How do you master your remix?

[Nicole Adams]

When I do my A/B comparisons, I use Voxengo's SPAN spectrum analyzer.

When mixing, in addition to rolling off the low end on samples and synths, I also notch out 400 Hz on most channels. It's something I learned from BT that adds a lot of clarity to your productions.

[Tensei]

Could you elaborate on this high-end "air" of yours? I don't understand how it's done.

It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is. It usually just involves a boosted shelving EQ around 10k Hz (maybe lower) that mainly adds some 'sparkle' to the cymbals and stuff.

I do this because I'm kind of conditioned towards perceiving more treble as higher/ more professional quality (because for example low-quality youtube vids have sound that has the high-end filtered, so I guess it works the opposite way too? )

[Palpable]

When I do my A/B comparisons, I use Voxengo's SPAN spectrum analyzer.

When mixing, in addition to rolling off the low end on samples and synths, I also notch out 400 Hz on most channels. It's something I learned from BT that adds a lot of clarity to your productions.

Interesting, never heard of this 400Hz trick, I'll have to try it and see what it sounds like. A few years ago I used to notch everything at 1.5k to get a less irritating sound. It wasn't a very good idea, but some instruments have irritating frequencies in the 1k-5k region that should be notched, so my heart was in the right place.

[SnappleMan]

I don't master my remixes, it's just not efficient. I do, however, master tracks professionally, and that's a process that's way beyond anything I'd do for my own music because it involves renting time at a mastering house, using a lot of expensive equipment and speakers that cost more than some new cars.

What people in this thread seem to be talking about is just a little above and beyond the call of a standard mixing process. It's always important to make sure your final product sounds good to you when you're done mixing, but when I master I spend a lot of time analyzing the tracks, getting as much information out of them as I possibly can in terms of the frequency response, channel balancing, and different level meters, then start correcting all the problems that were created by the mixing engineer (all the ones within reason at least).

The most common are issues with the stereo phasing. Once in a while this gets so bad that the tracks have to be sent back and remixed, but always make sure your mix sounds good in mono! After I fix those issues the only thing left to do is to maybe EQ the track a little to make it sound clearer and a little more punchy (unless a client asks otherwise) and compress and limit to get everything as even as possible volume wise. Then I listen to the tracks on about 10 different sound systems (after post processing on the $10,000 speakers). The final step is arranging the track order, determining fades and lead-ins, and then printing a master to be sent off for pressing.

So yeah, mastering is almost completely different from what you guys are talking about. Real mastering is really the process of getting the disc to sound "ready" for a commercial audience and making sure it's something worth paying for, both to press and to buy.

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

I don't master my remixes, it's just not efficient. I do, however, master tracks professionally, and that's a process that's way beyond anything I'd do for my own music because it involves renting time at a mastering house, using a lot of expensive equipment and speakers that cost more than some new cars.

.....

So yeah, mastering is almost completely different from what you guys are talking about. Real mastering is really the process of getting the disc to sound "ready" for a commercial audience and making sure it's something worth paying for, both to press and to buy.

of course! But most of us don't have the money/time/effort/expertise/skill to do real legit mastering (or more likely, have it done by someone else), or we're not going to bother doing it for all of our tracks. So we're just talking about "home mastering" techniques which could really be considered as part of "mixing" depending on how you look at it. It's obviously not gonna come out as good, but it's better than nothing.

Not to mention, for some of us (*raises hand*), the mastering step doesn't really matter too much because there's more important things to focus on (such as, not making things that sound like crap in the first place).

But, good clarification to make.

edit: i'm probably preaching to the choir here, since you already mentioned in your post that you don't master your remixes for a reason.