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Im wandering what is the correct way for the mixdown? You can set the resolution to 16, 24 or 32 bit? And the samplerate to 44.100-88.200khz?

 

I just exported a track with 24bit, 88.200khz, and it fills over 220mb for one track :lol: And i can't tell any magor differences from a lower quality export(at least not on my soundsystem)

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when using my own mastering - dither it and export as 16/44.1, when someone else is mastering - 24/44.1 (or 32, depends what they want).

 

no point in using anything over 44.1. too long to explain why, just take my word for it ;)

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when using my own mastering - dither it and export as 16/44.1, when someone else is mastering - 24/44.1 (or 32, depends what they want).

 

no point in using anything over 44.1. too long to explain why, just take my word for it ;)

Ok, thanks champ :)
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Get something that lets you watch the levels really well, maybe even a spectrograph (it reads out the loudness of the different hz bands in the frequency band drawn as a 2d line graph - there are even 3d ones like if you watch them in goldwave or a sound editing program, aim for keeping the spectrograph as flat as you can , start adjusting all peices of sound you use to a common max volume level (pick like -4dB, that'll give you lots of room for having a louder lower and higher end), compress can help you out here as well as limiters or maximizers if you know how to use them.

 

Would be a good idea to listen to some other tracks before you start the mix down to get your ears accustomed to a standard volume level, then start by matching your percussions or getting them sounding bright and comfortable, and start adjusting levels to things while watching the spectrograph. If a synth or sound makes a hill on the spectrograph (basically a certain band is much louder than others and is raising the peak / clipping out even), identify which synth or sound its coming from and cut it away with an EQ.

 

The point of an even mix is to maximize the amount of resolution your sounds can take up, so no area of the track is made muddy and less detailed by something playing too loud and crunching the sound.

 

Mastering + Normalizing then gets loudness to a standard and hopefully universal level.

 

Mike is right actually, ofcourse hearing what you have clearly and loudly is important, but the bulk of the knowledge is comparing your ears with readouts you see with your eyes. Sometimes just a really good pair of ears will do it too and someone who knows what they are doing.

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try not using it then

what he is saying is that if you have a crap card or a 10000 euro card, the mixdown is not influenced by it. If you were able to do a mixdown without the card connected to the pc or mac, then the result would still be the same. :)
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Get something that lets you watch the levels really well, maybe even a spectrograph (it reads out the loudness of the different hz bands in the frequency band drawn as a 2d line graph - there are even 3d ones like if you watch them in goldwave or a sound editing program, aim for keeping the spectrograph as flat as you can , start adjusting all peices of sound you use to a common max volume level (pick like -4dB, that'll give you lots of room for having a louder lower and higher end), compress can help you out here as well as limiters or maximizers if you know how to use them.

 

Would be a good idea to listen to some other tracks before you start the mix down to get your ears accustomed to a standard volume level, then start by matching your percussions or getting them sounding bright and comfortable, and start adjusting levels to things while watching the spectrograph. If a synth or sound makes a hill on the spectrograph (basically a certain band is much louder than others and is raising the peak / clipping out even), identify which synth or sound its coming from and cut it away with an EQ.

 

The point of an even mix is to maximize the amount of resolution your sounds can take up, so no area of the track is made muddy and less detailed by something playing too loud and crunching the sound.

 

Mastering + Normalizing then gets loudness to a standard and hopefully universal level.

 

Mike is right actually, ofcourse hearing what you have clearly and loudly is important, but the bulk of the knowledge is comparing your ears with readouts you see with your eyes. Sometimes just a really good pair of ears will do it too and someone who knows what they are doing.

 

Honestly i would have believed all this if you would have mastered Mindspheres album better, but since i heard the unmastered version of the track: Inner Cyclone and your mastered version, i simply cant take you serious when i read all this. :(:D

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what he is saying is that if you have a crap card or a 10000 euro card, the mixdown is not influenced by it. If you were able to do a mixdown without the card connected to the pc or mac, then the result would still be the same. :)

suuuuuure mannnnnnn

 

Honestly i would have believed all this if you would have mastered Mindspheres album better, but since i heard the unmastered version of the track: Inner Cyclone and your mastered version, i simply cant take you serious when i read all this. sad.gif biggrin.gif

haha, can you get me these 2?

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haha, can you get me these 2?

 

Sure:

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ohhbvx (original version) that mindsphere shared here on psynews in the promotional section via cosmogenesis some time ago.

 

http://www.sendspace.com/file/lkct6u (the album version)

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actually the sound card has 0 effect on mixdown quality..

??

 

Theoretically a good soundcard will let you hear deeper into the mix, provide a more stable stereo image, give lower latency (very useful when tweaking parameters to know that what you're hearing represents the position of the control right now rather than 1/2 a second ago) and generally enable a given engineer to produce a better-sounding final result than a cheap crappy noisy soundcard. Of course the audio doesn't pass through it if you're bouncing down offline (but then many producers have to bounce down in realtime, eg. if they're using their soundcard's onboard DSP for FX).

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a mixdown NOT using the mixer and an external source of recording. If you mixdown directly from Cubase HAS NO INFLUENCE on the result. Its all mathematics... Yeah, we are stupid.

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Diaks, this is what I know and have learned from the 5 years I've written tracks now, and it seems to be working pretty well for what I expected of myself. If you want me to say mindsphere isn't mastered the best, or that I'm not good there, you've got it, I just wish Ali told me that first rather than thanking me. Either way this was a long time ago, metapsychic held that thing for a year before putting it out since they couldn't secure a pressed CD release

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Diaks, this is what I know and have learned from the 5 years I've written tracks now, and it seems to be working pretty well for what I expected of myself. If you want me to say mindsphere isn't mastered the best, or that I'm not good there, you've got it, I just wish Ali told me that first rather than thanking me. Either way this was a long time ago, metapsychic held that thing for a year before putting it out since they couldn't secure a pressed CD release

 

No hard feelings ;) but if there would somehow be possible to have the album tracks in their unmastered condition i for sure would be very happy, it was one of those rare albums i was really waiting for and i know metapsychic couldnt afford proper mastering but for example colorbox did very good i think with the pyramidal release, and as we all know infinite dimension really made the human hyperactivaion to something not so enjoyable for the ears, wich is sad because it contained so many good tracks. About the mindsphere album i know that all the tracks where in very different condition qualitywise since they where from different years and also because he works in reason wich isnt by it self a good thing if you want good sound quality (in rewire with cubase its another story) but anyway i liked how his inner cyclone track sounded unmastered and it would really be nice to hear the rest of the tracks as they where when Ali rendered them in reason.

 

I have no clue what other albums/artists you have mastered but i hope you dont add the mindsphere album to your mastering CV so to say because i dont know anyone who liked how it was mastered.

 

Next time think twice before accepting such a task because everything we do leave repercussions and everytime i try to listen to the inner cyclone album i will remember the dissapointment i felt when first listening to it and hearing this pumping compression almost like in a eric prydz track :(

 

I might appear as negative but im just honest with you and hopefully you can take criticism and improve your mastering skills (maybe you have allready? )

 

Cheers

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Im wandering what is the correct way for the mixdown? You can set the resolution to 16, 24 or 32 bit? And the samplerate to 44.100-88.200khz?

 

I just exported a track with 24bit, 88.200khz, and it fills over 220mb for one track :lol: And i can't tell any magor differences from a lower quality export(at least not on my soundsystem)

heh. (not a comment for you buzzman)
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I say it again - your soundcard has 0 effect on mixdown quality when making an export/mixdown/bounce offline

Don't believe it? Turn off your onboard ac97 and unplug your fw - it will still mixdown, even though there is no sound card present on the system. It's all math done by the CPU.

 

Of course a better soundcard will help you mix better - but we were not talking about it.

 

Colin - you mean if I have a poco or uad or something I must make it online? Offline will not work?

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I say it again - your soundcard has 0 effect on mixdown quality when making an export/mixdown/bounce offline

Don't believe it? Turn off your onboard ac97 and unplug your fw - it will still mixdown, even though there is no sound card present on the system. It's all math done by the CPU.

 

Of course a better soundcard will help you mix better - but we were not talking about it.

 

Colin - you mean if I have a poco or uad or something I must make it online? Offline will not work?

I am afraid your bold text will still not get through to certain people :lol:
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I am afraid your bold text will still not get through to certain people :lol:

I once had a friend (he still is actually) who kept insistnig what WAV sound better than FLAC. No matter how much I tried to explain it to him, WAV was better. According to him, FLAC was compressed, thus less quality.
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Colin - you mean if I have a poco or uad or something I must make it online? Offline will not work?

Depends on the soundcard; if it allows its DSP to be used as plugins in the regular insert chain then it'll probably allow you to bounce down offline. Cards that rely on your routing stuff manually like Scope or my old DS2416 tend to restrict you to online mixdowns.
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Honestly i would have believed all this if you would have mastered Mindspheres album better, but since i heard the unmastered version of the track: Inner Cyclone and your mastered version, i simply cant take you serious when i read all this. :(:D

Oh, was that Synogen.

 

I just want to say that the Mindsphere album was completely destroyed by the mastering.

 

To Synogen: Read more about dynamics and the loudness war. Your mastering of Mindsphere sounds like a mess. That 'standard' of having a flat, brickwalled soundwave is counterproductive to the enjoyment of music. And you haven't maximized it with style either. Maximization can't be done at mastering level if it's supposed to sound good. You have to mix according to that goal. But I don't recommend maximizing either way. It simply sounds like the music is screaming very loudly inside a little box.

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