Self-Mastering Guide
By Matthew Chin
First written: 18 August 2008. Revised: 26 November 2010. Last edited: 28 November 2011.
This guide aims to help you achieve a decent mastered track by doing it yourself. This is aimed for people who want to master self released tracks on the internet, etc. It is not be a substitute for mastering serious commercial releases. Leave that to the pros.
Self-Mastering: The concept
The concept is simple: To be able to master songs by yourself. However, in order to successfully achieve this, you must know something about mastering. As we know, mastering is the last step in the creative process to fine tune our production to prepare it for release, whether it be free or commercial. This guide will inform you on that process and help you to successfully master your own tracks. Please read everything carefully or else you might miss important points.
Important points to know before mastering
Always have a reference track! I cannot stress this enough. This means that you find a track you would like to sound like, and use that track as the guide for mastering. Compare your track to the reference track and start from there. This should be used to check your mix as well, before you attempt to master as it will highlight things that you may have missed.
Have a good quality reference system to master on. Try to use reference monitors, and never ever use commercial speakers, unless you absolutely know what you're doing. Commercial speakers will give you a false sense of frequency spectrum and thus your mixes will turn out different when you check it out on another speaker system. If you don't have reference monitors, then you really can't master in the first place. If not monitors, then get yourself decent reference headphones. Commercial speakers should be used to only check how your mix/mastering is doing.
Have different sound system. You want to check your mix on at least two different sound systems with one being you're main listening system, and the other serving to check your mix. This is why a lot of studio have NS-10s lying around, because they are very good at emphasising the mid-range and thus can double check how that part of the spectrum is doing in the mix. Each speaker has its advantage and weakness (even reference monitors), which is why you want an extra sound system to check on. This is why consumer speakers are used to check the mix as they can emphasise certain frequencies better than reference monitors.
Be wary of mixing with headphones. These are a great substitute if you don't have reference monitors, or if you are working in a room with bad acoustics. Again, try to get a decent pair of reference headphones if you have to mix by headphones. Be aware that you will have a false sense of stereo width, since listening to headphones is a bit like two speakers faced directly into your ear (not a natural way of listening to music). Compensate for this by checking your mix against a reference track. They will also not be able to produce enough bass required to check the lowend in a mix, especially if you are dealing with bass heavy music like trance, house, dubstep, etc.
Mastering depends on the music. If you're looking at a pop or electronic dance music production, then you're going to be adding a lot of compression and limiting. If you're going for an orchestral score, then little to no compression will be added.
The concept of mastering and mixing is very different. Mixing deals with lots of individual channels, whereas mastering deals with just the one.
Mastering is not a miracle process. Mastering cannot fix a bad mix. It can do things that make it sound a bit better but mastering cannot perform miracles as some people may think. Therefore if your mix sounds bad, you must fix it in the mix.
You are dealing with the whole mix. It is very easy to destroy your mix when self-mastering, especially if you do not know what you are doing or if you aren't using the proper equipment. When you're mastering, you are manipulating the whole mix. Boosting the lows is going to affect the highs and vice versa.
The idea behind mastering is fine tuning. This is a very important concept. Fine tuning means only applying a little. Overdoing a process or an effect is the common beginner's mistake, which ends up ruining the master without them realising it.
Don’t mix too quietly! By this I mean turning the volume of your speakers and not the levels inside your DAW. Try to mix at a level that you think your audience will be listening at. Not too loud, and not too soft. There is a technical reason behind this, in which I won’t get into. For more information, check out the equal-loudness contour. It basically means that our perception of frequency spectrum changes depending on how loud a sound/music is! This is why it is bad to mix/master too softly or too loudly.
Self-Mastering: A step by step guide
Preparation
Overall Level: Before you render out, make sure that you track is not clipped in anyway, not even a little. Have about -6dB or less. If you have more than -6dB, it will still be fine just as long as you mix is not clipped. -6dB is the safe zone.
Formats: Render it out to any uncompressed format (wav, aiff). 24 bit, 44.1kHz or higher is recommended. Never render it out compressed or else you will start degrading your music straight away, and you haven't even started mastering yet!
Mastering software: The program you master in is totally up to you. I would choose a program in which it features the ability to look at a waveform after the track has been processed. However, it really doesn't matter!
Processing
Below is a "checklist" of what you may possibly do to the master. You do not have to do everything! Remember that the order in which you place them is important. This guide assumes you are familiar with the processors listed below. Consulting the manual of the processor you are using is highly recommended as it will better your understanding on how to achieve the best results with the chosen processor. This is where having a good sound system is crucial as you'll be able to hear the subtle differences that these processors are doing to your master.
EQ: Use EQ as a touch up only. No more than 3dB boost/cut should you use for touch up. If you're using more than that, then go back to the mix and fix it. I also recommend you use medium to large bandwidths or Q. This will sound much more natural than with a small Q.
Bus Compression: If you're mixing electronic music, then I recommend you compress the master. Subtly of course. This is where you have to very careful as you can very, very, easily over compress too much. Use a compressor specially designed to be placed over the master like: SSL Master Bus, The Glue, PSP Vintage Warmer to name a few. If you don't have access to one, do not use a normal compressor in place and just mix without one. The main goal here is to "tighten" up the mix so that it sits at a nice even level, and also to imprint the compressor's characteristics. This is why these bus compressors are used instead of normal compressor, as they will not sound nearly as good. You may be wondering what "tightening" means. This is very hard to describe in words, but is basically tries to describe the sound characteristic of everything coming in together and sitting together evenly (dynamics wise) as a result of the compression. Overusing this will start to sound too mushy. Bus Compression can be used when you are rendering out your mix from your DAW, before you master. In fact I recommend it. Just don't mix with it on. Remember, it is the sound characteristic you're after, not anything else.
Multiband Compression, Mid-Side processing, enhancers, etc: These are some extra processes you can use. I personally don't find the need to use these; however they can be beneficially in some situations. If you want to use it, I highly recommend you read about it as these processes require a lot of knowledge to use correctly. The Bob Katz Mastering book is recommended, or consult the manual of the plug-in.
Maximise/Limiting: Maximising should be the last step of your mix. The goal is to bring the mix to a commercial level. If you are unsure, use the reference track as a guide to determine the level. The limiter of course should be close to 0dB. Like with the bus compressor, use a maximiser/limiter that is designed for the job such as FabFilter Pro-L, PSP Xenon, Waves L2, Sonnox Oxford Limiter to name a few. Try not to introduce audible clipping; if you do, simply back off the threshold.
Dithering: Dithering is very important. Keep it on. The goal here is to cover up a thing called truncation, which is very subtle at 16 bit resolution. You won't be able to hear it, but it does make a difference. It's hard to explain it here without audio sample. See the references if you want to learn more.
Output Format: The format in which you export the final master is up to you. Mp3 seems to be the common option for uploading to website. 256kbps is a nice starting point, but entirely up to you. If you are burning to a CD, then use 16 bit 44.1 kHz. Anything else be sure to look up what the medium's specifications are so you can ensure the highest quality possible for that medium.
Conclusion
This is by no means a substitute for professional mastering. They will have the experience, knowledge, the ears, and the equipment to do a proper job. They will also have a treated room to work in, which is another vital point for mastering.
You should be more informed about how to achieve a decent master. Of course, knowing is one thing, practice is another. There are some details I have missed purposely for the sake of being a practical, easy to understand, straight to the point guide rather than a full on complicated lecture. This is where the references will come into play. Further research can be done as well, in which there are plenty of articles around for.
References
For more information, please check out these sites. These are highly recommended to reinforce your knowledge of mastering. These are only a few examples out of the mainly available resources out there.
Mastering with Waves - Grand Masters
Mastering Audio - The Art and the Science by Bob Katz
