Author Topic: Dave Houck's project - new recording (Read 2020 times)

sonicus · « **Reply #90 on:** July 06, 2015, 01:03:33 PM »

Edwin I heard the final mix before it went to mastering.
I was in the control room with the mix engineer. I have just left that project behind me anyway. . It is done and I am gone .

edwin · « **Reply #91 on:** July 06, 2015, 01:17:08 PM »

Bummer. I hate it when it goes down like that. At least you know who not to go to next time! The amount of mangling it takes to change a bass sound so drastically means that the rest of the mix was also probably equally adversely affected.

David Houck · « **Reply #92 on:** July 06, 2015, 01:53:21 PM »

Thanks Edwin! So, using the present recording as an example, I would go ahead and remove any line noise, trim the lead at the beginning, fade out the end, as I did here, and raise the db to -3 instead of 0, and that's what I would send to have mastered?

Also, when I recorded this track, I didn't realize, didn't think to check, that the default was 16 bit. But I should be recording at 24 bit?

edwin · « **Reply #93 on:** July 06, 2015, 02:39:14 PM »

Yes, always record at 24 bit. It means that you can have the levels set safely lower than the peaks and not incur a noise penalty. I try to keep my peaks in live recording at -8dbfs to -6dbfs, just in case anything comes along and surprises me. And, with modern digital recording, at 24 bit you can have a signal that's quite low (-20dbfs) and still pull it up to full level without too much added noise.

As far as the editing, you might want to leave out the fade if you are assembling an album because that might be something that you might want to change in the context of the other music around it. Also, it can add noise when other processing is done, even if it's minimal. Definitely edit out any noise you might have, but if it's just a live to stereo track, find out what kind of noise reduction the mastering studio might have. It can make a difference in quality and would be better than the stuff that comes with editing software. Some noise reduction software, like Sonic Solutions, CEDAR, and to a slightly lesser extent products like Izotope RX (which I use), can do amazing things and not harm the fidelity or dynamics of the music.

David Houck · « **Reply #94 on:** July 06, 2015, 02:48:25 PM »

Thanks again! I was indeed concerned about the noise removal tool that I was using. And I did not know that about the fade. I'll rerecord at 24 bit and see where I'm at.

sonicus · « **Reply #95 on:** July 06, 2015, 03:19:03 PM »

I totally agree with Edwin regarding a preference for 24 bits @ 96, later on you will have to what is called dither down to 16 bit 44.1 sampling freq. for a RED BOOK or Audio CD standard release if that is one of your choice's for release.

Dave please excuse this response to Edwins comments , I have no intention of a hi-jack .

There are various evil short cut digital software mastering programs and hardware ( as you know) that utilize multi-spectral compression . These can have an evil and adverse effect on your project if the parameters are not carefully set. I suspect that in the example that I referred to in my case above this is what could have happened. It is also entirely possible that they just agreed with me at the time in the control room during the final mix that I heard and then just did what they wanted after I had left before sending it out for mastering. This totally make sense to me , they deceived me to just make me go away ! . LOL .

Dave I hope to hear many more of your wonderful musical pieces ! They are very inspirational.

Wolf

David Houck · « **Reply #96 on:** July 06, 2015, 03:51:56 PM »

Thanks Wolf!

edwin · « **Reply #97 on:** July 06, 2015, 04:10:41 PM »

Wolf is right on. Dithering and sample rate conversion are both steps that mastering engineers typically take care of as well. Dither is pretty amazing. Done properly, it can actually let you hear detail in the music below the noise floor and it's done by adding noise! It was lack of dither and bad dither that contributed to some of the perceived negative aspects of digital audio in the early days.

While this article is outdated in many respects, it does address dither and a number of other issues that are not always intuitive. Bob Katz is a great mastering engineer, one of the best in the business. I think this is from the first version of his book Master Audio; The Art and the Science. The latest version is well worth getting for everyone who deals with recording.

http://www.ingelec.uns.edu.ar/pds2803/Materiales/articulos/BobKatzArticles.pdf

And yes, Wolf, I remember when multi band compressors came out and were all the rage! I have a few of them, but they rarely get much use unless I have some forensic work to do. If a mix requires the use of one, usually that means the mastering engineer should send back the files for remixing.

David Houck · « **Reply #98 on:** July 06, 2015, 07:04:05 PM »

Thanks Edwin; I've downloaded the pdf.