Dad3353

The musical genre has an influence, but each medium has its own constraints (bandwidth, dynamic range, linearity, and more...); vinyl has maybe more technical issues than CD's, I would think. A Mastering engineer would probably be more experienced in some combinations of genre/medium/target audience than others, and thus more equipped to deal with these constraints. It's pretty much a 'dark art', though, and musical taste can play a part; a 'successful' mastering for one might be quite different to that of another. Choosing the person (or studio...) can be important, to get the final sound that's wanted.

Generally, yes.

I concur with my learned friend. ...

But I do already..! You just can't see my legs; I play drums.

Kyev is twinned with Edinburgh. A natural 'home' for this..?

I'm not looking to sell, just lend you what you need until you get contact with Smoothhound, or get sorted permanently, if it helps you. All I'd need is a PM with your home address and I'll post a Tx. You can keep it for as long as it's useful to you. No need for complications such as payments and stuff. Over to you...

Incidentally, this 👆 explains very aptly the origins of ...

So... It's working at less than 'optimum', then..? The question remains : Do you need a quick replacement urgently..? I could pop one into the post if you're desperate, with a big gig coming up.

Yes; I think that the concept of Limiting appied much more in the Bad Old Analogue Tape days, when saturation was a potential problem, and in the Bad Old Days of 8-bit Digital, where any clipping resulted in horrific distortion. With modern 24-bit stuff, there's (to me...) no need to raise levels above the dreaded Noise Floor, as there is (to me...) none there. I record, and treat, at much lower levels than in the Dark Ages, so I'm always well away from any limiter's trigger point. When 'Normalising' stems, I aim for -1db, and never need to increase beyond that. It's been a very long time since I suffered clipping of any sort. That's just me, of course; those 'pushing the envelope' may well need such devices. No, I'm not looking at @Leonard Smalls (although sometimes I wonder ...).

Their site seems pretty well up-to-date. Holidays, maybe..? If you're stuck, I have two of 'em; do you need an urgent 'quick fix'..?

For 'boot-camp', I poured meths onto a pair of socks, and wore them for a day or so before a trek. No funny looks, as most of my comrades did the same.

I'm very wary of Loudness in general, and brick-walling even more so (except, of course, 'Unhalfbricking'..!). Possibly a result of the genres I'm most familiar with (no 'Disco' and very little 'EDM'...); rather more airy-fairy flutes and bongos for me, so... Still, if it's Good, it's Good.

A few minutes, once or twice a day, in the week before a gig should help. No smoking whilst doing it. If you put the stuff in an old medicine bottle, you can pour it back from the dish your finger tips are in, and re-use the same, until it evaporates too much and you refill the little bottle.

Potential for a huge Rabbit hole down which to bolt, but an excellent concept. Thanks for sharing; I'll don a parachute and jump in when re-doing my old tapes. Good Stuff.

I have been doing the exact same process, bringing reel-to-reel tapes from over half a century ago of bands I played with, rehearsing, into the digital age, playing them into Reaper for preservation and, if possible, treatment. These, too, are stereo mixes for the most part (some mono...), so nothing can be done on the 'stem' level. The frequency analyser, along with just listening, gives some clue as to what can be done, but there's also a lot that just cannot. My unwelcome suggestion would be similar to that posted previously above; that's to say: know when to stop. Once into the upper ranges, no distinction can be usefully made between Vox, keys, guitars, cymbals, noise... and pursuing perfection becomes a hunt for the Dahu, or Chimera. If it's as good as it gets, it is sometimes (often...) as good as it gets, and that's all. There are moments when a doctor has to decide when to pull the plug on a terminally-ill patient. That moment will be retarded as long as possible, but, eventually, the time of passing will be pronounced and a sheet pulled over the departed. It's sad, but that's Life. Just as an anecdote, and no more cheerful, I had all my weeks of painstaking transfers of tapes on an external USB Teradisk. One day : nothing. The disk was dead. I even sent the disk to the specialists, who could, for a very hefty fee, recover info from dead media. To no avail. I signed up to pay in case of success; they tried, but failed to recover this disk. All, then has been lost, and I must dig out again my crumbling tapes and start again. Lesson..? Back-up, then back-up the back-up, if the stuff is precious. Digital media are fickle, and go 'Poof..!' when they choose to, not when you would like them to. Good luck with your audio archaeology; hope this helps in some way. Douglas

I learned that this works well when marching in army boots (school CCF 'boot-camps'...); surgical spirit (meths...) hardened up the feet nicely, preventing blisters. It works well for guitar/bass (I've never worked out how to use a plectrum, so it's always finger-style...). Best done before gigging, as one gets funny looks if smelling like a Primus stove.

I don't doubt that he's a fine mix engineer; he doesn't come across, to me, as a fine pedagogue, s'all, to judge by this sole video.

Not a fan, to be honest. I doubt that the µ-touches he's playing with come across through headsets, or even many monitors. I certainly would not consider 'tweaking' below 20Hz. That's daft, to me. I would have preferred to hear a 'before/after' with broad brushstokes. That, to me, is not 'mastering' as I know it. Never mind; maybe it's just me. I've just had a quick glance at what U-tube offers, when I search for 'mastering home studio'. I didn't scroll down through them all, but the few I looked at seemed to be basically 'click-bait', each shouting louder than the next with the 'secrets' that the 'pros' don't want you to know, whilst proning whatever plug-in they're pluggin'. I couldn't find anything that goes through the 101 basic principles in any coherent fashion. Maybe I should have looked further..? Good luck in 'taking your mix to the next level' by following all of these 'experts'. I would say that it's better to go slowly on your own, listen, and do baby steps, maybe with a 'throw-away' track, just to hear what each thing does. Experiment; the answer's a lemon: suck it and see.

Well, when you say 'while', I'd say rather in alternance, not necessarilly in the same session. BRX used the expression 'A/B' above, which is where one switches between two sounds, to compare them. We'd do this, for instance, in a HiFi shop, to compare pairs of speakers. That's not what we're doing with this reference song. We're not trying to get an exact copy of the reference, simply having in mind what it sounded like as we remember it. I've listen to Bowie's 'Five Years' I don't know how many times, and when I hear certain gutar players, it brings Ronson to mind. I also have The Doors 'Strange Days' in my memory; I can jear Robby Krieger's style in some players. If I'm recording guitar, I might want to sound like one of those (in reality, I'd favour more Jerry Garcia, the way I play, but still...). A good reference for me would be much of the work of JJ Cale, or early Fairport Convention. Your models will be different. Let's simplify this. What music (group, album, genre...) do you appreciate most..? Do any of them inspire the music you're composing..? Try to imagine what makes your favourite models sound the way they do, compared to your tracks..? Is there lots of delay on the vocals, or rather dry..? Any backing vocals..? Are the drums in the foreground, or in retreat..? A pounding bass, or more subtle..? How are the dynamics..? Constant barrage, wall of sound, or an ebb and flow..? Do all the instruments and voices blend together, or are they distinctly separate..? Lots of hard panning (left/right...)..? Does it seem as if they're on a stage in front of you, or all around the room..? Were they recorded in a cave or tunnel, or an open field..? All of these, and much more, is what one has in mind when aiming for a sound. There's little chance of actually imitating any of the models, and we're not trying to copy anyway; simply aiming to get a result that satisfies. Any help, or am I just confusing things further..?

Nothing wrong with headphones. Listen to your 'target' reference songs through them, so as to have an even base for judgement, though. How about an experiment..? Using one of your 'finished' compositions, add, in Reaper, the Cockos 'RealComp' compressor plug-in to the Master track. Choose, as a preset, the 'stock - Master Bus NY Comp'. Leave its default settings, and listen to your track, turning the plug-in on and off. Which sounds better to you, 'Comp in' or 'Comp out'..? Be aware that many Fx have an effect on the volume, so try to get the levels between the two to be identical, or close, using the 'Wet' and 'Dry' cursors. Try turning the 'Wet' down to -inf, and bring it back up, listening to its effect. Is there a 'sweet spot' where it sounds best to you..? Do you prefer it completely 'Dry'..? Try it and see what happens..?