New to Mixcraft 7 and the forum. I've watched the video's on Mastering and I was wondering, would it be better to mixdown your song to an MP3 after getting a good mix and before any mastering plugin's (Izotope, etc.) and then bringing it back into Mixcraft as one track or stereo track and then Master it? That's the way it's typically done in a studio. Or is that really a waste of time?
Thanks
Byrd
Mastering an MP3 Song
Moderators: Acoustica Greg, Acoustica Eric, Acoustica Dan, rsaintjohn
Re: Mastering an MP3 Song
First off, you probably don't want to mix down your song in mp3, cz it's low quality. And also, in most cases, the person who mixes, is not the same person who masters, that's how it's done in most serious projects, and in pretty much all studios. If you do intend to master your own songs, I recommend mixing the song to wav, and then working with that, I typically mix my own songs and then have them mastered by a professional mastering engineer.
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Mark Bliss
- Posts: 7313
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Re: Mastering an MP3 Song
Byrd,
As to the core question of whether to render the project first, it seems to be somewhat of a personal preference.
A few good reasons to render first:
One primary part of "Mastering" whether DIY or professionally, should be to set the relative levels between multiple tracks, such as for a CD or song list, or whatever. Easier to do that with rendered tracks.
Also, it frees up computer resources for further processing.
And another thing to keep in mind, It kind of forces you to declare your mixing stage is done. The reason this can be important is that once you set your mastering processes, you shouldn't go back to "fixing the mix" without understanding that you then might need to start over on the "mastering" because of the way they can effect each other.
But its certainly true that some very knowledgeable and skilled people do it other ways!
As to the core question of whether to render the project first, it seems to be somewhat of a personal preference.
A few good reasons to render first:
One primary part of "Mastering" whether DIY or professionally, should be to set the relative levels between multiple tracks, such as for a CD or song list, or whatever. Easier to do that with rendered tracks.
Also, it frees up computer resources for further processing.
And another thing to keep in mind, It kind of forces you to declare your mixing stage is done. The reason this can be important is that once you set your mastering processes, you shouldn't go back to "fixing the mix" without understanding that you then might need to start over on the "mastering" because of the way they can effect each other.
But its certainly true that some very knowledgeable and skilled people do it other ways!
Re: Mastering an MP3 Song
I've done it both ways many times. The big advantage of mastering while still in the DAW is that you can hear exactly how the finished track is going to sound.
Mastering processes can have a dramatic effect on the overall sound of the track, to the extent that often I feel the need to go back and re-mix certain elements, which of course is a frustrating waste of time.
While its true that the levels of multiple tracks (for example a CD album) need to be checked and adjusted, this can be done by re-importing the masters back into the DAW and making the necessary adjustments. I don't see this final process as mastering per se, more "level tweaking" and it does not usually affect the overall sound of the track.
As others have said, there is no advantage in mixing down to mp3, but plenty of disadvantages. Mix to wav, level up the tracks (where appropriate) and then convert to mp3.
Mastering processes can have a dramatic effect on the overall sound of the track, to the extent that often I feel the need to go back and re-mix certain elements, which of course is a frustrating waste of time.
While its true that the levels of multiple tracks (for example a CD album) need to be checked and adjusted, this can be done by re-importing the masters back into the DAW and making the necessary adjustments. I don't see this final process as mastering per se, more "level tweaking" and it does not usually affect the overall sound of the track.
As others have said, there is no advantage in mixing down to mp3, but plenty of disadvantages. Mix to wav, level up the tracks (where appropriate) and then convert to mp3.
Re: Mastering an MP3 Song
Awesome! Great stuff, thanks for the help.