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A Pro Master vs. My Master AND VU Meter.

Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 4:57 pm
by Bonzo
Hello...

I was wondering how to get my final master of a song to sound like a pro master in regular speakers, in ALMOST FULL volume (or 3/4 of the whole volume). I noticed that pro recordings don't get saturated when driven to that volume, and my master did.

All I did was to Harbalize it (with a reference to "Rainy Day Women" by Dylan to match loudness, and tweaking it a little then applying IntuitQ), then on to Sforge to apply just a bit of corrective EQ, and getting it through Magneto 1.5. I try to minimize the size of the mastering chain, because there actually is no point in doing too many things after Harbal.

Another thing I'm eager to fix is the perceived loudness (VU). I notice that many recordings have a "normal" loudness, maybe -8.5db max., and the recordings are not very high in volume, yet my recordings reach -11db in the VU meter, with the same volume of the file. How can I fix this?

I would assume that both things I'm asking have to do with each other, yet I wouldn't know what to do.

Thanks very much in advance!

Bonzo

Re: A Pro Master vs. My Master AND VU Meter.

Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 10:39 am
by har-bal
Bonzo wrote:Hello...

I was wondering how to get my final master of a song to sound like a pro master in regular speakers, in ALMOST FULL volume (or 3/4 of the whole volume). I noticed that pro recordings don't get saturated when driven to that volume, and my master did.

All I did was to Harbalize it (with a reference to "Rainy Day Women" by Dylan to match loudness, and tweaking it a little then applying IntuitQ), then on to Sforge to apply just a bit of corrective EQ, and getting it through Magneto 1.5. I try to minimize the size of the mastering chain, because there actually is no point in doing too many things after Harbal.

Another thing I'm eager to fix is the perceived loudness (VU). I notice that many recordings have a "normal" loudness, maybe -8.5db max., and the recordings are not very high in volume, yet my recordings reach -11db in the VU meter, with the same volume of the file. How can I fix this?

I would assume that both things I'm asking have to do with each other, yet I wouldn't know what to do.

Thanks very much in advance!

Bonzo
Hello Bonzo

This is where compression would definately help you.

First, lets try to understand something:

Compression increases the soft parts of a track and brings down the loud parts. This creates a more fuller or lfatter sound (You can increase the volume by using the gain control on the compressor)

Limiting allows you to make a track louder but does allow you to go past the outceiling you have chosen.

If you only use a limiter you will have a loud track that could possibly sound thin.

If you combine a compressor along with a limiter you will create a fuller, fatter, louder track.

Technically you could have two tracks with the same RMS level where one will sound louder that the other.

The compressed track when done right will always sound PHATT.

Cheers

Earle

Re: A Pro Master vs. My Master AND VU Meter.

Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 3:44 pm
by Bonzo
har-bal wrote:
Hello Bonzo

This is where compression would definately help you.

First, lets try to understand something:

Compression increases the soft parts of a track and brings down the loud parts. This creates a more fuller or lfatter sound (You can increase the volume by using the gain control on the compressor)

Limiting allows you to make a track louder but does allow you to go past the outceiling you have chosen.

If you only use a limiter you will have a loud track that could possibly sound thin.

If you combine a compressor along with a limiter you will create a fuller, fatter, louder track.

Technically you could have two tracks with the same RMS level where one will sound louder that the other.

The compressed track when done right will always sound PHATT.

Cheers

Earle
Thanks for the reply Earle.

I've read a couple of posts around the forum, and many say that Har-Bal acts as a MB Compressor and a Limiter. Should I use an external application as a MB Compressor too?...and I would like to ask...how is the compressor actually get done correctly, and which compressor plugins do you recommend?

Thanks!

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 6:13 pm
by Bonzo
Well, I must tell you that after reading some more posts I found that Waves C4 was the solution, and everything was fixed.

What I did is to Harbalize (using the limiter), applied Waves C4 (a preset: Multi-electro Mastering), then Waves L2...and it sounds fantastic. The file has the same volume, and yet not so loud, peak is -6.3db in the VU Meter in SForge...used to be -9.7.

:D

And now to make all the songs in the CD to have the levels (loudness, etc...), how can it be done after I used the Waves L2 limiter?

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 10:29 pm
by har-bal
Bonzo wrote:Well, I must tell you that after reading some more posts I found that Waves C4 was the solution, and everything was fixed.

What I did is to Harbalize (using the limiter), applied Waves C4 (a preset: Multi-electro Mastering), then Waves L2...and it sounds fantastic. The file has the same volume, and yet not so loud, peak is -6.3db in the VU Meter in SForge...used to be -9.7.

:D

And now to make all the songs in the CD to have the levels (loudness, etc...), how can it be done after I used the Waves L2 limiter?
Bonzo

The easiest thing would have been to use a reference file for loudness (not too loud)when you load the track into Har-Bal. In other words, you harbalize the file then choose the match loudness feature.
This way all your tracks going into the L2 will be at he same level.

Cheers

Earle

Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2006 11:17 pm
by Bonzo
Ah, thanks. I got it now.

Thanks very much for your help.