Let me know if there’s a need for a “band” song, I’ll provide full band productions with live players produced using Linux and Ardour. I’ll leave sequenced and electronica to musicians who are more adept at those styles and have more interesting contributions than me.
http://rapidshare.com/files/202744753/alexMastered.wav.html
rtp, thanks a lot for your work! I´m really looking forward to your video-tutorial! above is your mastered file, so people can compare and take a listen! I´m really happy that the ardour-forum is a place where you can not only share technical problems but also practical experience with sound and recording!
Calimerox,
I agree with you, very good conversation, and I am glad this is all being shared, great stuff!
Regarding JAMin, I have had short experience with it yet, have read a few docs, and I am a bit confused as far as scenes are concerned. After reading those documents, it seemed to me they are meant to store some specific settings for a particular moment of the song, kinda like patches.
However, I don´t see how they can be linked together with those song parts, so they are applied automatically on the fly. Is that even possible? If not, can someone explain the actual purpose of scenes?
Thanks!
I haven’t used it myself but there’s a ladspa plugin by Steve Harris called Jamin Controller. Using that as a plugin on Ardours master track, for instance, allows you to automate the scene changes.
Oh, and I listened to the “masterd” track, and sure it proves the point that it takes less than 6 seconds to lower the limiter to -0.2dB and boost the overall volume by 5(?)dB. But to call that mastering…
I sure hope the video will delve into the real aspects of mastering, otherwise it’ll be a real short one.
JAMin controller is used to automate changing of mastering settings for each song in the sequence of songs that your working with. Insert the controller into ardour:masterBus. Put the plugin into automation write at 00:00:00, engage transport Play to write a second or two of automation, position playhead at the end of your session and engage Play to write an automation line from start to end of the session. Put automation into touch mode and manually manipulate the line by inserting nodes and raising the scene in sequence from 1, 2, 3 to the last song. When the playhead reaches any node JAMin will switch to the scene of that node.
I realize your gonna have to fill in some blanks but based on what you’ve stated your already understanding. Keep your controller study simple, there doesn’t even need to be any songs on the timeline. We’re only using it to switch JAMin scenes. Let me know how it goes.
I have a vague recollection of having documented the controller but maybe I’m wrong.
s/settings/scenes
JAMin controller is used to automate changing of mastering settings for each song in the sequence of songs that your working with.
http://jamin.sourceforge.net/en/loudness.html
Mastering as a complex task is largely a farce. Without knowing the levels of your source, ignore everything in jamin except the boost and hard limiter. Push boost to +3 and hard limiter to +5, compare results with Bypass button. Don’t touch any other buttons. If that didn’t give you enough Loudness, push the levels more.
You should be done mastering your song in six or seven seconds–seven if you’ve been drinking. OK, I’m being a little facetious.
A prospective client asked me to demonstrate mastering yesterday. I had to explain jackd, ‘ssh -X’ and a bunch of other happy crap until his eyes glazed over so he wouldn’t notice me using the incredibly simple techniques I outlined for you. He is very impressed with my skillz–I don’t like people touching me and he hugged me. Whatever!
Of course I’m not explaining how to write the TOC and have a redbook compliant product but that’s not what your asking about. And there’s opportunity to gain even more loudness but that can be learned later.
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what nasty spikes?
i don’t have nasty spikes that cause problems during mastering. if you have “nasty spikes” fix your mixes; stick a limiter behind your inserted snare reverbs, use compression in the snare channel and again on the drum buss or teach your client how to EQ and mix.
mastering for vinyl is a novelty exception not unlike a two headed baby in the traveling circus. i haven’t produced for vinyl once in the last ten years. and i’ve done a lot of albums during that stretch. i’m happy the days of vinyl and analog tape are dead. even with good masters the vinyl shops couldn’t get it right. how often did you have to request a new pressing from the same master before it sounded acceptable? three times! maybe you have a niche market where some level of complexity remains. how many albums for vinyl are you producing?
in examining the experiences that i base my claims on, i have to admit that most of what i master is my own work. there mostly isn’t any problems in my work so i don’t have to confuse mastering with fixing mix problems. i don’t except just any job and i’m willing to explain and demonstrate why i can’t help without rerecording, mixing or whatever it takes.
a client recently called to inform me that he’s delivering an album for mastering. i won’t review his product because i know there’s nothing wrong with it. maybe mastering is easy for me because i only except high quality product to work on.
i have an album to mix on Friday that was recorded at the clients studio. i’ve never listened to their work. if the recordings suck, i’ll encourage him to fix the problems and come back later or hire me to rerecord. why are they coming to me? because something is wrong. i’ll see or hear the problem on friday.
everybody, ignore my claims for simplicity and ease. mastering is a nightmare. it should be left to people like me. of course i won’t except the job because only my work is good enough for me to deal with. i’m so awesome, i can’t talk to myself anymore.
and your right, i did just take a piss. later today, i’ll take another one. if your having urinary issues maybe someone stretched your abductor longis, no? 
So, rtp405, what you’re saying is that the art of mastering consists of
- Tell the client to re-record/mix if there is a problem somewhere
- Slam a brickwall limiter to their final result and push the gain until everybody's happy
- ???
- Profit
If that works for you and your clients, fine. But boy do I hope I don’t accidently hire you to master anything of mine.
Item one disregards (among other things) the fact that what you can fix in a couple of hours by carefully manipulating waveforms, balancing EQ’s and/or selectivly applying compression might force them to rehire that dead expensive Hammond B3 (which btw is already booked for the next 14 years by Axl Rose for making Nigerian Democracy) and spend a couple of weeks in studio to recapture that perfect take (minus the glitch that made it unacceptable to you).
Item two indicates you might be victim of the louder-is-better campaign that seems to be proliferating. And, sure, if your client demands a square wave output (hi, Metallica/Rick Rubin) you might have to suck up to it, but please don’t suggest it to readers of this forum.
useless debate. Trust your ears in all circumstances and you’ll find out that you need more than 7 seconds on average. If that was that easy, I would then set up a batch job for my mastering, come back after an hour or so and burn my CD. Hehe, if life was so, how boring would it be! 
I have no experience of mastering yet, and look forwards to experimenting with JAMin. But some of the advice here http://jamin.sourceforge.net/en/loudness.html scares me.
I tried to play Radiohead’s In Rainbows on my vintage Quad / Rogers hifi a while back and it was unlistenable. It was ugly. The thing had obviously been mastered for iPod and car stereo use and not for quality listening.
Of course, you can produce whatever you like. But please; if you’re interested in creating quality music, especially if you play acoustic or mechanical instruments, give due regard to preserving dynamics. http://www.turnmeup.org/
I guess mastering sthg that is compressed, normalised and limited to death is probably child’s play. The great skill in mastering is all about preserving dynamics. Am I right?
yes, pleasebeus. Nothing’s worse than to listen to a piece of flat sound pushed to the highest level possible. Prepare the aspirin
Dynamics is the key, especially with real instruments. You want to reproduce an nice image (level and space) and well balanced so that listening to it is a comfortable experience (even with aggressive music).
Hey rtp, thanks for your ideas, I was reading the loudness article on sourceforge the other day and it opened up my mind… so I´ll try next time mastering in six seconds (it´s I give up drinkin…) and tell you more…
also listening on crappy systems is a good advice… although this for me is always necessary but also like to feel one´s way in the dark…: when it sounds bad on my kitchen radio… well , what to do? it´s quite time intense to work like this… but necessary, you´re right. lets see whats going to happen…
AND: I forgot the thx to thorgal
like I can see in the discussion here is that a lot of people are interested in mastering issues… and allenk: my question was not the recipe for a perfect mastering but just for some advices, so theres no need to be harsh to people that just tell their ways of doing things… every situation needs a different mastering, of course I ´d master a piece of morton feldman different than a piece of a crustpunk band , but I just wanted to heart some general things I had no clue of… and although I ´m not sure, I think people sometimes make a big miracle out of mastering and like its a good sounding word people and bands and producers talk more about mastering than recording/mixing, although this is much more important… one general question: I always thought for mastering you need that hardware that costs a fortune like mastering compressors and stuff… but thats a myth? Can I just use algorithms doing the job similar…? (i hope $$$)
rtp: yeah, go for it
until now you couldn’t do a batch job because you didn’t know, hehe. try my suggestion and see what an eye opener it is. i don’t claim it’s the final product. you can create more head room with EQ and multiband compression, but do what i say and see what a simple perspective is created. especially for those who don’t have experience.
give it a shot calimerox. i guess i’ve put myself in a position to write a new document titled Mastering in Six Seconds. i haven’t looked at Loudness in a long time. i knew if i opened my big mouth it would force myself into doing more work. i never learn.
calimerox, if you have something that needs to be mastered, put it onto a server and I’ll use it to demonstrate the six second master. they say it can’t be done. that’s all they have to say. I’ll post the .jam with two adjusted variables. and we’ll see if the algos work.
if you want to watch a video of an ardour produced album from the pre 1 stable days, try http://artspreservation.org/vidMix03-MPEG-4%20300Kbps.mp4 audio is jammin and ardour. unfortunately compression has made a mess of the quality
Think of mastering as baking a cake: assembling the ingredients equals recording, stirring it together and shoving it in the oven is mixing and putting the frosting on top is mastering. Sure the cake can be good in itself, but it’s the frosting that really makes it excellent.
To achieve top notch mastering you need great gear (which often equals expensive stuff), a really good room and an engineer with great expertise, knowledge and ears. An alogrithm can not beat that. Ever.
That said, in the end it’s up to the material. A crappy, uninterresting song mastered by Bernie Grundman will probably sell much less and sound much worse than a catchy tune with perfect melody and inspired perfomance mastered by you with a decent set of speakers and a basic knowledge of Jamin.
But then again, imagine what Bernie could’ve done with that song…
i’ve never shown this video to anyone but someone mentioned hammond and heck i’ve worked with those. i put together a five person audio and video crew for this production and never charged a penny. there’s not many of the old school boys left and i needed to do something for them. i love these guys. i’ve video footage of my make shift control room running ardour surrounded by gallon jugs of pickled pig’s feet.
that would be great! Now I work on a acustic guitar project… so its maybe not the most interesting thing to master, but anyway would be great to see what happen… I´ll talk to the artist and contact you afterwards…!