Mastering Fundamentals

In this chapter, we will learn about mastering. Mastering is the process taken to ensure our music is at a production-level quality and prepared for distribution. We’ll learn the theory behind mastering and generally applicable techniques you can use when mastering music. By the end of this chapter, you’ll understand how to master your music.

In this chapter, we’ll cover the following topics:

• What is mastering?
• Equalization in mastering
• Using multiband compressors
• What are saturators/harmonic exciters?
• Understanding limiters
• Understanding stereo imaging with vectorscopes
• Exporting audio for third-party mixing and mastering

What is mastering?

Your song is finished being mixed. You’re happy with the composition. You’ve balanced all the levels of instruments and applied effects to enhance your individual sounds. What’s next?

When your song is finished being mixed, before publicly releasing it, you take it through a series of steps to enhance it called mastering. Mastering is an all-encompassing term for postproduction activities that include the following:

• Making the song sound consistent with other songs in the album
• Editing out flaws
• Equalization to ensure a well-balanced frequency range
• Compression to balance dynamic range
• Stereo width enhancement
• Limiting to raise the overall volume of the mix
• Listening to the audio on different devices and ensuring that there is a consistent quality of sound heard across them
• Any other adjustments necessary to prepare the music for distribution

You should always master your song...

Equalization in mastering

When mastering, you will use a parametric equalizer. We learned how to use a parametric equalizer in Chapter 6, Compression, Sidechaining, Limiting, and Equalization, so refer to that chapter if you need a refresher. Parametric equalizers show audio levels at each frequency and have band filters to apply EQ to selected frequencies. A band filter is a tool used to isolate certain frequency ranges and reject frequencies outside these ranges.

You can then perform effects on selected frequencies in the band filter. The following is an example of a parametric equalizer:

Figure 12.1 – Parametric equalizer

Parametric equalizers break up audio frequencies into multiple filter bands. You can then either increase or decrease the level of a band. By increasing, you’ll boost a sound. By cutting, you’ll reduce selected frequencies. Boosting frequencies of a sound brings the sound more into focus. Cutting frequencies is useful for...

Using multiband compressors

To find a nice balance between loudness levels and frequency levels, we use compressors, limiters, and expanders to adjust dynamics. Basic compressors work by reducing the dynamic range. We discussed compressors in Chapter 6, Compression, Sidechaining, Limiting, and Equalization. Refer to that chapter if you need a refresher on how compressors work. When mastering, we use an advanced form of compressor called a multiband compressor. By the end of this section, you’ll understand the general principles for how to apply compression with any multiband compressor plugin.

Let’s discuss the theory behind using a multiband compressor and then show an example using FL Studio’s Maximus plugin. Multiband compressors allow you to isolate frequency ranges and apply compression to each region. This way, you can bring up or down the level of the low, mid, or high frequencies separately. For example, say your low-frequency sounds needed compression...

What are saturators/harmonic exciters?

Saturators/harmonic exciters are effect plugins that are sometimes used when mastering. They’re not mandatory, only sometimes used. When applied, they add intended distortion to your audio. Subtle distortion can sometimes add some character to your sounds.

They usually operate like multi-compressors, in that you first select frequency bands, and then apply distortion. Generally, you want less distortion applied to your lower frequencies than your higher frequencies.

Understanding limiters

The idea behind limiting is you choose a threshold volume and compress audio volume peaks that reach the threshold level. Then, you can raise the overall volume of the sound close to the threshold level without going over. This results in your ending sound appearing louder overall to your listener. In general, if your sound is louder, listeners will be able to hear your sound more easily and have a more enjoyable listening experience.

When mastering, the last plugin on your master channel should always be a limiter. Maximus acts as a limiter by default. If you are using Maximus to master your music, it will be the last plugin on your master channel. We also discussed limiters in Chapter 6, Compression, Sidechaining, Limiting, and Equalization.

Without a limiter, you risk having your audio go above 0 dB, which can result in uncontrolled distortion on speakers. A limiter ensures that the final sound is contained below a threshold to help prevent unwanted...

Understanding stereo imaging with vectorscopes

Stereo imaging is another tool that is sometimes used while mastering. A vectorscope can help you to identify where your sounds are positioned in the stereo field (how much mono or stereo).

Stereo imaging is related to stereo width. Stereo imaging is about identifying how your sound is heard out of the left and right channels. This helps you to troubleshoot any issues that may occur, such as sounds unintentionally focused on one side or the other. If there is an issue, you’ll then go back to the mixer and investigate what is causing the audio imbalance.

If your goal is to create more stereo width, the vectorscope will allow you to visually see how much stereo width has been created. You’ll be able to see how much difference there is between the audio on each side.

The following is an example of FL Studio’s Wave Candy plugin using the built-in Vectorscope preset. It shows the stereo image of your audio...

Exporting audio for third-party mixing and mastering

If you want your music mastered, but don’t think you have the skills or plugins to do it yourself, one option is to hire a mastering engineer. One benefit a mastering engineer can provide is an independent set of ears. They will hear your song from an outsider’s perspective and may pick up on flaws or ways to enhance your music that you wouldn’t think of.

The mastering engineer will request that you do not put any limiters on your mastering track before sending them the track. They will likely request you leave some volume headroom in the master channel – usually at least 3 db - 6 db of headroom so that they have some volume space play around with. They like it when you give them lots of headroom. The more headroom you give them, the more noticeable the mastering effect will be on the song.

If you want to send a song to a third party to mix or master your music, you should send all the audio from...

Summary

Mastering is the postproduction process you take your music through to enhance your song after it’s finished being mixed. Mastering polishes your song into a finished product. This includes ensuring song consistency, removing flaws, balancing frequency ranges, compressing dynamic range, stereo width enhancements, and limiting music. All of which can help to improve the overall reception of your song.

When mastering for the first time, its useful to try out your plugin’s existing mastering presets on your song. See whether they improve your song and investigate how the plugin affected the sound. Where did it EQ and compress? Exploring presets and comparing them can give you an idea of what’s possible. Then you can tailor the presets and adjust them to your own projects. Listen to songs that you like and think about how the song feels compared to your song. If you were to master your song to sound similar to your reference song, what steps would you...