Mastering Chain-not diy

[thinktank2]

Hope it's ok to post this question here since I know there
are a lot of engineers around.

I'm going to try to master an album I just finished and was
curious about the signal chain. The music is not, but sounds
a lot like Tom Petty with the drums etc... Be that as it may,
I've recording to tape then dropped it in digitally through
apogee's to do some edits.

I have an apogee psx100se that I'm listening through and
have the following outboard gear. Manley Elop, Vari-Mu,
Massive Passive, API 550A's, LA2A's, Ampex 440 2 track,
and a few other miscellaneous. I'm running the outputs of
the apogee into my trident 80 board and then from there
into my monitors.

So I'm trying to setup and wire the outputs of my mix
coming from my apogee and was wondering what the
chain should be. Should I use the board that I have
or totally bypass it and run through the outboard alone?
I've got some small ns10's and some mackie 824's for
speakers, I'm sure not the best for mastering, but maybe
I can make them work. Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.


Nate

 

[soundguy]

the chain should be whatever sounds best to you. Prepare to spend hours or days figuring out whats appropriate. I personally wouldnt run through a console at all, thats alot of extraneous circuitry to be running through, but if it sounds best like that, go with that. I would suggest in the nicest possible way that the answers to these type of critical listening tests are not found on any internet message board, youve just gotta plug in everything and try everything to see what benefits the material best.

What are you mastering from, the 440 or your hard disk? If you are playing back from the 440, rtz audio makes a drop in playback amplifier that absolutely slays the stock ampex amplifier. If I was playing back from a 440, Id consider a pair of those, they arent prhibitively expensive, they are very well made and the dude at RTZ is super cool one man show that more than deserves the support.

Understand that you can spend too many hours arguing with yourself over wether the material responds better with the EQ before the limiter or after it when it comes to mastering. It all depends on what the mix is doing, how much you are compressing it, just a billion factors that all have to do with each other and IMO are not worth getting into without hearing the music and understanding the direction you are trying to take it. I think the best possible advice you can get is to try everything you have at your disposal and reject any "do it like this" instructions you'll get online. Without hearing the music and knowing where you want it to go, there is no definitive answer and when you know the material, there isnt a definitive answer either, its all very subjective. Dont use the console, unless it sound better with the console. Dont use the tape deck unless it sounds better off the disk, dont use an optical limiter unless a varimu sounds better or no limiter sounds better or both in series sounds better or both in series with an eq between them sounds better or both in series with an EQ inthe side chain in the first one sounds better or both in series with an eq in the sidechain of the second sounds better or both in series with an eq in both sidechains sounds better, or...

dave

 

[tony dB]

as Dave said I fully agree

Tony

 

[neilwight]

please dont take offense at this but if you arent even sure what units you should be using and where do you really think that you should be doing the mastering.
if the work means anything to yourself i'd say get it done elsewhere as you sound very less than qualified.

i'm an ME with my own place and i dont touch any tracks i make myself.....and i do fully trust my judgement and ears.

a thorough understanding of what you are doing, good ears and objectivity are your biggest tools. cant comment on your ears but i;d suggest you are lacking in the other two

also, did you mix on your own speakers already. id assume so...if so then this is going to compromise the mastering regardless of whether you want to use the best hardware available or some pro-sumer gear. on top of this ns-10 have no where near a good freq range for this work and the mackies are fine for mixing i guess but id suggest very much less so for mastering...even if you know them inside out

theres many other questions regarding your abilities to carry this out properly from your short post..... but i'm not sure a DIY project forum is the place for it.

why dont you go over to brad blackwoods mastering forum at PSW.
theres a ton of big name guys hang out over there and we all generally have a good chat.
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/

theres a great deal of info but be forewarned it doesnt come sweetened.

 

[thinktank2]

Thanks for the help. Probably shouldn't have posted this question here.
Just looking for insight on what others do for mastering or pre-mastering.

 

[neilwight]

no problems,
if you get a chance to look over the site at the link theres a ton of great info. theres several boards, all hosted by fairly big names covering everything from engineering to mastering, acoustics etc etc.