The Watering Hole

After many years I have realised that I have no Idea what I am doing with mixing/mastering when I just rely on my ears. So, armed with this knowledge I now master my tracks using a combination of a reference track and graphic representations of the eq curves involved.

I have put together a short video showing my process and also included links for the before and after mp3's of the same song.   You may remember, this song was written by Craig, Bouke and myself about 4 years ago. Craig (lyrics), Bouke (vocals) and me (all instruments)


VIDEO http://www.tiff-counter.co.uk/mushroomfarmweb/remastering/JonGReMasteringTest.htm

Original Track  http://www.tiff-counter.co.uk/mushroomfarmweb/remastering/mushroom-farm-spankingthemonkey-ORIGINAL.mp3

ReMastered Track  http://www.tiff-counter.co.uk/mushroomfarmweb/remastering/mushroom-farm-spankingthemonkey-REMASTERED.mp3

edit:

and another one remastered

and here's the original "Mushroom Farm" song put through the same process

Original: http://www.tiff-counter.co.uk/mushroomfarmweb/remastering/mushroomfarm-original.mp3

Re-Mastered: http://www.tiff-counter.co.uk/mushroomfarmweb/remastering/mushroomFarm-ReMastered.mp3


Jon

There's a HUGE improvement in the remastered track !! Good job !!

...Now I'm studying your video ! :)

Ciao !
Marco

yes it sounds better - like you opened it up.

That's a really excellent bit of info Jon.

and here's the original "Mushroom Farm" song put through the same process

http://www.tiff-counter.co.uk/mushroomfarmweb/remastering/mushroomfarm-original.mp3

http://www.tiff-counter.co.uk/mushroomfarmweb/remastering/mushroomFarm-ReMastered.mp3

Jon,

Send the remastered versions to Greg at Prog Palace Radio as he still plays the ones you gave him on the station, especially Mushroom Farm.

the remastered tracks sound very good.

The video is cool to btw.

Ligerborn — Apr 13, 2009Jon,

Send the remastered versions to Greg at Prog Palace Radio as he still plays the ones you gave him on the station, especially Mushroom Farm.

the remastered tracks sound very good.

The video is cool to btw.

Hi Richard, I'll do that. Thanks for letting me know.  

yeah, that was cool!  When can we expect the hour long video demo?  

Very cool Jon! Thanks man, this is exactly what I was looking for to help me with mine! :) :) :) :)

cgtrox  8-)

Jon, how come I only get like half of the video? It stops half way and never starts again.  >:( >:( >:(

cgtrox  8-)

cgtrox — Apr 16, 2009Jon, how come I only get like half of the video? It stops half way and never starts again.  >:( >:( >:(

cgtrox  8-)

You have "Brain Damage Protection" turned on.  ;) :D

cgtrox — Apr 16, 2009Jon, how come I only get like half of the video? It stops half way and never starts again.  >:( >:( >:(

cgtrox  8-)

Do you click the flashing link when it says "click here to continue" ?

and what about the play button sitting at the bottom of the video screen. What happens if you click that?

Jon — Apr 16, 2009[quote author=cgtrox link=1239547083/0#8 date=1239849076]Jon, how come I only get like half of the video? It stops half way and never starts again.  >:( >:( >:(

cgtrox  8-)

Do you click the flashing link when it says "click here to continue" ?

and what about the play button sitting at the bottom of the video screen. What happens if you click that?

Yeah, the same thing happens, seems like its frozen. It might be on my side, my computer has been taking a while to download stuff lately. I'll try it again later today at home, thanks!

cgtrox  8-)

CraigBert — Apr 16, 2009[quote author=cgtrox link=1239547083/0#8 date=1239849076]Jon, how come I only get like half of the video? It stops half way and never starts again.  >:( >:( >:(

cgtrox  8-)

You have "Brain Damage Protection" turned on.  ;) :D


:D

cgtrox  8-)

OK, I got it to work, cool! So this video is just how to do EQ matching, right? But what program are you using for the actual mastering? Or was it just the EQ matching thing? Sounds really good if it was just the EQ!

cgtrox  8-)

cgtrox — Apr 17, 2009OK, I got it to work, cool! So this video is just how to do EQ matching, right? But what program are you using for the actual mastering? Or was it just the EQ matching thing? Sounds really good if it was just the EQ!

cgtrox  8-)

All I am doing is matching (as close as I can) the EQ curve of my track to the EQ curve of my reference track. Also added a small amount of compression.      All done in pro-tools.

WOW! Sounds really good boss! It sounds like you used a stereo widener or expander when I listen to the before and after, I gotta try just EQ. So you pretty much just pick a track you want it to sound like and go from there?

cgtrox  8-)

That's pretty much all I did.  The reason I went down this road was that I just could not get any of my tracks to play alongside "real" CD tracks.  I instinctively over compensate on the bass because I don't want to lose anything...which is obviously completely wrong.  I've never been able to EQ for a flat master by ear only, but by analysing the curve of a song you want it to sit alongside and then shaping your tracks EQ curve to be similar seems to work very well for me.  I certainly couldn't do this by ear as I just can't resist pumping up the bass.