The most common question I’ve been asked since starting the show is - “how do I balance songs against one another ?”. Especially balancing quiet and loud songs, or when they’re from diverse genres. So in this show, we try to answer that - and touch on many other topics, too:
- The mastering tip that’s almost too simple to say - but embodies the heart and soul of mastering
- Why Ian doesn't master single songs any more (if he can help it)
- Do all digital EQs sound the same ? And Ian’s new favourite (free) EQ plugin
- Why we need "Album mode” to stop loudness management sucking the heart out of our music
- The first thing Ian does in every mastering session
- A ninja loudness trick when balancing quiet & loud songs
- Should you use automation when mastering ?
Links
iTunes Sound Check has “album mode” - finally !
Multiband compression – the mastering engineer’s secret weapon ?
So, what's his favorite free eq?
TDR Nova.
Thanks friend,
Mediamonkey has album mode and album levelling.
Album mode in Spotify seem to work "again". Just listen to the two first tracks of "Dark side of the moon". Leveling totally not working a week or two ago, does now. I say again because I believe Spotify had an automatically working album mode about a year ago. I tried it a lot and eventually mentioned it to Ian but just a couple of weeks later it didn´t work that way anymore.
Today though, it does seem to work again but in a somewhat different but good way?!?
Try this simple test. Create a playlist with the songs "Speak to me", "Speak to me", "Breathe". The first "Speak to me" will play a lot louder than the second that is followed by the correct album song.
As I remember my tests from long ago.. put songs in a playlist and "album mode leveling" got out the window. Not now it seem?!? Put songs in correct order and they get album mode leveling.
Interesting show with information I'll probably never need, but still interesting. 🙂
I don't know if this is the place, but I have a simple request. It certainly does not need an entire episode, but would you please consider touching on levels and other considerations for spoken word? Your podcast is done better than any I've heard. Hat tip to Jon. I'd love to hear some pointers (and tricks). Thanks.
I appreciate that you noticed. 😀
Actually our episode on mastering podcasts has a lot of that info. It was funny to me when Lij and Ian were trying to guess my signal chain and it ended up being much more complex.
Thanks for the quick reply. By the way, I meant this comment on the most recent show, Mastering for Online Streaming...but I clicked the wrong place. (Phone browser.) That's the show with info I'll likely not need.
I did hear that episode 16, I'm sure, since my podcast app gets them all and I listen while commuting. Must have been lots of traffic and distractions. I'll go listen again. Thanks, again.
Hey Guys, great podcast. I have an interesting questions. I am mastering a downtempo electronic album where all the 14 songs and beats are mixed into each other (kinda like a DJ mix but it is all original music).
How would you choose to master it? I can either master the whole shebang 60 min as one track then separate the tracks after, or I could master each 14 tracks separately. The problem is that it each track goes seamlessly into the next, so there can't be any noticeable difference when the tracks changes.
There is a couple tracks that need a little love so mastering each separate seems like the right thing to do, but It could be difficult to make sure there are differences when the tracks change. Maybe automation might be the best.
Have you had any situations like this?
Thanks for any suggestions.
Hi Ian and John
As an old ex-Abbey Road guy (my very first session was The Beatles demo session, what a baptism! - and still mastering after all these years!) I agree with you that when mastering an album, I want to hear the whole album as a 'live event', so I listen to the first track over and over. Then move on to the second track and lift or lower the level and tweak the eq to match the first track, and so on.
As for fades and gaps... you're absolutely right, I spend more time on those, probably than on eq'ing the tracks on either side! Paul (hmmm, forgotten his surname, he was an American Singer-Songwriter in the 80s) wrote an article about the gap lengths on albums.
On the subject of plug-ins...
My daughter ran a Local Council-funded Centre for young kids, so they had a Pool Table, a Dance Studio and a recording Studio. She got me to go in a couple of times and talk to these kids (me, a 60-year-old guy talking to 18-year olds :-D). I got them to set up a session, and they were opening all the plug-ins.'Why are are you doing that?' I asked, and they thought that they needed all these plug-ins. I told them to take them all off and LISTEN before reaching for the Plug-ins...