[yrret]

Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

[Scott Dorsey]

In article XY98k.27903$Jx.17831@pd7urf1no, yrret wrote:
Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts louder.

If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise much
worse.

Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start out
with very quiet material.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[yrret]

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
In article XY98k.27903$Jx.17831@pd7urf1no, yrret wrote:
Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't
something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have
been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not
sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts
louder.

If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise
much
worse.

Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start
out
with very quiet material.
--scott
--

Quiet, as in the original recording needs to happen at low levels. Or the
first mix needs to be very quiet? Or both?

[Scott Dorsey]

In article eLa8k.49467$gc5.28081@pd7urf2no, yrret wrote:
"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
In article XY98k.27903$Jx.17831@pd7urf1no, yrret wrote:
Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't
something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have
been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not
sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts
louder.

If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise
much
worse.

Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start
out
with very quiet material.

Quiet, as in the original recording needs to happen at low levels. Or the
first mix needs to be very quiet? Or both?

There has to be a very low noise floor on the original recording. Any
noise you have will be exaggerated phenomenally when the compression kicks in.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

[Badmuts]

"yrret" wrote in message
news:XY98k.27903$Jx.17831@pd7urf1no...
Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't
something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have
been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not
sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

- Don't squash it that hard and keep some of the dynamics. The end result
might sound much more impressive.
- Don't squash the entire song but only the parts that need it. Use
automation on the plugin, or use your hands on the hardware.
- Edit some of the noise out of the original material using a noise
reduction algorithm or eq on quiet/noisy parts. Watch out you don't degrade
the material. Or, even better, if you're the mixer, re-mix the material so
that the noise is out of the quiet parts (muting or lowering volume of
instruments etc. not producing sound)
- Have the mastering done by someone else. Doing both mixing and mastering
is not always a good idea.

[Ty Ford]

On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:09:14 -0400, yrret wrote
(in article eLa8k.49467$gc5.28081@pd7urf2no):


"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
In article XY98k.27903$Jx.17831@pd7urf1no, yrret wrote:
Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't
something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have
been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not
sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts
louder.

If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise
much
worse.

Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start
out
with very quiet material.
--scott
--

Quiet, as in the original recording needs to happen at low levels. Or the
first mix needs to be very quiet? Or both?



Quiet as in the original sounds must be well above the noise floor. You won't
notice it if you don't listen carefully when tracking, but the low level hiss
will become a LOT more apparent when you compress and limit.

Regards,

Ty Ford


--Audio Equipment Reviews Audio Production Services
Acting and Voiceover Demos http://www.tyford.com
Guitar player?:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RZJ9MptZmU

[yrret]

"Ty Ford" wrote in message
. ..
On Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:09:14 -0400, yrret wrote
(in article eLa8k.49467$gc5.28081@pd7urf2no):


"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
In article XY98k.27903$Jx.17831@pd7urf1no, yrret
wrote:
Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't
something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have
been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem
to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not
sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts
louder.

If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise
much
worse.

Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start
out
with very quiet material.
--scott
--

Quiet, as in the original recording needs to happen at low levels. Or
the
first mix needs to be very quiet? Or both?



Quiet as in the original sounds must be well above the noise floor. You
won't
notice it if you don't listen carefully when tracking, but the low level
hiss
will become a LOT more apparent when you compress and limit.

Regards,

Ty Ford


Ya, I'm thinking I'm out of luck here. This particular guitar used some
tube do dad that added a lot of hiss. Funny thing is not every sound system
seems to reveal the hiss. But when its there its really really there.

[Carey Carlan]

"yrret" wrote in news:SSq8k.24946$kx.5657@pd7urf3no:

Quiet as in the original sounds must be well above the noise floor.
You won't
notice it if you don't listen carefully when tracking, but the low
level hiss
will become a LOT more apparent when you compress and limit.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Ya, I'm thinking I'm out of luck here. This particular guitar used
some tube do dad that added a lot of hiss. Funny thing is not every
sound system seems to reveal the hiss. But when its there its really
really there.

If you can't hear it in some systems, that means they have no high end and
hiss is mostly high frequency.

If you lop off all the high frequencies, you'll lose much of the noise but
also much of the "excitement" of the guitar sound.

Can you pass off the guitar tracks to a friend with computer software to
reduce noise levels? Or are you using such software right now to compress
the tracks?

[yrret]

"Carey Carlan" wrote in message
...
"yrret" wrote in news:SSq8k.24946$kx.5657@pd7urf3no:

Quiet as in the original sounds must be well above the noise floor.
You won't
notice it if you don't listen carefully when tracking, but the low
level hiss
will become a LOT more apparent when you compress and limit.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Ya, I'm thinking I'm out of luck here. This particular guitar used
some tube do dad that added a lot of hiss. Funny thing is not every
sound system seems to reveal the hiss. But when its there its really
really there.

If you can't hear it in some systems, that means they have no high end and
hiss is mostly high frequency.

If you lop off all the high frequencies, you'll lose much of the noise but
also much of the "excitement" of the guitar sound.

Can you pass off the guitar tracks to a friend with computer software to
reduce noise levels? Or are you using such software right now to compress
the tracks?

Okay I took the guitar track into Sound Forge and used its noise reduction.
It took a little edge off the sound, but not too much. So back in the mix I
added just a hint of the original guitar track about -25 db below the
treated guitar. Knock on wood... seems like it might work.

[Marko L. Spilberg]

I would suggest compressing the gtr tracks less, and maybe even the drum
subgroup. Then when you compress the master it you will more dymamic range
to work with.
"yrret" wrote in message
news:eLa8k.49467$gc5.28081@pd7urf2no...

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
In article XY98k.27903$Jx.17831@pd7urf1no, yrret wrote:
Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't
something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have
been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not
sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts
louder.

If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise
much
worse.

Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start
out
with very quiet material.
--scott
--

Quiet, as in the original recording needs to happen at low levels. Or the
first mix needs to be very quiet? Or both?

[Marko L. Spilberg]

would suggest compressing the gtr tracks less, and maybe even the drum
subgroup. Then when you compress the master you will have more dynamic
range
to work with.

Oops, I was in a hurry....


Marko.

www.spielbergaudio.com



"yrret" wrote in message
news:eLa8k.49467$gc5.28081@pd7urf2no...

"Scott Dorsey" wrote in message
...
In article XY98k.27903$Jx.17831@pd7urf1no, yrret
wrote:
Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't
something
I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have
been
pretty good.

But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem
to
give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not
sure
how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?

When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts
louder.

If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise
much
worse.

Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start
out
with very quiet material.
--scott
--

Quiet, as in the original recording needs to happen at low levels. Or
the first mix needs to be very quiet? Or both?

[yrret]

"Marko L. Spilberg" wrote in message
...
would suggest compressing the gtr tracks less, and maybe even the drum
subgroup. Then when you compress the master you will have more dynamic
range
to work with.

Oops, I was in a hurry....


Marko.

www.spielbergaudio.com




Interesting note. This might explain why the other styles of music weren't
much of an issue when it came to capping them off, those guitars were very
airy.