Re: [Harp-L] Mixing and Mastering advice...

[Ken Deifik <kenneth.d@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I read through Alex's message, and it's quite problematic, at least for 
me.  Most importantly, I believe he confuses mastering with mixing in the 
middle of his discussion.  Neither should be done by giving an engineer 
some notes and hoping you'll get what you're hearing in your head.

First of all, since you are not very experienced at mixing, I would guess 
that you wouldn't have many notes to give an engineer in the first 
place.  But if there's a recording you want yours to sound like, THAT'S a 
very good note.  But you should be there for the mixes, every step of the 
way.  You'll learn alot with every song.

On the other hand, many mastering studios charge extra if you want to be 
there while they're working.  This is because very, very few producers 
would have any useful input DURING the process.  Your responses to the 
outcome of the process - that's an entirely different matter.  I've been to 
a few mastering sessions, with excellent producers, and the less they said 
the easier it was for the engineer to do something worthwhile for them.

Alex's mention of timing sections didn't make sense to me (which doesn't 
mean it doesn't make sense, just not to me), but it did remind me of 
something that's really important and quite often neglected: the timings 
between songs.  Once you have your mixes, and you've decided on the 
sequence in which they'll appear on your CD, you'll need a program called 
"Audigy."  Audigy is available for both Mac and PC, for free.  (If you 
already have an audio editor on your computer, use that one, as you'll 
already be familiar with its workings.)

Load the first two song files into the same project.  Play around with the 
space between them.  Listen to the ending of the first song and FEEL how 
the beginning of the second song feels coming after different lengths of 
silence.  I put three hours into this activity on my latest project.  After 
a while, you'll swear you can hear the difference a few miliseconds 
make.  And very suddenly, mainly through random monkeying around, one gap 
makes magic - suddenly the leadout and lead-in make musical 
sense.  Weird.  Make note of the exact timing of the gap.  Then place the 
third song after the second, and repeat the process.  Give your mastering 
engineer this precise gapping information.

You will of course want to do this away from the recording studio, with the 
hours clicking away.  Presumeably you'll have finished mixing at this 
point, but not yet sent the tracks to your mastering house.  Taking great 
care with your gaps gives a sense of drama to a CD.

Unfortunately, these precise gaps will be nearly meaningless when your CD 
is put on an iPod, or on a Flash jukebox on your website.  There's a way of 
maintaining those gaps, however.  It's somewhat elaborate, and would 
confuse this discussion, but if anyone's interested, lemme know.  In any 
case, when I listen to my CD in the car, the gaps really add something to 
the experience.  When I listen to it on my iPod the music does quite well 
without those gaps, but I miss them.

Did I mention that at every stage of the recording you should not say 
you're done until it's something you would want to listen to a whole lot - 
and not just because you're on it?  If you make a CD of music that you 
yourself would feel compelled to own even if someone else made it, then you 
may have made a CD which people who share your taste would feel compelled 
to own.  This is harder to do than it sounds, but if you stay focused on 
making a record you yourself love, step by step, you may wind up with one.

This is the very heart of the process in the end.  For instance, if the 
band hits a groove that doesn't kill you, try again. Do not say to 
yourself, ah well it doesn't kill me but maybe I'm wrong.  It's likely that 
everyone in the studio is thinking, this groove doesn't quite cut it, but 
everyone else seems to like it.  Calmly suggest a retake and work with the 
key players to make a groove that is stronger.  Same with mistakes.  Don't 
leave them in if you dislike them even slightly, because after just a few 
listens they'll be the only thing you hear.  Every step of the way work 
toward music that surprises and delights you, and for which you'll never 
have to make an excuse.  (Sometimes it just comes out, sometimes you have 
to try try try.)  If you make music you love to hear when you perform, 
you're perfectly capable of doing it in the studio.  But don't settle for less.

Otherwise you'll be asking people to buy a CD that doesn't knock you 
out.  "Please buy my CD.  It's sort of good."

That's why I listen to my CD in the car and on my iPod.  I really, really 
like it, and worked hard to make it so.

Finally, before you master you'll want to go to
http://riaa.com/whatwedo.php?content_selector=whatwedo_isrc_codes
and get your free ISRC codes for your songs recordings.  Your mastering 
engineer will embed them - inaudibly - into your mastered tunes.  Instead 
of my explaining this stuff, just go to that page and read the info.  No 
matter what you think of the RIAA, you do want those codes in your tunes.

K