Audio Mastering: why you need it, how to do it...
Nov 18 '00
Have you ever burned a CD of the home recording you just made, and then wondered why your store bought CDs are twice as loud as yours? Of course, the major label CDs were recorded at the best studios with the best equipment and engineers, but it is possible to get close to a major label sound in your home studio, and the mastering process is an important part of obtaining that sound.
If you have a decent computer setup with decent monitoring system and the right software, you can edit and master your own recordings and save a lot of money. This is especially important if you plan on having your recording mass produced, or even if you just want to burn copies for your friends, and don't want to be embarressed by how your CD pales in comparison to the professionally produced CDs on the market. Mastering also is important for making mp3's for the internet. There are three main parts in the mastering process (at least the way I do it). These are - in order- EDITING, EQUALIZATION, and COMPRESSION/LIMITING.
This is how I edit and master my own (and my friends') recordings at home. I use an eMachines 333mhz PC with a Soundblaster Live card (not the best choice for mastering), with the soundcard hooked up to a stereo system with two sets of speakers (one set of large 3-ways, and one set of small bookshelf 2-ways). Other people might have different ideas on how to master audio, but that's the beauty of audio recording - there are no real rules. It ain't like car mechanics. Here's how I like to do it...
1) Editing - This is the first step in mastering, and it's very easy to do with any decent 2-track audio editing software. I've used Cool Edit, Cool Edit Pro, Sound Forge 4.5 (my favorite), and with Macs I've used Sound Designer II and Protools - all with good results.
The first thing I do is to zoom in on the soundwave of a song and snip off everything in the beginning except for a half second before the song begins. I leave a half second at the beginning, and convert that half second to silence. Some CD players will skip about a half second of the beginning of a song when in "skip" mode, so it's a good idea to leave a half second of silence at the beginning. Next, I go to the end of the song and decide how much space I want at the end, or maybe fade the song out. I'll usually leave 1-2 seconds at the end of a track, and convert that to silence also. If there are any glitches (musical or technical) in the song, it's fairly easy to copy, cut and paste the glitches out. The key is to zoom in on the soundwave to find the right selection points. Most of the stuff I do has drums, so I look for where the kick or snare hits are - the biggest peaks in the soundwave. Once I've got the editing done, I move on to...
2) Equalization - I usually find that my own recordings need to be brightened up, so I usually will use a four band EQ and give it a bit of a boost in the upper frequencies - 4k to 10k, and a shelf boost at 10k and up for more sizzle and "air". An important thing to remember is that when you boost frequencies in your recording, the soundwave will grow - if you've normalized your track before adding EQ, you may get some digital clipping - which if you've ever heard digital clipping, you know it sounds BAD! If you must do a lot of EQ boosting, you may want to lower the volume of the track by a db or two first. For this reason, you should not "normalize" your tracks before processing them.
I've found that the standard EQs that come with most digital audio software are okay, but the best results I've gotten are with the Waves Native Power Pack, with is a set of plugins for Sound Forge. It is expensive software (around $400) but well worth it. It includes many parametric and graphic eqs that all work very well.
3) Compression/Limiting - Compression is the key to producing a LOUD CD. Once you've gotten your track sounding good with editing and EQ, it's time to apply some compression or limiting. Once again, I've found that the standard compression functions that come with most of the major audio mastering programs are good, but you can't compress a track past a certain point without it sounding mushy. I've tried many different compression/limiting plug-ins, but once again the best I've used is the L1 Ultramaximizer that comes with the Waves Native Power Pack. The L1 Ultramaximizer is a professional look ahead limiter that can add many decibals to your track without comprimising the sound. I've been able to almost double the volume on my tracks, and have produced recordings that are just as loud sounding as the major label CDs. This plug-in kicks major tail, hands down.
One more word on "normalizing" - many people think that using the "normalize" function on their audio software will maximize the volume to its' full potential. All it really does is maximize the biggest peak of a track - if a snare hit in the track is 3 db above everything else, the snare hit will be maximized to the zero level, but everything else will still be 3 db lower. Compression/limiting will even it out, resulting in maximized loudness. I don't bother to normalize my tracks - I leave that to the L1 Ultramaximizer. It compresses the entire track and boosts the levels to the output you select (-.2 db is good).
There you have it... some basics to mastering your audio tracks. It may sound confusing, but if you get into it, it's a whole lot of fun! Also, TRUST YOUR EARS! Adjust the settings on each individual plugin (eq, compression) until it sounds right to you. Again, my favorite audio programs are Soundforge 4.5 for basic editing, and Waves Native Power Pack for eq and compression.
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Paul Blow: A man for all seasons, a man for all reasons.
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