This is a course not to be missed. Conor Dalton from glowcast mastering invites us to a mastering party with all his favourite compressors techniques as guests.
Using real world examples he digs deep into this often mis-understood world, showing us that loud and proud isn't always the best. Covering compression, dynamic range and EQing techniques, there is something here for even the most accomplished of engineers. You are guaranteed to have a better understanding of mastering after this.
Hey I don't want to undermine this video series but seriously are you claiming you did Daft Punk's Tron mastering or even just 'End Of Line'? Looking at discogs.com it says it was done by Patricia Sullivan at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. What's the deal here cos I couldn't believe that such a massive blockbuster would leave mastering down to a guy using Cubase (no offence) rather than using some of the greatest mastering houses with some of the best ears and gear in the world? That stem mix of 'End Of Line' is the one that has gone around the underbelly of the internet cos I downloaded it too. Can you clear this up for us guys!
no no! I had absolutely nothing to do with Daft Punk's Tron soundtrack mastering, I only used their stems here as an example as they're available online, and it's interesting to see how they presented their files for that track.
I did however master music for Daft Punk, which was their 1994 track "Drive" which came out on Soma finally in 2011, and also remastered their remix of "Scott Groove - Mothership Reconnection" which also came out on Soma in 2011 as part of their 20 years celebrations.
Hope that clears it up, i didn't intend to be misleading! But looking back i can see how that looks confusing. Thanks, Conor
correction: *Scott Grooves*
Very helpful tips and info Conor! Your "house party" examples for the different types of compression were pretty clever, and made the concepts more understandable for me. Cheers
Thanks for clearing that up Conor, I didn't doubt you had done other work with Daft Punk, just seeing an epic Hollywood soundtrack in the mix made me question things a little too much!
I don't understand the need to know where the music, stems, parts, pre and post master came from. It was not necessary to the understanding of the principles of the techniques... IT WAS JUST PICKING FLIES! To be fair if Conor had mastered the soundtrack for TRON would it have made the techniques he explained better to you? Or would you have trusted them more? Makes no odds to me!? Kudos Conor GREAT tutorials!
I don't understand the need to know where the music, stems, parts, pre and post master came from. It was not necessary to the understanding of the principles of the techniques... IT WAS JUST PICKING FLIES! To be fair if Conor had mastered the soundtrack for TRON would it have made the techniques he explained better to you? Or would you have trusted them more? Makes no odds to me!? Kudos Conor GREAT tutorials!
i wish for sonic academy to do tutorials on how to do the DICE Track , this is real tech house and music i want to do ...
Loving the party metaphors Connor! ha ha quality tutorial so far. Gonna take a look at the EQ one tomorrow.
Thanks, everyone!
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Great tutorial, and great review of some of the common techniques. One thing I would like to say is that with some of the A/B comparisons, it was mentioned that 'you probably wont hear the difference since this is a compressed media file while over the internet'. Very true. In that case, why not offer a high resolution video file option with the audio encoded at 44/48khz audio non-compressed in the video file? Something like lo-res and hi-res options and/or the audio files themselves so the viewer can get the idea of what the actual differences are. I agree 100% that to really get the subtleties that mastering accomplishes and how that affects the whole balance for the intended results, you need to hear the full resolution. Also, some of the A/B comparisons were quite fast in the videos, whether it could have been heard with higher resolution might be the key, but I really had a hard time telling the difference. Lastly the audio glitches a lot this should really not be in the video, either edited out, or avoided entirely. Increasing the audio buffer size might help it groove with camera software better. Otherwise a very informative and well presented series. Keep up the good work!
Wow.. your example of compression made something click in my head! love it
Brilliant tutorial !!, I was wondering, after mastering the end product will be able to be heard properly in a CD player as well radio brodcast, normal hi Fi system , beatport, itune, etc ? or perhaps there are some technics in the mixing production process to improve that situation?, i found that some of my production where i've been very carefull about creating space sounds so well with my monitor studio or high entry studio headphones , but when i play it with my hi fi on in all stereo or ipod i loose bass and med sounds, compared to a mp3 track that i bought from e.g beatport, obviously it was mastered though
Brilliant tutorial !!, I was wondering, after mastering the end product will be able to be heard properly in a CD player as well radio brodcast, normal hi Fi system , beatport, itune, etc ? or perhaps there are some technics in the mixing production process to improve that situation?, i found that some of my production where i've been very carefull about creating space sounds so well with my monitor studio or high entry studio headphones , but when i play it with my hi fi on in all stereo or ipod i loose bass and med sounds, compared to a mp3 track that i bought from e.g beatport, obviously it was mastered though
Brilliant tutorial !!, I was wondering, after mastering the end product will be able to be heard properly in a CD player as well radio brodcast, normal hi Fi system , beatport, itune, etc ? or perhaps there are some technics in the mixing production process to improve that situation?, i found that some of my production where i've been very carefull about creating space sounds so well with my monitor studio or high entry studio headphones , but when i play it with my hi fi on in all stereo or ipod i loose bass and med sounds, compared to a mp3 track that i bought from e.g beatport, obviously it was mastered though
Hi Conor, first of all, i do not know how the heck my message got repeated 3 times.
You mentioned on your intro a few condition to get mixing material, I got a bit confused with No Limiter restriction.
I learned that is advisable to add an ableton audio effect limiter on the master track with a celling of -3db, I presume the headroom that you & s. engineers work with, also there are other goodies to be added on the master track such as multiband dynamic, etc, in some sonic academic tutorials is called House Mater Chain . Can you please clarify this subject?
Hi Conor, any feedback about my questions above?
Hey pumasdaniel, sorry for the delay, I just got back from holidays. Please email me at conor@glowcast.co.uk to talk more.
rfm: good points and well and truly noted, thanks for your feedback.