo, and many others and i want to do what they do! I love music i studied its history and its deliquesce and now im learning to produce thanks to this beautiful site! One thing These people over here told me is that they learned individually and didn’t need school although they attended just to receive their bachelors etc

[quote]roben (03/04/2010)[hr]Basic mastering isn’t hard

Professional mastering is very hard.



It’s a skill that will take you many years to become good at, but it’s a very valuable skill to have, if you are willing to put the time in to learn and go down that route.



There is a mastering tutorial in the Sonic Academy Video tutorials, it should give you an over view as to basic mastering, but learning this will not make you a professional in mastering.

It is good enough for the producer who wants to bring out his own tracks so that they’re at a level loud enough to play in the clubs without clipping etc, but it wont get you the kind of quality you’d hear from more commercial known tracks.



[/quote]



Wow Great advice man! Yeah like i told Howie i want to be good at everything! Mastering is something else i want to be able to master my own tracks without professional help even if im decent at it i dont care i want to feel like i did all the work.

Something that I know for a fact is that Wolfgang Gartner does everything himself. He also does some super crazy shiz with some parallel compression and all, but I have been told by people that have worked directly with him is that the second he hits bounce, it’s pretty much off to Beatport.

i think there is a major difference between mastering commercially and mastering to be played in a club maybe a handful of times.



if you have a major hit on your hands like robert miles did with Children then pay for the best mastering you can get, other than that slap a compressor, eq or limiter on it bang it out in the clubs till you get bored and move onto the next one.





i wouldn’t pay for mastering much in the same way as i wouldn’t pay for a engineer unless it was gonna earn me at least twice what i pay for it :slight_smile:

strange advice,but if any of you are serious about your releases or getting your songs played a few times in a club before people get bored or whatever then check out



http://www.schnittstelle.ws/Schnittstelle_-_Vinylschnitt_%26_Mastering.html

the prices are more than fair and the results are great.



another good mastering service,pricey but decent.

http://www.masterpiece.net/audiomastering.php

If you want to play your song out in a club, you don’t have to send it to mastering. All you have to do, is make it louder by running it through Ozone and adjusting the threshold and raise the input. This is a faux master so that it will sound good in a club. No need to spend cash just to do test runs.

[quote]howiegroove (06/04/2010)[hr]If you want to play your song out in a club, you don’t have to send it to mastering. All you have to do, is make it louder by running it through Ozone and adjusting the threshold and raise the input. This is a faux master so that it will sound good in a club. No need to spend cash just to do test runs.[/quote]



ahh For once I can agree with you :smiley:



Just wanted to say that you can employ abletons compressor, multiband compressor and limiter to do the same job, (if you don’t happen to have £150 for Oznone), admittedly it’s not gonna sound as good but you should get quite descent results.



On to the subject again…number of well know artists treat mastering as part of the creative process and do it themselves, others never touch it, so I guess we can agree to disagree and conclude that there is more than one school :slight_smile:

[quote]seanl (06/04/2010)[hr][quote]howiegroove (06/04/2010)[hr]If you want to play your song out in a club, you don’t have to send it to mastering. All you have to do, is make it louder by running it through Ozone and adjusting the threshold and raise the input. This is a faux master so that it will sound good in a club. No need to spend cash just to do test runs.[/quote]



ahh For once I can agree with you :smiley:



Just wanted to say that you can employ abletons compressor, multiband compressor and limiter to do the same job, (if you don’t happen to have £150 for Oznone), admittedly it’s not gonna sound as good but you should get quite descent results.



On to the subject again…number of well know artists treat mastering as part of the creative process and do it themselves, others never touch it, so I guess we can agree to disagree and conclude that there is more than one school :slight_smile:

[/quote]



I just use Ozone because I have it and its amazing, but you can achieve similar results with the tools you recommended. And yes…there are a few artists that do their own mastering. However, it is extremely rare.

my friend told me that you can achieve a decent mastering  with cubase plug ins . it was weird for him  telling me that ,since he usually master with hardware hmmm. :ermm:

[quote]alinenunez (06/04/2010)[hr]my friend told me that you can achieve a decent mastering with cubase plug ins . it was weird for him telling me that ,since he usually master with hardware hmmm. :ermm:[/quote]



you can make Napalm B with soap, gasoline, a bowl of water and a heat source if you know what you’re doing. if you don’t you’ll end up with a BIG mess.



same goes for music if you learn your tools you’ll get just as good results as you would using expensive out board.



btw when it comes to mastering many of the guys i’ve ever spoken to have told me it takes maybe 2-3 years to learn your mastering tools but 5-10 years to become a good listener :slight_smile:

[quote]jon_fisher (06/04/2010)[hr]



you can make Napalm B with soap, gasoline, a bowl of water and a heat source if you know what you’re doing. if you don’t you’ll end up with a BIG mess.

[/quote]



Carefull you’ll have Special Branch knocking on your door :stuck_out_tongue:

[quote]you can make Napalm B with soap, gasoline, a bowl of water and a heat source if you know what you’re doing. if you don’t you’ll end up with a BIG mess[/quote]

jon, ive just sent you a pm, need to just ask you some more questions for an idea ive got :stuck_out_tongue:

[quote]slender (06/04/2010)[hr][quote]jon_fisher (06/04/2010)[hr]



you can make Napalm B with soap, gasoline, a bowl of water and a heat source if you know what you’re doing. if you don’t you’ll end up with a BIG mess.

[/quote]



Carefull you’ll have Special Branch knocking on your door :P[/quote]



:smiley: