The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

[DankStar]

Getting close on the premaster for The Duke of Riffington, figured I'd post it here to see if something sounds really out of whack. I tended to mix some of the solos pretty loud, it felt right at the time but I may lower some of those levels a bit once I hear it in my car.

Usually after this point I'll only succeed in screwing things up more as I go to try and master it. Most of the vibe is already there, the rest would be little tweaks here and there. I probably won't go into particular tracks and EQ stuff too much - that really gets ugly.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16938354/Duke of Riffington premaster.mp3 <--- old version, new below in post #8

 

[everdrone]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

great stuff. very triumphant!! Is that you on drumpads?

 

[karpathion]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

Sounds good to me! I rather enjoyed that.

Keep up the good work!

 

[DankStar]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

Thanks gents! It's slate ex, triggered through midi pads - with a fair amount of adjustments. There's some real percussion - sticks, a tin can, and a cowbell (that I left in its package and returned to GC after it was tracked).

 

[everdrone]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

thats so cool man, its somewhere on my to do list to get the midi pad thing going. NEED MORE COWBELL!!!

 

[AmirH]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

Fun! This would be cool music to snowboard or skate with

 

[DankStar]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

Fun! This would be cool music to snowboard or skate with

Much appreciated!


(going to toy with the drums some more - they're kinda bugging me; not digging the compression over the whole kit)

 

[DankStar]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

couldn't stand the compression on the overall drum kit track (I initially applied it to try and control some wild hits, but that was more of a band-aid at the time, and a poor one at that) - it was really killing the feel I was going for.

so here's the latest premaster:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16938354/Duke of Riffington pre 4.mp3

super quick master (basically just a multi-band compressor I like - anything else seems to pump too much), but not sure if it will be better than the above premaster (edit: yeah, I like this one less but if you're into squashed/loud type stuff this would be the one):
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/16938354/Duke of Riffington m1.mp3

 

[AmirH]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

The last version honestly didn't sound bad, but this is definitely a big improvement!! nice. I totally get where you're coming from always needing to tweak the mix... I actually got done recording a bunch of songs last week but decided to shy away from mastering for fear of killing the dynamics. Considering having a pro do it but argh so expensive. I'm listening to your pre-master. Sounds beastly through my nice headphones

 

[DankStar]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

Thanks for checking it out (again!). Looking back, I probably killed a few of songs trying to master them. I used to want the loudness but now I shoot for an anthrax among the living type loudness (not using side by side comparison though).

I get fooled by a lot of stuff during mixing where eventually I'm pretty turned around as to what sounds good vs bad.

 

[AmirH]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

Oh man, I know that feeling. My ears will get tired and levels will start to blur together, then after giving my ears time to rest I'll hear it and make adjustments. I also used to go for loudness. I would almost always put logic's adaptive limiter on the master bus... only to realize months later the whole thing sounds congested and choked. I found myself pulling down the master volume from -3db to -5db just for headroom and to try to avoid clipping despite the number of layers. In your experience, should I be dropping the volume of the individual tracks instead, or do you think it matters? All these new songs sound more "open" compared to my past recordings, but I definitely have to turn the volume up to compensate for the quiet factor. I just wish I could make them louder without altering the fundamental sound, which is why I'm thinking of selling some gear to fund a pro job. I think we home recordists can do pretty darn well without tons of fancy hardware, but even with years of experimenting I don't think my mastering abilities cut the mustard, and I don't know how much of that is due to lack of equipment or lack of knowledge.

 

[DankStar]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

Yeah, the ears can only take so much.

The master bus clipping is always an issue for me - I typically use logic's analog tape compression on it, and a limiter if needed. Some people say don't do that but the tape compressor is rather light on its loafers compared to the other options.

Speaking of open, I listened to WASP's headless children after listening to a version of my song just to see level wise where I was at and couldn't believe how big and open it sounded in comparison. Like a grape beside a watermelon.

 

[AmirH]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

I'll have to try that tape compressor. Thinking about it more, and I'm considering unloading my PA to fund the master -- would be a pain to move with it and I have no need for it right now. That's funny about the WASP album -- obviously recorded in quite different conditions.

 

[Phantasmagoria]

Re: The Duke of Riffington (premaster)

Sounds cool!

It's pretty manic, almost has a punk vibe to it in places haha...nice crisp production...good work