Topic: Anyone up for a mastering masterclass?

[powermonkey]

Tape David Ford the other night, was lucky enough to be able to run a stand and plug into the board. Turned out really nicely, didn't touch the levels all night, nice and clean recordings.

However... this particular recording may be used for either a CD or a DVD to be sold for charity at future DF shows, and I'm intrigued as to how I would go about improving it. I'm well aware that I don't have good enough software, or monitors, to be messing with it.

I figured that as you folks know more than I ever will about such things, I'd stick up a sample and see whether any of you had any suggestions.

I used an R09 into the board at 24/48, and a pair of AT933s into a CA ST9100 into my R09HR at 24/96. I then rejigged the 24/96 to 24/48 and synched the two sources (by chopping the board feed into separate tracks and lining 'em up as best I could. Then I mixed down to stereo and normalised (to -0.1db) and tracked. All this was done using Audacity.

Here's a track at 16/44.1 WAV:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=SUPANHHL

Any suggestions as to how I might EQ, compress, etc etc to get the best possible sound for a CD release? I'm not expecting miracles, but if people are going to buy it for charity I want 'em to get their money's worth (and obviously it would be handy knowledge for the future).

I'm hopefully going to hand over all the raw files, as well as the various attempts I've made, to DF's sound guy to have a crack at it, but I'd love to see what you folk make of it.

Thanks, all.

[powermonkey]

Pretty please? Could really do with some help on this one.
 

[Liquid Drum]

I'd say send it to their guy and let him mess with it. But also send them your sample aswell just in case they might like it.

[powermonkey]

I'd say send it to their guy and let him mess with it. But also send them your sample aswell just in case they might like it.

I'm going to send 'em the raw files, the tracked 24bit version and the 16/44.1 version, along with copious notes about what gear I used, etc etc. I figure that as it's two stereo recordings, there won't be a tremendous amount that can be done, but I'd wager that it'll still sound better than my attempt.

[gratefulphish]

I'd say send it to their guy and let him mess with it. But also send them your sample aswell just in case they might like it.

I'm going to send 'em the raw files, the tracked 24bit version and the 16/44.1 version, along with copious notes about what gear I used, etc etc. I figure that as it's two stereo recordings, there won't be a tremendous amount that can be done, but I'd wager that it'll still sound better than my attempt.

Good idea.  If you are not up to speed on mastering, then giving them the raw files will allow them to do anything possible with the material that you captured.  I tend to work on matrices in parts, i.e. the mic set and the board set, separately, until I get each sounding as good as I can, and then do the mixing of the two.  I also usually test it out with just a limited segment, so that I can try different options, without having to process entire sets repeatedly, if I did not like the sound.

[Dede2002]

I'd say send it to their guy and let him mess with it. But also send them your sample aswell just in case they might like it.

I like it.

[rowjimmytour]

I did not listen to sample but my advise would be if you can get your hands on Vegas it would make things easier to mix and would be a breeze. I mix sources together and play w/ master volume so it peaks around -1.5dB top and then I render tracks together. I would only normalize the 16 bit version and leave the 24 bit to peak around -1.5dB-3dB depending on the music but of course you want to normalize at 24 bit and save as the 16 bit copy. Depending on the levels normalizing is not always the way to go. Check out:
http://taperssection.com/index.php/topic,5432.0.html

[davepeck]

just wanted to say that i really appreciate you posting this because i had no idea David Ford was coming around. unfortunately i have conflicting shows on 10/30 and 11/1, but i will definitely travel to NYC to see him on 10/28. +T

[powermonkey]

just wanted to say that i really appreciate you posting this because i had no idea David Ford was coming around. unfortunately i have conflicting shows on 10/30 and 11/1, but i will definitely travel to NYC to see him on 10/28. +T

David Ford is an exceptionally talented guy, and his Milk & Cookies charity shows are always a hell of a laugh. Wish I could go to all three this year, but that's not quite realistic.