Ive done a lot of self-mastering in the past, but I have to say editing the audio on this video AND mastering the tracks on my CD were my most challenging edits yet, and I learned a lot. Here are some tips I picked up in case anybody else is in the business of mastering his/her own tracks! 1) DO NOT over-compress the piano!! Start with a ratio of 2:1 and threshold at about -10 and make small changes. I record in a very live room at full stick and the dynamic range is crazy, but even still I stay around -10 and -15. To create depth in the mix, go for as small a ratio as possible. 2) Equalizing: cut the dead space between 20-40Hz, do a small boost around 80-100Hz for fullness and 10k for presence. 3) MUST MUST MUST NORMALIZE SO ALL TRACKS SOUND THE SAME VOLUME and both stereo waveforms are balanced! -1 dB is the norm. 4) Audacity has some pretty awful presets. I never use the Matrix Reverb, ever. I usually apply a light echo at 0.1-0.2 decay/delay for reverb instead. However, the bandpass was GREAT at cutting some of the nasal sounds out of the strings. I centered it around 700hz and set the resonance in the middle. Depends a lot on the room (Alices room was pretty dry). 5) For piano + strings mix, panning to the left around 20% will give the ear a nice sense of space between the instruments. Makes it sound more dimensional. 6) Sampling rate: 44.1k is sufficient for a CD, 48k if its audio thats going to be attached to a video. 7) Noise Removal: I actually use this a lot just to soften harsh peaks, though compression/normalization often takes care of that for me. 8) Pitch correction: is my hero.
Posted on: Tue, 19 Aug 2014 04:48:19 +0000
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