A question about mastering

[just my thoughts]

When mastering do you, master on the bounced track or while mixing you ad your mastering tl the master bus?

 

[Albemarle]

bounced track (but you can do things on the master bus hat will help later in the mastering session like light compression and light eq.)

 

[GPBear]

I mix each track individually (which is 90% of the work), then bus everything to the master track to sonically glue everything together. Sometimes, if you mix it right, you don't even need to master. I know guys like Knxwledge don't bother with half of that shyt.

 

[Flywin Lannister]

I mix each track individually (which is 90% of the work), then master on the master track to sonically glue everything together. Sometimes, if you mix it right, you don't even need to master. I know guys like Knxwledge don't bother with half of that shyt.

I've never heard of that. Are you talking about a single release? To at least get a cohesive sound you'd need to master (unless you're saying all tracks were mixed at max sound level (the master track)? The added punch and clarity are at least 2 reasons to master songs and also to get a cohesive sound imo.

 

[GPBear]

I've never heard of that. Are you talking about a single release? To at least get a cohesive sound you'd need to master (unless you're saying all tracks were mixed at max sound level (the master track)? The added punch and clarity are at least 2 reasons to master songs and also to get a cohesive sound imo.

Hip-hop mixing is a different thing entirely to most music. Most music you want the drums in the back, like on old jazz records. But drums are the main instrument in hip-hop. Hip-hop is also really bass heavy, and bass frequencies take up most space on a record groove, which is why old rock music (especially twangy ass bakersfield country) would usually be pretty trebly.

I'm saying in hip-hop, because of using bass/kick in the low end, filtered samples in the mids, and then hi-hats in the high range frequency, that when it comes to mixing and mastering a hip-hop beat, if you have all the elements positioned correctly in the mix by how you filter them using EQs, that sometimes you don't even need to master because everything is already hitting correctly and has a clearly defined space in the aural field. Producing hip-hop, in my opinion and engineers like Bob Power, is predominantly a battle between getting the bass and the kick drum working together. And if you get shyt feeling right, mastering isn't necessary.

In fact, in some cases, hip-hop producers go out of their way to anti-master a track, and bitcrush it like an 8-bit video game, or run it through cassette tape, or some other analog source in order to make the finished product sound more gritty sonically in order to add to its "lo-fi" aesthetic. Like how Japanese have wabi-sabi, or whatever.

I can't speak on guys like Dre and Timbaland, but most bedroom producers don't know the first thing about mastering, they just go with what sounds good.

 

[Why-Fi]

i do it on the master bus while mixing.
fwiw ive also heard that you can get a mix that doesnt require mastering, i cant see myself not using tape on the master at least

 

[ShaDynasty]

I use the master, but sometimes not at all. The best advice is to use your intuition depending on the track, and you get a feel for whats going to work for each thing.

 

[DBR]

It's all depend on the purpose of the track itself , if you trying to make beats alone , mastering should'nt be your biggest concern , people will usually use mastering when they have the vocals that goes with the instrumental . It's a good thing to use mastering when you want to showcase your beats , only probleme is when you have vocals that goes with the track . If the beat maker did to much mastering and maxed out everything , the track will loose alot of his dynamics and give trouble to the next Music Producer who will try to mix it with the vocals . You should make research about the loudness war to understand what i am trying to say here . especially in Hip Hop and Edm the loudness war is something that happen very often lately . Everyone is trying to have a records that sound and knock harder then there competition but there is a real science behind mixing and mastering . Understanding why you should use it should be the first step .

 

[DJ Mart-Kos]

I never Master my beats to be honest. Don't have enough knowledge on that neither.
I used to have a MV-8800 sampler and that had like 30 mastering presets in it for the final mix but... my mix Always came out better when i didn't master.
That made me think it didn't need to be mastered if it was mixed well.

 

[PRVLG Sound Studios]

Hip-hop mixing is a different thing entirely to most music. Most music you want the drums in the back, like on old jazz records. But drums are the main instrument in hip-hop. Hip-hop is also really bass heavy, and bass frequencies take up most space on a record groove, which is why old rock music (especially twangy ass bakersfield country) would usually be pretty trebly.

I'm saying in hip-hop, because of using bass/kick in the low end, filtered samples in the mids, and then hi-hats in the high range frequency, that when it comes to mixing and mastering a hip-hop beat, if you have all the elements positioned correctly in the mix by how you filter them using EQs, that sometimes you don't even need to master because everything is already hitting correctly and has a clearly defined space in the aural field. Producing hip-hop, in my opinion and engineers like Bob Power, is predominantly a battle between getting the bass and the kick drum working together. And if you get shyt feeling right, mastering isn't necessary.

In fact, in some cases, hip-hop producers go out of their way to anti-master a track, and bitcrush it like an 8-bit video game, or run it through cassette tape, or some other analog source in order to make the finished product sound more gritty sonically in order to add to its "lo-fi" aesthetic. Like how Japanese have wabi-sabi, or whatever.

I can't speak on guys like Dre and Timbaland, but most bedroom producers don't know the first thing about mastering, they just go with what sounds good.

More or less this.

 

[GPBear]