Re: Powered Subs...on to mastering

["Per Boysen" <perboysen@gmail.com>]

On Jan 7, 2008 4:26 PM, Krispen Hartung <khartung@cableone.net> wrote:
> ...mastering and mixing ...


All aspects of mastering and mixing that you bring up are true.
Learning to do it well is very much a question about making the
mistakes, going back to learn about it and remaking it in the correct
way. What makes this learning process difficult, when working all by
yourself, is that it may be almost impossible to single out "THE
mistake you did when mixing/mastering" because so many parameters
interact all the time in a dynamical way. If applying a scientific
approach, by measuring frequencies etc, you will soon get too much
data at hand. So therefore, I recommend a Trial And Error method for
learning mixing and mastering.

Also, no media for recorded sound can compete with the human hearing.
We can hear and pick out a soft sound even against a background of
loud noise. That's because hearing is stereophonic and the brain
analyses phase correlation in micro seconds - and DIRECTION appears
almost 3D to us when hearing live. That simply doesn't make it onto a
left/right recording. So the whole process of making a recording sound
natural and musically compelling is not about recording the true sound
but rather about cheating the listening ear to interpret the recording
in an emotional way similar to the real hearing experience.

So to start with the bass frequencies; you are correct that it is a
good thing to roll them off. But if you do this at the mastering stage
you can not correct mistakes in keeping too prominent bass frequencies
on the single original tracks. Over the years, as I have been focusing
more on my own music instead of mixing other people's recordings, I
have gravitated towards cutting out bass etc as early as possible.
This is because then it won't interfere with how frequencies mix and
get squashed by each other. The problem with bass is that it brings
energy that affects the sounding music even if you don't hear that
bass particularly well. So what you have to do is listening to a bass
track, mix it with a less bassy track and then perform a "test
mastering" of the resulting mix. Work on the mastering file with
multiband compression and some graphical Frequncy Analizer to learn
what frequencies are more or less prominent and how changes i one
frequency affects what happens, dynamically, in a different band. Then
go back to the source material/tracks and EQ them before performing a
new "test mastering" and vice versa. Repeat and learn, repeat and
learn....

"Appeared Loudness" is the term for describing a recording mixed and
mastered in a way that makes it possible to maximize and achieve a
clear definition of most frequency bands. It's then important that no
specific band brings too much energy, because that will set the upper
ceiling for how much you can blow it up. To find the golden balance
when blowing it up balances original musical dynamics is dependent on
musical style, fashion and personal taste.

Since you are interested in an electric orchestra guitar jazz sound
you should know that such a sound is very difficult to make stand out,
as in "appeared loudness", just because it brings many frequencies
with much "not easily heard" frequencies. Here comes the art of
orchestration into the picture. When working with that powerfully
sounding instruments, not everything you are able to play is possible
to record - unless cutting a bit out. So one might as well think about
arranging the music in a way that it may sound loud when finally mixed
and fixed on a medium. But, on the other hand, "the art of recording"
is very much about cheating the human ear by presenting colors that
stand out against each other. Try thinking about mixing and sound
design as you relate to tuning up your guitar! The cleanest and
crispiest sound is achieved when the strings are perfectly tuned. But
a guitar may sound more interesting if the strings are just a little
bit out of tune. This happens because "infra tones" and "overtones"
then appear more. The same inter dependency is to be found, and
manipulated, between different channels of sound that are to be merged
into a mix. What I'm getting at is that you may leave certain
frequencies on different sounding material to "compete" and create
"diabolic infra tones" just as a "spice" in the emotional side of the
music/sound. The more frequency clashing is going on in a mix the more
"interesting" it sounds - on a good system. But when played back on a
bad system it all becomes elephant pooh. So you may use some trial and
error to learn the proper way of feeding the elephant.

-- 
Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
www.looproom.com (international)