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In Reply to: mastering to create good cd sound posted by Brvheart on September 7, 2000 at 22:50:31:
> I have been recording and burning cd's since the time when few
> were doing this. I have created some good sounding cd's that I
> have mastered with mastering software. But as time goes by, the
> cd's you buy in stores are sounding more loud and clear every day.
> Now I realize that the gear is getting better every day as well.
> But my question is, what part of the cd-pressing creates these
> loud cd's? When I say "loud", I mean crisp, clear, and louder with
> good sound seperation.Honestly, I've gotten amazing results from using Soundforge 4.5 and a select group of plugins. While I may not be getting results to the likes of Britney et al, they are more than passable and even competitive with a lot of pro stuff.
Feel free to scoff at this all of you pro's with your thousand dollar software and million dollar hardware, but the truth is that the vast majority of people will not listen to their music on equipment anywhere near your caliber... or even care if they did. I'm not totally discounting esoteric hi-fi, but I am debating the extent of it sometimes... I have to argue over something being perhaps realistically 5% "better" costing 300X as much. That's just me and you don't have to share my opinion, but sometimes I just don't see a point to some of the excess when all that really matters in the end is IS THE MUSIC GOOD.
Hendrix's music sounds like steaming poo fidelity wise... same thing with Cream and a lot of the early Who stuff. Muddy sounding bass with no definition, often painfully bad detail, and a lack of high end that borders on criminal. Listen to the performance, however, and you know something is going on that'll have you coming back to it. This is offered solely as an idea against overproduction: basically, how much of the stuff that's insanely well produced is really any good? Does it stick with you past it's expiration date on the charts? Haven't you heard the recipe for that song before somewhere?
Sure, there's some good, well-produced music. Pink Floyd comes to mind with a history of phenomenal sounding, creative records. The new Deftones record (White Pony) is fabulously recorded and extrememly good music, too. But the vast majority of the well-produced music is crap pop using the same producers and tricks that are the flavor of the month. I personally don't have time for it.
Regardless of my little rant, some tricks for mastering to get clearer, louder recordings on CD.
-Start with a good mix of the master... if the mix doesn't sound right to start, it's hard to correct it in mastering. This is essential and may take several mixes (which you should have anyway.)
-Soundforge 4.5
-If the peaks are really dynamic, run a quick compression to chop the tops off... this is more cosmetic compression than anything to clean up really hot snare and kick peaks. If it affects the volume of the overall music or does any real change to the snare sound, undo it and continue.
-Normalize the sample to -0.0 to -1.0
-If there's a lot of hiss, run a pass of noise reduction sampling the hiss on the recording... I use SFNR v2 with settings in mode 3, ~20% reduction, -10 to 0 bias. It's better to do multiple passes rather than one heavy.
-Do a trial sweep with a compressor... 3:1 - 5:1 compression with a few dB gain, fast attack, moderate release. Generally, you want to keep the integrity of the music while boosting the level a bit to see what it does to the drums and voice. Don't do too much or it'll shoot you in the foot. You may just want to undo it after doing the EQ step, but try it all the same.
-Paragraphic EQ... start with a somewhat wide reduction of a few dB around 350-400 Hz. This may be all you need as a lot of frequencies tend to build up here and create mud. You'll notice more clarity in vocals, better bass, and more evident snare. The guitar may suffer, but a compromise should be found that will work. If you desire more, find the snare drum (usually between 1-1.8kHz) and give it a slight boost of 1-4dB. If the cymbals make it too brittle, drop them 1-2 dB around 10-12k or with a high shelf (or if they lack sparkle, add around the same. Be careful, though... this can really cause things to get cheap and even fatiguing.) If the bass is lacking, bump it up around 150 with a boost or a shelf. You may need to drop the overall signal down a bit with the EQ as it will push other signal to clip if you do any significant boosts. Keep the peaks as close to 0dB as you can.
-Do a sweep with a compressor. This time it's for real... it should bring out the punch of the song a bit better. Don't be afraid to add dB or be somewhat heavy on the ratio. Keep the attack fast and perhaps speed up the release, too. Use your ears, though... if you start hearing the compressor closing and opening, back off. If it says it's clipping, but you don't hear it, continue carefully. If you get through the whole thing with no crunchy clips, you can always do another run to remove the clipped peaks with compression or the clipped peak corrector packaged with SFNoise Reduction.This should bring your levels up and bring out the clarity of the recording for CD. Top level will be 0dB, but the end goal is not your peak dB level, but rather the average dB level. The average is what determines the overall volume. Peaks are incidental.
Hope this helps.
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Follow Ups
- Re: mastering to create good cd sound - Jerry 21:30:40 12/24/00 (0)
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