Things to consider when getting ready for your next Mastering Session
Preparing Mixes For Mastering
Don’t put a digital limiter/maximiser on the master faders when preparing your mixes for CD Audio Mastering. Gentle compression is alright, remember we can always add more compression but we can’t take it away. This can really effect the dynamics of your music and will mean the difference between a great sounding loud CD and a very bad sounding Audio CD.
Make sure the mix is peaking no higher than –1dBFS and no lower than –6dBFS.
Aim to get the vocal level right. If your time and budget allows, bounce down 3 mixes of each song. A master mix, no lead vocal mix and a lead vocals only (and whatever reverb/fx is on them). The idea is that if the instrumental mix is combined with the vocal only mix you should end up with a mix identical to the master. This gives us more options with the vocal level in mastering.
Print the mix at the same sample rate as your multitrack session. Never use ProTools to do a sample rate conversion on any mix you are bringing to mastering. Ideally mix at 24bit. Please note we cannot accept 32bit floating cubase files.
Make sure the important elements such as vocal, kick and snare are prominent. Make sure there is enough panning to make the mix wide. Test your mix in mono to make sure there is no severe phase cancellation. Compare your mix to commercial CDs but don’t try to make your mix as loud as them (as they will have been mastered already). In general, the kick, snare, vocal and bass should be clearly defined in the centre of the stereo image, and other instruments should be panned out left and right to different positions.
The Optimum Mix Level For Audio Mastering
It's extremely important to leave enough headroom in your mixes to get the optimum results from your mastering session. Following these simple guide lines will give you a much “bigger” sounding audio CD without any clipping or digital distortion. The picture below shows a great level representation of what your mix levels should look like when bouncing your songs in preparation for your Mastering session. Leaving a minimum of 3 to 6 dB of headroom is fundamental for achieving a good mastering result. Peak levels should not exceed -3dBFSD and the average sum of your left and right channels should be at around -10 to -18 dBFSD.
Coding Your Recordings
ISRC (International Standard Recording Code):
The ISRC is an international identification system for CDs and music DVDs. The alphanumeric code functions as a digital “fingerprint” for each track. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording, to help identify recordings for royalty payments. It is assigned per track, not per CD. The ISRC is tied to the track, not the carrier of the track and is embedded in the metadata of your CD during the mastering phase. ISRC codes cannot be provided by Studios 301 and are not used for online CD identification. (i.e. Media information will not be displayed on your computer unless the CD is registered with an online Music CD Database).
Coding Your Recordings CD Text: CD Text is information about the release that can be encoded as a separate file on an audio CD. It stores information like the album and song titles. When playing back an audio CD containing CD Text information on a CD Text-enabled player (usually an LCD screen), the listener will be able to read this information on the display panel. CD Text info can be entered onto a CD master using the table of contents in the appropriate CD subchannel. Like the ISRC, this happens during the mastering phase of your recording.
Please note CD Text is not provided as standard by Studios 301 and has to be specifically requested. CD Text can only be viewed on CD Text enabled CD/DVD players and is not used for online CD identification. (i.e. Media information will not be displayed on your computer unless the CD is registered with an online Music CD Database).
CDDB (CD Data Base): CDDB is a database for software applications to look up CD information over the Internet. You’ve probably noticed it when ever you’ve imported a CD into your computer’s music library. Most of what you see is the work of one company, Gracenote, which has been entering the identity of every CD track for many years now. It was designed around the task of identifying entire CDs, not merely single tracks. The identification process involves creating a “discid,” a sort of “fingerprint” of a CD created by performing calculations on the track duration information stored in the table-of-contents of the CD. There are alternatives to Gracenotes’s proprietary CDDB. Gracenote may eventually pick up on your CD,but it’s best to send the information in yourself. To submit to Gracenote’s database go to: http://gracenote.com and read the FAQs under “Company Info.” Keep good records of all this information to ensure accurate and comprehensive monitoring of your music’s uses in the digital age.
