![]() Make sure the loudest part of the song is peaking at -6dB.I then the colour code the categories so I can easily see the groups.įinal checklist before exporting your stems… I like to move the channels around in my mix so they’re adjacent to other channels in their stem category. Drum tops - snare, hi hats, cymbals, toms, percussion.Music - pad, synth, guitar, piano, strings, lead,.For example, include the reverb and delay of your lead vocal in the Vocal stem. Be sure to bounce your bus processing and effects with its dry signal. By separating them you’ll be able to tweak and fine tune until they sound just right. The low end frequencies are the trickiest to get perfect. It’s important that you bounce your kick and bass to separate stems. You should be able to slightly boost the top end without the pad becoming horribly prominent in the mix.īelow is an example of an effective way to break up a mix into stems. Good grouping example - Lets say you have a dull lead and a pad in the same stem. If you want to tame the sweep, it will make the lead even more dull. You wont be able to boost the top end of the lead as it will make the sweep even more piecing. This will give you more freedom to make adjustments during mastering.īad grouping example - Lets say you have a sweep with a piercing top end in the same stem as a dull lead. It’s crucial that you group similar sounds together. You are going to break your mix up into 6 categories that will become your 6 stems. Now you want to create the stems that you will use in your mastering session. So at this stage you should be totally happy with your mix. It comes with a 15 day trial and a free mixing eBook. So the team here at Mastering The Mix created LEVELS to empower producers to get a great final mix in their home studio. You’ve listened to your final mix in deferent environments (Studio monitors, car speakers, sound dock, earbuds, headphones, iPhone speaker… the more the better)Īs a mastering engineer, I consistently saw that a lot of music producers struggled to get a great final mix that ticked all the technical boxes.The high and low frequencies are comparable to other tracks in the same genre.The balance of the instruments is comparable to other tracks in the same genre.This keeps the transients in tact giving your music punch and clarity. Mix has a good dynamic range (no limiters or compressors on the master/output).This gives you the space or ‘headroom’ that you will need to make EQ adjustments. ![]() Address each of the bullet points below to get that technically excellent final mix. However, its crucial that you get the technical aspects of you mix on point to set yourself up for success when mastering. This isn't a mixing tutorial so I wont go into too much depth about the final mix here. When you come to master your track you’ll do a much better job with fresh ears. ![]() Don't listen to it at all, no matter how tempted you are. Then take at least a week long break from the track. Get your mix as close to the final sound as you possibly can. However, if you have your final mix ready and you’re determined to master your own music, the best thing you can do is give your ears and brain a break from the track. Hiring a pro with a fresh pair of ears that you can trust is usually a recipe for success. ![]() Having heard your song a million times, your brain is unable to detect and fix those little issues that make or break a track. Some do it exceptionally well, and some don’t. Is it a bad idea to master my music myself?Ī lot of producers master their own music. Lets address the elephant in the room before we get started… The goal of both are to get the music sounding as high quality as possible. This allows the engineer to make discreet changes to individual sounds within the mix as well as applying the standard processing of stereo mastering. Stem mastering gives the audio engineer a greater amount of control over the master as the sounds are separated into groups of similar sounds. This is where the audio engineer enhances and prepares just one single audio file for commercial release. There are two types of widely accepted mastering practices. We mastering engineers have adapted to fulfil the needs of our clients. Artists expect mastering to drastically i mprove the sound of their mix. Secondly, mastering is no longer simply a technical formality. So an engineer frequently deals with just one song rather than a collection of songs. Firstly, releasing a single is far more common than releasing an album or EP. The purpose of mastering has evolved in a number of ways. The original goal of mastering was to take a collection of songs (album/EP) and make sure they played back at consistent level whilst taking the listener on a musical journey. Stem Mastering is the process whereby an audio engineer takes grouped stereo mixes from a final mix, enhances the sound and creates a technically excellent releasable version of the track.
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