Re: [linux-audio-user] magic mastering tips needed

> On Wednesday 05 April 2006 15:42, Atte André Jensen wrote:
> > Hi
> >
> > I have the following track:
> >
> > http://www.atte.dk/at_slum_avenue.ogg
> >
> > It's a recording of one of my tunes with my jazz quartet. The recording
> > quality leaves a bit to be desired. I hope some of you mastering gurus
> > would lend an ear, explain what you think should be done and in what
> > program, maybe someone could even find the time to generate an improved
> > file. At least I hope to learn a bit about digital audio and mastering
> > along the way.
> >
> > A few notes:
> >
> > A valid question would be "but how do you want it to sound?". Well, good
> >
> > :-) At least I think it needs more high frequencies, more definition and
> >
> > more presence.
> >
> > Needless to say, I'm on a linux-only system, so any tools should be
> > linux stuff, but you probl. guessed that :-)

Actually I found this a nice recording, if a bit in the old school
genre. How was it mic'ed? A couple of mics at an off stage location?
The playing is good and well suited for the type of music. I enjoyed
it a lot.

As for the mastering part, I'd say that while I agree that it could
use more high-end I think that anything you do to get the high-end up
very far will likely result in disappointing results in terms of
overall distortion. The best I'd probably try for here is to follow
the #1 rule about frequency issues - "Remove...do not add". I'd
probably start by decreasing the bass and possibly just a bit of the
mid-range a bit and then add just a small bit of of overall
compression to bring up the volume of the track a little. Keep the
compression VERY light or you'll lose the live feel to the track I
think. I'm going to guess that since the high frequency content is
down you might try a fairly slow attack time and then play with the
release times. I wouldn't want to compress more than a few dB though.
Keep it light.

If you wanted to get more involved with the track you could try Jamin
and set both the EQ and compression levels on the bass and mid-range
bands a bit higher and leave the upper range completely alone. If you
go this way you might bring up the output of the upper range since the
track output is low and you're nowhere near clipping anything from
what I Can tell. Just keep in mind that nothing is really going to add
what you hear lacking because it isn't there in the first place.
Better to just make the best of what you've got, which I think is very
enjoyable music, and then learn how to make your next recording better
in the areas this one lacks.

I really did enjoy the track. Thanks for sharing.

Cheers,
Mark
Received on Thu Apr 6 04:15:11 2006