Hello!
first up - a quick reminder the Apollo View Vamp video premiere is at 8pm UK/BST this coming Thursday (16th of October). Do join us to hangout in the live chat if you can, the video is ready and waiting HERE.
This is a longer post so I wanted to just outline the specifics here
I've mastered a track for community member cwilla and you can listen to the before and after HERE
In doing the master I've detailed down my gut reactions, thoughts and processes in a text document you can also access HERE
I'll have mastering services open to Patreon supporters in the future and some free opportunities to build up more examples and discussion soon too.
MASTERING MUSINGS
Here's a post I've been looking forward to making for a while, last month over in the DivKid Discord we were discussing audio mastering and user cwilla was looking to have a track mastered. I felt compelled and keen to do it as mastering was something I used to do a lot of, but haven't done as much of on this current set up. So I offered to master a track, no charge, with the idea it would provide an example and some talking points, give me the enjoyment of doing it and help me get a sense of the set up with cwilla's ambient, drone and long form style and approach to the track. Thank you to them for being open to the idea and letting us share their work and responses to it.
This style is interesting as it's a single longer piece, where being sensitive maintaining it's overall shape and feel, while enhancing it is a different approach to something with beats and clearer different instrumental layers. The first process in the chain is overdrive, something you'd rarely do in mastering at least as a first "this needs overdriving" gut reaction to a piece. Details on all the following processors in the text document.
I've been really fortunate to work with a wide range of styles over the past 15 years or so, with a wide range of artists at different points in their careers, with different companies and with many people just looking to add finishing touches to their music that they're wanting to share.
With that in mind, at some point in the near future I'll be opening up some slots for mastering work, specifically for Patreon supporters, but for now the discussion around mastering - and this track specifically is ours to have - use the channel #music-production and tag me if you want my attention - I'll also be opening up some other free slots to build up more examples and conversation around mastering in general and around me offering that to you. We really appreciate your support here on Patreon and this feels like a nice thing to feed into community discussions.
So this post is really just an initial, opening of the topic and a place for me to share how I've worked on this track and how this might work for you. I'll go into details around the track below but for now just say if you're interested, speak to me in Discord or leave a comment.
cwilla - solstice night
Audio examples and text files are in the DivKid Patreon drive HERE.
In the DivKid Patreon Drive you'll find an example of part of the track from cwilla. The image above shows a before, during and after of the mastering process (of the full ~15 minute piece), the top track is the raw recording, then as it was really quiet it had a straight up 12dB gain boost (the middle image) and the bottom image is the mastered track.
I'm really happy with how it turned out, I went with the mantra an engineer Bruce Wood told me while in his studio (playing guitar in a band and getting involved in the mixing process at a studio called Touch Wood, Bruce's credits include Nightmares On Wax among many other well known tracks and artists) "work fast, listen slow" which is to say work quickly, go with your gut as soon as you start listening and start to shape and manipulate it into what you're feeling right away. Then listen slowly, intently with focus. I still work like that with many things today, and in this case it meant processing the audio quickly, adding processes, adjusting, briefly listening, tweaking and building up the processing chain all while the track plays through for the first time. Then sitting back and listening and adjusting if necessary. Once a track is signed off, which often includes sleeping between listens, different systems and environments etc it goes back to the artist.
Sometimes the mastering process highlights an issue, or less than ideal result of something in the mix and I may request some tweaks - if possible - of the artist may request tweaks in the mastering that's always open for discussion and revisions.
The master didn't warrant any tweaking or revisions in this instance and I have cwilla's reaction as a text file alongside the examples if you'd like to read them. There's some great quotes and answers to my thoughts in there, so if you're interested you can read my notes then cwilla's after. Again in the Patreon drive HERE.
I also want to say thanks to cwilla for letting us share part of his track and use it as an example. He's got full detailed track notes about making the track on his website HERE, the notes offer a detailed look at the thought process, results and equipment choices.
I realise this is a long post without much detail, you'll find all that on the links throughout. So do discuss mastering with the community on Discord, do let me know if you're interested in having something mastered, do join us for the Vamp premiere on Thursday and I'll back with more soon!