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Gear / Technical Help => Ask The Tapers => Topic started by: down2earthlandscaper on September 18, 2019, 04:47:41 PM

Title: How would one master this?
Post by: down2earthlandscaper on September 18, 2019, 04:47:41 PM
At Elton John last night the drummer and bassist dropped a few Bombs reminiscent of the Phil Lesh bass bombs from summer of 1985. They sound so cool! I want to preserve the character of them but bring the levels of the rest of the song up. They did it a number of times throughout the show but it was especially ridiculous during the second song. My levels went from peaking at -12 to all of a sudden spiking up close to 0. I actually got red LED's on the Sony M-10.
I'll attach a screenshot of the raw waveform and the waveform after my attempt at mastering, as well as associated wav files.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0jwz14rvixmhmm9/EltonJohn.track2.Raw.wav?dl=0

https://www.dropbox.com/s/y0slw6e5k9776tn/EltonJohn.track2.Mastered.wav?dl=0
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: aaronji on September 18, 2019, 04:54:46 PM
I would try limiting them to the level of the non-bomb peaks. If that is too much for your taste, you can set the threshold a bit higher.
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: Gordon on September 18, 2019, 05:29:46 PM
just raise the gain everywhere except those spots.
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: ilduclo on September 18, 2019, 06:17:52 PM
just raise the gain everywhere except those spots.

agree
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: morst on September 18, 2019, 06:36:28 PM
You could try using compression, or even the vaunted “New York” compression?!
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: EmRR on September 18, 2019, 07:35:16 PM
Might try parallel compression (NY?), flattening the bombs and then find the best balance between processed and unprocessed. 
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: admkrk on September 18, 2019, 08:26:32 PM
just raise the gain everywhere except those spots.

I would do the opposite. Lower it at the peaks, then raise the whole thing.
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: nulldogmas on September 18, 2019, 08:40:41 PM
You could try using compression, or even the vaunted “New York” compression?!

Dynamic compression would do nicely here. Just set the threshold above the level of the non-bomb music.
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: Gordon on September 18, 2019, 08:52:59 PM
just raise the gain everywhere except those spots.

I would do the opposite. Lower it at the peaks, then raise the whole thing.

Sure but he said he wanted to leave the bass bombs as is. At least that's how I took it.
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: tim in jersey on September 18, 2019, 11:27:32 PM
You could try using compression, or even the vaunted “New York” compression?!

Ditto. https://taperssection.com/index.php?topic=137594.0
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: down2earthlandscaper on September 18, 2019, 11:29:09 PM
Nice. Thanks for the tips so far. I’ll take a look at this “Parallel Compression”
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: ilduclo on September 18, 2019, 11:35:38 PM
cut a bit out and flac a copy to wetrans. A few of us could try it our ways and you could be the judge
Title: Re: How would one master this?
Post by: fandelive on September 19, 2019, 10:38:18 AM
just raise the gain everywhere except those spots.

I would do the opposite. Lower it at the peaks, then raise the whole thing.

This. Lower the loud parts with envelope tool. Then normalize the whole thing.

I've been using envelope tool to lower loud screamers lately with great natural sounding result.