view Lectures/Lec11 - Mastering/Lec11 - Mastering.tex @ 17:898873c7bb2b tip

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% Set up the lecture details here
\setlecturedetails
%COURSE DETAILS:
	{Sound Recording and Production} % COURSE TITLE
	{ECS614U/ECS749P} % COURSE CODE
%
%LECTURER DETAILS:
	{Michael Terrell} % LECTURER NAME(s)
	{[e-mail]} % LECTURER EMAIL(s)
	{http://qmplus.qmul.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=3243} % COURSE WEBPAGE URL
%
%LECTURE DETAILS:
	{11} % LECTURE NUMBER
	{Mastering} % LECTURE TITLE


\institute[C4DM]%
{Centre for Digital Music\\
School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science\\
Queen Mary University of London}

\date[Semester 1, 2013--14]{Semester 1, 2013--14}

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\begin{document}
\section{Lecture \lecturenumber}
\subsection{ \lecturetitle}
\maketitle

\separator{Mastering}

\begin{frame}
\frametitle{What is mastering?}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep10pt
		%\setlength\parskip{.1cm}
		\item Mastering is the final stage in the music production process, in which the final mix is prepared and transferred onto the master; from which all copies are made.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}
	
\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Mastering analogue}
{\small
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
		\item Before digital, mastering involved the cutting of a physical medium e.g. vinyl.
		\item Physical constraints in the cutting process led to the use of pre-processing, e.g. compression, to control transient parts of the signal.
		\item Additional pre-mastering processing was found the further improve the sound of the record.
	\end{itemize}
	}
\end{frame} 


\begin{frame}
\frametitle{Mastering digital}
\small
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
		\item Mastering digital recordings does not involve a physical medium but a similar approach is adopted:		
		\vspace{.3cm}
		\begin{itemize}\itemsep6pt
			\item Add a final layer of `polish' using a range of audio effects.
			\item Ensure consistency across songs on an album.
			\item Preparing the album for duplication i.e. finalising fade ins, fade outs and gaps between songs.
		\end{itemize}
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Mastering process}
	\begin{enumerate}\itemsep8pt
		\item Bounce down your finished (stereo) mix.
		\item Import the mix or stems into a \textbf{new} project.
		\item Apply premastering effects.
		\item Set the song loop, and fade ins and outs correctly.
		\item Bounce down you mastered mix.
	\end{enumerate}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Mastering effects}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep10pt
		\item The following audio effects are used in the mastering process:
		\begin{itemize}
			\item Dynamic.
			\item Parametric equalizer.
			\item Reverb.
			\item Multiband dynamic.
			\item Harmonic exciter
			\item Stereo imaging enhancer.
			\item Limiter.
			\item Dither.
		\end{itemize}
		\item You are applying the effects to the combined stereo signal so the use of these effects is different. In general be subtle!
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Mastering effects}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep10pt
		\item The following audio effects are used in the mastering process:
		\begin{itemize}
			\item Dynamic.
			\item {\bf Parametric equalizer}.
			\item Reverb.
			\item {\bf Multiband dynamic}.
			\item Harmonic exciter
			\item Stereo imaging enhancer.
			\item {\bf Limiter}.
			\item {\bf Dither}.
		\end{itemize}
		\item You are applying the effects to the combined stereo signal so the use of these effects is different. In general be subtle!
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Dynamic}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
		\item A gentle compressor or expander (or both) can be used to change the dynamic range of you stereo mix.
		\item The affect should be subtle, i.e. long attack and release times, and small ratio.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}
	
\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Equalizer}
	\small
	\begin{itemize}
		\item The is used to give a good tonal balance in the mix by shaping the frequency spectrum.
		\item The filters used should be smooth (low Q) and low gain (less than 5 dB). If anything drastic is needed it implies there is something wrong in the mix.
		\item It is common to cut bass frequencies below around 30Hz.
		\item Be careful when adding gain to bass frequencies as it may just sound muddy. Better to consider in multiband dynamic stage.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Reverb}
		\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
			\item Smooth over any real reverberation artefacts that occurred during recording.
			\item To fill in the sound and add fullness to a mix.
			\item To unify the sense of space in a mix which contains multiple instruments with different real or virtual reverb.
		\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Multiband effects}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
		\item Multiband effects split the audio into a number of frequency bands.
		\item The audio in each band is processed separately.
		\item The audio in each band is then recombined.
		\item This allows parts of the audio signal to be targeted and treated without affecting the others.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Multiband dynamics}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
		\item Compression and expansion can be applied to individual parts of the frequency spectrum.
		\item The affect should be subtle, i.e. long attack and release times, and small ratio.
		\item Think about what you are trying to do. If you cannot think of a reason why you need to multiband compressor then don't use it!
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Harmonic exciter}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
		\item Adds higher order harmonics to the mix and makes it sound more lively.
		\item It is essentially a type of distortion.
		\item More sophisticated enhancers are multiband.
		\item Be careful how much you add!
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Stereo image enhancer}
	\small
	\begin{itemize}
		\item Used to increase the stereo width.
		\item Be careful with bass sounds as these should definitely come from the center.
		\item If used too much there will be a hole in the middle of the mix.
		\item There are generally frequency controls but more sophisticated image enhancers will be multiband. This enables some control over the spatial placement of individual instruments.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Limiter}
	\small
	\begin{itemize}
		\item Often called a maximiser, these tools are used to increase the loudness of the mix.
		\item They essentially squash the mix up to a maximum possible \textbf{peak} amplitude.
		\item There are two general types:
		\begin{itemize}
			\item Soft limit - sample values are allowed to go over the limit.
			\item Brickwall limit - sample values are constrained strictly to the absolute limit.
		\end{itemize}
		\item Overuse will make the mix sound distorted. Try not to get sucked into the loudness war!
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{I'll fix it in when I master...}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item	You don't want to be correcting recording problems in the mixing stage, and in a similar way, you don't want to be correcting mixing errors in the mastering phase.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Does digital mastering make sense?}
	\begin{itemize}
		\item There is no physical medium to cut the master onto so why not just add the pre-mastering effects to the master output?
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Does digital mastering make sense?}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
		\item Separating the mixing and mastering stages introduces objectivity and a fresh perspective.
		\item Having mastering effects on the output bus is dangerous - it's easy to forget that they are there and continue to make changes to the mix.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}


\begin{frame}
	 \frametitle{Dither}
	 \small
	 \begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
	 	\item Every time an operation is applied to a digital audio signal errors are introduced because the new sample values have to be rounded off (quantization error).
		\item Dithering algorithms are used to to smooth out these errors.
		\item They work by adding a random, low level noise signal to the mix.
		\item Dither is applied the final time that you bounce your mix.
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}


\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{The loudness wars}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep8pt
		\item An objective of the pre-mastering processing is to make the mix sound louder.
		\item In recent years this has gone too far with overly compressed and lifeless sounding mixes.
		\item In some respects you need to compete in order to make your mix stand out, but be careful!
	%	\item www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gmex_4hreQ
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{What should you do?}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep7pt
		\item Audition your final mastered mix on as many different sound systems as possible.
		\item Be aware of the final destination of your recording i.e. is it headed for the dance floor?
		\item Use: EQ, multi-band dynamics and a limiter.
		
		\item Use volume automation to control the fade in and fade out.
		
		\item Be cautious. Less is usually more!
			\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\begin{frame}
	\frametitle{Soundscape submission}
	\begin{itemize}\itemsep6pt\setlength\parskip{0.2cm}
		\item The original mix should be at equal or higher sample rate and bit depth than the final master.
		\item CD master is 16 bit and sample rate is 44.1KHz.
		\item For the soundscape assignment you must submit both the pre and post master mixes.
		\begin{itemize}\itemsep6pt
			\item Pre master mix: 16+ bit and 44.1+kHz.
			\item Mastered mix: 16 bit and 44.1kHz.
		\end{itemize}
	\end{itemize}
\end{frame}

\end{document}