State of the Bill...

[mapsedge]

Work: the new new video card is in and functioning properly. Amazing what getting an AGP card with the correct notches will do.

I think the manufacturers dropped the ball on this one: you can buy an AGP card for the AGP slot in your mainboard, and it can be incompatible and you'd never know it until you try.  The documentation on the TigerDirect website is, in summary, "Not all AGP slots work with all AGP cards. Your mainboard might look like it supports all kinds, but it might not. If you don't have the manual for your mb, you just have to hope for the best."

Have done quite a bit of recording with aerie13  the last two nights. An annoying hum¹ through the mixer was traced to inputs from my dvd player, and with that removed we got some very good recording done. It's for a demo (so no multiple tracks/fancy mixing/mastering) but I would be comfortable marketing what we've recorded as a standalone product².

A little practice, a few obscure message boards and a lot of reading later, I'm gaining some small skill at mastering. A couple of bits of information I gleaned that instantly made sense for me and changed how I listen to recordings:

 - Use a light touch with compression, if you use it at all.

 - Same goes for reverb.  (Thank you, Frank, for starting those two balls rolling.)

 -  Sound is cumulative.  A strong low-end from a guitar + a vocal strong in the mid- to low-range + a fretless bass = really uncomfortable, muddy listening.  Too many lows crammed into the same auditory space³.

You have to make holes in the sound so that each instrument (guitar, keyboard, voice) has a place to be in the audio spectrum.  You use EQ to adjust each sound so that each fits like a puzzle piece: the bass gets a slot in the audio spectrum, guitar the next up, vocals next up above that. 

What a difference it makes!


¹ ~60Mhz, probably from having too many cables / power cords stuffed into too small a space.

²  Yes, it could be better, but I've heard stuff sold at all kinds of venues that doesn't sound as balanced or clear as what we accomplished with just two mics and careful volume control at the mixer.

³  From the Cakewalk Sonar forums.

Comments

[thebruce.livejournal.com]

Having read a couple of threads in recording forums about mastering, one final step in the process is running all tracks through a *very* light compression on their way to the master. That gives them a consistency that's uniform. One other thing I do here is volume-leveling all the tracks on a CD, which gives the entire album a consistency of volume. There are those who swear at most volume-leveling software, but I've found if you *don't* overdrive the individual tracks when you're recording, and don't overdrive the master when you're mastering, the leveling can actually do its job pretty well across album cuts.

Beware the "reverb mistake". But you know that already :)

For QA, I listen to each CD a minimum of 3 times, once on the computer, once on the home stereo, and once in the car, and make notes of anything I notice. Don't ever rush that process :)

[jehosefatz.livejournal.com]

I agree with Bruce re:both leveling and light compression in the mastering process. IMO, you're better off using a light touch in compressing individual tracks which gives you more flexibility in mastering and even then. I'm a big believer in as using as light a touch as possible in everything.

"Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity." -- Charles Mingus

If you're going to be doing a lot of it, I'd suggest trying to make plans to pick up a set of studio reference monitors -- almost all speakers (including home, computer, and car stereo speakers) and some sound cards/etc have inherent EQing to make them try to sound better in the environment they're intended for. The reference monitors are EQed flat and intended to let you hear the real effects of the mastering work you're doing.

- Jeho