Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Fwd: [Jamin] Re: soft clip: Achieving Gain, inconsequential overloads
From: R Parker (rtp405_AT_yahoo.com)
Date: Mon Apr 12 2004 - 20:12:57 EEST
--- philicorda <philicorda_AT_ntlworld.com> wrote:
> "Hi,
> Hiya. I do the occasional master for releases, and
> "make it louder" is an all too common request.
> Whether it suits the track, the place in the album
> or the recording does not matter, they just want it
> LOUD. It's sad, but he who pays the piper....
> Yes, you have to mash the audio (as you have found),
> and it kills me to hear carefully recorded tracks
> being brutally handled, so the idea is to do it as
> kindly as possible. :)
In these cases we just do as much damage control as
possible.
> Here's some rambling about how I go about it.
> First, where is all the energy in the track? What is
> taking up all your headroom?
Those are the questions I try to answer.
> Subsonics can really take up headroom, so going back
> to the mix and high passing any tracks that don't
> need bass end can give you more space to work with.
> Starting at 20hz on most tracks and work up from
> there.
Those statements caused me to be more agressive with
high cut. I probably created a little more room. My
masters are definitely louder and the damage is
minimized but this job just makes me nervous.
This is a 13 song album. The client is paying me for a
remaster. The print and mix engineer is talented.
Unfortunately, half the songs are tracking mixes. The
client never let the engineer finish mixing every
song. Of course, I am dealing with that.
The drummer is a tight and consistent machine.
Reguardless, in the tracking mixes the kick
occasionaly jumps out. There are always plenty of
these problems in tracks but in these tracks those
issues would have been fixed. They are good tracks and
great players.
This is a case where the client wants %20 volume
increase across the board but a %50 improvement on the
album would have been achieved if the mix engineer
could have finished the job.
I'm sure you've been through as many of these jobs as
I have and know exactly what I'm talking about.
At any rate, I sure do appreciate your response. It
was detailed and insiteful. It gave me several things
to experiment with. I'm not certain that my results
are any better but that's not because of your
suggestions and methodology. It's primarily because of
what I have to work with. I'll probably tell the
client that the job is gonna take a couple extra days
and spend that time digging deeper and hopefully
learning a thing or two. I'm a pretty good print and
mix engineer but in the mastering realm, I'm a bit
short on experience and need to learn a few things.
Thanks much,
ron
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - File online by April 15th
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b28 : Mon Apr 12 2004 - 20:08:34 EEST