IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Hi, I am Bobby Owsinski, author of The Audio
Mastering Handbook and 16 other books on mixing and
| | 00:09 | recording in the music business.
Welcome to Audio Mastering Techniques.
| | 00:13 | Mastering is the final step in the recording
process where you put a group of songs together
| | 00:18 | and make them sound like a record.
| | 00:20 | Throughout this course, I am going to
explain not only what this process is but exactly
| | 00:24 | how the pros do it, which is why
we are here at Oasis mastering,
| | 00:27 | a world-class mastering
facility located in Burbank, California.
| | 00:31 | The idea here isn't to replace a pro
mastering engineer and his gear, but more and more people
| | 00:35 | are starting to do their own
mastering at home as technology advances.
| | 00:39 | I would like to help you take your own mastering
projects further than you ever thought possible.
| | 00:44 | In this course, I will show you things like how
to optimize your listening environment specifically
| | 00:48 | for mastering and how to best
prepare your mixes for mastering.
| | 00:52 | Next I will show you all the different
mastering tools and how to use them and how to make
| | 00:56 | a master that's loud and punchy.
Then we will look at how to master just for CD.
| | 01:03 | I will walk you through the secret to making
a great sounding MP3 for online distribution.
| | 01:08 | We will also explore how to master your music for
iTunes and discuss the Mastered for iTunes options.
| | 01:15 | Finally, we will look at mastering for high-res
audio discs, television and video and how
| | 01:20 | to properly archive your project in case
you have to revisit it at a later date.
| | 01:25 | In this course, we are going to be looking
at how to master from within your workstation
| | 01:29 | along with some stand-alone tools as well.
| | 01:32 | So let's get started as we dig deep into the
world of mastering with audio mastering techniques.
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1. What Is Mastering?Introducing mastering| 00:00 | The term Mastering is either completely misunderstood or
shrouded in mystery, but the process is really pretty simple.
| | 00:07 | Technically speaking, mastering is the
intermediate step between mixing the audio and preparing
| | 00:12 | it to be replicated or distributed.
But it's really much more than that.
| | 00:17 | Mastering is a process of turning a
collection of songs into a record by making them sound
| | 00:20 | like they belong together, in terms of tone,
volume, and timing, which means the spacing
| | 00:25 | between songs in an album.
Here's what mastering is not.
| | 00:29 | It's not a plug-in that you run music
through, and it automatically comes out mastered.
| | 00:33 | It's more of an art form that mostly relies
on an individuals' skill, experience with various
| | 00:38 | genres of music, and good taste.
| | 00:40 | Just to be sure that we are clear on what
you are trying to accomplish by mastering,
| | 00:44 | you are trying to raise the level of the song so
that they are competitive with others on the market.
| | 00:49 | Make a group of songs all sound the
same in relative level and tonal quality.
| | 00:54 | Finish them by editing out count-offs and
glitches, fixing fades, adding PQ and ISRC
| | 00:59 | codes and creating spreads
for CDs and vinyl records.
| | 01:03 | Mastering is a simple process, but like
most simple processes, it's a lot more involved
| | 01:07 | than it first seems,
once you really get into it.
| | 01:10 | As long as you know all the things that go
into the mastering process, you can make your
| | 01:14 | song sound as finished and
complete as others on the market.
| | 01:17 | That's exactly what we will be
covering throughout the rest of this course.
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| The history of audio mastering| 00:00 | Until 1948, there was no distinction
between different types of audio engineers, since
| | 00:05 | everything was recorded directly onto 10-inch
vinyl records that played at 78 RPM.
| | 00:10 | In 1948, however, the age of the mastering
engineer began when Ampex introduced its first
| | 00:15 | commercial Magnetic Tape Recorder.
| | 00:18 | With most recording now using magnetic tape,
a transfer had to be made to a vinyl master
| | 00:22 | for delivery to the
pressing plant to make records.
| | 00:25 | Hence the first incarnation of the mastering
engineer was born, although he was called
| | 00:29 | a transfer engineer at the time.
| | 00:32 | There was a high degree of difficulty in
this transfer process, because the level applied
| | 00:35 | to the master vinyl lacquer when cutting the
grooves was so crucial. Too low a level, and
| | 00:40 | you get a noisy disc, hit it too hard, and you destroy the
disc and maybe the expensive cutting stylus of the lathe too.
| | 00:47 | In 1955, Ampex released SELECTIVE SYNCHRONOUS
RECORDING or SEL-SYNC, which now gave the multi-track
| | 00:54 | recorder the ability to overdub and
changed the recording industry forever.
| | 00:59 | At this point, there became a real distinction
between the recording and mastering engineer,
| | 01:03 | since the jobs now differed so greatly.
| | 01:05 | 1n 1957, the stereo vinyl record became
commercially available and really pushed the industry to
| | 01:11 | what many say was the best sounding audio ever.
| | 01:14 | Mastering engineers were now known as
cutters found ways to make the disc louder, and as
| | 01:18 | a result less noisy by
applying equalization and compression.
| | 01:23 | Producers and artists began to take notice
that certain records would actually sound
| | 01:26 | louder on the radio, and if it played louder,
then the listeners usually thought it sounded
| | 01:31 | better, and maybe the
disc sold better as a result.
| | 01:34 | Hence, a new breed of
mastering engineer was born.
| | 01:38 | This one with some creative control and
ability to influence the final sound of a record,
| | 01:42 | rather than just being a
transfer jock from medium to medium.
| | 01:46 | An interesting distinction between American
and British mastering engineers developed, though.
| | 01:50 | In the US, mastering was and still it
considered the final step in the creation of an album,
| | 01:55 | while in the UK they look at it
as the first step in manufacturing.
| | 02:00 | As a result, American mastering engineers
tend to have much more creative leeway and
| | 02:04 | what they are allowed to do to
the audio than British engineers.
| | 02:08 | With the introduction of the CD in 1982,
the cutting engineer was now finally known as
| | 02:13 | a mastering engineer was forced into the digital
age using a modified video tape recorder called
| | 02:19 | the Sony 1630 to deliver a digital CD master
to the replicator, but still utilizing many
| | 02:24 | of the analog tools from the
vinyl past from EQ and compression.
| | 02:29 | The 1989 introduction of the Sonic Solutions
Digital Audio Workstation with pre-mastering
| | 02:33 | software provided a CD
master instead of a bulky 1630.
| | 02:38 | Now mastering began to evolve into
the digital state as we know it today.
| | 02:42 | In the first half of 1995, MP3s began to
spread on the Internet and their small file size
| | 02:49 | set about revolution in the music
industry that continues to this day.
| | 02:53 | This meant that the mastering engineer had
to become well versed in how to get the most
| | 02:57 | from this format, something that took many
mastering engineers years to get the hang of.
| | 03:03 | In 1999 5.1 surround sound and high-resolution
audio took the mastering engineer into a new
| | 03:08 | uncharted but highly creative territory.
And by 2002 most all mastering engineers were
| | 03:14 | well acquainted with the computer, since
virtually every single project was edited and manipulated
| | 03:18 | in a digital audio workstation.
| | 03:21 | Today's mastering engineer doesn't practice
the black art of disc cutting much, but he
| | 03:24 | is no less the wizard, as he continues to
shape and mold a project like never before.
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| Mastering professionally versus doing it yourself| 00:00 | It's interesting to note that just about all
of the major record labels and most of the
| | 00:04 | larger Indie labels still choose to master
all of their projects with a major mastering
| | 00:08 | house, even though extensive mastering resources
are widely available to just about any engineer.
| | 00:14 | Since you are watching this course to learn
many of the tricks of pro-mastering engineers,
| | 00:18 | let's look at some of the differences between
the product that you might get from a mastering
| | 00:22 | pro and what you might
get from mastering at home.
| | 00:25 | If we really break it down, a mastering pro
usually has three things over what you do at home.
| | 00:30 | A real pro-mastering house has many things
available that you probably won't find in the simple
| | 00:34 | home or small studio digital audio
workstation room, such as high-end analog to digital,
| | 00:40 | and digital to analog converters, a great sounding
listening environment, and exceptional monitoring system.
| | 00:46 | The monitoring system of these facilities some
times cost far more than many entire home studios.
| | 00:52 | Cost isn't the point here, but quality is.
| | 00:55 | The commonly used near field monitors that
most recording studios use, rarely allow you
| | 01:00 | to hear what you need to in order to make the
adjustments that you need to make while mastering.
| | 01:04 | The vast majority of monitors in the rooms in
which they reside are just not precise enough.
| | 01:09 | The mastering engineer is
the real key to the process.
| | 01:13 | This is all he does day-in and day-out.
| | 01:16 | He has what audio pros call big ears,
because he masters at least 8 hours every day and
| | 01:21 | knows his monitors the way you
know your favorite pair of sneakers.
| | 01:25 | Plus, his reference point of what constitutes
a good sounding mix is finely honed, thanks
| | 01:30 | to working hours and hours on the best and
worse sounding mixes of each genre of music.
| | 01:34 | I don't know who said it,
but this phrase rings true.
| | 01:38 | The difference between a pro and an
amateur is that a pro always has a backup.
| | 01:42 | That's good advice for any part of
recording, but especially for mastering.
| | 01:46 | You wouldn't believe the
number of times masters get lost.
| | 01:49 | This is the one thing that you can do
just as well as a pro with no trouble at all.
| | 01:54 | Now you know some of the advantages of
using a mastering pro, but by following the tips
| | 01:58 | outlined in this course, you can get
your masters into the same ballpark.
| | 02:02 | By doing the mastering yourself, you can save
a ton of money and get your product out faster.
| | 02:08 | And if you decide that your project warrants
an A-list pro, this course will show you how to
| | 02:12 | get the most out of that too.
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2. Prepping Your Tracks for MasteringMixing with mastering in mind| 00:01 | Whether you are going to master your music
yourself or decide to hire a mastering engineer,
| | 00:05 | here are some mixing tips to help you
get the most out of your mastering session.
| | 00:09 | Don't over-EQ when mixing.
| | 00:11 | A mix is over-EQ'd when it has big spikes in
the frequency response as a result of trying
| | 00:15 | to make one or more
instruments fit better together.
| | 00:18 | This might make the mix tear your head off, because it's
too bright or has a huge and unnatural sounding bottom.
| | 00:25 | Listen to an example of a mix where the
cymbals are way too bright, so it makes the entire
| | 00:29 | mix sound bright as a result.
| | 00:34 | (music playing)
| | 00:44 | In general, mastering engineers can do a
better job for you if your mix is on the dull side
| | 00:48 | rather than too bright.
Listen to this example of a dull mix.
| | 00:53 | (music playing)
| | 01:05 | Now listen to the same mix
after it's been brightened.
| | 01:08 | (music playing)
| | 01:21 | Likewise, it's better to be light on
the bottom end than to have too much.
| | 01:26 | Don't over-compress when mixing.
| | 01:29 | Over-compression means that you have added
so much mix-bus compression that the mix has
| | 01:32 | robbed off of all of its life.
| | 01:35 | You can tell that a mix has been over
compressed not only by its sound, but by the way its
| | 01:39 | waveform is flat lined on the
digital audio workstation timeline.
| | 01:43 | You might as well not enough master if you
squash the recording too much already in the
| | 01:47 | mix, since an over compressed mix deprives
the mastering engineer of one of his major
| | 01:51 | abilities to help your project.
| | 01:53 | Squash it for your friends and squash it for your clients,
but leave some dynamics for your mastering engineer.
| | 01:59 | Here's an example of a mix
that's been over compressed.
| | 02:02 | (music playing)
| | 02:15 | Here is a mix that hasn't been over compressed and
will give the mastering engineer more flexibility.
| | 02:20 | Take notice when the level is a lot lower.
(music playing)
| | 02:35 | Check your phase when mixing.
| | 02:37 | It can be a real shock when you begin to master
only to find out that the lead singer disappears
| | 02:42 | from the mix because something is
out of phase when you listen in mono.
| | 02:46 | Even though this was more of a problem in the days of
Vinyl and AM Radio, it's still an important point.
| | 02:51 | Since many so-called stereo sources such as
television broadcast or FM radio are either
| | 02:56 | pseudo-stereo or stereo only part of the time.
| | 03:00 | Check it and fix it if
necessary before you get there.
| | 03:02 | Here is an example of a mix
that's out of phase in stereo.
| | 03:07 | (music playing)
| | 03:20 | And this is what it sounds like in mono.
(music playing)
| | 03:34 | If you are making a vinyl
record or CD, know the song sequence.
| | 03:39 | Sequencing, or the tune order on the CD or
the Vinyl record, is especially important and
| | 03:43 | making this list before hand will
save you money and mastering time.
| | 03:47 | Many engineers and producers have the mistaken
impression that once the final mix is finished,
| | 03:51 | it's off to the mastering studio.
| | 03:53 | There needs to be one additional session
known as a sequencing session, where you do any
| | 03:58 | additional editing that's required and
listen to the various sequence possibilities.
| | 04:03 | This is really important if you were
releasing in multiple formats such as CD and vinyl in
| | 04:07 | different countries or territories, since
they may require a different song order due
| | 04:11 | to the two sides of the record.
| | 04:14 | Having the levels match
between songs is not important.
| | 04:17 | Matching levels between songs is one of
the main reasons you master your mixes.
| | 04:22 | Just make you mixes sound great and the
difference between the levels and songs will be fixed
| | 04:26 | during the mastering process.
Getting hot mix levels is not important.
| | 04:30 | Print your mixes at slightly lower overall levels, and
leave it to the mastering engineer to get the hot levels.
| | 04:36 | A good practice is to print the mixes
as with peaks reaching -10 dB or so.
| | 04:41 | Having some headroom will allow you to make
up the gain in the mastering process using
| | 04:45 | better sounding compressors and limiters.
| | 04:47 | Here is a before and after example of the
differences between level in a mix and a master.
| | 04:52 | (music playing)
| | 05:10 | Watch your fades. If you trim the heads and tails of your
track too tightly, you might discover that you've
| | 05:15 | trimmed a reverb tail or
essential attack or breath.
| | 05:19 | Leave a little room and perfected in
mastering where you'll probably hear things better.
| | 05:23 | Here is an example of a fade that's been
cut too tight, so it cuts off the reverb tail.
| | 05:29 | (music playing)
| | 05:34 | Try using a fade that
sound something more like this.
| | 05:37 | (music playing)
| | 05:46 | Alternate mixes can be your friend.
| | 05:48 | A vocal up, vocal down, or instrument
only mix can be a lifesaver when mastering.
| | 05:54 | Things that aren't apparent while mixing
sometimes jump right out during mastering and having
| | 05:58 | an alternate mix available can sometimes
provide a quick fix and keep you from having to remix.
| | 06:03 | You can master from those alternate versions
or even edit between the versions if necessary.
| | 06:08 | For instance, editing the courses from the
vocal up mix into the original mix if you
| | 06:12 | find that the course vocals
where mixed too low originally.
| | 06:15 | Make sure you document things properly
with through notes for your mastering engineer
| | 06:19 | with the clear file naming convention.
| | 06:21 | You can always ask the person doing your
mastering what file naming conventions he or she prefers.
| | 06:26 | We'll look deeper into
alternate mixes in an upcoming video.
| | 06:30 | In order to get the most out of mastering,
it's important to always keep mastering in
| | 06:34 | mind during the mixing process.
| | 06:36 | Following these points will result in a better product
and make your mastering session run a lot smoother.
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| Mastering session documentation| 00:01 | If you're not mastering your songs yourself
and instead are taking or sending your tracks
| | 00:04 | to someone else to master, you'll make it
easier on yourself and your mastering person
| | 00:08 | if everything is well documented,
and you'll save some money too.
| | 00:12 | The biggest thing is to be prepared.
| | 00:14 | If you're making a CD or vinyl record make sure that all
of your song sequencing is complete before you get there.
| | 00:21 | Be sure to include any FTP or shipping
instructions to send your master to a replicator.
| | 00:26 | Make sure to include any ISRC and UPC codes,
we'll go over both in depth in some later movies.
| | 00:33 | Finally, make sure that all files are properly
ID'd for easy identification, including alternative
| | 00:39 | mixes especially if you're
not there during the session.
| | 00:43 | Having the right documentation can make your
mastering session go a lot faster, which can
| | 00:47 | be important especially when you're trying
to make a release state, all it takes is a
| | 00:50 | little bit of forethought and preparation.
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| Printing alternative mixes| 00:01 | Even though mixes in a digital audio
workstation could be almost instantly recalled and changed,
| | 00:06 | most mixers still print alternate mixes in order
to make ultra-quick fixes during mastering possible.
| | 00:11 | While alternate mixes with the vocal
up or down a dB used to be the norm,
| | 00:15 | today's mixers find that three types of
alternate mixes can accomplish most fixes.
| | 00:20 | The instrumental mix.
(music playing)
| | 00:28 | The A cappella mix.
(music playing)
| | 00:41 | And the TV mix.
(music playing)
| | 00:53 | An instrumental mix is often used to clean
up objectionable lyrics and a song by editing
| | 00:57 | in a small piece of the instrumental over
the final mix of the lead vocal, that way
| | 01:02 | the mix sounds a lot better than if the word is beeped out.
It's also sometimes used for licensing television shows.
| | 01:07 | (music playing)
| | 01:27 | By using a combination of the instrumental
mix with A cappella mix, it's possible to raise
| | 01:31 | or lower word that might be too loud or masked.
| | 01:35 | (music playing)
| | 01:53 | The TV mix is everything but the lead vocal,
so the artist or band can appear on television
| | 01:58 | and sing live against a prerecorded background.
| | 02:01 | Sometimes it's provided
instead of an instrumental mix.
| | 02:04 | (music playing)
| | 02:16 | While editing may be an overlooked skill required during
mastering, it can come in handy when alternate mixes are available.
| | 02:23 | Even though mix fixes in a digital audio
workstation can be fast, sometimes using the alternate
| | 02:27 | mixes to make a fix can be even faster.
| | 02:30 | If you're on the fence about level or EQ over the certain
instrument in the mix, print a couple of options.
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3. Monitoring for MasteringEvaluating your listening environment| 00:00 | Probably the one area that gets overlooked
in most home studios is the listening
| | 00:04 | environment, but it's important because
the better your room sounds the more accurate
| | 00:08 | the audio from your monitors will be.
| | 00:10 | While it's easy to spend a lot of money
trying to improve your listening area here are
| | 00:14 | a few no-cost tips that can
really make a difference.
| | 00:18 | Avoid placing speakers up against the wall.
| | 00:21 | The further away you get from the wall the
smoother the monitor speaker response will
| | 00:25 | be especially in the low end.
Avoid the corners of the room.
| | 00:29 | A corner reinforces the low-end even
more than when placed against a wall.
| | 00:34 | The worst case is if only one speaker is in
the corner, which will cause the low end response
| | 00:38 | of your system to be lopsided.
| | 00:41 | Avoid being closer to one
wall of the room than the other.
| | 00:44 | If one speaker is closer to a side wall
then the other, you'll get a totally different
| | 00:48 | frequency response between the two, because the reflections
from the near wall are different from the other side.
| | 00:54 | It's best to set up directly in the center of the room
if possible, avoid different types of wall absorption.
| | 01:00 | If one side of the room uses the wall
material that's soft and absorbent, while the other
| | 01:04 | side is hard and reflective, you'll have
an unbalanced stereo image, because one side
| | 01:09 | will be brighter than the other.
| | 01:11 | Try to make the walls of each side of the
speakers the same in terms of absorption quality.
| | 01:16 | If your studio is in a room, in a house or
office where you can't spend any money on
| | 01:20 | acoustic treatment just following these points can make
a big difference in your sound without spending a dime.
| | 01:25 | For more information about improving your
room acoustics, check out the room acoustics
| | 01:29 | movies in the Audio Mixing Bootcamp course.
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| Beginning with the basic listening technique| 00:00 | Regardless of what kind of monitors or room
you have to work with there are some proven
| | 00:04 | techniques that will yield some
reasonable results even under the worst conditions.
| | 00:09 | These are all dependent upon your ears, which are still
the primary ingredient in mastering and not the gear.
| | 00:15 | Listen to some CDs that you
love before you start mastering.
| | 00:18 | You want to listen to the highest quality
program that you can get, so this is one time
| | 00:23 | when the CD beats an MP3.
| | 00:24 | Although a lossless medium like
a FLAC file could work as well.
| | 00:29 | Listen to some of your favorite songs that
you know really well, and understand how these
| | 00:32 | sound under variety of playback systems.
| | 00:35 | You can even import the songs into your digital audio
workstation while you're mastering for direct comparison.
| | 00:40 | Ideally, the reference songs will be in
the same genre as the one you're mastering.
| | 00:46 | This one point will save
you from over- or under-EQing.
| | 00:49 | If your mastering job doesn't sound similar to
your reference song, then you're not finished yet.
| | 00:53 | It doesn't have to sound exactly like it,
but it has to sound in the ballpark.
| | 00:58 | If the bottom end is thumping on your
reference and your mastering is not, then you have to
| | 01:02 | take another approach or
even have the song remixed.
| | 01:06 | If on the other hand, your bottom is big and
full and your reference song is not then you
| | 01:10 | can be sure that you're going to have way
too much bottom when you play the song on
| | 01:13 | the system in the outside world.
| | 01:16 | This one trick utilizing a reference
song will help you more than any other.
| | 01:21 | Establish two different listening levels,
you need one level that you consider fairly
| | 01:25 | loud where you can easily hear how the lower
frequency instruments like the bass and drums
| | 01:29 | sit with each other and another is set of
lower listening levels somewhere near the
| | 01:33 | point where you can hold a
conversation while the music is playing.
| | 01:37 | Use these two listening levels only.
| | 01:40 | Mark them down on your volume control,
making out where the level is in software and do
| | 01:44 | whatever you have to do to
make these two levels repeatable.
| | 01:47 | The levels are somewhat arbitrary, and that
they depend upon your monitors in your environment,
| | 01:52 | but the idea is that you want one level
that's loud enough for you to gage low end, as your
| | 01:57 | ears are less sensitive to low frequencies
and another level that's quiet enough that
| | 02:01 | you can hear the tonal balance.
| | 02:03 | If you listen to varying levels, your
reference point will be thrown off, and you'll never
| | 02:07 | be sure exactly what you're listening to,
which is why you keep it to two levels only.
| | 02:12 | Use two sets of speakers a
large set and a small set.
| | 02:16 | The only way that you can ever be sure how
things really sound is if you have two different
| | 02:21 | sets to reference against.
| | 02:23 | If you have more than two sets of monitors
available, limit your listening choices to
| | 02:27 | only two during mastering, so you don't
confuse yourself and end up chasing your tail.
| | 02:32 | Even if the largest speaker system that
you can afford is a two-way bookshelf speaker
| | 02:36 | with a six-inch woofer, you should plan to
have an even smaller set to reference against.
| | 02:41 | Although not the best even a pair of
computer speakers will do as a second reference set
| | 02:45 | as long as you feed them from
the same sources your large set.
| | 02:49 | If you attempt to master your own mix use a
different set of speakers than what you mixed on.
| | 02:55 | This is really important because if you use
the same monitors, you'll only be compounding
| | 02:59 | any frequency response problems that the
speakers might have in the first place.
| | 03:02 | So remember that the way you're listening is
really important when it comes to mastering.
| | 03:07 | Calibrate your ears by listening to
something that you think sounds great first.
| | 03:11 | Preferably, in the same genre as the project
you'll be working on, then be sure to listen
| | 03:15 | it only two levels on two different
speaker systems during the process.
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| Deciding between monitors and headphones| 00:00 | Mastering is best done with monitors, but
sometimes it's just not possible to listen
| | 00:04 | to your monitors when
you're working on music at home.
| | 00:07 | When it's late at night and your kids,
significant other or neighbor is in the next room separated
| | 00:12 | by only paper thin walls, you have no
choice but to try to work on headphones.
| | 00:17 | Working on headphones does have three
significant downsides, though, your ears get tired, you
| | 00:22 | can't wear them for as long as you need to
which might be as long as 8 to 12 hours, because
| | 00:27 | your head and ears get tired from the
extra weight, it's easy to get ear fatigue.
| | 00:31 | You have a tendency to turn the phones up,
which can lead to some quick ear fatigue again
| | 00:36 | limiting your ability to work for long periods.
| | 00:38 | You get a false sense of what the mix is like,
because most professional headphones really
| | 00:44 | sound great compared to ear buds, you get a false
sense of what the mix is like, especially on the low end.
| | 00:49 | This causes you not work as hard getting the frequency
balance of your mix right, it might not translate to speakers.
| | 00:56 | If you mix or master something only on headphones it
might not work when played back on normal monitors.
| | 01:02 | The balance in EQ may be much different when
listening to the song with tiny speakers pinned
| | 01:06 | to your ears versus listening on
monitors which are some distance away.
| | 01:10 | Although it's really helpful to know what
your master will sound like on headphones,
| | 01:14 | you still need to do most of your work on
speakers to be sure that it'll translate to
| | 01:17 | a playback medium of any type.
| | 01:20 | If you have no other option aside from using
headphones then make sure to follow the steps
| | 01:24 | for the basic listing technique
as outlined in the previous video.
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|
|
4. Tools for MasteringOverview of mastering tools| 00:01 | Mastering relies on the same basic set of
tools as recording and mixing, but they're
| | 00:05 | generally more precise, in that they offer more
control over all of the various signal parameters.
| | 00:10 | These tools include compressors,
limiters, equalizers, de-essers, and metering.
| | 00:17 | In this chapter we'll look at each tool as
well as their ideal placement in the signal path.
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| Exploring the dynamic ranges of different music genres| 00:01 | While it's easy to think that all music
must be mastered the same way, different genres
| | 00:05 | of music have different dynamic ranges
that require a different mastering approach.
| | 00:10 | Dynamic Range is a term for the degree of
dynamic variation in level within a piece of music.
| | 00:15 | That is it's a difference between the loudest and softest
parts of the song, and it's of main concern when mastering.
| | 00:21 | In mastering, we often use Compressors and
Limiters to decrease the Dynamic Range so
| | 00:25 | that softer parts of the song are
closer in volume to the louder parts.
| | 00:29 | We'll discuss how to use Compressors and
Limiters to do this in other movies in this course.
| | 00:34 | Very low values like a DR-3, which stands
for Dynamic Range 3, means that there is only
| | 00:40 | a 3 dB difference from the lowest
to the highest peak in the song.
| | 00:43 | This rating indicates that there's a lot of
compression being used so there's not a lot
| | 00:47 | of variation in level at all.
| | 00:50 | Something that's more natural sounding might
have a value of DR-12 or more, meaning that
| | 00:54 | there's at least 12 dB difference from
the lowest to the highest peak in the song.
| | 00:59 | Here's an example of a Dynamic Range meter that shows
how different the Dynamic Range is from the peak level.
| | 01:05 | Different genres of music sound
different at different DR levels so.
| | 01:08 | Most music will be considered unpleasant
sounding at DR-6, but it might be perfectly acceptable
| | 01:13 | for something like electronic music. With
most pop, rock R&B, and hip-hop a DR of 8 might
| | 01:20 | be quite comfortable, which will not work
for jazz, folk, country, or classical music,
| | 01:25 | which sounds a lot
better with at least DR of 12.
| | 01:29 | Let's look at some examples,
thanks to musicmachinery.com.
| | 01:33 | If we look at the famous Dave Brubeck's
song Take Five, we can see that at its quietest
| | 01:38 | it drops as low as -33 and at it's loudest it's
at -15 which is the difference of 18 dB or DR-18.
| | 01:48 | On the other hand, if we look at Metallica
Cyanide, we see that the range goes only from -3 to
| | 01:54 | -6 dB for a DR-3, which is why so many
people find it unpleasant to listen to.
| | 02:00 | Led Zeppelin's venerable Stairway to
Heaven goes from about -40 to about -5 dB, which
| | 02:06 | is a Dynamic Range of 35.
| | 02:10 | Now look at Muse's Supermassive
Black Hole with a range of only 4 dB.
| | 02:16 | Here is a list of different
averages for different genres of music.
| | 02:19 | As you can see, some genres like jazz and
classical have a large Dynamic Range, while
| | 02:25 | others like hip-hop and
rock have a very narrow one.
| | 02:28 | Dynamic Range is one of the most important
aspects of mastering, but it's all too often overlooked.
| | 02:34 | As you go forward in the course, keep in
mind that Dynamic Range is a major factor in the
| | 02:38 | sound of your finished project.
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| Understanding compression| 00:01 | In mastering, the Compressor is the primary
way of raising the relative level of the program
| | 00:05 | and giving the master both punch and strength.
| | 00:09 | Relative Level is how loud we perceive volume, rather than
the Absolute Level, which is what's displayed on the meter.
| | 00:15 | Usually, the ratio of the mastering compressor
will be set very low from about 1.5:1 to
| | 00:21 | 3:1 in order to keep the
compression fairly gentle sounding.
| | 00:25 | The higher the ratio, the more likely is that you'll
hear the Compressor working, and it will sound unnatural.
| | 00:31 | (music playing)
| | 00:58 | The key to getting the most out of the
Compressor is the Attack and Release controls, which
| | 01:03 | have a tremendous overall effect on the mix
and therefore are important to understand.
| | 01:08 | Generally speaking, transit, response, and percussive
sounds are affected by the Attack control setting.
| | 01:14 | Release is the time it takes for the gain
to return to normal or zero gain reduction.
| | 01:18 | In a typical pop style mix, a fast attack setting
will react to the drums and reduce the overall gain.
| | 01:25 | (music playing)
| | 01:48 | If the Release is set very fast, then
the Gain will return to normal quickly.
| | 01:52 | This can result in the audible effect of reducing some of
the overall program level and attack of the drums in the mix.
| | 01:59 | (music playing)
| | 02:28 | As the release the set faster any gain changes that
the drums caused might be heard as pumping, which means
| | 02:33 | that the level of the mix will
increase then decrease noticeably.
| | 02:37 | Each time the dominant instrument starts or
stops, it pumps the level of the mix up and down.
| | 02:42 | Listen to this example of a mix
that exhibits a lot of pumping.
| | 02:46 | (music playing)
| | 03:11 | Compressors that work best on a full range
of full program material generally have very
| | 03:14 | smooth release curves and slow
release times to minimize the pumping effect.
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| Understanding limiting| 00:00 | A Limiter is a compressor with a very high
compression ratio and a very fast attack time,
| | 00:05 | so it's able to catch the
fast peaks of an audio signal.
| | 00:08 | In order to understand how a Limiter works in
mastering, we have to understand the composition
| | 00:12 | of a typical music program first.
| | 00:14 | In general, the highest peak of the source program,
a song in this case, determines the maximum
| | 00:20 | level that can be achieved in a digital signal.
| | 00:23 | Because many of these upper peaks are very
short duration, they can usually be reduced
| | 00:27 | in level by several dB with
minimal audible side effects.
| | 00:31 | By controlling these peaks the entire level of
the program can be raised several dB resulting
| | 00:36 | in a higher average signal level,
that's what we use a Limiter for.
| | 00:41 | Most digital Limiters used in mastering or
brick wall limiters, this means that no matter
| | 00:45 | what happens the signal will not exceed a certain
predetermined level, and there'll be no digital overs.
| | 00:51 | A brick wall limiter is usually set
anywhere from -1 dB to as high as -0.1 dB, and once
| | 00:58 | set the level will never go beyond.
| | 01:01 | There are many popular mastering limiters
that are commonly used from the waves L1 and
| | 01:05 | L2 to the Universal Audio Precision
Limiter to the T-racks brick wall Limiter to ones
| | 01:11 | by Isotope, Massey, and many others.
| | 01:14 | By setting a Digital Limiter correctly the
mastering engineer can gain at least several
| | 01:18 | dB of apparent level just by the simple fact
that peaks in the program are now controlled.
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| Understanding equalization (EQ)| 00:01 | One of the most important duties of the mastering engineer
is fixing the frequency balance of a project if it's needed.
| | 00:07 | Of course, this is done with an equalizer,
but the type used and the ways it's driven
| | 00:11 | is generally far different
than during recording and mixing.
| | 00:14 | Well, in recording you might use large amounts of
EQ anywhere from 3 to 15 dB at a certain frequency.
| | 00:21 | Mastering is almost always in very small increments
usually intents of a dB to 2 or 3 at the very most.
| | 00:27 | What you will see is a lot of small shots of EQ along
the frequency band, though, but again in very small amounts.
| | 00:35 | For example, this might be something like
+1 at 30Hz, +0.5 at 60Hz, +0.2 at 120, -0.5
| | 00:49 | at 800, -0.7 at 2500, +0.6 at 8K, +1 at 12 notice
that there's a little happening at a lot of places.
| | 00:59 | Another technique that's used frequently is
known as feathering, this means that rather
| | 01:04 | than applying a large amount of EQ at a single frequency, you
add small amounts at the frequencies adjoining the main one.
| | 01:10 | An example of this would be instead of
adding +3 dB at 100 Hz, you would add +1.5 dB at
| | 01:17 | 100 and +0.5 dB at 80 and 120.
| | 01:21 | This lesson's any potential sonic side effects
brought about when using large boost of equalization
| | 01:26 | and results in a smoother sound.
| | 01:29 | Mastering is one area where large amounts of EQ are an
indication that there's something wrong with the mix.
| | 01:34 | Top mastering engineers will frequently send the mixer back
to redo remix, and that's something you should consider as well.
| | 01:40 | In mastering equalization,
less is definitely more
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| Using a de-esser| 00:01 | Sibilance is a short burst of high-frequency energy
where the esses of the vocal are overemphasized.
| | 00:07 | This can come from a combination
of mic technique by the vocalist,
| | 00:10 | the type of mic used, and heavy
compression on the vocal track in mix bus.
| | 00:15 | Sibilance is generally felt to be highly undesirable, so a
special type of compressor is used to suppress it called a de-esser.
| | 00:22 | Most de-essers have two main controls,
threshold and frequency, which are used to compress
| | 00:27 | only a very narrow band of frequencies
anywhere between 3k and 10k to eliminate Sibilance.
| | 00:34 | Modern software de-essers are much more sophisticated, but the
bulk of the setup still revolves around those two parameters.
| | 00:40 | One frequently used additional feature is a
listen button that allows you to show only
| | 00:45 | the frequencies that are being compressed
which can be helpful in finding the exact
| | 00:48 | brand of offending frequencies.
While vocals are the usual recipient of de-essing,
| | 00:53 | sometimes the de-esser might be used to control
an excessive high frequency from other instruments.
| | 00:58 | Cymbals, Guitars, and even the Snare Drum
can occasionally benefit from this unique tool.
| | 01:04 | The de-esser is an essential tool for modern
mastering and modern software de-essers are
| | 01:08 | better than ever at doing the job.
| | 01:10 | We will look closer at just how to
use it in the video in next chapter.
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| Metering while mastering| 00:01 | There are more Metering Tools available to
the mastering engineer than the simple metering
| | 00:04 | that we are used to during recording, because
the Mastering process requires a lot more visual
| | 00:08 | input to tell you the
things that you need to know.
| | 00:11 | Paying attention to the meters is extremely
important in mastering, much more so than
| | 00:15 | mixing, especially when you
are trying to achieve hot levels.
| | 00:18 | Typically, the mastering engineer will look
at the following: A PPM meter or a Peak Program
| | 00:24 | Meter, a Spectrum Analyzer, sometimes called a
Real-Time Analyzer or an RTA, a Phase Correlation
| | 00:31 | Meter, a Phase Oscilloscope,
and a Dynamic Range Meter.
| | 00:38 | A Peak Meter is what's found on virtually
every piece of Digital Equipment and Plug-in,
| | 00:42 | since it has an extremely fast response.
| | 00:43 | This has become a necessity for digital recording,
because any signal beyond 0 dB causes a very nasty distortion.
| | 00:51 | All Peak Meters have a red over indicator that lets you
know you've exceeded the zone of audibly clean level.
| | 00:57 | VU Meters found in analog audio gear are
what's known as RMS meters, and you'll occasionally
| | 01:03 | find a digital version of the Mastering
Metering package, RMS stands for the Root Mean Square
| | 01:08 | Measurement of the voltage of the
electronic signal, which roughly means its average.
| | 01:13 | Even when your Peak Meter is tickling 0 dB,
the RMS meter will settle at a point much
| | 01:17 | lower, since it's measuring the
signal differently than the peak meter.
| | 01:21 | We don't use RMS meters much these days,
since a Peak Meter is much more precise, when in
| | 01:26 | the pre-digital days, that's all that was available,
and it's still what many engineers are used too.
| | 01:31 | The Phase Scope gets its name from the fact
that in the early days of recording, a phase
| | 01:35 | between the left and right channel was checked by an
old-fashioned oscilloscope, which is nick-named a Scope.
| | 01:41 | Phase is extremely important in a stereo
signal, because if left and right channels are not in
| | 01:46 | phase, not only will the program sound odd,
but instruments pan to the center like lead
| | 01:51 | vocals, and solos, and disappear if the
stereo signal should ever be combined into mono.
| | 01:56 | While the Phase Scope take some time to get the
hang of, the Phase Correlation Meter is dead simple.
| | 02:03 | Any signal that's drawn towards the right-hand
+1 side of the meter is in phase, which is good.
| | 02:09 | Any signal that's drawn towards left-hand
-1 side of the meter is out of Phase not good.
| | 02:15 | In general, any meter readings above 0 and
in the right-hand positive side of the scale
| | 02:20 | have acceptable mono compatibility.
| | 02:22 | A brief read out towards left-hand negative
side of the scale isn't necessarily a problem,
| | 02:28 | but if the meter consistently sits in the negative
side, it could represent a mono compatibility issue.
| | 02:34 | Keep in mind that the wider your Stereo mix is,
either by panning or wide stereo reverbs,
| | 02:39 | the Phase Correlation Meter will tend to
indicate more towards the left side, but as long as
| | 02:44 | the signal stays mostly on the right,
your compatibility should be good to go.
| | 02:48 | A Spectrum Analyzer is an excellent tool
for determining the frequency balance of your
| | 02:52 | program by looking at it
in 1/6th-octave portions.
| | 02:57 | It's especially effective for singling out
particular frequencies that are too hot and
| | 03:00 | for dialing in the low-end.
| | 03:03 | Contrary to what you might think, when you
look at the Analyzer, the object is not to
| | 03:07 | aim for a totally flat response.
| | 03:09 | The deep base below 40Hz and ultra highs above 10K are
almost always rolled off compared to the other frequencies.
| | 03:16 | It's very useful to look at other mastered
songs that you think sound really good, get
| | 03:21 | a feel for what they look like on the Analyzer.
| | 03:23 | Keep in mind that your mastering job will
probably not look like your chosen sample,
| | 03:27 | since songs is unique, but if it is the same genre, it might
be close by the time you finish working your mastering magic.
| | 03:34 | The Dynamic Range Meter is very similar to a
Peak Meter but adds the additional function
| | 03:39 | of measuring the Dynamic Range of a signal.
| | 03:42 | Checkout the movie on Dynamic Range if you
missed it, for more information on Dynamic Range.
| | 03:47 | While you don't need all of these meters to
do a proper mastering job, they all do serve
| | 03:51 | a purpose, and can be helpful in identifying
problem areas in your mixes and master tracks.
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| Exploring the mastering signal path| 00:00 | The way the various processors are inserted
in the signal path can make a big difference
| | 00:04 | in the sound of the final product.
Here are a couple of different possibilities.
| | 00:09 | The Compressor will give you the apparent level and is
equally as important as the Limiter to the mastering process.
| | 00:14 | If you want a master like
the pros you must use both.
| | 00:18 | Although the Equalizer might change position
from after the Compressor to before, the usual
| | 00:23 | signal chain looks like what you see here.
| | 00:26 | An Equalizer placed before the compressor will cause the
compressor to act on any frequencies that are boosted first.
| | 00:32 | This might not be the sound you are looking
for, and that's why you might want to place
| | 00:36 | the EQ after the Compressor instead.
| | 00:38 | A Limiter is always the last in the signal
chain, no matter how many of the devices you
| | 00:42 | add and in which order, because it add any
additional level and stops any overs from happening.
| | 00:48 | Some mastering engineers also use a
separate side signal path known as a Side Chain.
| | 00:53 | This is used in order to gain even greater control or
to make sure that no one processor is driven too hard.
| | 00:59 | The signal path is critical to mastering
success, whether it's a simple three processor chain
| | 01:04 | or something much more complex, be sure
that Limiter is the last processor in the path.
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| Listening in your digital audio workstation (DAW) using the A/B method| 00:00 | If you're mastering on a normal digital audio
workstation like Pro Tools, Cubase, or Logic,
| | 00:05 | it's difficult to quickly bypass
multiple plug-ins for a quick A-B test.
| | 00:09 | Here is an easy way to set up this
function in any workstation by using subgroups.
| | 00:14 | The first thing we're going to do is
we're going to add at least two subgroups.
| | 00:18 | In this case we're in Pro Tools, so these are actually
called Aux channels, but there are the same thing.
| | 00:24 | What we're going to do is we're going to
assign our final mix channels, so we've imported
| | 00:30 | our final mix, and it's right here, and this is
our 48 K or 96 K, 24-bit file, it's a high-res
| | 00:38 | file, it comes from the mix and what we're going to
do is assign it, via busses, to all of the subgroups.
| | 00:46 | In this case, it's Bus 1 and 2, and it's
assigned to 1 subgroup, you can see Bus 1 and 2 here,
| | 00:53 | and that one doesn't have any processing.
| | 00:55 | Here is the second subgroup channel and again,
you can see it's assigned bus 2, and in this
| | 01:00 | case, it has our mastering process, it
has compressor, and it has a limiter.
| | 01:06 | And now we have also set up a third one
here and of course you can see the input is
| | 01:10 | Bus 1 and 2, and we have a compressor
and a second compressor and a limiter.
| | 01:17 | So there is three processors on this channel,
so it's a little more compressed sense or
| | 01:22 | a little more processed, and if we play we can hear
all three of them, and you can hear the difference.
| | 01:30 | (music playing)
| | 01:46 | I can see we can quickly go back and forth
between the unprocessed and the processed signal.
| | 01:51 | The good part about that is in Pro Tools or
any other digital audio workstation, you couldn't
| | 01:56 | easily do that, because you would have to
actually go up to the plug-in that you'd have
| | 02:01 | to say bypass, and you have to do it on audio
plug-ins and then play, and it's hard to make
| | 02:06 | an AB comparison when there is that much time in
between the original pass and the process pass.
| | 02:13 | So this is the way you set up an AB listening test
in any digital audio workstation using subgroups.
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|
|
5. The Mechanics of MasteringMaking a loud master| 00:00 | One of the things that mastering strives to
achieve is increase the overall program level of the mix.
| | 00:05 | This is done by a combination of two of the mastering
engineer's primary tools, the compressor and the limiter.
| | 00:12 | The compressor is used to increase the
small and medium level signals, while a limiter
| | 00:16 | controls the instantaneous peaks.
| | 00:19 | Remember that the sound of both compressor
and limiter will have an effect on the final
| | 00:22 | audio quality, especially if you
push them hard, here's how you do it.
| | 00:27 | Set the master level on the Limiter to -0.1 or
-0.2 dB to contain the peaks and avoid digital overs.
| | 00:35 | Set a compressor at a ratio of 2:1
or 4:1 to increase the apparent level.
| | 00:41 | Adjust the attack time to let the desired
amount of transients through, the slower the
| | 00:45 | attack time generally speaking
the punchier the sound will be.
| | 00:49 | (music playing)
| | 01:02 | Adjust the release time to
keep the track punchy sounding.
| | 01:04 | A trick with compression in mastering is
to use a release time that's set on the slow
| | 01:08 | side, be careful not to set it too slow or
the life will be sucked out of the track,
| | 01:13 | set it too fast and the
track will pump or distort.
| | 01:16 | (music playing)
| | 01:30 | Decrease the threshold, you increase the amount of
compression, which is usually less than about 5 dB.
| | 01:35 | (music playing)
| | 01:45 | Increase the level of the program to the desired
level by increasing the output control of the compressor.
| | 01:50 | Be sure not to go beyond clipping.
| | 01:52 | (music playing)
| | 02:05 | Increase the Limiter threshold to increase
the limiting and final level of the program.
| | 02:09 | The more you increase the limiting the louder
the program will get, but the more compressed
| | 02:13 | it'll get as well, which generally
doesn't sound that good.
| | 02:16 | (music playing)
| | 02:34 | Note that some mastering engineers utilize
multiple stages of compression, that is more
| | 02:38 | than one compressor in the signal path, so they can
spread out the gain increase over several devices.
| | 02:44 | This technique can create
simultaneously a smoother yet more powerful sound.
| | 02:49 | (music playing)
| | 03:00 | Remember that much of the gain and punch
that come from the compressor, the more limiting
| | 03:04 | you add the worse it'll usually sound.
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| Compression tips and tricks| 00:00 | Adjusting the attack and release controls
on the Compressor and/or Limiter can have
| | 00:04 | a surprising effect on the program sound.
| | 00:07 | Slower release settings will usually make the gain changes
less audible, but will also lower the perceived volume.
| | 00:13 | (music playing)
| | 00:24 | A slower attack setting will tend to ignore
the drums and other fast signals, but will
| | 00:29 | react to the vocals and bass.
| | 00:31 | A slow attack setting might also allow transients
to overload the next piece of equipment in the chain.
| | 00:36 | (music playing)
| | 00:46 | It's also possible that any gain changes on
the compressor caused by drum hits can pull
| | 00:50 | down the level of the vocals and bass they
cause overall volume changes in the program.
| | 00:55 | (music playing)
| | 01:08 | Usually only the fastest attack and release
setting will make the sound pump or distort.
| | 01:12 | (music playing)
| | 01:23 | Also, the more bouncy the level meter, the
more likely that the compression will be audible.
| | 01:28 | Quite passages that are too loud and noisy are
usually a giveaway that you're seriously over compressing.
| | 01:33 | (music playing)
| | 01:56 | So don't just set those attack and release
controls to the middle and forget about them,
| | 02:00 | they can make a big difference
on your final mastered sound.
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| Achieving competitive level| 00:00 | The volume level wars really began way back
in the vinyl era of the '50s, when it was
| | 00:04 | discovered that if a record played louder
than the others on the radio, the listeners
| | 00:08 | will perceive it to be better sounding and
make it easier to become a hit as a result.
| | 00:13 | Since then, it's been the job of the mastering
engineer to make any song intended for distribution
| | 00:18 | medium like radio as loud as the competition
and of course this also applies to situations
| | 00:24 | other than the radio as well, take the
iPod, CD changer, or digital music stream.
| | 00:30 | Most artist, producers, and labels certainly
don't want one of their releases to play softer
| | 00:34 | than their competitors, because of the
perception that it doesn't sound as good if it's not
| | 00:38 | as loud, which is not necessarily the truth.
Take a listen to these two song examples.
| | 00:44 | (music playing)
| | 01:03 | Your ear naturally gravitates to the louder one.
| | 01:06 | Now all the listener has to do is turn the
volume control up to make them sound the same,
| | 01:10 | but that usually doesn't happen, that's why
it's up to the mastering engineer to at least
| | 01:14 | get the level in the same ballpark.
Take a listen now.
| | 01:18 | (music playing)
| | 01:45 | Competitive level is important if your songs are
going to be played against other mastered songs.
| | 01:50 | Trying to squeeze every ounce of level out
of a track to make it as loud as the next
| | 01:54 | one is a lot harder than it seems, and
that's where the art of mastering comes in.
| | 01:59 | That said, sometimes all you
have to do is get it in the ballpark.
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| Understanding the pitfalls of hypercompression| 00:00 | Over the years, it's become easier and easier to make
recordings that are hotter and hotter in perceived level.
| | 00:06 | Mostly because of new digital technology that
has resulted in better and better limiters.
| | 00:10 | Today's digital look ahead limiters make it
easy to set a maximum level of usually -0.1
| | 00:16 | or -0.2 dB full-scale and never worry
about digital overs and distortion again.
| | 00:22 | The problem is this can come at a great
cost in audio quality if you are not careful.
| | 00:27 | Too much buzz compression are over limiting
either when mixing or mastering results in
| | 00:30 | what's become known as Hyper Compression.
| | 00:34 | (music playing)
| | 00:52 | Hyper compression is to be avoided at
all costs because it can't be undone later.
| | 00:57 | It can suck the life out of the song,
making it weaker sounding instead of punchier.
| | 01:01 | MP3s have a hard time encoding hyper-compressed
material and can insert unwanted side effects as a result.
| | 01:09 | Studies have shown that it causes listener
fatigue so the consumer won't listen to your
| | 01:13 | recording for as long or for as many times.
| | 01:17 | A hyper-compressed track has no dynamics
leaving it a loud but lifeless and unexciting.
| | 01:22 | On a DAW, it's a constant wave form that
fills up the audio region in the timeline.
| | 01:27 | Here's how the levels of change and recordings
over the years using this hit recording from
| | 01:32 | the '80s and its subsequent reissues as an example.
| | 01:35 | Now let's take a listen
to a hyper-compressed song.
| | 01:40 | (music playing)
| | 01:48 | If you listen to it with more dynamic range, that
may not sound as loud, but it sounds more exciting.
| | 01:55 | (music playing)
| | 02:03 | The whole art of mastering is making a song loud and
making it sound punchier, not worse for the process.
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| Balancing frequencies| 00:00 | EQing is usually the place that gets
engineers who master their own mixes into trouble.
| | 00:05 | There's a tendency to overcompensate with
the EQ, adding huge amounts, usually on the
| | 00:09 | bottom end that breaks
frequency balance completely.
| | 00:12 | Luckily, there are some rules
can be followed to avoid this.
| | 00:16 | The first rule is listen to CDs that you
like first before you touch an EQ parameter.
| | 00:22 | Remember, no MP3s, the more
CDs you listen to, the better.
| | 00:27 | You need a reference point to compare
to, or you will surely overcompensate.
| | 00:31 | Try importing several mastered songs into your
mastering session that you can constantly compare to.
| | 00:36 | The second rule is a little EQ goes a long way.
| | 00:40 | If you feel that you need to add more than 2 or
3 db, you're better off to mix the song again.
| | 00:45 | Or in recording you might use large
amounts of EQ at a certain frequency.
| | 00:50 | Mastering is almost always in very small increments usually
in tenths of a db, to 2 or 3 at the very most in rare cases.
| | 00:57 | What you'll see is a lot of small shots of EQ
along audio frequency band but in very small amounts.
| | 01:03 | For example, you might see something like -1
at 30 Hz, 0.5 at 60 Hz, 0.2 at a 120, -0.5
| | 01:11 | at 800, -0.7 at 2500, 0.6 of 8K.
| | 01:17 | Notice that there's a little
happening a lot of different places.
| | 01:21 | If you have to add a lot of EQ,
it's time to go back and remix.
| | 01:25 | That's what the Pros do.
| | 01:26 | It is not uncommon at all for a pro mastering
engineer to call up a mixer and tell him where
| | 01:31 | he is off and suggest that he do it again.
Rule number 3 is equally important.
| | 01:36 | Keep comparing the EQ'd
version with your original version.
| | 01:40 | The idea of mastering is to make the song
or program sound better with EQ not worse.
| | 01:45 | Don't fall into the trap where you think it
sounds better just because it sounds louder.
| | 01:49 | The only way to understand what you are
listening to is to have levels pretty much the same
| | 01:53 | between the EQ'd and the pre EQ'd track.
| | 01:56 | That's why an app like T-racks
is so great for mastering.
| | 01:58 | It has an AB function that allows you to
compensate for the increased levels so that you can really
| | 02:03 | tell if you're making it sound better or not.
(music playing)
| | 02:28 | Keep comparing the song you are currently
working on to all the other songs in the project
| | 02:32 | that you've previously worked on.
The idea is to get them the sound all same.
| | 02:36 | It's pretty common for mixes to sound
different from song to song even if they're done by
| | 02:40 | the same mixer with the same gear, but it's
your job to make listener think that the songs
| | 02:45 | were all done on the same day in the same way.
| | 02:48 | They've got the sound as close as possible
to each other as you can get them or at least
| | 02:52 | reasonably close as to not stand out.
| | 02:55 | (music playing)
| | 03:09 | Remember, even if you can't get the songs
that sound just like your best sounding CD, your
| | 03:14 | mastering job will still be considered pro if you can
get all the songs that sound as same in tone and volume.
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| Reducing sibilance with a de-esser| 00:00 | Sibilance is a short burst of high-frequency
energy where the esses are over emphasized.
| | 00:05 | This requires a special type of
compressor called a De-esser to suppress it.
| | 00:09 | Here is an example of a song with a fair amount of
sibilance that doesn't yet have the De-esser applied.
| | 00:17 | (music playing)
| | 00:23 | In order to use a De-esser, do the following,
after you've inserted the De-esser, raise
| | 00:27 | the Threshold Control until the sibilance
is decreased, but you can still hear the esses.
| | 00:32 | If you can't hear them then
you've raised the Threshold too far.
| | 00:35 | In this case the Threshold
is called the Range Control.
| | 00:39 | (music playing)
| | 00:50 | Span the available frequencies with the
frequency control until you find the exact spot where
| | 00:54 | it's offensive, then adjust the Threshold
Control until the esses sound more natural.
| | 00:58 | (music playing)
| | 01:16 | Use the LISTEN feature to
determine the exact sibilance frequency.
| | 01:19 | When using the LISTEN feature, remember that
the audio you are hearing isn't in the signal
| | 01:23 | path just the slide chain.
(music playing)
| | 01:38 | Don't forget to disengage LISTEN
when you found the correct frequencies.
| | 01:42 | Here is what it sounds like
with the De-esser applied.
| | 01:45 | (music playing)
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| Inserting fades| 00:00 | Sometimes the default fade that's added to the
beginning or end of the track just doesn't sound natural.
| | 00:05 | Either the fade is too tight and cuts off
the attack or release of the part, or the
| | 00:09 | fade itself just isn't smooth sounding enough.
| | 00:12 | Now is the time to fix any fades that don't
work in the track by adjusting the fade timings.
| | 00:17 | The first thing we'll do in
this case is have a listen.
| | 00:20 | (music playing)
| | 00:28 | Fade is very long, so let's see if we can shorten
it by using just a Standard Pro Tools' Strict Fade.
| | 00:36 | (music playing)
| | 00:44 | And we can shorten it up a bit more, to there.
(music playing)
| | 00:55 | When it comes to song fade outs, many times
the default fade just won't sound smooth enough.
| | 00:59 | Be prepared to help that fade out by
trying some of the other types available.
| | 01:03 | What we'll do is we'll click on the fade,
and we'll try this curve first. Have a listen.
| | 01:10 | (music playing)
| | 01:18 | Let's try another one
that's more exaggerated still.
| | 01:21 | (music playing)
| | 01:27 | Ultimately you are looking for fade that
sounds best for the song or group of songs, so it's
| | 01:31 | best to experiment until you've heard a few
different options before making your final decision.
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| Eliminating noise and distortion| 00:00 | Leaving noise or count-offs like drum
sticks in a song intro is a sure sign of
| | 00:04 | the demo recording, and it is
something that no one wants to listen to.
| | 00:07 | (music playing)
| | 00:14 | First make the splice from count-off to the
downbeat of the track, then mute the count-off
| | 00:19 | just in case you ever need it again.
Now use the Fade up before the song starts.
| | 00:26 | (music playing)
| | 00:33 | Just make sure that you don't cut off the
attack of the downbeat, clean intros are a
| | 00:37 | sign of our professional mastering job.
| | 00:39 | It only takes a minute to make a big
difference in how your song is perceived.
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| Using multiband limiting| 00:00 | Multiband Limiting splits the input audio signal
into multiple frequency bands, each with its own Limiter.
| | 00:06 | The main advantage of a multiband is that a
loud event in one frequency band won't affect
| | 00:10 | the gain reduction in the other bands, that
means if something like a loud kick drum will
| | 00:15 | cause low frequencies to be limited, but the
Mid and High-frequencies won't be effected.
| | 00:19 | This allows you to get a more controlled hotter
signal with far less limiting with the typical
| | 00:23 | Single-band Limiter.
Here's how it works.
| | 00:26 | In this case we're going to be looking at
a Waves L3 MultiMaximizer, and, as you can
| | 00:32 | see, it's broken down
into five bands: 2, 3, 4, 5.
| | 00:37 | And we have Very Low, Low,
Mid, High-Mid, and Highs.
| | 00:42 | Now the first thing we are going to do is
set our Output Ceiling, I like to set it -0.2
| | 00:47 | because I like that extra little
bit of headroom that you get from it.
| | 00:50 | And you don't hear the difference
anyway so that kind of works from me better.
| | 00:55 | But -0.1 is what a lot of
pro-mastering engineers use.
| | 00:58 | Now the Threshold Control will control the
threshold for all five frequency bands at
| | 01:03 | the same time, and let's hear what it does.
(music playing)
| | 01:21 | Now the beauty of this is you can actually see what's
happening in each band, and it's graphically
| | 01:27 | showing you which band is
being affected at the same time.
| | 01:31 | Now a couple interesting things we can do
with this is, we can use this as a Tone Control
| | 01:36 | and watch what happens as I increase the
different bands, you can hear different sets
| | 01:43 | of frequencies increase, and they sound very
natural, sounds a little bit better than if
| | 01:48 | you were to use any EQ. Have a listen.
(music playing)
| | 02:21 | What we are doing, in fact, as we raise the level there,
we're actually decreasing the threshold, in
| | 02:27 | other words there is less limiting
that's happening in that particular band.
| | 02:30 | The other thing we can do is we can affect
where the crossover point of the band is in
| | 02:34 | other words, how many frequencies is this
band actually affecting at the same time.
| | 02:39 | So that's one type of
Multiband Limiter that you'll see.
| | 02:43 | Here is another one just as an example,
this is from T-RACKS, and, as you can see, this
| | 02:50 | breaks down into three bands instead of five
like we saw, so there's a little less variation
| | 02:56 | that you can get, but you
can still get quite a bit.
| | 02:58 | And take notes, things are a little bit
different, input drive here really means that it's the
| | 03:02 | overall threshold control
for all the three bands.
| | 03:06 | So let's have a listen to this.
(music playing)
| | 03:31 | Now again, you can hear how it acts as a Tone
Control as we increase the level, what we're
| | 03:36 | actually doing is causing less
limiting in that particular frequency band.
| | 03:41 | We can also control where
the crossover points are.
| | 03:44 | So for instance, have a listen as we
change the low frequency Crossover Point.
| | 03:49 | (music playing)
| | 03:57 | And you can hear that, in fact, there are more
frequencies that were affecting at one time,
| | 04:03 | which is what the Crossover does.
| | 04:05 | It either provides more or fewer
frequencies that, that particular band will affect.
| | 04:11 | The Multiband Limiter provides a lot more
precision than what you get from a normal
| | 04:14 | Compressor or Limiter, increasing the
level while keeping the sound natural.
| | 04:18 | If you are only going to use one
processor doing mastering, this should be the one.
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| Adjusting the stereo image| 00:00 | Setting the Stereo Imaging of a mix is an
important function of mastering, giving the
| | 00:04 | mastering engineer complete control over
how wide or narrow the sound field will be.
| | 00:09 | Let's take a look at how this works, in
this case we're going to use a Waves S1 Stereo
| | 00:14 | Imager, and it does a number of
different things to the sound field.
| | 00:17 | Let's first of all look at the Width
Control right over here, have a listen.
| | 00:21 | (music playing)
| | 00:37 | And what you heard there is the Stereo Image getting
wider and then narrow to almost Mono and then Wide again.
| | 00:45 | And if you listen to the Hi-Hat you can hear
it going way out to the side, and sometimes
| | 00:51 | that's what we want to do in a mix, we just
want to make it a little bit wider than the
| | 00:55 | way it's been mixed, and this is a way to do it.
| | 00:57 | Now there some of the controls here, Rotation
for instance, and this is a glorified Pan Control.
| | 01:03 | (music playing)
| | 01:15 | Asymmetry is basically the same thing,
it's another form of Pan Control.
| | 01:19 | (music playing)
| | 01:29 | It's very subtle, it's mostly
the Reverb here that's moving.
| | 01:33 | Almost everything we do in a normal
mastering session has to do the Width Control, which
| | 01:37 | will widen or narrow the sound field.
| | 01:40 | But occasionally, there's something that's
leaning left or right, and that's when we
| | 01:44 | use a Rotation or Asymmetry Controls.
| | 01:46 | Now there's another tool that
we can use, it's very similar.
| | 01:50 | This one is called CENTER, and what this is doing
is actually affecting the center of the Stereo
| | 01:56 | Image and also the SIDES.
Have a listen.
| | 01:59 | (music playing)
| | 02:09 | Now what it did there is it moved the
SIDES back into the middle and then as we moved
| | 02:14 | it up to +6, it actually expanded them, so
in another words, we did pretty much what
| | 02:19 | the other Plug-in did, as we expanded
the Stereo field where we narrowed it.
| | 02:24 | This also has a neat future, and it
has a CENTER Control, watch what happens.
| | 02:29 | (music playing)
| | 02:43 | What this does is it uses some phasing tricks
in order to get rid of the CENTER of the stereo
| | 02:47 | sound field, this is almost a Karaoke mode,
if you will, where just about everything leaves
| | 02:53 | except for the Reverb, and you hear that off
to the side and the reason why you hear that
| | 02:58 | is because the Reverb was actually mixed in
stereo and the stereo was panned wide, that's
| | 03:02 | why you hear it that way.
| | 03:04 | But sometimes what you need is a very strong
CENTER that you don't have, and this is a way to get it.
| | 03:10 | (music playing)
| | 03:14 | So we can actually
emphasize the CENTER if we want.
| | 03:17 | So in the end Stereo Imaging isn't a tool
that's often used during mastering, but it's
| | 03:21 | a great effect when you really need it.
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| Bringing out specific elements in a mix| 00:00 | It's surprising what a little bit of EQ can do
to emphasize certain instruments during mastering.
| | 00:05 | For instance, if we want to pull the kick
drum out a little bit, usually most kick drums
| | 00:09 | are centered around 80 Hz.
| | 00:12 | So if we were to increase 80 a little bit, all of a
sudden you will hear the kick jump out a little bit.
| | 00:18 | Now I am going to actually add a lot more
EQ than you normally would during mastering
| | 00:23 | just so this is emphasized, but you
will hear the kick increase pretty clearly.
| | 00:28 | (music playing)
| | 00:51 | Now you can hear the kick jump up a little bit,
but so did the bass, and that's what will happen.
| | 00:56 | One will affect the other because their
frequencies are crossing over somewhat.
| | 00:59 | The other thing that we will usually do it
is with queue, if you are using a parametric
| | 01:03 | equalizer, will narrow the queue, and that allows you to
actually center in on the frequencies a little bit more.
| | 01:10 | As a matter of fact, let's try that again,
and we will narrow it even more and see if
| | 01:14 | we can just zero in on the kick alone.
| | 01:18 | (music playing)
| | 01:33 | You can hear it pretty well there, and again,
usually when we are mixing, we are usually
| | 01:38 | using a very wide queue, and that means
something around 1 or 2 or even less than 1, which means
| | 01:47 | the bandwidth is very wide,
like you can see here.
| | 01:51 | And usually the sound is good if we are using
big chunks of boost when we go to a very narrow
| | 01:56 | queue, which is something around here,
around 5.5, but for mastering what we are going to
| | 02:02 | do is zero in on just these certain frequencies
so it actually works okay, and we are not
| | 02:07 | going to add a huge amount.
| | 02:08 | Again, I am emphasizing it here, but normally
it might be 1 dB or 2 at the very, very most,
| | 02:15 | and here we are boosting it by 6, but you are
able to hear very clearly what happens with the kick.
| | 02:20 | One of the interesting things with EQing
during mastering is--and this is what everybody
| | 02:25 | kind of wants--it's Girth to the Mix.
Where this comes from is from 40 to 60 Hz.
| | 02:32 | Now you might not hear this unless you
have really good headphones, or you're listing
| | 02:36 | on fairly large speakers, but this is where
you get a lot of the power of the mix, and
| | 02:42 | again it's Girth, it's not necessarily bass.
| | 02:45 | It's bottom, and you don't want to add too
much of this, because in fact, you can make
| | 02:50 | it very muddy, but I am going emphasize it a
little bit here, a little bit more than normal anyway.
| | 02:55 | (music playing)
| | 03:13 | Now that's far more than I'd usually add,
but it gives you an idea of girth to a mix
| | 03:18 | or the largeness to a mix that everybody wants.
| | 03:22 | Now if we go back to trying to emphasize
certain instruments, let's try to emphasize the bass,
| | 03:27 | this is the bass guitar.
| | 03:30 | So usually it's somewhere around
100 to 120, maybe even as high as 150.
| | 03:34 | Let's have a listen.
Let's go up to 120 or so and go from there.
| | 03:42 | (music playing)
| | 04:01 | Now you can hear that what we are doing is
we are pulling that out just a little bit.
| | 04:05 | The bass guitar frequencies, if it's mixed well,
don't normally center on one frequency, around 120.
| | 04:13 | They go fairly low, and it may go as low as 60,
and it may go as high on the low end anyway
| | 04:19 | is 200 or so, and then it'll pick it up again
at about 1K, and 1K will do a couple of things
| | 04:26 | that will bring out the snap in the bass, and
it will give you a little bit of definition.
| | 04:30 | It will also bring out the definition of
the kick by allowing you to hear the beater.
| | 04:36 | This is the actual beater against the head.
| | 04:38 | Let's have a listen.
| | 04:41 | (music playing)
| | 05:06 | Now you can hear the beater of the
kick a lot better than the bass.
| | 05:09 | The bass is recorded very well, so
it already has a lot of high-end.
| | 05:12 | But if you don't have high-end on a bass,
this is kind of where you get it, and it's
| | 05:16 | somewhere around 1K, maybe a little higher,
maybe a little lower, sometimes 800 works
| | 05:20 | on the bass, sometimes 1200 works.
It just depends on the instrument and the mix.
| | 05:26 | The next place we are going to go is the snare,
and the snare is usually between 2K and maybe 3K.
| | 05:32 | Maybe a little higher on certain higher-pitched snare
drums, but we can bring it out of the mix pretty well.
| | 05:40 | Have a listen.
| | 05:42 | (music playing)
| | 06:02 | Now you can hear just a little bit
more of the snap than you heard before.
| | 06:06 | One of the problems here is if you add too
much, you are also affecting the vocal, and
| | 06:09 | you may be adding more of the
guitars than you'd like as well.
| | 06:13 | So you have to be careful on this, and once
again, the best thing is to fine tune your
| | 06:18 | queue and see if you can zero
in exactly on that snare hit.
| | 06:23 | It takes a little bit of time,
but that's the way to do.
| | 06:26 | The next thing we usually want to do is bring
up the vocal a little bit more, and the vocal
| | 06:30 | resides somewhere between 4 and 6K, at least the parts that
we want to bring it out in front of the mix a little bit.
| | 06:37 | Now instead of having a shelving EQ, which
is going to affect everything in this case
| | 06:42 | from 6K to about 20K, what we want to do is have a peaking
EQ so we can use the fine tuning of the queue setting.
| | 06:51 | Let's have a listen.
| | 06:53 | (music playing)
| | 07:11 | Have a listen again.
| | 07:13 | (music playing)
| | 07:22 | Now we brought them out a little bit
more in front of the mix than it was before.
| | 07:26 | Again, what happens here is not only do you
affect the vocal, but you affect everything
| | 07:31 | else that's around it frequency-wise, so
one of the things that happens here is the
| | 07:35 | tambourine--which is also centered in those vocal
frequencies--the tambourine jumps out a little as well.
| | 07:42 | If you can handle it that's going to work,
but sometimes again, you can only do so much
| | 07:46 | because you're only affecting the finished
mix, and there's not a lot that you can do
| | 07:51 | about the overall levels of the individual
instruments unless you actually do go back to the mix.
| | 07:57 | But you can bring a little bit out here and
a little bit out there, but usually if you
| | 08:01 | have to add too much, it's no good.
| | 08:04 | As a matter of fact, the real trick is to
not add too much in any one area, because
| | 08:07 | it usually upsets the entire
frequency balance of the song.
| | 08:11 | So if you need to add too much EQ to
try to compensate for the mix balance,
| | 08:14 | you are probably better off to
send the song back to have it remixed.
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|
|
6. Mastering for CDUsing dither| 00:00 | Dither is a low level noise that is added to the program
in order to trim a large digital word into a smaller one.
| | 00:06 | Since the word length for an audio CD must be
16 bits, a program with a longer word length
| | 00:12 | like the usual 24-bits used in a DAW must
eventually be decreased. Just lobbing off the
| | 00:17 | last 8 bits degrades the audio, so a Dither
signal is used to gently accomplish this task.
| | 00:23 | An undithered master will have the K-trail
stop abruptly or have a low-level buzzing
| | 00:28 | type of distortion at the end of a fade out.
All Dither is not created equally.
| | 00:33 | There are currently many different
algorithms to accomplish this task.
| | 00:37 | Each DAW manufacture has either their own
version, or one supplied by a third-party.
| | 00:42 | Sometimes noise shaping, which is a way to
increase the signal-to-noise ratio of the
| | 00:46 | signal is used in conjunction with dithering.
| | 00:50 | The bottom line undithered is that each type
can have a different effect on not only the
| | 00:53 | music, but song to song
on the same genre of music.
| | 00:57 | It's worth it to try whatever selections
are available before settling on a choice.
| | 01:00 | Here are some rules for using Dither.
Dither is signaled once and only once.
| | 01:07 | Since Dither is a noise signal, it'll have
accumulative effect if applied more than once,
| | 01:11 | plus Dither introduced too early in the
signal chain and have a very detrimental effect in
| | 01:16 | any subsequent digital signal
processing operations that occur afterward.
| | 01:21 | Dither only at the end of the signal chain.
| | 01:24 | The time to Dither is just before exporting
your final master, try different types of Dither.
| | 01:29 | All Dithers sounds slightly different and one
may be better for a certain type of music than others.
| | 01:34 | That said, the differences between different flavors
of Dither and noise shaping are usually pretty subtle.
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| Using the appropriate workstation| 00:00 | If you've ever tried to export a number of
songs from your normal digital audio workstation
| | 00:04 | timeline, you know that what you get is a
single large file instead of individual song
| | 00:09 | files, like what we're used to on a CD.
| | 00:12 | That's because you need a special editing
workstation for making CDs that does what's
| | 00:16 | know as PQ subcode editing.
| | 00:18 | PQ subcodes control the track location and
running time aspects of a CD, enable the CD
| | 00:24 | player to know how many tracks are present,
where they are, how long they are, and when
| | 00:29 | to change from one track to another.
| | 00:31 | Editing software applications like Waveburner,
Audio Architect, Peak, Wavelab, DSP-Quattro
| | 00:36 | and Sound Forge, all have the
ability to place these codes as needed.
| | 00:42 | When the CD was first developed, it had 8
subcodes labeled P to W, and there were a lot of uses
| | 00:48 | intended for them, they just never came to pass.
| | 00:51 | Today the only subcodes used are P and Q,
but these contain other information like ISRC
| | 00:57 | and UPC codes and CD text, all of
which we will cover in future movies.
| | 01:02 | Most PQ editors also allow PQ log to be
printed out which is then sent with the master to
| | 01:08 | the replicator, as a check to ensure that all
the correct data and information has been provide.
| | 01:13 | The ability to add a PQ code is essential in
the process of creating a CD and only certain
| | 01:18 | apps are capable of doing this.
| | 01:20 | That said, an app with the PQ editor can
give you much more power and precision than you
| | 01:24 | ever thought possible on a CD.
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| Adjusting the spreads| 00:00 | When mastering for CD or a vinyl record, the
time in between the songs is called the spread,
| | 00:05 | and it can be used as a creative tool
just as much as a sequence of the songs.
| | 00:09 | The spreads determine the pace of the album.
| | 00:11 | If the songs are close together, the pace feels
fast, and if they're further apart, it feels slower.
| | 00:18 | Sometimes the combination
of the two feels about right.
| | 00:21 | (music playing)
| | 00:31 | Many times the spread is time to
correspond with the tempo of the previous song.
| | 00:35 | In other words, if the tempo of the first song
was at 123 beats per minute, the mastering
| | 00:40 | engineer times the very last beat of the first
song to stay in tempo with the downbeat of the next.
| | 00:46 | The number of beats in between
depends upon the flow of the album.
| | 00:50 | (music playing)
| | 00:58 | Occasionally, a cross fade is used between
songs, so there is no real spread, but that's
| | 01:02 | still a decision usually
left for mastering as well.
| | 01:06 | (music playing)
| | 01:12 | Many Disk Print utilities like Creator and
Toast only have limited spread selections,
| | 01:17 | usually in 0.5-second intervals.
| | 01:20 | That should be enough for most situations,
but if you need more precision, you'll need
| | 01:24 | a dedicated PQ Editor as
discussed in the previous movie.
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| Using International Standard Recording Codes (ISRC)| 00:00 | Every song that's commercially released has
what's called an ISRC code, which is short
| | 00:05 | for International Standard Recording Code.
| | 00:07 | It's a unique identifier for each track that
lists the country of origin, the registrant,
| | 00:12 | which is usually a label, the year, and the designation
code, which is the unique identifier created by the label.
| | 00:19 | This code stays with the
audio recording for life of it.
| | 00:22 | Even if it later appears on a
compilation, the same ISRC will accompany it.
| | 00:28 | If recording is changed in any way, it requires
a new ISRC, but otherwise it will always retain
| | 00:33 | the same ISRC, independent of
the company or format it's in.
| | 00:38 | So how do you get an ISRC code?
| | 00:41 | If you digitally distribute your music through
TuneCore or CD Baby, they'll automatically assign one for you.
| | 00:46 | Many replicators will assign ISRCs for
you, too, but they'll charge you a fee.
| | 00:51 | With that being said, it's
even to register yourself.
| | 00:55 | Go to usisrc.org to register.
| | 00:58 | They'll assign you a three-digit registration
number, and you can begin to assign ISRC codes
| | 01:03 | to all your music, it will cost a one-time
fee of $75. Just be sure to keep a good list
| | 01:10 | of the numbers and follow the
rules which are provided on the site.
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| Using Universal Product Codes (UPC)| 00:00 | Another code used in the release
of most albums is the UPC code.
| | 00:04 | The UPC stands for Universal Product Code,
which is the number represented by the barcode
| | 00:09 | on the back of the packaging for just
about any item you buy in a store these days.
| | 00:14 | While an ISRC refers to a single track,
the UPC code is for the entire album.
| | 00:19 | Each unique physical product that is
put on a store shelf has this unique code.
| | 00:24 | In addition to the barcode that you find in
the back of the CD package, you can actually
| | 00:27 | encode this into the PQ information on a CD.
| | 00:31 | If you have any intention of selling your CD
at retail and having it recorded by SoundScan
| | 00:35 | for inclusion on the
Billboard charts, you need a UPC.
| | 00:40 | Most retailers only stock product with barcodes
so they can easily keep track of them in their
| | 00:44 | inventory, and SoundScan doesn't know
you exist until you have a barcode.
| | 00:48 | UPCs are administrated by the
UCC or Uniform Code Council.
| | 00:54 | If you want to obtain a manufacturer's
number so you can issue your own barcodes, it will
| | 00:58 | cost $750 for the registration fee, but you
can get a single UPC from CD Baby for $20 if
| | 01:04 | you're already a member, or
from Nationwide Barcode at around $10.
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| Creating CD-text discs| 00:00 | CD text information is the information
about the disk and its tracks, which is embedded
| | 00:04 | in the PQ codes of an audio CD master.
| | 00:07 | The information can include album title,
song titles, song times, and the artist.
| | 00:13 | In order for the CD text to be displayed on
a playback device, the device must be a CD
| | 00:18 | or DVD text enabled player.
Not all players and computers are text enabled.
| | 00:24 | Most applications that allow you to insert
PQ codes will also allow CD text info to be
| | 00:29 | inserted, but it's not automatic
and must be selected in a menu.
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| Delivering or receiving a DDP master| 00:00 | There are two ways to deliver your master to a
disk replication facility: audio CD, or DDP file.
| | 00:07 | While audio CDs work for this purpose, they
are far from ideal, no matter how good the
| | 00:12 | media and the burner are, there are still
going to be a number of errors in the data.
| | 00:16 | That's not the case with Disc Description
Protocol, or DDP files, however.
| | 00:20 | DDPs are delivered as data on a CD-ROM, DVD-ROM,
Exabyte tape, or transmitted via FTP and are
| | 00:28 | the industry-standard method for
audio delivery files for replication.
| | 00:32 | The error correction implied by Disc Description Protocol
is designed to be more robust than that of an audio CD.
| | 00:38 | It ensures that the audio master received by the
replicator will have as few errors as possible in the data.
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|
|
7. Mastering for Online ContentEncoding using the MP3 format| 00:00 | MP3 files are encoded using
what's known as Lossy Data Compression.
| | 00:04 | First of all, Data Compression is not at
all like the Audio Compression that we've been
| | 00:08 | talking about so far in this course.
| | 00:11 | Data Compression means decreasing the number of
bits in a digital word to make the file smaller.
| | 00:16 | MP3 encoding does this in a lossy manner
which means that it literally throws away certain
| | 00:21 | audio information that the encoder
thinks isn't important and won't be missed.
| | 00:25 | It's almost like letting
the air out of a bicycle tire.
| | 00:28 | Still the same tire, but it's a lot smaller.
| | 00:30 | Of course, if we compare an MP3 file to
its original non-data compressed source file,
| | 00:36 | we can usually hear a difference.
| | 00:38 | That's why the following information and
parameter settings are so important, so you can get
| | 00:42 | the best-sounding MP3 file that's sounds as
close to the uncompressed source files can be.
| | 00:48 | Regardless of the encoder, there's one parameter
that matters the most in determining the quality
| | 00:52 | of the encode, and that's Bit Rate, which
is the number of bits of the encoded data
| | 00:57 | that are used to represent each second of audio.
| | 01:01 | Lossy encoders like MP3 provide a
number of different options for its Bit Rate.
| | 01:05 | Typically, the rate shows the
number between 128 and 320kbps.
| | 01:10 | By contrast, uncompressed audio is stored on
a compact disc has a Bit Rate of about 1400.
| | 01:17 | MP3 files encoded with lower Bit Rate will
result in a smaller file and therefore download
| | 01:23 | faster, but they generally
playback at lower quality.
| | 01:27 | With the Bit Rate too low, compression artifacts
or sounds that were not present in the original
| | 01:31 | recording may appear in reproduction.
| | 01:33 | A good demonstration of compression
artifacts provided by the sound of applause which is
| | 01:38 | hard to data compress, because it's so random.
(audio playing)
| | 01:48 | As a result, the failings of an encoder are
more obvious and become audible as a slight ringing.
| | 01:53 | (audio playing)
| | 02:05 | (audio playing)
| | 02:11 | It also results in larger file which
may take an unacceptable amount of storage
| | 02:15 | space or time to download.
| | 02:17 | In these days of seemingly unlimited
storage and widespread high-speed Internet, that's
| | 02:21 | becoming less and less of a factor.
| | 02:25 | 128kbps has lowest acceptable Bit Rate, but may
have marginal quality depending upon the encoder.
| | 02:31 | This results in some
artifacts, but a small file size.
| | 02:35 | 160kbps is the lowest Bit Rate
considered usable for a high-quality file.
| | 02:40 | 320kbps revise the highest quality and
may even be indistinguishable from a CD.
| | 02:47 | There are three modes that are coupled to
Bit Rate that have a bearing on the final
| | 02:50 | sound quality of the encode.
| | 02:53 | Constant Bit Rate mode, or CBR, maintains a steady
Bit Rate regardless of the complexity of the program.
| | 02:59 | CBR mode usually provides the lowest quality
encode, but the file size is very predictable.
| | 02:59 | Conversely, a high bit rate encode will
almost always produce a better sounding file.
| | 03:05 | Average Bit Rate mode, or ABR, varies the Bit
Rate around the specified target Bit Rate.
| | 03:11 | Variable Bit Rate mode, or VBR, maintains a
constant quality while raising and lowering
| | 03:16 | the Bit Rate depending
upon how complex the program.
| | 03:20 | Size is less predictable than with ABR,
but the quality is usually better.
| | 03:24 | At a given Bit Rate range, VBR will provide
higher quality than ABR which will provide
| | 03:29 | higher quality than CBR.
| | 03:31 | The exception to this is when you choose
the highest possible Bit Rate of 320kb where
| | 03:37 | depending upon the encoder the mode may
have little bearing on the final sound quality.
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| Understanding MP3 metadata| 00:00 | An MP3 file contains not only the actual audio,
but also information about that song called metadata.
| | 00:07 | You can think of metadata as a small database
associated with each song, within that database,
| | 00:12 | there are tags that identify that Song's Name,
the Artist, Album, Musical Genre, Release Year, and a lot more.
| | 00:20 | Obviously those tags tell more about
the file than a file name ever could.
| | 00:24 | You can have an MP3 called jjbr#$.mp3, but
as long as it has accurate tags your iPod
| | 00:32 | will identify it as Electrolux by
SNEW of the What's It To Ya Album.
| | 00:37 | The most common metadata fields added to
MP3 files are the track title, the artist that
| | 00:43 | recorded that track, which album the track
belongs to, the track number from the album,
| | 00:49 | the year that the track was published, the
genre of the track like speech or rock or
| | 00:54 | pop, additional notes about the track, a copyright
notice by the copyright holder and a thumbnail
| | 01:00 | of the album art or artist.
| | 01:03 | In addition of these common fields other data
can be included, such as web addresses, composer,
| | 01:08 | conductor, orchestra, other things as well.
| | 01:10 | Although we mostly associate metadata with
MP3s, it's also supported by Ogg Vorbis, FLAC,
| | 01:17 | AAC, Windows Media Audio, and a few other
file formats that aren't used that often.
| | 01:23 | It's critical that the metadata be accurate,
otherwise an MP3 player may not be able to
| | 01:27 | sort or identify songs correctly.
| | 01:30 | So make sure that you take the time to fill in all the
metadata fields before you release your MP3 to the world.
| | 01:36 | Even though there are plenty of MP3 editors
that allow listeners to insert the data after
| | 01:41 | the fact, wouldn't you
prefer that it comes from you?
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| Creating a great-sounding MP3| 00:00 | Encoding an MP3 of your song may seem easy,
but it requires a bit of thought to make it
| | 00:05 | sound great as well as some knowledge
and occasionally some experimentation.
| | 00:08 | Here are some tips to get you started in the right direction
so you won't have to try every possible parameter combination.
| | 00:15 | Remember, though, that the settings that might
work on one particular song or type of music
| | 00:19 | might not work on another.
| | 00:21 | If you want the best sounding
MP3s possible, follow these tips.
| | 00:25 | Start with the highest
quality audio file possible.
| | 00:28 | Lossy Data Compression like MP3 makes the
quality of the master mix more of an issue.
| | 00:34 | That's because high quality audio will be
damaged much less when using this type of
| | 00:38 | MP3 encoding than low-quality source audio will.
| | 00:41 | Therefore, it's vitally important that you
start with the best quality audio possible,
| | 00:46 | which means the highest
sample rate and the most bits.
| | 00:49 | That means it sometime is better to start
with a 24-bit master or make the MP3 while
| | 00:54 | you're exporting your mix, rather that
using something like the 16-bit CD master as the
| | 00:58 | source for your MP3 encodes.
| | 01:00 | Filter out the top end and whatever
frequency works best, and you can judge by ear.
| | 01:05 | MP3 has the most
difficulty with high frequencies.
| | 01:08 | Rolling them off liberates a lot of
processing for encoding the lower and mid-frequencies.
| | 01:14 | You trade some top end for
quality in the rest of the spectrum.
| | 01:17 | A busy mix can lose punch after encoding.
| | 01:21 | Sparse mixes like acoustic jazz trios seem
to retain more of the original audio punch.
| | 01:27 | Use Variable Bit Rate mode, turn off Mid-Side Joint
Stereo, Intensity Joint Stereo, and Stereo Narrowing.
| | 01:36 | Don't use a Bit Rate below a
160kbps, higher is always better.
| | 01:41 | Don't hyper compress.
| | 01:43 | Use some Dynamic Range so the
encoding algorithm has something to look at.
| | 01:47 | Set your encoder for maximum quality,
which allows it to process for best results.
| | 01:52 | The encoding time is negligible anyway.
MP3 encoding results are hotter.
| | 01:58 | Remember, MP3 encoding almost always results
in the encoded material being slightly hotter
| | 02:02 | than the original material.
| | 02:04 | Limit the output of the material intended
for MP3 to -1.1 dB instead of the commonly
| | 02:10 | used -0.1 or -0.2 dB, so you
don't get digital overs.
| | 02:16 | It's also important to listen to your encode.
A-B it to the original and make any additional
| | 02:21 | changes you feel necessary
before settling on the final product.
| | 02:25 | Sometimes a big thick wall of sound encodes
terribly, and you need to ease back on the
| | 02:29 | compression and limiting
of the source track master.
| | 02:32 | Other times, heavy compression can make it through
the encoder better than with a mix with more dynamics.
| | 02:38 | There are a few predictions one can make after
doing it for a while, but you can never be certain.
| | 02:43 | So listening and adjusting
is the only way to be sure.
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| Generating a FLAC file| 00:00 | A format that's recently gotten a lot of attention is
lossless FLAC format, which stands for free lossless audio codec.
| | 00:08 | It works somewhat the same as the standard
MP3 file, only it's lossless like a Zip file
| | 00:12 | and is designed specifically for audio.
| | 00:15 | Unlike other lossless codecs by DTS
and Dolby, FLAC is non-proprietary.
| | 00:19 | It is unencumbered by patents and
has open-source implementation.
| | 00:25 | What's more, FLAC has been adopted as a release format
of choice by some of the world's biggest recording
| | 00:29 | artists from Pearl Jam to Nine Inch Nails to
the Eagles and even reissues from the Beatles.
| | 00:35 | FLAC supports a Bit Depth from 4 to 32 and up
to 8 channels, and even though it can support
| | 00:40 | any sampling rate from 1 Hz to 655,350, you
don't need to specify Bit Rate, because it
| | 00:47 | automatically determines
it from the source file.
| | 00:51 | Plus it has Cue sheet metadata block for
storing CD table of contents, track, and index points.
| | 00:57 | It's an excellent way to deliver the highest
fidelity music file with a reasonably small
| | 01:01 | file size, but it's not yet
supported by all applications or players.
| | 01:06 | Although many digital audio workstations don't
have a FLAC encoder built-in, there are number
| | 01:10 | of players and encoders that can be downloaded for free,
as well as a QuickTime Playback component and iTunes scripts.
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| Submitting music to online stores and services| 00:00 | If you want to distribute your work via
online stores, you might want to consider one
| | 00:04 | of the big three distribution services,
CD Baby, TuneCore, or ReverbNation.
| | 00:10 | While you may be able to submit your songs
to some online stores, others like iTunes
| | 00:15 | require a record label account
with a large amount of titles.
| | 00:19 | Plus each online store has different file
format requirements, which can cause you to
| | 00:24 | spend a lot of time with file preparation
when submission is just a single click away
| | 00:28 | with CD Baby, TuneCore, ReverbNation.
| | 00:31 | In a nutshell, TuneCore and ReverbNation charge
annual fees but don't take a percentage of your sales.
| | 00:38 | CD Baby takes a 9% cut, but
doesn't charge an annual fee.
| | 00:42 | And if you want physical distribution only
CD Baby and ReverbNation offer that service.
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| Submitting music to online song databases| 00:00 | There are a number of online databases that
store album information that is accessed by
| | 00:04 | such programs as iTunes, Windows Media Player, and
Winamp to display album and song info on computers.
| | 00:11 | Perhaps the best known is CDDB or Compact
Disc Database, which is a database that allows
| | 00:17 | a music player application to look up audio
CD information over the Internet, which then
| | 00:22 | displays the Artist name, CD title,
track list, and some additional information.
| | 00:28 | CDDB is a licensed
trademark of Gracenote Incorporated.
| | 00:32 | The information in a database like CDDB is
linked to CDs that have had CD text embedded
| | 00:38 | in the masters by their mastering engineers.
And that info appears on the manufactured CDs.
| | 00:44 | The artist is totally responsible for all
information for the CD text and the mastering
| | 00:48 | engineer simply inserts the information
that the client provides for the text.
| | 00:52 | There are other online databases besides CDDB,
including Muse, freeDB, and MusicBrainz, and
| | 00:59 | although the CD identification process used
by these databases may differ from the original
| | 01:04 | CDDB process, the concept is the same.
| | 01:07 | You can submit your album data to CDDB using
iTunes by naming the CD tracks and then using
| | 01:12 | the Submit Track Names
option under the Advanced menu.
| | 01:16 | Once your CD is imported into iTunes,
click into a track name and select Get Info.
| | 01:21 | On the Info tab type in the Track Name, Artist Name,
Album name, select the Genre and Year of release.
| | 01:30 | The Next button will take you to the next track.
Continue until all the tracks are titled.
| | 01:36 | Go to Advanced and click Submit CD Track Names.
| | 01:39 | Within two or three days, place
the CD back in the CD-ROM drive.
| | 01:44 | Go to Advanced and click Get Track Names.
| | 01:47 | This is a Requery button that clears your local cache
and shows that your CD information now comes from CDDB.
| | 01:54 | Since identification of CDs is based on the
length and order of the tracks, CDDB can't
| | 01:59 | identify playlists in which the order of the tracks has
been changed or compilations of tracks with different CDs.
| | 02:06 | CDDB also can't distinguish between different CDs that
have the same number of tracks in the same track list.
| | 02:12 | If you need more information on CDDB submissions, fixes,
or the service in general, go to gracenote.com/about/faqs.
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|
|
8. Mastering for iTunesUnderstanding AAC, the iTunes file format| 00:00 | iTunes uses the Advanced Audio Coding, or AAC file
format, as a standard for all the music in its store.
| | 00:07 | Contrary to popular belief, it's not
a proprietary format owned by Apple.
| | 00:13 | In fact, it's part of the MP4 specification and generally
delivers excellent quality files that are about 30%
| | 00:18 | smaller than a standard
MP3 of the same data rate.
| | 00:22 | All new music destined for the iTunes Store
is now encoded at a constant bit rate of
| | 00:27 | 256 kilobits per second and a
sample rate of 44.1 kilohertz.
| | 00:31 | The iTunes Store discontinued selling 128
kilobits per second music files in April of 2008.
| | 00:38 | While the iTunes Store does the encoding for
you after the songs have been submitted, here
| | 00:43 | are some of the parameters of the AAC Encoder that
are available if you do your own encoding in iTunes.
| | 00:49 | The settings can be found under
iTunes > Preferences > General.
| | 00:54 | You click Import Settings, choose Import Using
AAC Encoder and then under Setting choose Custom.
| | 01:04 | The first setting is Stereo Bit Rate.
| | 01:06 | This allows you to select the
bit rate for your AAC encode.
| | 01:10 | The highest quality setting for
this format is 320 kilobits per second.
| | 01:14 | The next is Sample Rate where you
select the sample rate you like to encode at.
| | 01:19 | If you're using an Encoder other than the
one in iTunes, never use a higher sample rate
| | 01:23 | than the rate used for the source.
| | 01:25 | In other words, don't use 48 kilohertz if
your source is 44.1 kilohertz, doing so will
| | 01:31 | make the file larger without
getting anything in terms of quality.
| | 01:35 | The Channels pop-up menu enables you to choose how you
want the music to play through speakers, Stereo or Mono.
| | 01:41 | You can leave Channels set to Auto if you
want the Encoder to keep the same channel
| | 01:45 | settings as the file you are encoding.
| | 01:47 | Check the box next to
Variable Bit Rate Encoding.
| | 01:50 | This option keeps the file size
down and increases the audio quality.
| | 01:54 | VBR varies the number of bits used to store
the music as a song gets more or less complex.
| | 02:00 | High Efficiency Encoding tailors the AAC
Encode to provide a better sounding and smaller file
| | 02:05 | when encoding at lower sample rates.
| | 02:07 | So we probably won't choose
it if we're encoding music.
| | 02:10 | The Optimize for voice option is meant for
podcasters and filters the audio to favor
| | 02:15 | the human voice, which is obviously
not something you want for music.
| | 02:18 | To make things really simple, it's best to
select the highest bit rate in the Stereo
| | 02:23 | Bit Rate pop-up menu and leave the
other two pop-up menus set to Auto.
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| Mastering for iTunes tips and tricks| 00:00 | So what are the tricks to get the
best sound quality from an iTunes encode?
| | 00:04 | It turns out that the considerations
are about the same as with MP3 encoding.
| | 00:09 | First of all, turn it down a bit.
| | 00:12 | A song that's flat-lined at -1 dB full-scale isn't
going to encode as well as the song with some headroom.
| | 00:18 | This is because the iTunes AAC Encoder
tends to output a tad harder than the source.
| | 00:24 | So there may be inter-sample overloads that
happened at that level that aren't detected
| | 00:28 | on a typical peak meter.
| | 00:30 | All digital audio converters on consumer and
professional audio gear have different sensitivities,
| | 00:35 | and some may overload while others sound clean.
| | 00:37 | As a result, a level that doesn't trigger an over on your DAW's
converter, may actually be an over on another playback unit.
| | 00:45 | If you back it down to -0.5 or even -1 dB,
the encode will sound a lot better and your
| | 00:51 | listener probably won't be able to
tell much of a difference in level anyway.
| | 00:56 | Don't squash the master too hard.
Masters with some dynamic range encode better.
| | 01:01 | Masters that are squeezed with an inch of their
life don't encode as well, it's as simple as that.
| | 01:06 | Listeners like it better
when there's more dynamics too.
| | 01:09 | Although the new AAC Encoder has a
fantastic frequency response, sometimes rolling off
| | 01:14 | a little of the extreme top end around 16
kilohertz and above can help to encode as well.
| | 01:19 | A typical roll-off might
look something like this.
| | 01:23 | Any type of data compression requires
the same common-sense considerations.
| | 01:27 | If you back off on the level, the mix bus compression
in the high frequencies of the mix, you'll
| | 01:32 | be surprised just how good
your AAC encode can sound.
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| The Mastered for iTunes format| 00:00 | Mastered for iTunes is a program that Apple
introduced in 2012, where the iTunes Store
| | 00:05 | accepts high-resolution master files and
provides higher-quality AAC encodes as a result.
| | 00:11 | Music files that are supplied at 96 kilohertz/24-bit
will have Mastered for iTunes icon placed
| | 00:17 | beside them to identify them as such.
| | 00:19 | Although any sample rate that's
24-bit file will be considered.
| | 00:23 | Mastered for iTunes does not mean that a mixer,
producer, or mastering facility does anything
| | 00:28 | special to the master except to check for
what it will sound like before it's submitted
| | 00:32 | to iTunes and then check it later again
before it's posted in the iTunes Store.
| | 00:37 | All encoding for iTunes will be done by Apple,
not by the mastering house, record label, or artist.
| | 00:43 | The reason for this is to keep the encodes
consistent and to prevent anyone from gaming
| | 00:47 | the system by hacking the Encoder.
| | 00:50 | This also avoids any potential legal problems
that might occur when a mixer, producer,
| | 00:55 | or mastering house sends the files directly to iTunes without
the label's permission or uses different submission specs.
| | 01:01 | Mastered for iTunes is only an indication that a
high-res master was applied, it's not a separate product.
| | 01:07 | There were always be only one version of the
song on iTunes, and it will be available at
| | 01:11 | the same price regardless of
whether it's mastered for iTunes or not.
| | 01:16 | Mastered for iTunes doesn't mean that the
song will cost more in the iTunes Store or
| | 01:20 | doesn't mean that iTunes
will charge you for the service.
| | 01:22 | Everything is like it was before, you just
supply a high-res master so it ultimately
| | 01:27 | sounds better to the listener.
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| The Mastered for iTunes tool package| 00:00 | Even though the mixer or mastering house
doesn't do any encoding directly, Apple has provided
| | 00:05 | a set of tools that can be used to hear what the
final product will sound like when it's encoded.
| | 00:10 | That way any adjustments can be made to
the master before it's submitted to iTunes to
| | 00:14 | ensure that it sounds its best.
| | 00:16 | We're going to cover most of these tools
separately in the following movies, and you can find
| | 00:20 | them at apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes.
| | 00:26 | Along with the mastering tools, be sure to
also download the AU Lab tool as it acts as
| | 00:31 | a host for one of the most
important utilities, AURoundTrip.
| | 00:35 | Included in the mastering tools are
two utilities: AFconvert, and AFclip, that
| | 00:40 | can only be accessed via the
Terminal program in Mac OS X.
| | 00:44 | The vast majority of mastering engineers
don't find these tools particularly useful since
| | 00:48 | they require some UNIX command line knowledge,
so we're going to skip them in our movies.
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| Using the iTunes Plus tools: iTunes Droplet| 00:00 | The Mastered for iTunes Droplet is a stand-alone
drag and drop tool that's a quick and easy way to encode
| | 00:05 | your masters to the AAC format that iTunes uses.
| | 00:09 | You can find it in your Applications/Utilities
folder after the iTunes Mastering Tools have been installed.
| | 00:14 | But I have put it on the
Desktop for easy access.
| | 00:18 | All you have to do is drag and drop the source
audio file or a folder containing source files
| | 00:23 | onto the droplet. Most of the time
these will be either AIFF or WAVE files.
| | 00:29 | Utility will create a temporary core audio
file in the same folder as your source file.
| | 00:33 | When the file is finally converted to AAC, the
core audio temp file is automatically deleted.
| | 00:40 | You won't see a Progress Bar while conversion
is taking place, and it may take a few moments.
| | 00:45 | The Droplet then gives you a
prompt when the process is completed.
| | 00:49 | The new file will have a M4A file
extension, which means it's an AAC file.
| | 00:54 | Keep in mind that regardless of the sample
rate, the Droplet will automatically convert
| | 00:58 | the file to 44.1 kilohertz.
| | 01:01 | Once again, the only reason that you'll be
converting your song files to the AAC file
| | 01:06 | format is to hear what the file will actually
sound like after it's posted on the iTunes Store,
| | 01:10 | not to use this file to submit to iTunes.
| | 01:14 | iTunes does not accept AAC files, as the
conversion is done by Apple from an AIFF or WAV file.
| | 01:21 | After your files are converted, give them a good listen
on some monitors, high-quality headphones, and ear-buds.
| | 01:27 | Know what you'll be giving your listeners
before the day the record hits the iTunes Store.
| | 01:32 | Better still, have the chance to make
adjustments to your master if need be.
| | 01:37 | (music playing)
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| Using the Mastered for iTunes Audio To WAVE Droplet| 00:00 | Just as the Mastered for iTunes Droplet
tool made encoding to AAC easier, the Audio to WAVE
| | 00:05 | Droplet makes converting an
AAC file back to WAVE easy as well.
| | 00:10 | You can find it in your Applications/Utilities
folder after the iTunes mastering tools have been installed.
| | 00:15 | Once again, I put it on
the Desktop for easy access.
| | 00:19 | Not only does it work with the AAC file format,
but it also works with any audio files that
| | 00:24 | are natively supported on Mac OS X,
such as MPEG or CAF files.
| | 00:30 | To use the Audio to WAVE Droplet, drag and
drop audio source files or folders containing
| | 00:35 | those files onto the Droplet.
| | 00:37 | The Droplet will then convert
those files to WAVE format files.
| | 00:41 | The newly created WAVE files will be named
using the names of their corresponding source
| | 00:45 | files and will be placed in the same folder.
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| Using the Mastered for iTunes AURoundTripAAC Audio Unit tool| 00:00 | AU Roundtrip AAC is another tool that can be
used to compare an AAC file to the original
| | 00:05 | source audio file to check for clipping.
| | 00:08 | It includes clip and peak detection as
well as a simple listening test environment.
| | 00:12 | The audio unit plug-in can be used in any audio
unit host applications, such as Logic or AU Lab.
| | 00:19 | AU Lab is available as a free download at
apple.com/itunes/mastered-for-itunes and is
| | 00:26 | mainly designed as an
audio unit host for developers.
| | 00:29 | But it has an application for audio
unit auditioning like this one as well.
| | 00:33 | So after the program is launched, I am going
to go up and I'm going to say give us a new file,
| | 00:38 | and in this case what we are going to see
is the routing for Input and Output, and you
| | 00:44 | can just go and select exactly where you want.
I am just going to keep where it is in Digital
| | 00:49 | Input and Built-in Line
Output and create a document.
| | 00:54 | Now this documented in fact gives us an Input
Channel, but the Input Channel that it's giving
| | 00:58 | us is the actual input from the microphone,
and this is the input going into this computer.
| | 01:05 | We don't want this in this case, so what we are going to do
is we are going to mute it by clicking on the 1 there.
| | 01:11 | What we do want is another channel,
but it's not exactly what you think.
| | 01:15 | We are going to go up here to the Edit
window and hit Add Audio Unit Generator.
| | 01:20 | Now it's going to give us choice of exactly
what we can use as a track here, and we are
| | 01:25 | going to say AUAudioFilePlayer, because really
what we want to do is we want to play a file.
| | 01:32 | So there is a generator window, and now what
we are going to do is go to Affects > Apple,
| | 01:37 | and you can see, what we're seeing here is
all our various plug-ins that are available
| | 01:42 | on this program, but we really only want the
one, and it's down at the bottom, Roundtrip AAC.
| | 01:47 | Now this gives us a second window.
| | 01:51 | So now what we want to do is get a file to
playback, so we are going to go up here to
| | 01:55 | our original master of Simply Falling and drag it
over into the window, and now we play it from here.
| | 02:02 | (music playing)
| | 02:05 | And we can actually take it to wherever we
want and set the region, and if we'd like
| | 02:11 | we can even loop it as well.
| | 02:14 | But the real trick here is this window here,
it's the Roundtrip AAC Generator Window, and
| | 02:19 | if we actually go down and look at Show
Details, this gives us the interesting part of the
| | 02:24 | whole thing, and this is actually going to
show us the distortion that we might see in
| | 02:29 | any peaks or overloads, and even down
to the sample and inter-sample level.
| | 02:33 | Now watch when we play.
| | 02:36 | (music playing)
| | 02:44 | Now take notice what just happened there.
| | 02:46 | We had two different pieces
of distortion that happened.
| | 02:49 | We had one on the source file and one on the
encode file, and this is the really cool trick
| | 02:55 | about Roundtrip AAC, it allows us to
listen to what the source file, the original 48K
| | 03:01 | 24-bit, in this case file, and what that
encode might be in this, the AAC encode that might
| | 03:08 | be on the Apple Store after they encode it.
| | 03:11 | What we are seeing here is there were two
clips, there's one on the source file and
| | 03:15 | another on the encode, and it comes down
and tells us exactly where those clips were.
| | 03:20 | It says we had our left channel clip, and
there was one inter-sample clip that happened.
| | 03:26 | That's not very much actually, it's
not something that we really hear.
| | 03:30 | Inter-sample clips are interesting because there
are really peaks that happen in between each sample.
| | 03:34 | It is not something that we hear as distortion
as much as you put enough of them together
| | 03:40 | and suddenly it doesn't sound clean anymore.
| | 03:42 | So we want to stay away from those if possible,
and of course, any sample clips, we definitely
| | 03:47 | want to stay away from
because we can definitely hear those.
| | 03:49 | So let's play a little more.
(music playing)
| | 03:54 | I am going to move up to a place that I know
was kind of loud here, and let's play this.
| | 04:00 | (music playing)
| | 04:13 | And we can see we have some additional clips
that happened, and let's go back and listen
| | 04:17 | between the source and the encode again,
and see if you can hear the difference.
| | 04:22 | (music playing)
| | 04:40 | And what's cool about this is in fact, it's
almost instantaneous that it happens, there
| | 04:44 | is no latency in between the source monitor,
and the encode monitor, which is pretty neat.
| | 04:50 | The other thing that Roundtrip
AAC gives us is a listening test.
| | 04:54 | If we'd click on this window here, we
can see it sets up a blind AB test.
| | 04:59 | Now most of the time you don't need this at
all, and I'd say the only time you'd probably
| | 05:03 | use it if we had a bunch of people around
there trying to figure out who had the biggest
| | 05:07 | ears, or the most golden ears, but nonetheless,
this allows you to in a blind test to figure
| | 05:13 | out on an average who could hear
the most correct number of Cycles.
| | 05:20 | And this gives us two modes here, there is a
Test Cycle mode, and there is Training mode,
| | 05:26 | and really the Training mode is
just so we can kind of figure this out.
| | 05:29 | I am going to play with it just so watch.
(music playing)
| | 05:32 | That's what our source sounds like.
| | 05:37 | Now we can listen to A and B, and again this
is blind between the Source and the Encode.
| | 05:44 | (music playing)
| | 05:52 | Okay, I think this is A,
and it tells me it's correct.
| | 05:59 | So we're back to listening to the Source
(music playing)
| | 06:05 | Okay, now I think this is B.
| | 06:10 | And you can see it tells us we are incorrect.
| | 06:13 | If I uncheck Training mode, we will actually
do this 20 times and at the end of the 20th
| | 06:18 | time, it will take an average of all
those to see exactly how good our ears are.
| | 06:24 | But once again, this doesn't really prove
anything except how well you can hear the
| | 06:29 | AAC encoder or if you can't hear it at all.
| | 06:32 | So as you can see, AU Roundtrip shows you
where any overloads are occurring, in either
| | 06:36 | the Source file or the Encode.
| | 06:39 | iTunes won't reject the file with distortion
or clipping, but if you know where it's at,
| | 06:43 | you can fix it before it's submitted so your
listeners get the best sounding songs available.
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| Using The Mastered for iTunes tools Test Pressing Feature| 00:00 | One unique aspect of Mastered for iTunes is
something that's not been publicized called Test Pressing.
| | 00:06 | To all artists, labels, and mastering
engineers in the Mastered for iTunes program, iTunes
| | 00:11 | will send the AAC file back via a
time link to check before it's posted.
| | 00:16 | The mastering engineer is then able to
either audition the file with a quick listen or do
| | 00:20 | a Null Test in the Digital Audio Workstation,
In order to the Null Test, the Test Pressing
| | 00:26 | is dropped into the Audio to WAVE Droplet.
| | 00:28 | And both the original Source file and the
new WAVE file are imported into the DAW.
| | 00:35 | One of the WAVE files is inverted
out of phase by using an Invert tool.
| | 00:40 | When both files are played at the same time, they should
cancel each other out and result in no audio output.
| | 00:48 | Any audio output after a Null Test means that a
different master might have been sent to iTunes to encode.
| | 00:54 | Once a Test Pressing is signed off on, the
song then goes on sale in the iTunes Store.
| | 00:59 | This has been found to be a great tool,
not so much for catching bad encodes, but for
| | 01:03 | finding more egregious errors, like the wrong
master or even entirely wrong songs being submitted.
| | 01:09 | Hopefully, the Test Pressing feature
will be used more and more in the future.
| | 01:14 | Mastered for iTunes is a great reason to
record your mix at high-resolution, and Apple has
| | 01:19 | provided the tools to help you make sure
that your songs sound better than ever when they
| | 01:22 | are posted to the iTunes Store.
| | 01:24 | Best of all, your fans
will love what they hear.
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9. High-Resolution MasteringMastering for high resolution| 00:00 | Thanks to high-capacity disks like Blu-ray
and even some online sites like HDtracks.com,
| | 00:05 | the demand for high-
resolution audio is growing rapidly.
| | 00:09 | While the mastering process is the same as
with standard-def material, there are other
| | 00:14 | considerations that apply
when it comes to high-resolution.
| | 00:17 | The first is storage.
| | 00:20 | Consider this, we all know that a 44.1/16 stereo
minute on a CD needs approximately 10.5 MB of storage.
| | 00:27 | Most of us record in our DAWs at 48/24, and that
takes about 17.28 for each minute that we record.
| | 00:35 | When it comes to high-res, we go to a
different league, though, with a minute of 296/24 stereo
| | 00:40 | needing 34.56 MB and a
minute of 192/24 needing 69.12 MB.
| | 00:47 | Again, this is just for stereo. If we were
dealing with 6-channel 5.1 file at 192K, our
| | 00:54 | storage would be 207 MB.
| | 00:56 | In these days of cheap storage where a
terabyte doesn't cost very much, this might not sound
| | 01:01 | like a lot of storage space, but it can really
get you in a bind if you haven't planned for it.
| | 01:05 | But 96/24 operation
doesn't just stop at storage.
| | 01:09 | All equipment in a Digital Signal Chain,
including A to D and D to A Converters, plug-ins and
| | 01:14 | workstations, must now be able
to process at least 96/24 as well.
| | 01:19 | And keep in mind that the higher the
resolution, the more processing power that's required
| | 01:23 | from your computer's processor and RAM.
| | 01:26 | Most modern workstations and mastering software
is up to the task of working with high-resolution
| | 01:30 | files, but be aware that everything is not
always as easy as in the standard-res world.
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| Mastering for television| 00:00 | Most of the time, music intended for
television is delivered to the post-production facility
| | 00:04 | unmastered, or it's mixed in against the video.
| | 00:07 | The video editor then determines the correct level
against the effects and dialog, just like with film.
| | 00:12 | But on the rare occasion when the television
audio is coming from the mastering engineer,
| | 00:17 | the first thing you need to do is obtain a
technical specification from the engineering
| | 00:21 | department of the network
it's going to be shown on.
| | 00:23 | This will tell you exactly what
they want and how they want it.
| | 00:27 | Among the types of things that the network
spec will contain is all the video requirements,
| | 00:31 | as well as all the audio requirements.
| | 00:32 | Read and follow these carefully, or else
you'll end up redoing the project to their liking.
| | 00:38 | Here is what to watch for, the operating
level for a reference tone, how long they want the
| | 00:43 | tone, and if laid back to tape,
where on the tape it begins.
| | 00:47 | The operating level will usually be at -20dB
full scale, but sometimes it might be -18
| | 00:53 | or -16, so check this closely.
| | 00:55 | The acceptable audio quality in
terms of distortion and noise, the phase.
| | 01:01 | Make sure you listen to mono, because they will.
Audio/video synchronization or lip-synching.
| | 01:07 | Being out of sync by more than a frame
might not be acceptable, the desired audio track
| | 01:12 | assignment on a delivery media.
| | 01:14 | Remember that the standard audio
resolution for television is 48kHz/24-bit.
| | 01:20 | Of all the above, the peak audio levels are the
most important and are usually stated like this.
| | 01:26 | Programs must have audio levels that regularly peak
near but not above -10dBFS using a Peak Reading Meter.
| | 01:34 | This means any peak that goes just a tick
beyond -10 will be kicked back for you to redo.
| | 01:40 | Television networks are very strict with their
specs and a violation will result in the project
| | 01:43 | being kicked back for you to do it again.
| | 01:46 | So on those rare times that you're asked for
television delivery, paying close attention
| | 01:50 | to all the details will
pay off and a lot less hassle.
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10. Archiving the MasterDelivering the master to the replicator| 00:00 | When sending a CD or DDP Master to a CD replicator,
most now prefer the file be sent via FTP.
| | 00:07 | The best way to do that is with an FTP app,
like Fetch on a Mac or FileZilla on a PC.
| | 00:13 | Most FTP apps are either free or very low
cost and are the very best way to quickly
| | 00:18 | and safely send large files to either
a client, distributor, or replicator.
| | 00:23 | Your replicator will provide all the
info, as well as any help if needed.
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| Archiving the project| 00:00 | Someone once said that the difference between
an amateur and a pro is that a pro has a backup,
| | 00:04 | and nothing could be more true.
| | 00:07 | Even though you may have given the client a
final signed-off master, it's always a good
| | 00:11 | idea to archive the project in case you have to do
some fixes, or a piece of it's needed in the future.
| | 00:17 | While normal backups are done to hard drives,
flash drives, or in the cloud, long-term archiving
| | 00:23 | requires a different strategy.
| | 00:25 | Essentially, there are two different
backups that are required, the master, which is a
| | 00:29 | copy of all the master formats that were requested for
the project, including CD, MP3, DDP, or high-res files.
| | 00:38 | The master session contains the DAW session,
as well as all the original source files.
| | 00:43 | Usually the archive will live locally on a
hard drive or optical disk in your files,
| | 00:48 | Be sure to keep a copy off-site
for true file security.
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ConclusionNext steps| 00:00 | Now that you've made it through the course,
you should have a feel for how mastering works.
| | 00:04 | Remember that like so many other things in
life, mastering takes practice, and the more
| | 00:08 | you do it, the better you get.
| | 00:10 | The more experience you gain, the more you
learn what works and what doesn't in a particular
| | 00:14 | situation, but never be afraid to experiment.
| | 00:17 | Learning the fundamentals is important, but
learning when to break them is important too.
| | 00:21 | Above all, have fun.
| | 00:23 | You can sometimes create magic without it,
but everything goes so much easier when everyone
| | 00:27 | is having a good time.
| | 00:28 | For some additional information and exercises on
recording, watch the Audio Recording Techniques
| | 00:33 | course on the lynda.com online training library,
as well as the Foundations of Audio Series,
| | 00:38 | and my Audio Mixing Bootcamp course.
| | 00:41 | Additionally, you may want to check out the Audio Mastering
Handbook, published by Cengage Course Technology.
| | 00:47 | Good luck, and go master some hits.
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