It is quite a challenge, since it is not only of jazz and theatrical music, but they are all mixes of live recordings at a theatre! Talk about approaching mastering at a whole new angle!
Multiband has been my friend through this process, since the instrument mic's pick up a lot of ambience, being in the pit and all, whereas the vocals tend to be on stage, where there is no real ambience of the orchestra. So vocals were sounding very dry against the music, plus the proximity from the vocal sounded too close and was poking through far too much.
As you can see, it was less than slight, which really isn't my normal method of attack, but it sounded great! All of a sudden the music came alive and wrapped itself around the vocal more, but the vocal still seemed very dry, almost like it was overdubbed on top of a mixed performance. I knew the mixes were rushed slightly before agreeing, and the mix engineer wasn't entirely happy with what he had done, so I knew I could make almost a mix decision in the mastering stage.
I bussed the track to an aux, then using fabfilter pro-Q got to work carefully carving out the vocal from the rest of the track, (inverting the overall phase every now and again, unmuting the original and listening for any key frequencies I'd missed) and once I had semi-isolated the vocal, placed a lexicon chamber verb plug on the auxiliary channel, and matched the verb similar to the verb of the orchestra. It's subtle enough so that you don;t realise it's there, but you really notice when it's not there!
I love using reverbs in mastering, mainly because I seem to struggle to use them really well in mixing for some reason, but also it seems like the last tool you'd want to use! plus it can really bring a track to life, and can really glue everything together if everything seems a bit too separate, it's like using a room mic really!
I love using reverbs in mastering, mainly because I seem to struggle to use them really well in mixing for some reason, but also it seems like the last tool you'd want to use! plus it can really bring a track to life, and can really glue everything together if everything seems a bit too separate, it's like using a room mic really!
The main tools in the Job were the fabfilter Pro-Q, Waves SSLcomp and waves C6 multiband. It's not my favorite multiband comp, I have grown to prefer the McDSP range (although would kill to own the fabfilter pro-MB, it seems to tick every box, just like all of the fabfilter plugs!) but the waves one was the only multiband I owned, and still did the Job quite nicely!
I used the Kramer master tape on the final stereo out, it's not the best or accurate tape emulator plug out there, but it can deliver some really nice character, especially if you want a bit of grunge! I know Grunge isn't what you associate with theatrical music or Jazz, but I think the over-the-top tape sound did a great job at warming the tracks up like an old Jazz record, without being lo-fi.
Whenever I master, I use a few different dynamic processors, some will barely have 0.5dB of reduction, but whatever I use, the fabfilter pro-L is always on the end! It's so intuitive, and It means I can work to K-12 metering on logic. If you haven't used K-weighting (some good reading Here!) it's great at keeping a restraint on dynamic range, sometimes during mastering, I have the habit of using too many compressors, because of the varying curves, attack times and ratios, it doesn't seem like one compressor just squashing the balls out of everything, but it can kill the dynamics without you even noticing. In fact I did dial down the final stereo bus compressor once I slapped on the pro-L and fiddled with the levels!
Whenever I master, I use a few different dynamic processors, some will barely have 0.5dB of reduction, but whatever I use, the fabfilter pro-L is always on the end! It's so intuitive, and It means I can work to K-12 metering on logic. If you haven't used K-weighting (some good reading Here!) it's great at keeping a restraint on dynamic range, sometimes during mastering, I have the habit of using too many compressors, because of the varying curves, attack times and ratios, it doesn't seem like one compressor just squashing the balls out of everything, but it can kill the dynamics without you even noticing. In fact I did dial down the final stereo bus compressor once I slapped on the pro-L and fiddled with the levels!
This track wasn't hugely dynamic anyway since its a string quartet, in fact nothing really peaks in the whole master! but it's nice to have that assurance!
I started at 9am, and with frequent ear breaks (I have to monitor louder than I'd like to in my room to beat computer fans, housemate noise, outside noise ect.) I have just finished at 3pm. Hopefully another happy customer! will post links to the masters once they're online
I started at 9am, and with frequent ear breaks (I have to monitor louder than I'd like to in my room to beat computer fans, housemate noise, outside noise ect.) I have just finished at 3pm. Hopefully another happy customer! will post links to the masters once they're online
That reminds me, I never posted the final Mancheska masters on here...!
