10/10/09
- I've been
tugging against this one for years,
Today's
hot CD levels have just become the standard. The labels and A-List
artists have dictated how we must "calibrate" sound quality through
volume. Louder CD's don't sound as good on the air, and they can be
more fatiguing to the ear. The "good ol' days" when vinyl
(records) kept the playing field more even have faded...
But the good news is that
we've developed some new mastering technology
that actually restores dynamics, even at hot levels. Contact us
to inquire about how to get mega-hot levels and still keep the feel of
a dynamic mix. Meanwhile...
12.12.06
- I was working
on a Separations project and things were going well, just a few tweaks
were in order. The client mentioned that toward the end of a
particular
song, the "volume dropped." What actually happened was the place
where the volume dropped they had
added in more
stuff to their tracks which then
saturated the overall signal!
More instruments, more density to the mix displaced the
openness required for a louder sound. The "Teeter Totter
Principle" was at work!
More density/more music, less space = less volume. Hint: Hip hop music
sounds really really loud because the arrangements are sparse, not
dense!
Creating insanely loud CD volume comes with a price - you have to limit
the amount of stuff that you pile on top of other stuff - because the
waveform changes as it gets louder. Here's a huge message that all the LOUD CD
fans can consider....
When you have drums, guitars, bass,
synth and vocals going on... and then at the place where your master
gets "softer," look at your tracks.... the cymbals increase, the guitars increase, the synths increase, the lead vocal is louder than anywhere else in the
song, and the backup vocal comes in louder
I have to tell you that in
this world of loud digital music. we are at
a point of NO HEADROOM WHATSOEVER. No matter what, there are NO BONUS
dbs after 0dbfs. What
that means is that if you add something to the ALREADY-MAXED sound,
something has to give.
The SUM TOTAL of the waveform will be what the COMPONENTS are that you
put together. (Tip: Don't think of the little red "over" lights
the way you would think of the red area on a VU meter... it's not even
close to being the same... VU
meters are missing
11db above the +3 mark....)
Back to your song.... If I
mute the vocals and backups, the volume
stays fine. If I mute the synths, the volume is fine. If I
mute the guitars, it's fine. With EVERYTHING added in at
once, the energy of the increased instruments simply pushes down
(it's the teeter-totter principle) the bass and the full bodied stuff -
and it just sounds like the mass decreases in volume!
Note!
Anything music that sounds
great on an exceptionally loud CD has been musically arranged to accomodate a
saturated waveform while still leaving some trace of musical muscle in
tact. If something is loud, it is because space has been created
behind it to allow it to come forward and be heard. To keep this
all working on your song, I must decrease something in order to
accomondate your more-of-everything musical arrangement. The
saying "Less is more." means less
stuff piled on top of everything will allow for more sound to come
through.
I will try cutting off the
low end of the backup vocals at that point
of your song. Low freqencies have more energy, so if I reduce
some lows, it will be a thinner
additive that comes in on
top of the already-maxed sound.
If this project was not using Separations, you would have to set the
level of the entire song based on this last portion of the music...
make that right... and then live with the rest of the song at a lower
volume... or you would have to figure this phenomena out and remix this
portion of the song.
The
major lesson: at loud
levels, only so much sound will come
through and retain it's punch. Add more and more instruments and
fill up more sound space, and the punch gives way to longer more sustained and even
(square?) waveforms. Punch comes from something being louder than something else that is
softer. If NOTHING is softer, then the result is smooth sustain,
the oposite of wide excursions of varying sound wave levels (and
therefore corresponding varying speaker movements).
This becomes frustrating
when you make your mix - and it sounds fine.
But then it goes to mastering and I'm adding all this gain in the "no
bonus room" department. Try adding 15db of level to your
mixes and see how they react! Mastering didn't used to be a place
where the mixes got squashed into whipped butter! Big-label
mixing engineers often understand just how much stuff must be removed
at mix time in order to allow for that big sound to stay big.
Quincy Jones, I think, once said that a mix was finished when there was
no more stuff that could be taken out of the mix without losing the
flavor. Sparse arrangements = loud punchy music. Take rap
for example. Often, it's sparse instrumentation mixed back so
that the drums are huge by comparison. It's all about what's
RELATIVE to something else.
Given
all that.... some loud CDs can sound very good, but
over a long period of time, squashed waveforms lose their natural
breath - which is
part of what keeps music interesting.
|
Why the big
level contest anyway?
Record companies know that consumers
listen to
music in
the OPPOSITE WAY that musicians play it. Musicians play music at a
normal volume level, and when they want it to be more exciting, they
punch it louder.
The home listener, on the other hand, turns their stereo to where it's
at a comfortable (or desired) listening level. Then if they hear
something softer, they perceive it as being weaker. Since
record companies know about those carousel CD changers with 5 CDs on
it, and they know about the shuffle button (that randomly plays
different songs from all the various CDs loaded in the carousel) - and
they sure as heck don't want their artist's CD to sound weaker
than anybody else's CD ...'cause it wouldn't sound as exciting as the
other guy's record....
|
|
|
Here's the scoop. Some artists are
flattening out their sound.... rendering it
punchless and distorted... with no low end muscle, soggy mid-highs and
flat high end. The're using tons of pluggins and compressors (more info
on compression here)
to approach what
mastering does to get those CDs hot.
The
rub....
as the CDs of 2007 get even hotter than 2006
and 2005, you almost have
to
slam and compress your mix... because the mix friggin' changes
as you limit those pesky
dynamics!!!!! How else will you know if you're putting enough kic
in the mix...? or enough clarity on the vocals (cause the instruments
just keep a comin' up as the mix gets squashed....)? How do you
know what to do to PREDICT how to mix for a hotter final CD???
Rule: In order to cut a
slammin hot CD, you must smoothly limit the peaks in order to
not create clipping which can sound harsh and
fatiguing in time. Yet, the whole effect of a musical peak (like
say on a kick drum) is
that the waveform surges out over
the music. The peak sound has a cool
impact that stands up from the other sounds. This is punch that comes
from a wider speaker excursion caused by
that bigger peak, which means the
speaker
is actually moving more air... farther -
therefore... more punch.
When you
flatten out all these peaks by over-compressing or hard
limiting and bring up the softer material that is all around those
peaks, the speaker excursion (distance it moves) is
relatively
smaller (in relation to the softer parts) - thereby reducing the punch
of the music. Granted, the overall sound is louder coming off the CDR,
but the overall sound is flatter and less open sounding.
Everything is more in-your-face all the time.
High-tech hint:
There are
different kinds of loudness. One that is sometimes overlooked is called
"apparent loudness" which is a frequency-dependent kind of level. This
is a phenomena whereby the meter level doesn't increase but the
apparent volume does. Use your ears, and pay close attention to the
arrangements of top-drawer commercial CDs. Less is more!
Q) John, can you reduce the guitars on the
sides of my mixes and bring
up the drums in the center for more punch? -Jeff
This
question was submitted before we started doing Separation Mastering
which solves issues
like this. However if someone is using a traditional stereo mix,
we can reduce the width of the side guitars, but as the drums in the
center come up, the vocal and other elements in the center will come up
as well. Taking the guitars down will "teeter-totter" everything
up in the center of a 2-track mix. A subtle change may do the job
- it's all about preferences and references.
Before
Separations, we would say "we can't make an apple into an
orange. we can, however, shine up the apple." Using Separations,
we can in fact actually create an "appleorange." In all cases,
creating the final balance is always about the teeter-totter
effect. If we tilt one thing back, something else comes
forward. The same is true with the arrangement of the instruments
- add more and more instruments and it's harder to hear the
drums. The teeter-totter effect is the
same for actual frequencies - you have to carve a "frequency hole" for
other elements to come through and be heard. It's important to
know how mastering affects mixes, so experiment with pre-squashing your
mixes to see what needs to be done to keep the music punchy.
Problem: How do you
keep your mixes hot and punchy without
owning a
high-end mastering rig?
Solution: Create Separations. No more
alternate mixes,
no more late night debates - get your mix to sound great and create
separated musical elements -- and in mastering, it all comes
together. If you have 14 songs and #8 needs the vocal brought up
a bit, simply open the non-destructive file format and bring up the
vocal. If song #10 needs more drums... go for it. If you
prefer the stereo mix, it's all there in the format - nothing is
sacrificed.
Most important: Save time by
doing homework, and get the mix correct. The best way to do that is to
A/B your mixes with commercial CD productions on a level-matched
system.
Leave headroom in your mixes (2dBFS is good) and
build the excitement into the individual tracks for a musically
vibrant, punchy sound. Then let the mastering engineer send it
through
the roof for ya. With $100,000 worth of eq's, compressors & such in
the processing chain, the chances are that you'll end up with just as
much level with more punch and musical impact... and a CD that is more
listenable over a longer period of time... because it will breathe more
naturally than a total squashed-to-the-max stereo mixdown. And
yes, the
mastering process might cost a bit more than that cool $150
SuperGodSmasher Plugin for your PC... add in the flexibility of
the Separations format, and so long as you've made good
sonic/recording/arranging/production decisions during your project,
you'll have a competitive final sound.
Put more
energy
into your mixdown
"performance". It's
more exciting and more magical, and it's worth it. For this reason I
don't recommend mixing through a Finalizer unless you are very
conservative with the settings. It makes it too easy for everything to
sound good. I've mixed this way, and I immediately knew what the
problem was once I got my own mix into the mastering room.
Hey,
this is a no-rules business, and certainly everything you've done
up to this point may be exactly what the doctor ordered for your
project to hit the top ten - exactly as it is.... so use your best
creative judgement, have fun, and DON'T get addicted to the
technology!!! Keep your music first and use top-notch talent every step
of the way - at a price that's appropriate for you. Get people
involved, promote relentlessly, and have a good time along the way.
Remember the rules:
1. There are no rules.
2. If you can't make
Separations, make alternate mixes so you
aren't boxed into a creative corner.
3. Label your masters. Clearly. Id numbers,
song names, take notes, etc.
4. Don't send 2nd generation audio CDR's in
for mastering - use
original
24 bit files!
5. Leave a second of "air" before your song
starts on data files. Put
at least 30 seconds of dead air on a DAT before rolling tape. Same
thing on analog tape (and be sure you print alignment tones on analog
tape).
|
"I have been to "world
famous"
mastering facilities and John's abilities and ears are right in that
league. As long as I make CD's, I will have John Vestman master my
work."
-Andy Roth, God Help Me! Music
|
|
