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Pablo Ramirez
So I just wrapped up the second to last lesson of this program. Mastering is the final touch of the mix, "sweetening the mix" as they say. There are plenty of mastering suites that you can use in the box or even using super expensive outboard gear for this process. Although the chapter doesn't show you how to master, technically there's not an exact way of how to do it, but there are many techniques that are used during mastering. This chapter showed me different ways that you can "master" in your DAW system but that is not the best way to do is, very limited on what you can do.
My mentor, Jim, uses Wavelab as his mastering suite. He showed me his process mastering using compressors/limiters, EQ's, ect. A lot of professional recording studios send material to be mastered to a professional mastering engineer, where all they do is MASTER. He shared a story with me of when he spent thousands of dollars sending and going to Bob Ludwig to get some songs mastered. Bob Ludwig was not the one that mastered these songs but his employee did. For those that don't know who he is, he's one of the best mastering engineers out there, Google him. Anyways, within time, with technology constantly growing, Jim was able to accomplish a better master than when he had flown out to that studio and paid thousands of dollars to have it done. Jim started mastering in 94' but didn't call himself a mastering engineer until he got it down right so many years later. Becoming a great mastering engineer comes within time, just like mixing, but 10x more the work! I sure won't be getting the program he has but I'll soon be getting Wavelab Essentials as my mastering software, it has less features than the one he has but it's only $100 so why not right?
When we finished up discussing the lesson, noon came around and he had a session scheduled for that time. The same band that went in last time when I sat in came in again, Caleb's Spirit. They didn't record any new songs but they added onto what they had recorded on 5 songs there. They were there until about 3pm and then I took control of Pro Tools and began mixing on my mastering lesson song! Man, when I was home I mixed the drums and the snare sound I got was so freaken amazing! I continued the rest of the mix at Allusion Studios and Jim was so impressed on what I did. This time I didn't even have to ask him what was wrong with the mix and what I should fix or none of that. Only thing I asked him for was a reference because the toms were just so dead! He showed me a song and I got the tom to sound almost if not exactly like it! Jim kept coming in while I was mixing and told me he really liked the vibe, feel, and sound I put into this mix, and I couldn't agree more!
