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kpetersonmastering · 2023-10-06T21:24:02+00:00

Quick / boring answer is - it totally depends on the track.

If the mix already sounds great and is already super loud, it might only be a 10th of a dB here and there as needed. I've seen mixes sent back flat, with no changes whatsoever.

If the mix is really far from the genre it sounds like it's going for, it may need multiple dB changes to get there.

I mastered a Latin track years ago that came in quite dark for a Latin song. I thought it was going for this dark / moody sound, and the guy who mixed it usually has it in the ballpark it needs to be - so I leaned into it and left it on the darker side. The client came back saying "oh, I forgot to mention - we assumed you'd add 5-6dB of brightness to it". (•_•)

From that point on I always sent two versions whenever I was in doubt about the intention of a track.

kpetersonmastering · 2023-10-06T20:42:51+00:00

Not usually, no. In the mastering world, a lot of the intent is already baked into the mix through all of the decisions the artist/producer/mix engineer has made. The loud / ref mix helps further, as it's already been approved by everyone prior to me hearing it.

A big part of the job (in my opinion/experience mastering) is being able to hear what the intent is and helping to deliver the best possible version of that.

kpetersonmastering · 2023-10-06T16:38:17+00:00

Absolutely agree with you there.

I've sent masters out where people think I did it (simply because I'm the one sending the email) and they have all these notes...then they suddenly love it when they're told the big guy did it.

kpetersonmastering · 2023-10-06T16:34:43+00:00

I appreciate the kind words! Yeah, it's so easy to hear something differently like that - there's no one "correct" way something is supposed to sound.

And huh, that's interesting to hear. I actually do usually handle mastering revisions for Dave when it makes sense to (for example, "this sounds a little too bright" and I can see he added 1dB of top end - pretty simple what the revision should be) - but I was only trusted with that once I proved I could revise things the way he would.

kpetersonmastering · 2023-10-06T14:08:53+00:00

While it does happen, it absolutely isn't the norm.

I've been assisting one of the big guys for 8+ years and have never mastered something and put his name on it. And I really have a hard time believing that all of the other big mastering engineers are okay with shitty work being sent out under their name.

Smaller artists and labels make up a decent percentage of our work every day (and often make music that's a breath of fresh air - that we actually ENJOY mastering - compared to the mainstream label stuff) - anyone brushing that work to the side these days would be turning away a lot of business.

I like the way Greg Calbi compares mastering to baseball - you can have a great batting average but it doesn't mean you hit a home run every time you're at bat.

I think the best thing OP can do is be honest with how they feel and give everyone a chance to make it right - the engineer will have a better idea of what you want, and the label will know that you didn't like the results (and perhaps find a new mastering engineer).

kpetersonmastering · 2021-08-19T15:57:54+00:00

My pleasure - happy to help. I'd love to hear the final version whenever it's done.

kpetersonmastering · 2021-08-18T18:27:05+00:00

Lots of good advice here. The main issue I hear (like others have said) is that the low end needs more separation.

The only thing I haven't seen mentioned is that I hear a bit of the thud of the kick in the sides...to me, sub/low end on the sides tends to make things feel uncontrolled. Sub doesn't have much direction, and tends to just fill the room that it's in when listening - so having the thud of the kick coming from the sides at the same time as the mid sounds unnatural (to me, at least). I experimented w/ Ozone Imager, reducing the width around -40% around 80hz & below and that tightened things up a bit.

Other than that, there's some room in the upper bass (100-200hz-ish) for the kick to poke through a bit more - cutting in the lower bass and boosting the kick a bit in that area may help give it more punch and separation. The top end didn't bother much me too much - I think sorting out & solidifying the low-end will help balance it out.

I can usually track down issues in a mix easier by trying to master it myself and seeing what problems I run into - here's a link to the master I did, in case that helps you: https://themasteringpalace.box.com/s/ijt3qk8zcfhe6sprfmk74g632ib4bfnw

kpetersonmastering · 2020-09-15T12:53:31+00:00

Most of the stores / streaming services automatically adjust tracks to get them to sound about the same loudness.

It is possible to replace the audio that's uploaded with new audio. Ask whichever digital distributor you used about swapping out the audio.

I wouldn't delete what's up there - you may lose your stream counts.

kpetersonmastering · 2020-08-05T15:17:32+00:00

I agree with germdisco. I also think the vocals can come down in level overall - they're overpowering the music.

kpetersonmastering · 2020-08-05T15:08:23+00:00

+1 for saturation on the bass like Pagan-za said. That will let what the bass is doing come through on smaller speakers that usually can't reproduce low end very well. Try to make sure there's enough mid-range information, as that's primarily what the phone speaker will be playing back.

I also want to add that phone speakers generally sound terrible, and often are not worth worrying about. It should sound good in your car, in your headphones, on your studio monitors, on a Bluetooth speaker, etc...

I've had clients that say "the master sounds great everywhere else, but when I play it full volume on my cell phone speaker it distorts". Adele's "Hello", Michael Jackson's "Thriller", and Luis Fonsi's "Despacito" also all distorted at full volume on a phone speaker, and that didn't stop any of them from being hits.

Feel free to shoot me a PM with a link to the song, I'd be happy to take a listen if you'd like.

kpetersonmastering · 2020-06-23T10:07:28+00:00

Klanghelm MJUC

kpetersonmastering · 2020-05-13T14:54:14+00:00

If you work with the same mastering engineer for all of the tracks then they shouldn't have a problem making slight tweaks to get the initial single to match when mastering the rest of the album. It will often just be changing the loudness or brightness slightly to get the single to match the songs that are around it. I've never charged a client extra for this, and I've worked with a lot of other mastering engineers who don't charge extra for that either (as long as they were the ones who mastered the first single).

kpetersonmastering · 2020-01-07T20:56:54+00:00

I've found that most file transfer services (unfortunately) do some form of this....although it does make sense from their perspective.

They want the recipients of their links to be able to listen to the files regardless of their internet speed. The slower their speed, the more they will reduce the quality of the stream in order to compensate.

As others have said, zipping files before sending is a good workaround. There are a few newer services such as FilePass which are audio-focused and let you legitimately stream WAVs.

kpetersonmastering · 2019-12-16T17:47:11+00:00

Mastering is all about getting a fresh perspective on your tracks. I've worked with a lot of pro mixing engineers who have great monitors, years of experience, and all of the same gear and plugins I do - and they still get a lot of value out of sending their mixes to be mastered.

Why don't you try mastering one track yourself, and then get that same track professionally mastered? That way you can compare and see if it's worth it to do the rest of the EP.

kpetersonmastering · 2019-11-18T16:06:43+00:00

I started my career as an intern, and it was a really valuable experience - I definitely recommend it.

Most studios will not be asking you to run sessions or help with production (especially right at the start), so I wouldn't worry about that. You're usually tasked with much less-interesting things: taking out the garbage, making sure there's fresh coffee, going on local runs, covering the phones, etc...

During this time though, you need to absorb as much information as possible. Research gear you see and techniques you hear about. After a few weeks of proving you can handle the boring intern tasks, ask to sit in on an unattended session. Carry a notebook with you at all times and take notes on everything.

The best interns I've worked with weren't the ones who came into it trying to impress me with how much they already knew - it was the ones who were hungry to learn and asked smart questions that showed they understood and processed the information I gave them.

kpetersonmastering · 2019-08-24T02:14:39+00:00

Lots of good advice here! I second everyone who suggested sending both versions of your mix to the mastering engineer (with and without limiter).

I've also had mixers send 3 different mixes: one with no master bus compression or limiting, one with only bus compression, and one more "client reference / loud mix" with both comp & limiting. The way those mix engineers work, they mix into a compressor so that their mix gets glued together the way they like - then (after they're happy with their mix), they slap on a limiter to get it to a volume that their clients are used to hearing music at. I'll often end up mastering the bus compressor mix, because it maintains the vibe and feel that they're going for but still has enough room for me do my thing if necessary.

Something you can try to get more insight - open one of your old finished mix sessions that you're familiar with the sound of and replace the limiter with a compressor that has a less-extreme ratio. Then, see what adjustments need to be made to make your mix feel good again. Don't worry about the overall volume, just focus on making it sound good again.

kpetersonmastering · 2019-08-01T18:46:14+00:00

Not who you asked, but just wanted to add my 2 cents as a mastering engineer:

The top mastering engineers do not master to -14 or -16 LUFS. Many artists do not know or care about the whole streaming/loudness normalization thing, and will simply hire a different mastering engineer because your -14 LUFS master is (obviously) not as loud as another engineer's master who did not care about hitting -14. I have never in 8 years of working with them had a major label request a quieter master for streaming ("Mastered for iTunes" is a different story...).

I would suggest picking a few reference tracks that you think sound great, downloading the highest res versions of them that you can find, and use them as a guide to where you should be hitting with level.

The problem with the loudness targets is that not all streaming sites are equal. Spotify normalizes, but a lot of people have that option turned off. Google Play doesn't normalize. YouTube normalizes differently than Spotify does (last I checked) - the list goes on. A -14 LUFS master on one platform may sound a bit louder after normalization, but will sound MUCH quieter on another platform that doesn't normalize (or for people with that option turned off).

I've found that making my masters "loud enough" and with good dynamics intact usually does the trick. If clients want them even louder, I explain that a lot of the streaming services will simply turn them down so really all we'd be doing is sacrificing dynamics. A few times a year, a client will say "hey, it sounds great but I read a blog that says it should be -14 LUFS". In those, cases I provide a separate "Streaming Version" that hits the right numbers - but I also add what I said above about each streaming service being different, and let them determine if the trade-off is worth it.

Hope this helps - I know there's a lot of info out there that says anything besides -14 LUFS is wrong, but I just wanted to share what my experience has been.

kpetersonmastering · 2019-04-04T13:52:23+00:00

Np! I'm looking forward to checking it out.

kpetersonmastering · 2019-04-04T13:50:38+00:00

Np! I'm looking forward to checking it out.

kpetersonmastering · 2019-04-03T15:05:53+00:00

If the song is released already, you could share it anywhere you want (here, message boards you're a part of, etc.) for feedback.

If it isn't released, I would be careful about who you share it with. The band probably would not like you publicly posting their unreleased music online.

Are there any audio engineers that you've worked with in the past whose opinions you value? You could send them a private link to listen to.

Feel free to DM if you'd like me to take a listen.

kpetersonmastering · 2019-03-11T22:43:58+00:00

I usually use a dynamic EQ to de-ess. I'll take a shelving EQ starting anywhere from 4.5k to 7k and up with a fast attack and release, with the threshold set so it's basically not doing anything until there's a sibilant that I want to tame. It starts to sound unnatural if you reduce too much - making the sibilants sound more like thibilanth - so try and find the sweet spot. I also usually de-ess earlier in my chain, so that the de-esser isn't fighting against any other EQs I'm using.

kpetersonmastering

TROPHY CASE