mastering techniques

[Jan Saalbach]

hi all,
I have finished recording and mixing some projects in my homestudio. Now I
don´t have the opportunity to do "real" mastering meaning I don´t have money
to rent a studio or let someone else do it. What I would like to do is do
some basic mastering on my own. It doesn´t have to come out like I spent
thousands of dollars for it but should make the tunes somewhat loud and
crisp...etc.
So what I am looking for is instructions and basic "what do do" and things
that always come in handy, no special tricks, just basic advise on
mastering. Any websites etc?
For example what are characteristic frequencies to lower a bit or at what
freq do most pc speakers cut off bass? Things like that. Hope I could make
myself clear.
thanks,
Jan

[Dave]

Read "Mastering Audio" by Bob Katz. You may not understand everything in
the book, but it'll give the fullest possible answer to your question.

Get it at Amazon, or Bob's site: www.digido.com




"Jan Saalbach" > wrote in message
...
> hi all,
> I have finished recording and mixing some projects in my homestudio. Now I
> don´t have the opportunity to do "real" mastering meaning I don´t have
money
> to rent a studio or let someone else do it. What I would like to do is do
> some basic mastering on my own. It doesn´t have to come out like I spent
> thousands of dollars for it but should make the tunes somewhat loud and
> crisp...etc.
> So what I am looking for is instructions and basic "what do do" and things
> that always come in handy, no special tricks, just basic advise on
> mastering. Any websites etc?
> For example what are characteristic frequencies to lower a bit or at what
> freq do most pc speakers cut off bass? Things like that. Hope I could make
> myself clear.
> thanks,
> Jan
>
>

[Jay - atldigi]

In article >, (Scott
Dorsey) wrote:

> Jan Saalbach > wrote:
> >So what I am looking for is instructions and basic "what do do" and
> >things
> >that always come in handy, no special tricks, just basic advise on
> >mastering. Any websites etc?
>
> First you compress the hell out of the thing so that it's utterly
> lifeless and has no dynamics at all, probably splitting the bass off
> with a crossover (or a dual-band compressor) so that the massive
[SNIP]
> then use additional compression after the peak limiting in the hopes that
> they might be able to squeeze a little bit more music and leave the
> resulting mush a bit more limp, but that's kind of excessive.
> --scott

Don't forget to make sure there is plenty of audible clipping distortion!
Sad that some guys seem to think this is truly the way.

--
Jay Frigoletto
Mastersuite
Los Angeles
promastering.com

[Ricky W. Hunt]

"Dave" <DSpikerREMOVETHISATfidalgoDOTnet> wrote in message
...
> Read "Mastering Audio" by Bob Katz. You may not understand everything in
> the book, but it'll give the fullest possible answer to your question.
>
> Get it at Amazon, or Bob's site: www.digido.com

This seems to be the one. Izotope has a mastering guide that's a free
download. It's for their Ozone plugin but was written as a general guide and
you can use any software or hardware:
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/ozone/ozoneguide.html. Be sure and get
the dithering guide while you're there also.