Kudos 2 Har-Bal

[adamlloyd83]

First, I want to thank Earle and Paavo for being so attentive to this forum and answering everyone's questions so quickly...I'd have to say that a good part of what I know about mixing and mastering I learned right here

And as for the Har-Bal program itself, I'd have to say that after learning how to use it, it makes other mastering EQs feel really arbitrary...With HB you can see exactly what you need to do, exactly what you're doing, and you can target the problematic areas in a very objective manner...

Here is a track I wrote, programmed, recorded, mixed and mastered at home, in my living room. The download is as close to CD-quality as an MP3 can get, and it's the entire song.

http://www.mediafire.com/?4fx41uqxazs "Bahamian Charm" (R&B/Pop/Rap)

Like I said, I did this at home with a ProTools MBox 1, and before working on it in HB, you could kinda tell...the MBox is kinda known for sounding like crap! Lol. But after HB, it sounds almost as good as anything you'd hear from my heros up at Flyte Tyme

Thank you Har-Bal!!!!!!!!!
peace
adam

[har-bal]

First, I want to thank Earle and Paavo for being so attentive to this forum and answering everyone's questions so quickly...I'd have to say that a good part of what I know about mixing and mastering I learned right here

And as for the Har-Bal program itself, I'd have to say that after learning how to use it, it makes other mastering EQs feel really arbitrary...With HB you can see exactly what you need to do, exactly what you're doing, and you can target the problematic areas in a very objective manner...

Here is a track I wrote, programmed, recorded, mixed and mastered at home, in my living room. The download is as close to CD-quality as an MP3 can get, and it's the entire song.

http://www.mediafire.com/?4fx41uqxazs "Bahamian Charm" (R&B/Pop/Rap)

Like I said, I did this at home with a ProTools MBox 1, and before working on it in HB, you could kinda tell...the MBox is kinda known for sounding like crap! Lol. But after HB, it sounds almost as good as anything you'd hear from my heros up at Flyte Tyme

Thank you Har-Bal!!!!!!!!!
peace
adam

Adam

That was a totally amazing listening experience!! You did an excellent, excellent..did I say excellent job. Your production, balance, imaging all the ingredients were spot on.
There is absolutely no reason for you to take your tracks to a mastering engineer.
I think what you should be doing now is moving your cd's throughout the web for sale.

We absolutely appreciate you sharing your music with us.

I am sure that my partner "Paavo" will agree when he hears it.
The level is right on par with commercial music out there. There is no lack of dynamics and the image is almost 3D.

Great job

Earle

[HarBal]

Hello Adam,

Thanks for the compliments on Har-Bal and the forum. Your production work is certainly on par with commercial music, and as Earle suggested, you probably won't gain much from "professional" mastering.

I'm probably not qualified to comment (particularly as I don't actively listen to this style of music) but what I found lacking was transient material and that is a direct consequence of the RMS levels you aimed for. It is a squashed dynamics sound that is common place these days but my old ways just don't get it (or like it). It is too much like listening to FM radio for my liking though perhaps that is the point I'm missing (I listen to music in the home rather than the car). Mixing and EQ I don't have issues with and I believe you did and excellent job in that regard but I would have aimed at an RMS level 3-4dB lower than what you have. On the other hand, I can somewhat understand the desire to chase commercial levels, though I believe we'd all be much better off not doing so. Other than that, well done.

Paavo.

[adamlloyd83]

Earle and Paavo,

Thanks for listening to the track, that is a huge compliment coming from you two!!! Seriously though, I couldn't have done it about Har-Bal, not just because of its EQ power, but also its ability to show me visually what was happening in my mixes so I could learn and work more effectively in the mixdown phase. I'm your biggest HB advocate!!!!!

Paavo - I know what you mean about the squashing. In fact, I ended up going back yesterday, reloading the last stage of limiting and easing up on the thresh a couple dB, just for the sheer fact that this track in particular ended up substantially louder than most of the other tracks on the record. Because of the genre, I usually keep pushing until I hear any nasty crunching or "too much limiting" distortion, which is probably not what I should be doing, as musician (lol). I tend to write and produce with a lot of elements of the 80's and 90's, stuff that I grew up listening to...I'm in the process of trying to get a label behind me, or at least some solid, objective management, and I often fear that my stuff sounds "dated" or too "back in the day" if I don't push it compete with the levels of all my "reference files."

But I agree, I don't think squashing all the dynamics out of a track is "healthy," not to mention I don't think trying to push my M-Box productions to compete with the clarity and power of SSL is very realistic. One of my favorite records is "The Velvet Rope," which was released in 1998...It's still plennnty hot, but Jimmy and Terry left a lot of room for dynamic energy and transients in the mixes...Ultimately I think that's more "where we should be" in production, but I feel like to a certain extent I have to "sell out" with the RMS levels 'til I'm in a better position to "call the shots," so to speak!!!! haha. I definitely will be keeping this mind though, and not just push tracks for the sake of ridiculousness.

Thanks again guys!

Adam