This is the blog for Fluid Mastering, where we’re going to be sharing some thoughts and tips about mastering, but we also invite you to get in touch, tell us about your mastering experiences and ask us any questions about mastering in general or our services in particular.
If you don’t know who we are, there’s a brief introduction to us at the blog here.
We’re pretty busy right now, and our first full post is still in the pipeline, but in the meantime there will be some video and audio content from artists that we’ve worked with. Also, please feel free to help get the ball rolling by replying below with any questions or suggestions for content you’d like to see.
In the first of these posts I talked about how excessive levels combined with dynamic processing at various points in the production can give rise to a lack of energy and punch in a mix, making it sound flat and artificial. This time I’m warning against another consequence of excessively high levels: clipping distortion.
Clipping is what happens when your DAW (workstation), or a plug-in within it (or any piece of audio equipment for that matter) cannot pass or replicate the signal you are trying to create because it goes beyond the limits of the system. The signal wants to rise, but it hits the ceiling and just flat-lines there.
Back in the day when we recorded analogue onto tape, everyone seemed to have at least a rough idea how to use a VU meter to guide them towards a sensible operating level, with a reasonable amount of headroom. These days, it would appear that the nature of digital metering makes it harder to figure out how hot a recorded signal should be, and many amateur engineers will tend towards over rather than under-modulating the signal, whether it be at the pre-amp stage, the A-D conversion stage, or internally within their DAW when bouncing down tracks.
The key thing here is; there’s just no need for it. As Mastering Engineer John Scrip says in his excellent blog on the subject:
“You’re in the age of 24-bit digital recording.
Relax and enjoy the headroom”
Now, you may think that distortion is only going to be an issue at mastering if it is particularly noticeable in your mix. You could be wrong. Your flat mix may not sound too distorted to you, but you’ve brought your recordings to a (hopefully) skilled and well equipped practitioner of the dark and mysterious art of mastering (not some numpty who’s just going to turn it up and make it more distorted). What happens next? We have no idea what fascinating techniques he or she might wish to employ to bring your tracks to life and give them the edge they previously lacked, or to help provide that ideal perspective and clarity to each and every instrument… It would be a shame would it not, if the game-changing processing technique your Mastering Engineer has up his sleeve cannot be used because it reveals the distortion in your mix.
So – keep it clean guys…
Beginner’s Tip: There are new products coming on the market all the time designed to help you optimise your levels, but if you don’t have decent metering or are not sure how to use it, here’s a rule of thumb: If in doubt, turn it down. Where it was once essential to keep levels up in order to avoid noise in your recording, it is now far more likely that you’ll do damage by having your level too high than too low. It does not mean that you’re getting it wrong if your meters aren’t in the red all the time!
Still to come: file-names, media and The Mix Bomb (gulp!). In the next post: clipping of a different sort.
We were recently paid a visit by producer Phil English (Feeder, Biffy Clyro) and Mike Banks from the renowned RecordProduction.com website. They wanted us to help them with their enquiries.
We put the kettle on. Mike pointed a microphone at us. Phil asked us some searching questions. We opened our mouths and noises came out.
We’re often asked “what makes a track un-masterable?” and although that’s an impossible question to answer, there are a few common practises, mistakes and misdemeanours which can prevent your Mastering Engineer from realising your music’s full potential, or even bring your mastering session to a complete halt.
I’m going to post these individually at first, but once they’re out there and I’ve had the chance to respond to any feedback I’ll condense them into one handy post. So do chip in if you have anything to add!
Here’s the first:
#1) Ultra-Limiting, Hyper-Compression and general Micro-Dynamic Mishaps (or IT’S TOO LOUD part i)
If you break your sound, I ain't gonna buy you another one!
Probably the most common problem Mastering Engineers encounter with the mixes presented to them is where they’re too hot. Mastering Engineers frequently use a little dynamic processing to arrive at just the right amount of punch and impact, and to be able to do this you need a mix that hasn’t been squashed to death already at the mix stage.
But it’ll be cool if I leave you some headroom, right?
Not necessarily! A lack of punch can even be a problem in a mix that has plenty of apparent headroom at the output buss. If key elements within the mix have been hyper-limited, over compressed or otherwise compromised by excessive processing or clipping, you don’t get that energy back just by bringing the level down afterwards to avoid clipping at the output.
So what; limiters are bad?
Not at all! Use limiters where necessary to make things sound better. Just don’t assume that things are better just because they’re louder! The point of a limiter is to reduce excessive peak energy (yes, I really mean amplitude but I’m writing for the lay person here) – so use your ears; decide how much of that energy is excessive and how much is just right!
Solution: avoid the temptation to use make-up gain when deploying dynamic processing across the mix, and listen carefully to what it’s doing. Use compression and limiting to shape your sound (rather than take the shape out) and leave the final level to your Mastering Engineer.
Beginner’s Tip: If you have a limiter on your output and you don’t actually know what it’s doing, open it up. If it’s providing more than 2dB of gain reduction most of the way through the track (as opposed to at just a couple of isolated points) then it’s probably having a significantly audible effect and you should know what that effect is. Take off the make-up gain and listen to what the limiter is doing; If you like the effect, then fine – if not, reduce the level going into it.
So there you go; I hope that made sense. Still to come in this series of posts, I’ll be warning about the perils of unwanted distortion, and advising on best practises when exporting and naming files among other things…
Groups with guitars is the theme for this edition of SoundPost where we have pleasure in sharing with you some new releases from the world of Indie Rock. Hope you enjoy these tracks, each of which was helped into the world via the mystic midwifery practiced in our beautifully furnished but slightly untidy audio mastering studio…
One of the most talked about acts of 2012 so far, Howler are from Minneapolis and have signed a four album deal with Rough Trade in the UK. The music has a raw garage-rock flavour but with a pop sensibility running right through it (writer Jordan Gatesmith claims to have locked himself away with only The Jesus And Mary Chain for company while writing debut album “America Give Up”).
When the album came in for mastering it was accompanied by a clear brief from Jordan to ensure that it had plenty of crunch, and was not to be polished or finessed – rather, there were a couple of tracks that sounded too pretty already and the whole thing needed to be moved towards an edgier, punkier sound. No problemo. I must give some credit here to the excellent Manley Massive Passive EQ for helping to add some additional grit to tracks such as this, the debut single “Back Of Your Neck”.
I said “groups with guitars” didn’t I? Well then ok, you got me – Elsie isn’t strictly speaking a group-with-guitars, she’s a solo artist – but most certainly not one of the wallflower variety. Elsie’s got swagger, and her music employs the guitar-band aesthetic to great effect, often reminiscent of Blondie at their energetic best. Her press describes her as an alpha-woman and from this great video it’s not hard to see why.
Kirsten Ross’ vocals have invited comparisons to PJ Harvey and Stevie Nicks, while the pounding rhythm section of Mark McClelland (Snow Patrol) and Michael Branagh (Degrassi) comes over like a beefed up Grandaddy taking Elastica’s best hooks to the prom with a half bottle of Makers Mark in one pocket and a three pack of Trojan in the other! Look out for debut album “Rock Riot Soul” coming out in March 2012…
Welcome to another selection of video and audio snippets, all of which have passed through our celebrated mastering studio. This time we combine the worlds of Folk, Jazz and Acoustic music.
This is taken from the album “Folly” which according to The Times “…is very English, very unusual and proof that if you want to make art, you just have to ignore debilitating forces and get on with it.” A fine album, both delicate and spooky at times. If there were still such things as record shops in the high street you’d find it filed under ‘Folk’ but to call it such undermines it’s eclecticism and originality. The album is out on Teaspoon Records – and “Honey In The Rock” has also been released on 7″ vinyl by Rough Trade.
Rather more upbeat and yet no less beguiling is this track from Rachael Dadd’s new album “Bite The Mountain”, also backed up with an animation. The album and singles are out on Broken Sound and singles available in special edition packaging featuring handmade artwork by Rachael.
Something of an acoustic guitar supergroup, 3 Boxes is a trio comprising Andy Roberts, Clive Gregson and Mark Griffiths and their début album “Strings Attached” was produced by none other than John Wood; one of those figures in the music industry whose name it seems is now always preceded by the word “legendary”, and rightly so. This instrumental album encompasses a vast range of musical styles from folk, blues and swing, to ballads and beyond. Don’t be put off by the video, in which a vast outdoor and windswept visual sits rather incongruously with this fine intimate recording…
Prepare for a clashing of adjectives. WSP have been described as everything from jazz-punk to post-prog funk and are a force to be reckoned with. Imagine a four-way cage match between Frank Zappa, Weather Report, Stravinsky and Meshuggah… got it? No? Oh well – probably best you go see them live, or you could watch this – which features them in reflective mode. Taken from their album “Relentless“, which was recorded at the fantastic Cowshed Studio in North London.
Acoustic, lo-fi and lush; this is taken from the début album “Lantern”, available now. The 12 songs on the album make creative use of a variety of instruments including a string section, accordion, piano, banjo, Hawaiian guitar, trumpet, saxophone, bowed saw and a choir.
In our continuing series of audio and video clips by clients of Fluid Mastering, SoundPost number 3 visits the zone where indie rock and pop meet, and features one bona fide legend. In fact we’ll kick off with him…
The brand new studio album from post-punk bass/dub master Jah Wobble is a collaboration with Manchester’s rising star Julie Campbell, who issued an acclaimed album on Warp as Lonelady in 2010. Psychic Life sees Wobble reunited with fellow ex-PiL guitarist Keith Levene for the first time since the groundbreaking Metal Box album.
Benbo’s debut album “It’s A Long Road And I Need Someone To Hold My Hand” is an eclectic mix of indie pop and electronica and has been released independently. Visit the World of Benbo for more…
Taken from the album “Siberian Dream Map” in which Francesca Lago combines rich cello with edgy guitars to create a singer-songwriter album with a garage band sensibility. Recorded in Milan, mixed in the UK by deskmeister Jeff Knowler, and out now on On The Camper records.
Rita Ro is a songwriter and experimental artist from Mexico City, now based in London. Her début album ‘Renaissance’ is darkly intimate, delicate at times but with it’s roots in alternative rock. A self taught musician, her use of overdubbed live drums and otherworldly sounds gives this album a diverse, original and haunting quality. It’s available through her website.
In this, our second collection of musical morsels, we hover in the vicinity of rock and metal. As ever, all these tracks were mastered at Fluid Mastering.
Primal Rock Rebellion is a new studio project from Iron Maiden guitarist Adrian Smith and former SikTh front-man Mikee Goodman. The album “Awoken Broken” is to be released on 27th February 2012 on Spinefarm Records.
Who did Metallica support on their first UK tour? That’s right: Venom – inventors of Black Metal – and their new album “Fallen Angels” touched down last year to some great reviews. The first single “Hammerhead” was also available on 10″ vinyl, also cut here.
In the first of a series of video and audio posts featuring tracks mastered here at Fluid Mastering, we present a trio of pop gems, in mostly electronic vein.
December 2011 sees the release of The Correspondents’ first single, ‘Cheating With You’; a twisted love song carried on the back of a growling electro beast which explores a new sound for The Correspondents. Road tested at all the major festivals this year, Cheating With You is already a firm favourite with thousands of fans.
Back in early 2011, Rupert Brown of The DSP Project visited Fluid Mastering to interview our very own Tim Debney. Many thanks to Rupert for letting us repost his work here.
In part 1, Tim discusses his background and introduction to mastering, cutting vinyl, working at the legendary Townhouse Studios, and the birth of Fluid Mastering:
In part 2, Tim talks about equipment, the relative merits of analogue and digital processing, and the battle between loudness and dynamics:
And finally part 3, in which Tim advises against overcooking your mix, warns against taking the cheap option, and explains about how mastering engineers listen and the importance of an accurate monitoring environment:
Thanks again to The DSP Project for letting us use their content. Head on over there for more interviews, gear reviews, tips and techniques.
Finally, here are the full “Mastering – The Movie” clips Tim refers to in part 3 of the interview; thanks to Macc (whoever you are) for creating them; absolutely hilarious and so true but – for the record – £300 to master 12 tracks is way cheap too…!
