Reason and Mastering

A friend sent me this question:

"Thanks for listening and comments. I notice my Reason tracks are not as loud as yours on myspace how do get um louder? Is it a mastering thing?"

Mastering...

Ah, yes. LOL.

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Caveat:
I do not feel that mastering is some black art reserved for some mysterious person with super high end gear with ears that no one else has and can hear things no one else can, blah-blah-blah, that you send your tracks to and pay a ton of money to so that he/she can save you and your tracks and make you and your tracks better and more wonderful. Unless of course that makes you feel better to do that !!! Mastering is not an end all, do all. It can't save you. It's part of the process.

It's an art, science and skill, like mixing records, playing an instrument, cooking, open heart surgery, etc. Put the time in, learn as much as you can, practice a ton, and you too can begin the path to being someone who does "mastering" also.

Mastering can help make good mixes sound better and bad mixes sound not so bad. It's not a cure all though.

A letter grade is a fair and doable expectation from the mastering process.

Mastering has and had existed as a final QC type of thing to better prepare tracks for the final medium to be delivered on, such as vinyl, tape, CD, etc. and to often help the album/collection of songs/material be more cohesive and consistent and for the different pieces of material to flow better together as a whole, to get more balance, and these days, often to make things louder.

This can be done in various ways such as dynamics, eq, noise reduction, sample rate and bit depth conversion, ordering of tracks, etc. It depends on what is needed to help the tracks tell the story and to prepare the material for the final deliverable medium.

A really cool and awesome resource to learn more, is the book "Mastering Audio, the art and the science" by Bob Katz. Good stuff !!!

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I use the Mastering Suite in Reason on my Reason tracks. It's really cool and useful !!!

But I process individual things also. To get that volume, the balance, good, bad or indifferent, it seems better done in stages as opposed to hoping it can all be done by a magical mastering device.

Often on drum kits or individual drum sounds I will use various compressors and limiters. But EQ helps a lot to remove frequencies that might otherwise cause the compressors and limiters to misbehave as in squishy or pumping sounds. I tend to cut more than boost frequencies.

Such as, I use more than one kick drum often. Usually a main kick and a doom kick for accents and to bring in some DOOM !!! The doom kick I will allow to occupy the lowest of frequencies and allow the main kick to live in frequencies just above the doom kick. Then the frequencies above that will live the basses. Then everything else. These are not hard and fast rules, just guidelines and starting points that seem to workout more often then not.

I do this by "cutting holes" in the frequency bands of the different kicks and basses. They can't all be heard very well if they occupy the same frequency ranges. They need space to do their part in helping tell the story. I'll use the PEQ2 or M-Class eqs to do this.

I like the PEQ2 to put dips in. With a lower Q it can act like a filtering equalizer on the low or high end. The M-Class has a nice set of gentle eqs including shelves with Q that I like to use. That little bump in the Q can make a heck of a nice difference around the cutoff frequencies. Using the Lo Cut can help clean up a mix a lot.

A couple other handy things are the Scream 4, D11 Distortion and the ECF42 Filter. I often use those on things as eq and dynamics devices.

These ideas are used throughout my Reason tracks and instruments, not just drums and basses.

In the end, these help to get a more balanced, dynamic and under "control" mix which makes it easier in the final "master" to get a big fat punchy track.

Hope this helps.

Thanks.

Reason and Groove Quantizing

I just listened to some tracks over at the Propellerhead Music Forum.

Some tracks lacked a cohesive "vibe" to them. This can happen and often does when using REX loops.

This happens as loops are performances. Depending on how a player plays or what the sequencer was set to or sometimes just plain old bad editing, or anything in between, the vibe can be very different from what you might get when quantizing. I will not go into the quantizing debates !!! LOL.

If you have a loop with it's feel kicking away in your track and then you sequence along with it, you may notice that the feel/vibe isn't there. Quantizing may not fix it as the vibe in the loop may not be quantized. Playing it over and over until you get it right may not be helping. What to do? Groove Quantize !!!

Here's the steps:

1. Set the L and R in the Reason sequencer. 4 bars should be fine unless the loop is a different length. Set L and R accordingly.
2. Click on REX player.
3. Go to: Edit>Copy REX Loop to Track (or Right-Click).
4. Highlight the REX loop and go to: Edit>Get User Groove (or Right-Click).

Now when you quantize you can use the loops vibe by using "User" in the Quantize drop down menu. This will help things to gel better timing wise.

I also do this with Redrum and Matrix Patterns. And other REX loops copied to track !!!

Thanks.

Dirty Ork...

This track started in Reason...
Dirty Ork

I loaded some drum sounds from the "Finger Juice" library from Sweetwater Sound. I had converted it from EMU to NNXT format using cdXtract. Then loaded the individual samples into ReDrum. Also used were a TB303 sound loaded into NNXT and a doom kick in another ReDrum.

I then "Copied to Track" the Redrum sequences and added more hits and stuff and used groove files created from an old MPC60 in Digital Performer and then ported those to Reason via MIDI files to give the tracks some vibe. Lots of mixing and processing in Reason.

I then opened up Pro Tools 8 and ReWired the tracks in.

I added strings, brass, etc. with Structure and the UVI Worksation. In Structure I used a mix of the Goliath sound library and a bunch of stuff ported from EXS format including some strings from AKAI S1100. In UVI I used some UVI patches and some patches from MOTU Symphonic Instrument (MSI). Also two arps using MOTU MX4.

I used DIGI EQIII and BombFactory BF2-A for eq and dynamics on all tracks along with Pluggo Nebula on a creepy pad sound ReWired from Reason.

Most FX were in the patches or from Reason but for a delay and verb in PT. Mastered with BombFactory Pultec EQP-1A, Fairchild 660 and... believe it or not... Maxim !!!

Maxim is tricky to figure out, but does a good job after ya figure it out. LOL.

Thanks.

RTGS-X: Real-Time Granular Synthesizer X

Having stoopid fun mangling sounds with RTGS-X.

Very cool software. Very reasonably priced. Damn, it's gnarly !!!

That is all.

PT User Blog

Another kewl and gnarly blog:

PT User Blog

Go check it out !!!

Thanks.

ScrewMaker at Audio Geek Zine

ScrewMaker has contributed an article at another really kewl and gnarly online resource, Audio Geek Zine, here.

That is all.

Thanks.

Re:Best University to do audio engineering

I posted this on protoolsusers.org. I thought it maybe useful here also.

Thanks.

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Re:Best University to do audio engineering

I'd taught at a school, which will remain nameless... LOL.

All these schools mentioned so far have stellar reputations and that is important. Schools with less than stellar reputations have earned their less than stellar reputations, just as those with stellar reputations have earned their stellar reputations. Again, that is important.

I'd suggest a few criteria:

Placements. If their idea of placements is the local bar, music store, or "studios", run, don't walk in the other direction.

How much money. Talk with students and alumni and find out if the money was worth it. Your going to be paying a lot of money.

Everyone is a freakin' school now. Bullshit they are. They are just trying to get your money and prey on your dreams. Good schools have good reputations. See above.

Find out how often the gear is actually properly functioning, and by that I don't mean that some of the lights come on. The gear works or it doesn't. End of story. Accept no bullshit stories about, "Well, you know blah-blah-blah". The second you hear that, run, don't walk in the other direction.

How often can you actually get on the gear. Ask students and alumni. Your paying good money and if you only get to touch the gear, especially on your own on your own time, is in your last or next to last semester, after you signed out time, if there was time available, if the gear was working, if the school was open, etc. run, don't walk in the opposite direction.

I tell you this as I feel terrible for many of my former students who were burned by such stories as above. These stories were and are repeatedly and frighteningly true.

The education at a good school is worth it as you will be with like minded folks who you will be dealing with for the rest of your career. A good school will weed out those students that should not be there. Good schools will have experienced staff, not yo-yo's who have only worked the local bar, music store, or "studio". They will have done stuff where their asses were truly on the line.

Caveat. We have all worked the local bars, music stores and "studios". But don't stop there. You need the experience and the trials of the bigger leagues. I keep putting "studios" in quotes cause again, everybody and his brother, aunt, uncle and mother is or has a studio. Again, bullshit. Because I have a car doesn't make me an Indy 500 race car driver who has every chance to win it in May. Delusional. Again, just because their local doesn't mean they are full of shit, it just means chances are that they are full of shit and lack real world experience. You'll figure it out soon enough. Just keep your eyes and ears open.

Get on the local crew of the local venues so that you can meet and see the national touring acts. Those guys work and get payed. They do real work, with real deadlines and real expectations. It's a hell of an experience. It's something you will most likely not see anytime soon in a studio career until you've moved up the food chain awhile and that will most likely take years. Not one or two years, more like many years. They may even hire and steal you right there if you do a really good job, keep your nose clean and listen. LOL. I've seen it happen. And road dogs get payed. Very good money. Way more than a studio will pay you any time soon, if ever.

So do your homework and accept no bullshit. This is your future. Hope this helps !!!

ScrewMaker
Ex: Road Dog, Music Technology Instructor and Trainer, Studio Engineer, etc. blah-blah-blah. LOL.

The Aliens Have Returned Pad

Hey All,

ScrewMaker has contributed to the latest collection of patches from the Air Users Blog, Structure Sounds Set 7, with the patch "The Aliens Have Returned Pad".

Thanks.