To tackle this topic effectively, we must make a rather complex premise. A brief history lesson could help us. Music intended as an intangible asset intended for mass consumption is a concept that didn’t exist before the 1960s. Two main elements have substantially contributed to the diffusion and promotion of music as such. The first is the creation of a medium designed to convey music manually (tapes or vinyl) and a sound reproduction system with costs affordable even to a medium-low social class, so as to make this system present almost in every home. The second element were radio and television Media, which served primarily as entertainment devices but secondarily had the ability to raise awareness of artistic performances and stories and careers linked to artists who soon became much more popular than public figures of the time. In those years techniques for recording music underwent radical changes, and the tools used for recording sound became more and more refined. The goal of those who made the recordings, who supported the costs, who then commercialized the reproduction media was always just one: make the artist's performance as faithful as possible in order to give the listener the feeling of being "in front of " the performer. From the moment when it was composed to when it was recorded and then printed, the track was subjected to a series of mostly artistic evaluations. The technical evaluations were limited to the correct use of the tools for recording the performance, the correct use of the different types of microphones, the knowledge of the electric machines for the management of the electrical signals generated by the microphone recordings. Subsequently mixing techniques were created due to the growth in frequency of recording musical instruments and voices in different moments on separate magnetic paths.This method granted more control over the overall volume, but needed a particular attention in the mixing of the recorded sounds. The goal was to reach an overall level of pleasantness of listening that mimicked a classical or light orchestra that was playing in front of the listener. There was an average level of sound pressure that was generated by the reproduction of the medium, but it varied a lot from song to song, from artist to artist and from one record company to another. The media, especially radios and televisions, posed a problem, as they considered such high variations in volume unpleasant to the listener, since they forced him to lower or raise the volume of their own radio according to the track. To overcome this inconvenience they began to use signal compressors on the general outputs of the transmission, and eventually even the record companies decided to make recordings whose general volumes were more “standardized”. A technique was developed for the optimization of the general volume of listening to a recording intended for printing on a medium or for radio transmission.
All of this is Mastering. Of course, in the following decades the technique has been refined, and today we even have different mastering techniques based on the genre of music or the target media. We sometimes also have different versions depending on the intended use. It is a procedure that allows us to give our music a better sound output by improving homogeneity of listening and pleasantness, regardless of medium. However, before going into technical details I would like to make some considerations.
Mastering is the last step in the creation of a musical product. The first is recording the sound, the second is mixing (making very different sounds coexist in a coherent and pleasant way), the third is mastering, which adds the finishing touches. This leads us to an obvious truth: a bad song recorded well, with a great mix and a great mastering remains a bad song. A badly recorded, badly mixed song cannot be recovered by any means during the Mastering phase.If the operations that precede the Mastering have been done in a workmanlike manner you can hope that your product sounds good, but Mastering doesn’t do miracles, be wary of those who promise you that. In short, try to do as little damage as possible by adhering to a homogenization of the average listening volume. On paper it seems rather simple, and it actually is if you adhere to some simple tips.
If you are doing a mastering of your track, the first thing is to find exactly the kind of genre it belongs to(I guess it is a statement that seems obvious but believe me it is not) and go and listen to a product of that genre that you think sounds good and resembles yours as much as possible, and set it as a goal. For something even more effective, put it on the sequencer or software you are using for your track and compare it continuously. Try to understand through what it means to listen to a track that’s been mastered and one that’s not. The first reaction will probably be total confusion! What’s this crap? (my track)... I should change job/hobby. Fortunately, the second one that arrives soon after is, I should try to understand why. Probably you will hear instruments too high, others too low, too many high frequencies or too few. That’s ok, if all of that happens you know you’re not alone... but you shouldn’t hope that the mastering will solve all problems, you have only listened to a song mixed by professionals and yours. Stop, go back, reopen the mix and restart. Always keep the reference track open, make a list of the things you don’t like and one by one fix them, and when you're ready for mastering, don’t go for it. Go and have a beer with friends. Mastering is never done with tired ears. Tired ears aren’t reliable. Listen to your mix the next day and if everything still sounds good, proceed. At this point, you will have to continue with order and mental organization.
The mastering serves to standardize the listening and at the same time level it. You will need compressors, equalizers, probably exciters and tools to manipulate the stereo spectrum. I think you know what a compressor is, maybe we'll talk about it in some other article. In general we know that a compressor serves to reduce the difference between a minimum and a maximum of a given signal. As already said, we will deal with how it does that elsewhere. Even if well mixed, our track will need an intervention in this sense. We will send the signal of our track and usually program the compressor with a Ratio value (how much I compress) of 2.5: 1 (it means that if two and a half parts of the signal come in, only one goes out), an Attack value, which varies between 7 and 20 ms (I personally don’t go over 10ms), a Threshold value that takes care of a small percentage of the signal (usually between -4 and -8 Db) and a Release value, which you can find by ear, just start from 0 and stop as soon as you notice changes in the sound. This operation causes alterations in the ratios between the frequencies, the low ones are usually emphasized. This is why we will apply a nice equalizer, and by using our reference track we will try to manipulate the frequencies to get as close as possible to that feel and rebalance what the compressor changed.
After the equalizer is the turn of a particular type of compressor: the Limiter. This tool does one thing but it does it well. It allows us to establish a level beyond which we don’t want the volume of our track to go over and at the same time we can raise the average listening level. Immediate Attack, Threshold to raise the general average listening level, Out Ceiling to establish the limit beyond which we do not want to go (-0.1 Db / -0.2 Db) almost immediate Release (about 10 ms)
You'll probably start to hear that some high frequency is too... high. You will probably need a de-esser that is nothing more than a monoband compressor that will allow us to look for the frequency that annoys us and resize it.
We’re almost done. Our levels are well organized and, by comparing them with our reference piece, are almost ready.
There is a tool that can help us a lot with this operation and that’s usually also used in the mix: it’is the spectrum analyzer, a machine that makes a graphical representation of the frequencies that are playing in real time. I’ll use the Analyzer from Waves, which also realized the other plugins that I used in this article, but of course any other plugin that has similar function is fine. The Analyzer helps us to understand how a track sounds and above all where on the spectrum of frequencies we should act. In the plugin there is also a very useful phase analyzer that helps us to understand how effective the stereo spectrum we built during the mix is. Of course, keep an eye on the overall output level of the track, using the Out Ceiling of the Maximizer was the safe thing to do, but if you push too much on its Threshold you risk an unhearable mess. Go instinctively and where your heart and your taste take you, but never forget to compare your work with those of those who have done so for many years. You shouldn’t almost never be completely satisfied. Sometimes you should do more operations than usual to manipulate the track even more thoroughly. TheExciter is a tool that serves to enrich our track of harmonics and make it "hotter" and "softer" to listen, but of course you should use it depending on the track.. Another tool that can be used is a multiband compressor that allows us, not unlike the De-esser, to act on certain frequency ranges. Lastly we can also intervene on the stereo spectrum through a Stereo Imager, by tightening or enlarging the image. We can even decide to tighten or enlarge the stereo image of a certain category of frequencies through the use of machines or plugins dedicated to Stereo Imaging Multiband (usually in pop you tend to use the monophonic, that group of frequencies below 120 Hz). When you have finished do not go away, wait for the next day, listen with rested ears and if it still convinces you, go for the conquest of the world!
Ps: before going for the conquest of the planet listen to your track using different types of speakers, from the professional ones to the cheaper ones, you have to know how your music will feel on 99% of the speakers on which it will be played. Use headphones, earphones, smartphones and everything that comes to mind, you may need a step back ;) Enjoy!
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