Confused about "Mastering"

[Jeff Routledge]

Hello again everyone, The owners manual on the DP32 SD is a little confusing regarding the "mixdown/mastering" modes. Once I have completed mixing down a song, then it appears I am supposed to hit "mastering" and then select either "EQ", "Compression" or "Normalize" after that. If I select just the "Normalize" option, does that automatically create the master file? It goes through a several second writing sequence after selecting it so I'm not sure what's going on.

The manual seems to indicate you have to hit "record" again and let the whole song run though its entirety but I don't understand If this is just for when you use the "EQ" and "Compression" options and not the "Normalize" option. Do you have to record the song over after selecting any of these mastering options? After I hit "Normalize", it did seem to create a .wav file of the mixed down song (is that the master?) and I was able to transfer it ok to my computer.

Any advice is always appreciated.

Thanks.

Jeff R

 

[Phil Tipping]

Hi Jeff. Yes, any of the functions in Mastering mode process the current mixdown/master file and overwrites it with the processed version. EQ and Compression need a 'recording' pass so will take the length of time of your song. You can do them both in a single pass if you like, or do them separately. Normalize does not need a recording pass and works a lot faster. This should be the final process of the 3 otherwise you may get distortion. There's a picture of how the master file is processed in part 10 of my tutorial videos.

 

[Jeff Routledge]

Thanks Phil, you're awesome as always. I'm glad to hear I was actually thinking properly about how this works so thanks for helping me understand this a little better. I just finished my first song using the DP32 SD and I used 16 tracks and am pretty happy how it turned out. I went from a DP008 EX to this unit so there has been (and still is) a bit of a learning curve to overcome. I wish the owners manual explained things as well as you do!

Jeff R.

 

[mariusvideo]

The first step is mixdown, After you must pass by mastering adding comp, eq, normalize and re-record when you are in the mastering screen

 

[Doodle46]

If I understood Phil correctly, if we don’t know enough about Mastering, we might be better-off to give it a pass. Taking this advice, I decided not to Master, but to use Mixdown only.

 

[mariusvideo]

The mastering is only to finishing a song and make it ready to be listened on CD etc...is the final product.

You have to mixdown all tracks in to one mastertrack, after you can refine this master track using mastering tools,

I usually make 3 steps for mastering
1 - Normalization
2 - Equalization
3 - Compression

each step requires to Press Record and record the entire track to remake the mastertrack with the effect choosed, after each step you have to switch-off the effect applyed.

The sequence in detail is
Normalize the mastertrack -----> EQ on --->Listen and after Record ---> EQ off (and listen the resulting track) ---> Comp.ON ---> Listen and after Record ---> Comp-Off (and listen the resulting track) ---> Listen and use the entire mastertrack Normalized Equalized Compressed. One time the mastertrack is finished you have to exit from mastering mode and the machine saves the file inside the folder Music/yoursong

 

[Doodle46]

Thank you, mariusvideo. That is VERY helpful!

 

[Mark Richards]

Any of the three options can be used, alone or in any combination, but only if needed. If the initial master created after mixdown is good, there's no need to go further. Your done.

I'm not sure I agree with mariusvideo's Mastering sequence. If EQ or Compression is needed, Normalizing should be the last step, not the first. Normalizing detects the highest volume level and raises the overall volume until the highest level reaches the maximum limit without distortion. So if the other effects are applied after Normalizing, you increase the risk of creating distortion because you've run out of headroom.

In my studio days, the recording engineer said, "Don't worry, we'll fix that in the mix". The mix engineer said, "Don't worry, we'll fix that when it's mastered". The mastering engineer went bald tearing his hair out trying to fix things that could no longer be fixed! ;-)

 

[mariusvideo]

@Mark Richards I agree with you but my sequence is good for me but sometimes I change It , depends by the audio material you are working on.

Obviously who work with DP24SD and digital audio in general can make all testing and experiences to build its own sound.

 

[RustyAxe]

One caveat ... it's often supposed that normalization is a desirable thing. In many cases it is NOT, and is not the panacea to "fix" a low volume mix. Normalization merely reads the amplitude, detects the loudest signal, and boosts it to just under 0db. Everything else is boosted proportionately. If you have loud transients normalization won't help. You can use compression to tame those volume excursions, but probably don't want to compress the entire mix. And what's good EQ for a lead guitar is probably not what you want to apply to the bass.

In short, get it right ON THE TRACK. Mastering can make a good mix sound great, but it can't help poorly recorded tracks and a bad overall mix. Personally, I find the DP24 nearly useless for mixing and mastering, and move my recorded tracks to my iMac for mixing, EQ, FX, and mastering (if needed).

 

[EeMm]

In the manual it says to hit mixdown/mastering mode button twice to re-enter "tracking mode" after the mixdown is performed in "mixdown mode", and then, go back into " mixdown mode" again and rather than hit record to perform another mixdown, hit the mixdown/mastering mode button again, in order to re-enter into "mastering mode" to use the "mastering mode" processing features. It seems ridiculous to have to do that so is it okay to use the "mastering mode" features immediately after recording in "mixdown mode" and creating the initial mastering file, instead of bypassing the "mastering mode" the first time to re-enter into the "tracking mode" haha lol?

 

[mariusvideo]

The mixdown is only the operation that bounce all tracks in one stereo track, called master track. After the mixdown process you can refine this "master" track using EQ or Compressor or both to create the "final product", the final master track ready to be shared, listened or masterized on cd...in Mastering mode, finally, you can create a second stereo track affected by the mastering effects you apply but you can find the master track created in mixdown inside the Music Folder, under yoursong folder.

 

[Mark Richards]

"...In the manual it says to hit mixdown/mastering mode button twice to re-enter "tracking mode" after the mixdown is performed in "mixdown mode"..."

That's the instruction for returning to multi-track mode if you are done with your mix and want to put off listening to the mixdowned master file for a while; or if you don't need to listen to the finished, mixed down file; or if you aren't satisfied with the mix and want to do a new mixdown and overwrite the current master file with your updated mix. [edited. 2/25/18]

If you're satisfied with the mixdown, and it doesn't need any tweaking with the "mastering" tools, your done. You have a completed master file.

If you want to listen to the finished master file, however, the only way to do it on the DP is to enter Master mode and press the play button.

If you then feel the need to tweak further at that point, then tweak away, press the Record button, and you will overwrite the current master file with the newly tweaked master file.

 

[RustyAxe]

A correction on the post above ... there is only ever ONE master. It is created in MIX DOWN mode. It becomes the input to MASTER MODE, and is overwritten when mastered. There IS a backup, though, for the UNDO function.

 

[Mark Richards]

RustyAxe, thanks for pointing out the ambiguity. I edited the sentence to clarify my meaning.

 

[-mjk-]

each step requires to Press Record and record the entire track to remake the mastertrack with the effect choosed, after each step you have to switch-off the effect applyed.

Old thread, but I ran across this while browsing. Normalize does not require recording of the effect. It is a separate process from compression and EQ processing (which do require a recording pass in real time) and requires a button press only.

The whole point of Mastering is to deliver a final version of the mix. At the end of the Mastering process, (when properly performed) the Master is at the proper level and shouldn't require normalizing. Normalizing the file before Mastering can reduce the headroom available for limiting and may be detrimental. Sometimes, when I Master a track, I reduce the level so I have more room to deal with it in the limiter.

 

[Jim Talbert]

-mjk- said ..."when I Master a track, I reduce the level so I have more room to deal with it in the limiter."

Does that mean you take your mastered file to another device - DAW - and do more work on it? I was hoping to do all my recording, mixing and mastering on the DP24SD. Got tired of software updates on my old Mac messing up my GarageBand work.

Reading all these remarks (this thread and others here) I get the feeling that my approach to recording has been wrong. I've been setting everything flat in the mixer, and turning off Dynamic and Send and Guitar effects to get just a "pure" track. But now that I am trying to mix and master I feel I need more flexibility in using audio tools like compression and EQ...so I guess I should have used them while tracking?

 

[David Porter]

It is a general rule of thumb that recording a source absolutely dry is preferable. The reason being is that once you "print" an effect, eq, etc. to a recorded track - it's there - it cannot be undone except to re-record it. Having said that - it's also not unusual to do some tweaking "on the way in". Like for instance - to add some light compression and maybe a low frequency EQ roll-off to a vocal as you record it (that's just a random example).

But keep in mind - that when you record dry - anything you want to do to that track can still be done. No limits in this sense. It may take extra time and steps - but you remain in control and can always revert back to the original unprocessed track.

 

[-mjk-]

These days I do mastering in the box. But, if I mix something down on the DP machine, I'm very careful about my levels and, if you mix too hot then it's difficult to have room for dynamics with the limiter.

As you gain more experience with recording, you'll start learning where things go and the workflow change. For example, when you go to Mixdown and you have a problem with the track that could've been solved during the recording process, you will never forget that and you will end up adding that to the workflow during the recording process.

 

[Dizzy]

E

The mixdown is only the operation that bounce all tracks in one stereo track, called master track. After the mixdown process you can refine this "master" track using EQ or Compressor or both to create the "final product", the final master track ready to be shared, listened or masterized on cd...in Mastering mode, finally, you can create a second stereo track affected by the mastering effects you apply but you can find the master track created in mixdown inside the Music Folder, under yoursong folder.

Everyone else appears to disagree with your advice,,why is that?