|
|
|
Mastering & Mixing
Articles
on mastering, sound editing, mixing, synthesizers, FX use and
music production
|
Mastering - it's
meaning and the goal |
Mastering is the final, last improvement of the sound
before the reproduction of recordings in thousands
of copies on compact discs or cassettes. Mastering
is done on the finished, mixed down material.
Mastering is the next step after mixing the tracks.
It's aim is to obtain the highest possible technical
quality of the material contained on the media so
that it can compete and win over other recordings,
already present on the market. Actually, a mastered
recording must be not only technically excellent,
but also emphasize the concept of an artist in an optimum manner.
This is actually the main role of mastering. Only a combination of those two
factors, the technical and artistic makes mastered
recording a true work of art, time frozen
on...
|
revised/updated: 2024-06-30 |
|
|
The history of
Mastering |
Mastering is now a very important step in the
music production. Mastering acquired a new, much
broader
dimension in an era of digital technology, becoming
part of the production of music, which restores
music's lost depth and beauty.
In the eighties such artists as Michael
Jackson, Madonna, Whitney Houston widely used on
their recordings certain sound
improving devices, giving
them precisely this type of sound, such as the
notorious BBE processor or Aphex Aural Exciter. It is in the Eighties when
the digital technology came to recording studios
around the world for good. The digital recording technology came
through various types of digital recorders,
initially tape using DAT's, later as
recorders using various optical discs and finally the
hard disks...
|
revised/updated:
2022-09-30 |
|
|
Mastering -
preparing the material for mastering |
To make sure the final mastering of music has met all the
expectations and requirements of the source material it is essential to do the proper
preparation of the material for mastering. With regard
to achieving the best results for your audio CDs you
should observe certain rules, when it comes to
mixing down your music.
Avoid using compression or a limiter on the master
bus at
the stage of the mix. It is easy to make mistakes
over here. The bus compression results often in poor
sound and causes irreversible damage to the material
and binds the hands of a mastering specialist,
limiting the full potential of the mastering.
Professional mastering engineers have excellent gear
processors and use special techniques, which give
far better results...
|
revised/updated:
2019-09-30 |
|
|
|
|
Mixing of instrument
and vocal tracks |
The final mastering
is preceded by a musical mixing. Mix is an art that
combines individual pieces of music tracks, so as to
complement each other and to form one single unity,
which is something more than just the sum of
individual tracks. Each piece of music tracks should
be shaped and sculptured using processors, to provide the best of
the whole sound.
However, the common mistake is following the desire to obtain
such an effect, that each of the tracks sound just
as powerful as possible. When playing all the
tracks such treatment leads to mutual extinction in
the frequency, loss of level and the whole mix sound flat and
lifeless... |
revised/updated:
2021-09-23 |
|
|
The gear- hardware
and software - The secrets of obtaining good sound of
your music |
Properly constructing
the sound of tracks making up the mix of a
song using equalization and compression is just as important as the choice of palette
of colors used by the painter while he is painting the
picture. A true master never painted over contrasted
works, sometimes deliberately use the somewhat fuzzy
contours, soft lines, dark shades of light.
Similarly is with the sound of the song. Not
necessarily all, which is very strongly contrasted
or
very clear is musically good-most often human ear is more
likely to assimilate sounds, which are
complementary to each other in sonic spectrum and
dynamics than those that are competing against each
other, trying to be very up front, loud and bright...
|
revised/updated:
2017-05-30 |
|
|
Equalizer - more
info on it's use in the mix |
For those who want
more detailed, technical knowledge on the use of
equalizers in the mix here are the little secrets
and terminology from the studio kitchen. After
applying them your mix will be much better. At the
beginning let's get familiar with the technical
jargon used in equalizers. A typical parametric
equalizer has the ability to choose the 3 parameters
for each of its filters...
|
revised/updated:
2023-04-15 |
|
|
Compressor - what is
audio compression |
The compressor is a
device used to control the spread of dynamic
range of recordings. It's name suggests compression
and so it is. It is like the equivalent of an
automatic sound engineer, who slightly turns down
the level of the recording, when it begins to
overdrive the recording device, and turns it up when
very quiet sounds are poorly audible. It improves
the overall sound of recordings. A typical
compressor has 5-knob regulators: Threshold, Ratio,
Attack, Release, Gain Make Up...
|
revised/updated:
2023-09-01 |
|
|
Reverb processor -
effect's origin and it's application |
Originally
recordings in studios were performed through the
microphone quite remote from the sound source. The
microphone, like the human ear picked up the sound
waves reflected from the walls of this room, and
enrolled much of the natural reverb of a studio to tape. The
effect was even more pronounced, when the sound
engineers began to
use several microphones, respectively mixed with
each other, this way of recording could produce even
better results. For example, the studio of famous label
Tamla
Motown in Detroit, recording such great soul
and funk artists as Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin,
Jackson Five, The Supremes with Diana Ross,
Wilson
Pickett and many, many others has mastered the sound
of rhythmic section perfectly - Drums and bass...
|
revised/updated:
2023-09-04 |
|
|
Monitors used in
recording studios. What monitors are best, how to
configure your monitors to achieve professional results
in your studio? |
The monitoring
system in the studio is the same thing for sound
engineer as eyes and lighting for an artist painting a
picture. It is the most important element of his
equipment, because the decisions he makes are made
on the basis of what he hears out of the system. If the monitors are
in any way underdeveloped, faulty, dull or too bright
they will not be able to faithfully present the situation
in a mix or master, they will not present the sound
engineer what is going on in
sound, and the sound engineer will take the wrong decisions...
|
revised/updated:
2019-09-06 |
|
|
Synthesizers and
samplers used in music recording industry. History of
synthesizers and samplers development - Part I
|
What is the
synthesizer? Synthesizer is an electronic musical
instrument, which includes various modules, such as
oscillators, filters, amplifiers controlling voltage
(voltage control amplifiers), which are used to
produce sounds impossible to obtain by traditional
instruments.
The word "synthesizer" is derived from the word "synthesis".
And that word means joining various elements into one thing.
Synthesizer contains just 3 the most basic
modules: a module that produces sound, that is
oscillator; module that is used to control the sound
in the musical way, ie keyboard; and the module that
filters and processes the sound to change it's nature.
An important element of synthesizer's structure is
so called Envelope Amplifier, which allows
you to set different characteristics for attack and decay of
sound as well as the Envelope Filter, which can
change the characteristics of filter actions
depending on the time...
|
revised/updated:
2024-05-30 |
|
|
History of
synthesizers and samplers development - Part II |
Moog remedied the
problem of huge quantities of cables by the use of
permanent connections between the modules and
large-scale switches, through which similarly large number of combinations
could be obtained,
just like using cables. This allowed the extensive use
of synthesizers during live performances like
concerts. The synthesizers became smaller, easier to
program and portable.
Another very important synthesizer-sampler
opening new horizons in the development of music
is Emu Emulator. Emu in the early Seventies, was a
company that produced modular synthesizers. However,
Dave Rossum, founder of Emu Systems, completely
changed its approach when he first saw Fairlight
CMI in 1980 (...)
Another important step in the history of synthesizer
is Yamaha DX7, released in 1983
|
revised/updated:
2024-06-29 |
|
Is arrangement in
music production important at all? - The psychology of
creating music and the psychology of music arrangement |
Is the arrangement important and actually what does it
mean? After all, why to care about it when we already have
recorded a
good composition and it sounds great? And how the
arrangement looks like on famous, world-class musicians
albums?
This article will answer these questions and will give you many
suggestions as how to achieve a great sound by arrangement
alone.
|
Added:
2024-24-01 |
|
Best Recording Engineers And Producers. Legendary
Albums. Absolutely best sounding recording consoles and mixing
desks.
|
What makes a recording an
icon and legendary part of music history?
I believe there is a connection between the great sound and
a great recording. That belief dates back from eighties when
I was listening to the great records of Led Zeppelin,
Beatles, Doors, Frank Zappa or Black Sabbath. I always
noticed, that there is something more to the great impact of
those recordings then just artistic performance or the
composition alone. It was the specific, very pleasing to the
ear sound that was both natural and somehow better then
nature at the same time.
|
Added:
2024-07-09 |
|
|
|
Wersja polska
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Living Studio
|