Hello, this is my first post here, thanks for the opportunity.
.. well I am trying to master a project, I am still learning how to do that . It is electronic music sound with beat and one of the songs, when opening the mixdown to a wave editor looks weird. Looks like all the waveform is moved upwards, you can see the file attached.
So I would like to ask, what is maybe a reason for this, if it's bad, and what I could do to avoid it. I have used several imagers on different sounds same as I did on other songs, but this one is different. It's not the first time I see such a thing, I've seen it before on songs with no imagers if that's the reason. It might get better later using some mastering maximizers maybe.
Thanks for your quick answer, if I understand well, when saying "mono on a unsplit stereo track" you mean a stereo track that plays a sound on one channel only ? example LEFT so that it results in bringing left channel louder ? cause there is nothing like that happening, actually the songs sounds fine on monitors, headphones, car stereo so far...
Are you mixing ITB or out a console and back to your sound card again? If this sounds good in headphones try a spectrum analyzer on one side only and then the other. It might be something in the subsonic relm.
Jeff
Posts: 127 | Location: San Diego | Registered:: 02-14-06
I am mixing using Nuendo/motu828mkII at 24bit/44.1 and everything is done waveforms. I will try what you said about the spectrum analyzer for sure. Will also try different mixdowns with muted suspicious tracks. Maybe could be an effect that does this too.
A lot of sounds - (A LOT of sounds in electronica) do not have equal energy. A lot of horns are the same. Many vocalists have non-symmetrical response for that matter.
If those are electronic drums, synth pads, etc., it could very well be exactly what it's supposed to be.
quote:
It might get better later using some mastering maximizers maybe.
It could actually try to make the rest of the mix offset in the other direction - It could very easily throw the whole think into... chaos (?) (for lack of a better term).
What do you mean by "it could very well be exactly what it's supposed to be" ? Do you mean it's kind of natural to get that wave and it's alright ?
All I do so far, I do it with ears. You know how it is testing the result almost everywhere and in many weird ways. To me it sounds ok so far (except the looks of the wave), but I wouldn't trust myself with low frequences which is the most important maybe. I mean final-final master is a big thing to my poor knowledge about it, and I will manage to learn as soon as possible. I am about to give this project tomorrow night, well it will only be a demonstration of composing music.. I mean it's not major important to give it perfect but you know :-) trying my best..
Generally, yep, it's natural on some sounds. Do you know off hand what exactly has the offset energy?
But in any case - If it sounds fine, I'd just leave it. If it's not incredibly loud (that's actually a good thing...), just put a note on it that says to CRANK IT UP!!!
Yeah, what John said. I have a mix I'm working right now where the trombone part is asymmetrical like this. All the tracks I have on him from the session are like this. It sounds great, though. I wouldn't worry too much if it sounds right. I haven't had this issue with an entire mix, but I don't do a lot of electronica stacking either.
heh so, great news about it, I agree, once it sounds great, no problem. well actually I corrected some drums sounding in the song, mostly hihats and was curious to see, and it did get more to the center, check new attachment.
I always hated those maximizers John :-)
Sorry for asking something more: Is there something real MUST I should do to the complete mixdown as a final touch ? I am not as good with some terms the truth is, ... those offsets confuse me ... I wanna turn the volume up to a "proper" level without picking, so that all 3 songs of my project sound equal volume. Any suggestion ? I used to maximize it softly but I thing it kills velocity sensitivities and more.
Welcome to bringing mixes beyond where they "want" to be...
Anyway - Offset energy... I wish I were more of a "techie" but I suppose there's a truly practical way to explain it...
Let's say you've got a snare with a head that's so tight, it almost just "pings" when you hit it.
When you hit the drum, the head is moving away from the mic (the waveform's first attack will go down visually). If the head's "vibration" (for lack of a better term) allows it to physically move down easier than it moves up, you'll wind up with a waveform skewed to the negative. A mic underneath would skew to the positive as the head is coming towards the mic (also why you need to invert the polarity of the bottom mic in case anyone didn't get that).
That's kind of an extreme case - But a lot of sounds just have that timbre naturally.
The first wave jpg looks like a mix with something in the mix having DC offset. This should be fixed in the mix itself to allow you to master it properly. The DAW should have a DC offset feature which will automatically reset the waveform such that the mean amplitude is zero. The tracks in the mix which are offset should be easy to spot, since they should look the same way.
You should have this corrected before you start the mastering.
I used DC OFFSET from Soundforge and nothing changed to the song wavefrom, I also couldn't hear any difference.. as I said, I don't understand it at all ! :-)
As mentioned above (at least, I think I did...) a lot of sounds are skewed to the positive - or the negative. It doesn't mean DC offset.
Personally, I haven't seen a true DC offset issue in probably a decade... But I digress.
If the zero-crossings are at zero (-infinity) all is normal with the sound. OF COURSE, whether the sound is "right" of if something got messed up (weird A&R; settings on percussive sounds for example) is up to the engineer.
To my view there is also other stuff going on. As I said I am bad with final master at low frequencies. But as an example, an electronic music project might be a result of many weird new things on the final wave. That result might be a completely new "scientific research" for the master engineer which is the final "scientist" to touch it. Electronic music has so much to show in sound changes and tricks that could be damaged truely with a "normal mastering". If you understand my point :-)
Many times I thought of learning mastering with books and internet, on the other hand, I am into composing so many years, I would need same long time to learn mastering.
Mixing and pushing the audio output to sound clearer with imagers, eqs and setting up your sounds around the stereo image at a "perfect" state to your taste has nothing to do with mastering which is what I first thought about 7 years ago.
I think a powerful enough computer and some basic studio equipment can let the composer reach the song at a great state before giving it for mastering. But always a great guy that understands what your output is all about, is always the best choice cause it's a completely different ear, for the final master.
