Mastering in Logic

A step by step guide

By Darren Stone
www.masteringinlogic.com

www.masteringinlogic.com
 Mastering In Logic - A Step by Step Guide
Understanding the mastering chain will give your music
the polish and punch you have been looking for.

As you may have learnt from my YouTube videos mastering is

considered by many to be the silver bullet for a bad mix and an art
that should only be practiced by a select few. In reality anyone can
learn to master and should be seen as just another part of the
recording process.

Learning to master isn't just about adding that expensive plugin but
more about understanding the key workflow, using and developing
your ear to make good mastering decisions.

This step by step guide will show you some of the key principles of
how to master your own music using Logic Pro. Although there are
many possible ways you can master a track having a guided outline
will most certainly help you to follow the correct workflow and will
ensure your music has more chance being loud, polished and
sounds finished.

The general workflow of mastering is this:

1. Listen critically
2. Decide what needs to be done
3. Shape and Balance the Frequencies based on number 2
4. Control the Dynamics
5. Make it LOUDER with a touch of limiting
6. Bounce
7. Send to label and make a ton of DOSH!
8. DONE!!

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 Step 1 - Bouncing your stereo mix

The first step in the mastering process is actually at the mix stage. If
you bounce your track with a loud gain structure you may as well
forget mastering. Bouncing your mix correctly is critical to creating a
good master, get this step wrong and all you mastering decisions
won't mean zip!

So let's assume you have got your mix as balanced and punchy as
you can and are ready to bounce. You want to bounce your mix with
the best signal and sample rate possible. As a rule of thumb you
want to leave anywhere between -3db to -6db of head room clear on
your master output channel ready for mastering.

Make sure you have the start and end points set in the arrange
window accounting for the tail if you want to. Logic's bounce
window has an option to 'include tail' which you can use to if you
wish. Personally I don't use this option but that's just me and I'm a
bit weird!!

Once you have named your file; the file format to bounce in is 'AIFF'

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at a resolution of '24bits' with file type 'Interleaved'. At this point it is
important to ensure 'none' is selected in the dithering drop down
menu.

It does not matter which mode you select to bounce in, if you select
Offline (Faster) or Realtime (slower) behind the scenes Logic’s
magic calculations will still come out with the same stereo master.

Finally DO NOT select 'Normalize' you do not want Logic to

recalculate the final level of the mix. You will be doing the
normalizing when you master!

Step 2 - Setting Up For Mastering And Critical Listening

Once you have bounced your stereo file it's time to start a new
session and import your mix file ready to set up for mastering. I
think it's important to mention at this stage if you have the time
leaving the mastering for a few days from bouncing the mix to the
master session is a really good idea. It's also advisable to not listen
to the track for a few days so that when you come to mastering the
music you will have fresh ears and will be able to make clear
objective mastering decisions.

Before you start adding any plugins listen through to the mix a few
times and think about which aspects of the music need attention.
This can be anything from the timbre of the music through to any
frequencies that need to be shaped or even tamed; you will also

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need to think about where compression or equalisation needs to be
added to help the dynamics and increase the listening level.

Step 3 – EQ

It's important to remember that there is no one way to master and the
recording chain and number of plugins you use will vary from track to
track.

As a general guide EQ is often applied first, the reason for this is

because unlike mixing you want the compressor to squeeze the EQ
adjustments that you will be making. Also mastering often requires
subtle frequency adjustments and therefore the effect EQ has on
compression is less than would normally be the case in mixing.

Logic's Pro's Linear Phase EQ (see above) is often the best

equaliser to use for mastering; the reason for this is beyond the
scope of this guide so for now don't worry about why you are using it
just plug it in and play!
Mastering engineers often start with the bass as these frequencies
are normally the hardest to deal with. A good starting point is
applying a low cut filter rolling of anywhere from 30hz - 50hz. Use
your ear and a frequency analyser to set the exact frequency and

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amount of slope needed.

Move on to the rest of the music using small boosts and cuts to
shape the sound and timbre of the music. You can use specific
frequencies to enhance different instruments in the mix. For
example applying a small boost around 1.5k - 3k will help to bring
forward the vocal line (if there is one). A snare drum’s bite and snap
can also sit around these frequencies (1.5k) so be careful that
boosting one aspect of the mix doesn't bring out instruments you
don't want brought forward.

Speaking of the snare drum at around 250hz - 350 hz sits the body of
the drums gentle boosts here can add a degree of warmth to the
overall mix but be careful not to overdo it as the bass guitar might
start to get a touch boomy. Your ear will guide you and don't forget
to listen to other similar music to reference whether your master is on
target.

400hz - 600hz is often known as the 'muddy' area and applying

gentle cut here can help to give clarity and clean up some of these
frequencies.

12000hz up is known as the area where you can add air, you have to
be careful here not to boost too much as you can make the master
start to sound brittle.

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 Step 3 - Multiband Compression

At this point you should be ready to add some compression, you may
find you need to treat a number of frequencies bands and so Logic's
Multipressor might well be your best plugin choice here.

The Multipressor is a great plugin as it allows you to really shape the

dynamics of the music and control individual frequency bands that
need controlling. If you are new to the Multipressor or aren't sure
how to use it the best place to start is with the presets. Listen
carefully to the effect each preset has on your mix and decide which
works best with your track.

You will need to make further adjustments but the presets will be a
good start. As with EQing you may want to start with the bass
frequencies. Be careful not apply too much as you may find you
start to squash the thump out of the kick drum or bass line. Setting it
just enough to balance the bass with the top end should do the trick.

Next work through the low mids, high mids and finally the highs. Be

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careful with the low and high mids as the frequency content here is
where the energy of your track resides. If you squash this too much
you are in danger of losing that immediate impact that you hear on
commercial recordings.

At this stage its worth mentioning that mastering is a balancing act.

You have to balance the Yin and Yang; what I mean by this is one
action affects another. For example if you boost the high mids with
a broad Q you are effectively cutting the bass frequencies leaving a
'toppy' mix.

However the same effect can be achieved by attenuating the lows, if

you cut the lows heavily you are boosting the high mids and highs.

This may sound slightly strange but just remember if you boost you
are cutting at the opposite end of the frequency spectrum.

So always keep it gentle unless drastic EQ or compression action is

needed!

Step 4 – Limiting

After compression comes limiting, compressing the audio file will

help to increase the volume of your music by reducing the dynamic

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range but it won't go nearly far enough. A limiter often has simple
but very powerful controls and its sole purpose is to make your music
louder.

Think of a limiter as a compressor on steroids with very fast attack

and release times controlled automatically by the limiter. Limiters
were designed to catch small transient peaks and it's these peaks
that control the average level of your music. By reducing these
peaks the limiter should allow you to increase the average level of
the music, hence making it appear louder.

Limiters usually have just a few controls - the most important being
the threshold (or sometimes Input) control and the release (if there is
one). Threshold is a simple control to use and as a general guide
you want to set the threshold so that you get anywhere from 3db to
6db of increased loudness.

Be careful not to overdo it on the limiting otherwise you may start to

add distortion to your track; not what you want I'm sure!

Logic has two limiters to choose from the Limiter and the Adaptive
Limiter. Personally I would use the Adaptive Limiter play around
with the controls but make sure you set the 'Output to -2db or -3db to
ensure your music doesn't clip.

Step 5 - The Master Bounce

So we are now ready to bounce having EQ'd, compressed and used

a touch of limiting to get the track to really punch and be loud.

Bouncing is the easy bit but you still need to follow a couple of
general rules.

If you are bouncing for CD burning you want to bounce your 24bit mix
to 16bits. So this time you need to set the dither option to POW-r # 1
(dithering). Don't worry about the other options for now I will go into
more details at www.masteringinlogic.com Once you have set the
resolution to 16bit you should be ready to bounce your master down.

Double check you have set the start and end points in the arrange

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window and then click the BOUNCE button.

Wait while Logic does its magic calculation and boils up your hit
record.

Finally

Mastering is all about listening to the music and working out where
fine frequency and dynamic decisions need to be made to help
enhance the overall sound of your music. To help improve your
mastering chops listen to commercial records as reference tracks.
Listening to commercial tracks will help you to get used to how
professional music sounds on your speakers and how the music
interacts with your room (a whole other can of worms!!).

I hope you have enjoyed this guide and have found the information
provided here to be helpful? Mastering in Logic is currently
developing a video tutorial site dedicated to teaching you the entire
mastering process and will go through the topics discussed here in
much greater detail.

If you have anything that you would like Mastering In Logic to help
you with either as a video or written article please let us know by
either filling out our short survey which you can find at...

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Thanks for choosing Master In Logic

Darren Stone

www.masteringinlogic.com