Copyright 2017 by Kevin de Wit

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2 Copyright 2017 by Kevin de Wit All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below. Published By: Kevin de Wit 60 Bellbird Close, Pakenham Victoria, Australia, Contact: Published in Australia

3 Introduction When you are first getting start in the field of Mastering it can be quite confusing to what you should learn and what you should do to master a song in its most basic form. If you search online, you are most likely going to get shown a lot of very highly technical skills that are something you will want to learn later in your development. Right now, you should concentrate on the very basics and what will give you a good master. I am assuming you are new to mastering and if you are not, then just confirming that you do these steps on every master is worth it. I am going to list the items that I believe are essential to every master. There are many more techniques that you should learn further on but if can perfect and do these basic techniques then you are going to be getting good sounding masters already. These are the first steps I do with every master I work on and it gets me 80% to the final product. Copyright Page 3

4 Step 1 Listen to the Song One of the most critical steps in the mastering process is to listen to the song from start to finish, analyze it and start to make some decisions in your head or on paper of what you think the song needs. Pull up a reference track or two that you like and know are very good. If you can have some references that are in the exact same genre and style that you are mastering, then that is even better. Compare the reference track to the client s song. Document any further changes you feel you need to make. There is no point just blindly starting to process a song when you haven t really listened to it. You might even decide to take it out to the car and check it there as well. Whatever it takes for you to have some form of a plan of attack. Copyright Page 4

5 Step 2 Check for Errors Next I would sit down with some headphones on and listen very closely for any clicks, pops or annoying hiss noises. I like to note the times each one occurs and then I would tackle them early on in the process. I find it much easier to hear these in headphones as the sounds are closer to my ears and it eliminates any room noises. Most mastering software will include some tools to fix these errors. You can also purchase some expensive specialized tools to further improve your ability to repair these errors when you start getting serious about mastering for clients. Copyright Page 5

6 Step 3 Gain Staging As soon as I have imported the audio file into my Mastering Software I check the gain staging of the song. Even though a client has sent a song to a mastering engineer, quite often they will send the song way too loud. It is practically at mastering levels already. If that is the case, then I will reduce the volume of the actual audio file with something like clip gain before I even start. Reducing the volume of the audio file at the start gives me room to apply the extra processing I need to doing during Mastering and reduces the chance of imparting any unwanted distortion during the mastering phase. Copyright Page 6

7 Step 4 Volume/Limiter Most if not all mastering sessions will end with a limiter. This is the last point at which volume can be increased and clipping can be prevented. I like to set my limiter up with a ceiling of -1dB. This not only prevents any intersample peaks from distorting the song but it also meets the Mastered for itunes standard. If you like to master your songs louder than set your ceiling to -0.3dB, but I wouldn t go any higher. I then like to push the volume of the song up to a point where the limiter is doing a little bit of gain reduction but not too much. The more you push it the more distortion you are going to get. Copyright Page 7

8 Step 5 Fades Getting the start and end of the song right is a simple but critical step in mastering. You will need to trim any excess silence from the start and end of the song. I then place a short fade to the start of the song just in the silence part. I am not trying to fade the song in I am just removing any chance of a pop or click happening when the song starts. I then move to the end of the song and listen to how the song ends and do an appropriate fade. This could either be a fade that actually does affect the song or is just in the silence at the end to prevent any pops or clicks. Copyright Page 8

9 Step 6 EQ EQ in mastering is one of the most important steps as the point of mastering is to make sure the song has a good frequency balance and plays nicely in as many different places as possible. EQ in the mastering process is similar to everything else, in that it is used very subtly. Unless there is a really annoying frequency that needs to be cut hard your settings are usually going to be used with broad Qs and small amounts like 1-2dB increase or reduction. I might find that I will also do some low-end filtering if I hear the mix process didn t clean that up. Shelves are very popular during the mastering process. Copyright Page 9

10 Step 7 Compression Compression is a regular process that happens during mastering. To allow a mastering engineer to get the volume out of the song that people expect there is a need to first control some of the peaks with compression. Unlike mixing most compression done during mastering is very subtle. If and how it is done depends on the song. Sometimes you might get a song from a mixing engineer that has used so much compression that there wouldn t be any point adding any more. Other times their mixes are extremely dynamic and the ability to get the song loud is hard to do with the big difference between the peaks and the troughs. Copyright Page 10

11 Step 8 Meta Data Meta Data is any information included in the file that describes the content of the file. This can include things like the artist name, song name, album name, ISRC and CD Markers. Meta Data is used both on CDs as CD Text and as tags on MP3s and AAC files. itunes and other music sources use Meta Data to sort and provide accurate details about a song and/or an album to customers. Album covers and lyrics can also be included in the Meta Data applied to a song. Copyright Page 11

12 Step 9 Dither Dither is a tool used to reduce the loss and distortion that can occur when going from a higher bit depth (24 bit) to a lower bit depth (16 bit). Dither is noise that is deliberately added to a signal to prevent quantization distortion. Dither is a very low level of hiss, which you either won t notice or is something your ears will accept much more than the distortion that can occur when you don t apply it. There are several different types of dither but really any will do. I wouldn t stress over it just apply it when rendering out your final song and you will be good to go. Copyright Page 12

13 Step 10 File Creation Once you have completed all the steps required to master a song, then you obviously need to get the song out of your software to send to the client. This is generally referred to as rendering the file. You can render out the file in many different formats. I like to send my clients a high quality 16 bit WAV file as well as an MP3. The client can then use the WAV file to burn CDs while still having the MP3 to listen to instantly in their car or phone etc. If I am doing an album or EP, then I will send all the songs as 16 bit WAV & MP3. I will also send them DDP files to allow the client to send the album to a duplication organization for the production of the physical CDs. Copyright Page 13

14 About the Author Kevin de Wit is a Mixing and Mastering Engineer working with artists and bands all over the world. He is the owner of KdW Mixing & Mastering, an online business dedicated to providing audio related services. Kevin has been working in the music industry in one form or another for over 25 years. He has also been working in the IT industry providing architectural designs for large corporate enterprises. When Kevin isn t working in either music or IT, he is a single father of two children and loves to play guitar and record his own music. He has a very unique family with one child suffering from Severe Autism and the other a Mild case of Asperger s. He lost his wife to cancer when the children were very young, but none of this has stopped his will to survive and succeed. If anything, it has given him more drive and determination than ever before.