Last CD Report
I just released a new CD a couple of weeks ago right after the new year. What made this CD a complete departure was the method of the mastering.
I recorded in PreSonus Studio One as usual and about halfway through I began some new techniques as well as purchasing some new audio tools.
I spent some time on gain staging and lowering the volumes to get a clean mix and master. And even though I had knew all this stuff previously it was
only now that I figured out why and how to put it into practice. The mixes cleaned up iright away and with the proper metering tools I set a proper level
and EQ for the mix. The working title for the CD was Woman Of Water And Wind which was the song I penned for the CD.
After I got success with the mixing process I was near the last few songs when I noticed that my usual method of mastering of exporting a mix out
to Sony Sound Forge was not a uniform way of mastering. There were too many things available to keep uniformity in the overall project.
So even though I had Studio One I never used it's mastering abilities thinking exporting it to another platform would be better.
So I pulled it up on Youtube to see the process in PreSonus. I was blown away with the simplicity of the process and how everything
could be made uniform (same volume,eq,etc.) so I created a project. When mastering in Studio One a mastering session is created by
creating a project. Create a name for your project and begin to add songs along a timeline. You have a master bus and a track bus.
Here is where the magic is made. Open up a good mastering software and place it on the master bus set it for the parameters you are trying to
acheive (output levels, compression, eq and limiting, etc.) and add songs to the timeline. On each track in the timeline fill in the meta data so that
players can pick up the information for display, etc. Then on each track set your timings between each track. It has a default setting that works just fine unless
you want to fade into another song and bleed them together. And begin sweeting eaxh track. You have a base setting on the master bus so sweeten
each track until they all gel. The cool thing about PreSonus (if you are mastering yourself) when you come across a passage that wasn't mixed right
or has some tech issues. You can jump back into the production side, correct it and bring it back into the mastering file easy peasy.
Producing a much higher quality CD than you ever though was possible. Just keep polishing till it shines.
One of the things I noticed on this CD was how it had the professional earmarks set in it. What I mean is professional
recordings can be playing in another room and you still can hear every instrument and identify the song even though you are in another room.
This does that. I first noticed this in the days of vinyl. You would be spinning a record in the living room and go the bathroom and the song
would still project itself as if you were in the room. Not at the same volume mind you but the overall mix carried wherever it went.
There is a noticeable technical growth throughout the CD as many of this was processed in mid production. But it is a good production nontheless.
Anyway the CD has been up for sale on the CD sales page and can be purchsed as MP3 for download on MP3 sales.
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