Re: [LAU] [OT] Help with mixing and mastering?

On Tue, May 12, 2009 at 3:36 AM, Mark Knecht <markknecht@email-addr-hidden> wrote:
<SNIP>
>

Hi Mark!

> You might want to get a copy of Bob Katz' book at the library
>
> Mastering Audio, Second Edition: The art and the science
>
> I have the first edition and it's without parallel in the area of real
> mastering. (It doesn't cover mixing which is where I think you are
> really working, except in how the mix might be done to get better
> mastering.
>
> Anyway, Katz convinced me that keeping the VU's below maybe -15 on
> peaks makes a better CD and doesn't actually effect SNRs, at least the
> way you really hear SNR and assuming some use of dithering which is a
> topic that doesn't come up all that much around here. I now keep all
> my mixes and final CDs very quiet and then just let the listener turn
> it up a bit. To me it really does sound better.
>

I will look it up. I guess my ears have got used to hearing very
compressed music (probably partly related to listening to mainly mp3s
these days).

Any recommendations for books on tracking/mixing on a no-budget basis?

> If you can get ahold of a copy of 'NewYork Reuninon' by McCoy Tyner
> you might both enjoy the music and be a bit awed by the sound. It was
> mastered by Katz and is a great example of doing it right in my
> opinion.

Sounds great. I will certainly try to find it.

>
> I want to come back to you later on your recordings. I haven't had a
> chance to listen to the guitar part except for a few seconds. My
> immediate question was whether this was the same song as the studio
> production. I've honestly not had even a second to get to the machine
> where that mp3 was, but if it's not then I think we could best spend
> our time focusing on the question 'How can James get the same sound in
> his basement as the studio engineer got in the studio using Pro
> Tools?' If we approach the problem that way, my thought is that if you
> can track your instruments at home as well or better than he did in
> the studio then we could move on to mixing it. Moving to a different
> song makes it far harder to compare the work in both locations.

Yes I agree with this idea of changing as few things as possible, and
- as you noticed - the new tracks are a different song. However, there
is a bit of a sticking point with re-recording the original song - I
will need to convince the rest of the band that it is a good way to
spend their time in the rehearsal studio (which we pay for). I'm not
convinced they will necessarily see the value in redoing something
just for the good of my education, although it is possible.. I'm not
necessarily looking for exactly the same result that we got in the
studio, I'm just aiming to get something down where we can hear all
the instruments, where they sit well together, and don't sound thin or
muffled. And to be honest, the mix I have at the moment doesn't sound
too much different to the unmixed/unmastered studio version of the
previous song to my ears (the main problem being with that bass guitar
resonance problem which I hear when I solo it, but when it is in the
mix it seems to disappear).

I realise you are very busy, and probably don't have time for this,
but I really value all the helpful suggestions you are giving.

James
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Received on Tue May 12 12:15:04 2009