Mastering an album on dp 24

[Darryl Amundson]

Hi! Is there a way to send all the masters for my album onto their own track to master the album on my dp 24 together?
Thanks

 

[Phil Tipping]

Hi Darryl, not too clear what you mean by 'all my masters'. If these are your pre-mixed stereo files, one per song, then you can copy them one by one to the machine for mastering. The details are in this post, but basically you...
1. Create a song with the same format as your file.
2. Copy the file into the song folder under the Music folder, and rename it so that it matches the song name (the exact name is crucial so see the post).
The machine will then think you've done a mixdown, so when you go into Mastering mode, you can use the mastering effects to master it.
If you want the files arranged one after the other in the same song, then you'll have to append them using a computer before copying to the machine... there can only be one mix/master file per song... but this means you'd have to master it in one pass.

If you really mean you want to copy the files to tracks for mixing and mastering on the machine, then you have to convert your files into tracks by creating a song and using the Import process via AudioDepot to import each wave file into a track on the current song. You can then mixdown and master as reqd.
Again, if you want a contiguous set of 'songs' which make up your album, you'll have to append them first.

You could keep each song separate and master them independently, then copy each master file back to the computer for appending into the album.

 

[Darryl Amundson]

Thanks Phil for your response. I must say, I am new to using my dp 24, but I have learnt a whole lot from your posts and videos.
I think you answered my question. When I would use Reaper to master, I would put all the songs on one page for sequencing and level comparisons, so to see how everything flowed, overall eq comparisons, etc. My general idea of mastering is to look at it and work on it as an album, not just the song. So I'm seeing I should still transfer the masters to Reaper for that?
Am I correct, or is there another way to look at it?
Thanks

 

[Phil Tipping]

Others may differ but that's the way I do it. It's a lot easier on a big screen to 'see' the album as a whole, and you can use the DAW to adjust individual sections as reqd. - with automation if you have it.
I'm not sure if you can tweak the dp24/32 mastering effects on the fly, but even if you could, you would be mastering the whole album in one pass so if you mess up, you'd have to start again. If you imported the album file into a dp24/32 stereo track, you would have more control over each section with levels & FX during a bounce or mixdown (even though you are only 'mixing' a single track), but if you already have a DAW my preference would be to use it for this final phase. Not sure what Reaper offers - I use Samplitude - but you may be able to do all the final steps in the DAW, e.g. level/EQ balancing, fades in/out, set CD track markers & CD-text, burn a CD, convert to MP3 etc.

 

[Darryl Amundson]

Ok, that answers my question. I will proceed that way, if I choose to master it myself.
Thanks for you expertise!