Black Dog Mastering Tool - System How To Mastering Guide

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The Mastering System pg 2

~A Mastering Tool~

Can I use my home studio or Mixing Studio for The Mastering Room? With some modifications, yes. As I stated before you will need a room that does not have any noisy computers or amps. These should be located outside of the room you are listening in. If you have a mixing room then honestly this should not have computers and amps in it either, but most people do. It is not as important in a mixing room simply because the concentration and level of listening is not quite as important. Also, in most cases during mixing you can throw some headphones on to get the answer to audio problems. This is not usually the case for Mastering. You will also need the room to be flat from your listening point. This can be achieved from an excellent outboard equalizer, but is best if you actually treat the room to be completely flat with acoustic material. You can not use your mixing monitors for Mastering. These monitors usually have a great deal of coloration and are not giving you the true picture of your music. This is not always the case, but I have found that it is more often true than not. It is best to have a new room and a new set of monitors, but if this is not possible then you need to make the necessary adjustment to achieve as flat of a listening environment as possible. You will also need to purchase some software. Not one of these all in one Studio Mastering software kits. These can never achieve the same results as the individual effects, but some of them like iZotope, can be useful to understand what effects are used and the order they can be used in. If you are relying solely on software (which is usually not recommended) then it is best to go with waves software. Waves offers some of the best and most realistic mastering software around.

Can your current hardware and/or software be used as a Mastering Tool. If you have software bundles from waves then you probably have the software tools needed for Mastering. Most people do not have outboard Compressors in their mixing or recording studios, but if you have outboard compressors and limiters then you are a step ahead of the game. It is not completely necessary to have outboard gear for Mastering, but it does help. It is still not possible to get the same sound from software as you do from hardware. This gap is closing a little every year, but is not there yet.

It is not recommended to use FL Studio Mastering, Logic Studio Mastering or any other recording mastering software program that has a built in Mastering suite. These programs will raise the levels of your mix in a cookie cutter fashion that is not acceptable to someone that is looking for the best results. You will need a program such as Pro Tools, Cubase or Nuendo to be able to properly align your software and outboard gear and get the most out of what you have.

And remember Mastering is not about loudness. So many people make this mistake when they think of Mastering. They think they can slap a limiter on the mix, add some compression and like magic it will sound great. Mastering is about creating separation between all instruments. Making sure that levels are consistent throughout the album. Ensuring that the music translates well across all media and systems. And lastly, making sure that it is loud enough that someone does not have to turn up the volume when your disc comes up in the rotation.

I hope this Mastering System helps you decide if Mastering is something you can tackle yourself, or if you want a complete stranger to do it for you. Which by the way is the most important part of all. A Mastering Engineer will provide you with a unique prospective on your music. Believe it or not one of the biggest problems with Mixing or Mastering your own music is you are too close to the project to properly work on it. You know the old saying look at it from a different perspective. The best example I can think of is in Dead Poets Society when Robin Williams stands on his desk and encourages the whole class to stand on their desks to look at things in a different way. Well it is almost impossible to accomplish this without the help of a different set of ears. And who better to listen to your music and offer their prospective than a Mastering Engineer who has been listening to different genres of music for several years.

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