A Few questions about mastering

yavuz

yavuz

Logician
I have to do a mastering session for an album I have recorded.
It's a jazz album. I am not planning to do a lot with it.
The recording and mix came out very clean.

I have 24/44 files of the CD.
I want to use waveburner for mastering.
At what stage should I go to waveburner?

Do you guys recommend that I should go to wave burner just for burning the master disk and entering isrc codes etc... ?

Should I dither down in Logic to 16 bit?
 
yavuz said:
Do you guys recommend that I should go to wave burner just for burning the master disk and entering isrc codes etc... ?
Click to expand...

At the very least, check that all the mixes "hang together". ie the none stick out as being too loud or too quiet when played in the correct order.

It would also be worth listening against a good commercially mastered jazz album, in case your level is overall too low, in which case some compression overall (possibly multiband) will be good, but I strongly recommend against overcompressing to get louder than other stuff, ie loudness for the sake of joining the loudness wars (no no no, esp, with jazz).

This is where experienced mastering ears and accurate monitoring is useful.

Dithering would be done only after mastering, not before.
 
Thanks Pete...

My approach will be minimalist just like you described mostly.
Yes I have a reference recording in mind and I will use an analyzer to check against it.

Most mixes hang together. There's only one tune that drummer plays hand percussion and not the whole set. That song is somewhat quieter than the other songs. The difference is mild though. I was thinking about leaving it as it is.

As for the other questions go, Should i do the mastering in Logic by loading stereo files then use waveburner just for burning the disc and adding isrc codes?
 
I was just in a similar situation. A singer brought me some tracks she recorded at another studio, and wanted me to mix and master them. And I use the term "master" very loosely in this context!

They were cleanly recorded and didn't need a whole lot in terms of processing. And I was faced with the decision of how much to compress them and boost the volume. I used IK Multimedia's T-Racks and tried to strike a good balance between maintaining the integrity of the performance dynamics, and getting a good solid level.

If any one is interested in hearing some clips, she has some on her web site here:
http://barbarareney.com/BarbaraReney/Music.html

Mastered slightly, but not too "squashed". It's a tough balance to achieve!
 
One last question if you guys don't mind :)

If I were to do all the mastering process in waveburner with 24 bit files, Would it first bounce/dither to 16bits and burn a CD?

Or I would have to bounce it first then burn the CD?
 
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