Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Continued...
Listening in colour
Whether you listen in colour or in black and white can make all the difference
to your recording, and though that may sound intriguing, let me explain. Take
Spielberg's epic war drama Schindler's List, or any black and white film. The
further your'e drawn to the characters and the storyline, the less your mind
realises you're not watching in colour. The human brain compensates for any
deficiencies you may see (a bit like when you can imagine you can see a full
landscape, even though something like a pillar or a fence may be in the way).
I've dubbed this perfectly natural phenomenon as the 'black & white effect',
and it applies to music as well.
It's so easy to listen to a cruddy recording yet be totally touched by the
musical genius of the performance. But if that performance is three minutes of
a radio show, it's essential that it shines in all its colourful glory, or it will fall
behind the competition. During the many months (sometimes years) of
writing, recording and mixing your album, you tend to become so intimate with
the musical storyline that it soon becomes impossible to make objective
decisions in what could improve the recording, hence the mastering process.
If you plan to be your own mastering engineer, you must always remain
grounded to recognise this potential problem from its onset.
When mastering, carefully note any areas requiring immediate attention, and
be wary of other issues creeping in right under your nose during the
mastering process that may result in a substandard 'black and white' master.
You have to work quickly. Listen, make an alteration if necessary, compare
results and move on. If you get caught up trying to fix one problem for too
long, take a break and come back to it when you're feeling fresh and able to
make a fair judgement.
For the PC or Mac-based home studio, this has lead to huge popularity of
reasonably priced, standalone software applications and plug-ins that run
within your audio software's environment. They offer a distinct advantage over
their analogue hardware counterparts through their ability to instantly save
and recall user set-ups. They also allow multiple occurrences of the same
processor, meaning you can simultaneously run a new compressor on every
track on an album, for example, with each one configured for the track in
mind. Using hardware, you'd have to possess several units for this sort of
flexibility, or be prepared to write down your settings as you move from track
to track, and possibly feel less inclined to go back and make changes out of
sheer inconvenience.
Still, things aren't necessarily rosy in the plug-in world either. Once you start
to price some of the upper-end hardware, you'll no doubt see an immediate
attraction to software, but there's more to it than mere economics. Most entrylevel packages are bundled with an assortment of audio processing tools. In
fact, with the VST platform being open to development by anyone, you'll
stumble across plenty of freeware effects as well. These are generally fine for
creative applications on individual sounds, but probably won't stand up to the
stringent standards required for mastering your finished track. Instead they
may result in a loss of depth and definition, and inflict an artificial digital
character.
Third-party developers, whose core business relies on quality plug-in
products, are a much better investment. The Waves collections
(www.waves.com) in VST, DirectX, MAS, TDM and RTAS are particularly
good for their highly musical yet transparent parametric EQs and multiband
compression. Possibly their most dramatic mastering product is the L1
Ultramaximizer, which has often been referred to by users as "worth the
admission price alone".
The L1 incorporates a look-ahead peak limiter (to capture ultra-fast volume
spikes as they occur) with an automatic make-up gain for maximum volume
potential, plus the appropriate dithering algorithms to reliably convert your 24bit audio file down to a CD-friendly 16-bit. This plug-in will easily raise the
apparent level of your material to a commercial standard, but can absolutely
wreck the dynamic emotion of a performance if abused.
In some cases, a mix of hardware and software is used, but bear in mind that
every time music passes back and forth through the digital-to-analogue
converters (DAC), degradation to the waveform is inevitable. This is a strong
reason why professional studios employ precision converters from the likes of
Apogee (www.apogeedigital.com) and Prism Sound (www.prismsound.com)
to interact their digital audio with the outside world. Perform some critical
listening tests with your own equipment. You may find it best to remain in the
digital realm, if only to avoid the digital-analogue headache, but also due to
the average analogue rack gear being far from noiseless in itself.
The hard way
Lastly, there are a number of hardware-based digital processors available that
are packed with essential mastering tools. They're like the best of both
worlds: custom DSP (digital signal processing) chips mounted within a sturdy
rack chassis. Examples include the dbx Quantum and Quantum II
(www.dbxpro.com), Drawmer Masterflow DC247(www.drawmer.co.uk), and
the ever-popular TC Electronic Finalizer Express and Finalizer
96k(www.tcelectronic.com). These devices are an excellent solution for
situations where a computer isn't appropriate (such as live performances) or
for those looking for a product that offers superb quality, straight out the box,
with a minimum of fuss.
If you're using the processor in conjunction with your computer, it's essential
to take advantage of the digital connections to avoid an unnecessary
analogue conversion. Be wary of the seemingly preset nature of these boxes,
as mastering is never a preset process. Like all aspects of music production,
it's a matter of getting in beyond the presets and working the settings to
discover your own magic formula that works in harmony with the material
you're mastering.
material. For a quick phase demonstration, reverse the polarity of the wires
connected to just one of your stereo speakers (connect positive to negative,
and negative to positive) and play back some music through them. Note the
sensation of extreme width, minimal bass, and an obvious hole in the centre
of the music. This is the due to the left and right channels working 180 out of
phase from each other. The cones are literally pushing in different directions.
Sometimes, a sound can be thrown out of phase while recording or mixing if a
channel is delayed for a stereo effect, or a studio cable or patchbay is wired
incorrectly. Should the out-of-phase material be played through a single
speaker set-up (like a television, for example), the true mono component of
the audio would completely cancel out and become inaudible. So, be wary of
out-of-phase sounds in the mix, and if in doubt, check it on a monaural source
for compatibility.
Final advice
Maintain moderate listening levels. Once you think you've nailed a setting,
turn it up to full room level and see if everything still sits right, before bringing
your monitoring level right back down again to preserve your hearing's
sensitivity. Always refer back to your reference material throughout the
session to ensure you haven't steered off track into 'black & white' territory.
Listen for the message the composers are putting forth. They're ultimately the
creative forces behind the music, and it's your role as the mastering engineer
to enhance their original vision by working in harmony with it.
Although mastering is very much a technical process, the fundamental
settlement of each mastering decision falls squarely back on your
understanding and love for music as an artform. This appreciation continues
to grow throughout our lifetime, allowing each of us us to broaden our
proficiency at mastering through experience.
5.Trim the starts and finishes of each track. It's a very good idea to insert at
least 100ms before the start of each track to ensure the first beat or note is
not missed by some CD players that mute their output for several
milliseconds upon playback. Add any fade ins or fade outs. It's crucial the
fades take place after the compression or limiting, otherwise the change in
level beforehand will upset the processor's response.
6.Take the opportunity now to listen to how each track will flow into the next
as they will eventually appear on the finished album. Adjust the relative
volume of each track to suit, using your ears, not necessarily your meters.
Bounce each track (including the effects) as a separate file to disk, not
forgetting the blank portion before each track starts. Load up your CD burning
software, add your tracks, set the gap between each song to taste (commonly
two seconds), and burn CD using the Disk At Once setting (and not Track At
Once).
2.A neat trick to bring out certain instruments and improve clarity is to slightly
notch out the frequency immediately below the instrument you want to bring
out. Watch out that you don't take out the body of the mix though. It is very
much a juggling act; a sharp dip somewhere between 150-300Hz may help
reduce a muddy mix, while gradually peaking up above 8kHz may provide
some high fidelity air. Don't concentrate on specific instruments though, just
the overall tone of the music. Use a high Q setting to focus in on a narrow
band of frequencies, or a low Q to cover a broader range of frequencies.
for every four units of volume that enters above the threshold, there'll be just
one unit of volume at the output.
3.Start with the lowest band (the bass) and lower the threshold (circled) until
about 3dB of compressed signal is registered on the gain reduction meter.
Then raise the output gain for that band to compensate for the loss of volume
incurred by the action of the compressor.
4.Now lower the threshold of the next band until about 3dB of gain reduction
is registered, and raise the output (circled) to compensate. The upper band(s)
covering the treble frequencies will probably require no compression, so just
lower the threshold to catch any peaks, although slight high frequency
compression can be desirable to emulate tape saturation.
5.You'll find that the EQ balance across the mix will now be all over the place
as the volume of each band has been altered. To readjust, use the output gain
controls on each band, bypassing the compressor at times to check for the
original tonal balance.
6.Go back and listen carefully for transients in the music like the thump of a
kick drum, or the crash of a cymbal. How do they sound before compression?
Is the change for the better? They should still retain their dynamics without
restraint. Increase the attack portion(s) of the compressor to allow more time
for the initial peaks of these instruments to pass through, or lessen the
threshold or compression ratio.
2.Set the Out Ceiling no higher than -0.5dB. This controls the automatic
make-up gain that compensates for the reduction in output due to the action
of the limiter. Basically, this sets the level your music peaks will leave the
limiter at. It's a good idea to not set this to the maximum (0dBFS) in case
some peaks still get through, or is read by some CD players as a digital
overload. Now pull down the Threshold and observe your music becoming
louder. Compare your average volume increase to that of your reference
material. While this plug-in is nothing short of amazing, listen carefullly for
over-compression taking the life out of the performance making for a very
fatiguing listening session, and heavy abuse of the threshold will generate
audio distortion.
3.Choose the Quantise bit rate for your destination. Whenever you move from
a higher wordlength to a smaller wordlength, the file should be dithered for
the cleanest conversion. For example, if you recorded and mixed in 24-bit,
stay this way until you've completed your mastering and you're ready to dither
your 16-bit file for CD. If you were originally working in 16-bit, you can convert
to 24-bit for mastering, and then dither your file back to 16-bit. Due to the
degree of noise introduced, the dithering process to 16-bit should only be
performed to the file once.
Adding herbs and spice
Following on from the standard array of EQs and compressors, studios often
have a few more tricks up their sleeves in treating their tracks to seize your
attention. Much of the technology behind these intriguing products is buried
amongst patented secrets, but those that use them rave undeniably over their
effectiveness. A few examples are: the SPL Vitalizer
(www.soundperformancelab.com) for its interesting yet highly musical slant on
EQ; the Aphex products like the Aural Exciter to add sparkle though the
harmonic restoration and Big Bottom for dramatic bass density
(www.aphex.com); plus the S1 Stereo Imager (www.waves.com) plug-in to
expand the instrument panning out and beyond the speakers.
So whether you think you're after a dash of one of these special effects or just
a hint of Lexicon reverb, the results are often quite stunning, but as with
anything in the mastering process, less is often more. Use these types of
effects subtly when mastering, and always make comparisons to your original
version to ensure you haven't actually made things sound worse in the
process. Save the heavy-duty effects for your music composition.