Tech Notes: Mastering

A friend of mine was asking me about mastering recently, specifically whether I master my tracks or not, so I explained my methods to him. It occurred to me it might make an interesting blog post.

What is mastering? Essentially it's the final step in preparing audio for the listener's ears. Generally it means taking a finished song and running it through EQ and compression so that it sounds big and beefy like you expect a song to sound on the radio. Now, I have a huge problem with how popular music is mastered these days, so the mastering I apply to my music is minimal at best. I make sure the EQ is how I want it at the mixing stage, and apply only enough compression to the final mixdown to ensure that the overall loudness of each track is roughly the same. No fancy squeezing of the bass, expanding of the mid-range, or sharpening of the high end that could give you papercuts.

When a multi-track mix is finished, the first thing I do is play it back with the VU meter running, so that I can see whether or not the output is clipping. I touched on clipping in another post, but essentially it means audio is going 'into the red' and being cut off (or 'clipped') from the output stereo audio file. If this is happening, the VU meter will tell me exactly how much audio is going above the cutoff point, and I can drag the faders down to compensate. The end result is a clean file with all the audio information present, but a much lower volume than intended. I refer to this as the 'pre-master.'

The pre-master is then loaded into my audio editing program of choice: Sound Forge XP. The first thing I'll do is open the Normalize dialogue and run a scan for two things: the maximum peak level of the audio, and the RMS (overall loudness). If I've done my job correctly, the peak level will be somewhere below 0db (maximum). The RMS will vary depending on how much I've had to lower the volume of the track. It's generally somewhere in the region of -20 to -15db.

Sound Forge: the normalize dialogue box. Note peak level and RMS.

This is the waveform representation of a pre-master from a forthcoming e.p. Note the peaks are not touching the edges of the box. This is good - it means it isn't clipping.

Waveform: pre-master.

The RMS isn't always a reliable way of determining how loud I want the finished track to sound. If a song has no drums, for example, the RMS will come out wildly different compared to one that has. From research and trial-and-error I've determined that an RMS of -15db is a comfortable level for my music. Sometimes this varies from track to track by a factor of up to 5db. Ultimately I rely on my ears for the final judgement.

In order to bump the volume back up to where it should be, without the audio clipping, a compressor is required. This is a bit of software (or hardware) that determines which parts of the audio are clipping when you turn it up, and smooths them out instead of cutting them off drastically like a pair of scissors. The result is much more pleasing to the ear, but care must still be taken not to use too much compression, otherwise your audio will end up sounding like a Ricky Martin record (gasp!), and the waveform will look like a solid blue line, instead of a nice centipede shape.

Sound Forge has several compressor plugins, and they can be puzzling to work with if you don't know the first thing about them. I rely on the tried and true Wave Hammer compressor. Here's a picture of the dialogue box and the preset I use, called 'Master for 16-bit,' which takes all the guesswork out of it.

Wave Hammer: Master for 16-bit.

Inasmuch as I understand it, the first slider is the threshold, or the part of the waveform the compressor is going to lift up by its boot-strings. The second slider is how much attenuation, or squashing, of the peaks is going to occcur. The third is for the overall volume you wish to apply to the track beyond initial compression. If, for example, I've had to pull the volume down severely on the pre-master, I'll experiment with the output gain until I get back at least the amount of volume I took away in the first place.

Waveform: mastered version.

Here is the mastered waveform. You can see it's considerably fatter than the original (by a factor of 5db to be exact), yet you can still see the gaps between peaks: the mark of a successful operation!

Once this is done and I'm happy with the final result, I normalize to 98% (this is just a personal preference, and brings any peaks hitting -0db down to -0.02), and apply fade-ins or -outs if needed. I might also add silence to the end of the track if I think it leads into the next one too soon. Oftentimes I'll have to make adjustments or master a track from scratch if I've got something wrong in the mix, so I've taken to making notes of just how much compression I apply and any other edits I make after the fact.

And there you have it: how a Manitou record is prepared for consumption without making anyone's ears bleed or speakers explode.

The Manitou featured on Caliper Music

My single Cathode Ray has been featured on Caliper Music: an experimental music blog. I recommend checking them out if you're into experimental music and 'out there' sounds.

Reviews: Reactor Four & Cathode Ray

Mark Barton of The Sunday Experience has reviewed my two most-recent releases. Here's what he had to say:

Reactor Four

Keen observers of these musings will no doubt be familiar with the Manitou – better known to kith n kin as Joshua Blanc – notably through love poured upon his ‘electro magnetic’ and ‘the mechanicals’ visitations. Third in his series of two track single releases finds a sinister countenance afoot in both sound and subject matter for both ‘reactor four’ and ‘fukushima fifty’ centre on the nightmarish realities of nuclear meltdowns. Inspired by the Chernobyl fall out ‘reactor four’ is steeled in a haunting dead still that aside being disquieting (with the appearance of the chilling Geiger clicks) is bleakly head bowed and signed in regret, the atmosphere suitable ice cold and bleached I a hollowed emptiness shimmers delicately into territories more commonly associated with Karl Bartos. Carved out in old school retro electro minimalism ‘fukushima fifty’ seductively pirouettes along the same sparse melodic leyline as that found populating a ‘man machine’ era Kraftwerk universe albeit with it frosted exterior somewhat fused to the expansive hypno drills of tangerine dream. http://www.themanitou.bandcamp.com/album/reactor-four

 

Cathode Ray

Those of you loving your electronics spared in minimalism like it was 1979 and steered in a sinister off set funky iciness might want to stay with the Manitou a little while longer for the follow up to ‘reactor four’ – and by a quick head count the fourth in the singles series is entitled ‘Cathode Ray’. This un plugs directly into Human League Mk1’s sound space more specifically having us reaching for our copy of ’reproduction’ in order to sample the dark delights of ‘circus of death’.

My promo video for Cathode Ray has also been featured on Matrixsynth blog, of which I've long been a fan. If you're into synthesizers and you haven't paid it a visit, I urge you to do so.

Digital Single: Cathode Ray

Fourth in my series of free singles is Cathode Ray / U235. These both lean towards the experimental, so they were a lot of fun to put together. There's nothing like unleashing your 'mad scientist' side in the studio!

Bandcamp player:

Cathode Ray opens with a march-like rhythm created from snippets of a sample & hold patch on the Korg Monotribe. The Monotribe also provides a recurring bleepy filter sequence. A bassline, drone, and some percussion sounds recorded from a Toshiba radio form the backbone of the track. The Alesis SamplePad was used to sequence some Speak & Spell percussion and tom-toms. Novation K-Station adds some extra percussive sounds. I manipulated my voice with the Marantz PMD201 tape recorder to create the spoken word part. A very nice VST called Lounge Lizard provides the electric piano.

I should point out that the TV featured in the artwork is exactly as I found it. No TV's were harmed (by me) in the making of this e.p.!

Audio:

Video:

I did something a little different with the video this time. It's shot entirely with a 40mm macro lens and features some of the instruments and devices I used to make the music. My tin robot 'Mini Radiocon,' which you might recognise from the cover of 'Let's Build Mecha!', also makes an appearance.

U235 was the first track I made for the new album project, and my first experiment with the Korg Monotribe. Once I had a patch and a sequence programmed, I recorded several live improvisations, cut them into chunks, and assembled them into a track. I then created various percussion sounds on Roland HS-60, TAL U-NO-LX, and K-Station, and added in a snare from the Yamaha MR-10. HS-60 provides some other synth sounds, more Monotribe was overdubbed, and K-Station and Yamaha CS01 also provide some melodies. Electric guitar can be heard on the ambient sections (backwards). My voice was once again pitch-shifted with the Marantz PMD201.

The title refers to the only fissionable isotope of uranium to occur in nature. In the film A Is For Atom, which I sampled for Isotopes For All, U235 is represented by a frenetic cartoon character. The bouncy arpeggio reminded me of that.

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New Equipment: Korg MS-20 Mini

The Korg MS-20 was produced from 1978-83 and has since become something of a legendary synthesizer. The brand new (as of this writing) MS-20 Mini is a complete recreation in a slightly smaller housing, with the addition of very simple MIDI implementation (it has MIDI In to allow sequencing, nothing more). The basics: it is analog, monophonic; has two oscillators, one LFO, and two filters (high & low pass). It's also semi-modular in that certain functions can be re-wired or patched-in via the patch panel on the right-hand side of the synth.

In 2002 I bought my first proper synthesizer: the Novation K-Station. It's a fantastic machine but at the time I found it exceedingly complex. While it has a wealth of hands-on control, a great deal of its parameters are hidden in the menu system. As I've come to learn its ins-and-outs, it's proven its versatility and I still use it as my main instrument. But circa 2005 I wanted to get my hands on something simpler in order to get to grips with basic synthesis.

The K-Station, a true workhorse.

This led to a search for such an instrument, and among the contenders was the MS-20. Unfortunately it was long out of production, and I'd missed out on the 'great analog purge' of the late '80s early '90s, when analog gear was practically being thrown away in favour of digital. By this time analog was back in vogue and the MS-20 was fetching upwards of $2000 USD. So, after much consideration I settled for a Yamaha CS-5. It only had one oscillator, but its design was such that it had oodles of character. It was simple and easy to use, and it helped me get to grips with synthesis and the K-Station. Being of a vintage, and I suspect mistreated by its former owner, the CS-5 failed within a short time. The handful of songs I made with it are among my favourites, and for a long time there was a void in the studio that couldn't be filled.

Alas, poor Yorick... the ill-fated CS5.

When the MS-20 Mini was announced I was understandably excited, and I pre-ordered it the first chance I got. The demand for it was such that it took 11 months to arrive. It has not only filled the gap left by the CS-5 in my sound palette, but expanded it to undreamt of horizons. You will no doubt be hearing a lot from it in the coming months.

The day of its arrival. The postlady dropped it and ran away (I kid ye not).

Sound exploration in progress!

Promo Videos: The Mechanicals (Part 2)

I took a short break from my single releases to illustrate a couple of tracks from 2012's 'The Mechanicals' e.p. I've had some of the video footage 'in the can' since I completed the release but never got around to editing it. I'm glad I waited, because I ended up shooting some extra footage that greatly improved the visuals.

First up, here's The Mechanicals (Part 2). I decided to go with monochrome for this one, to reflect the mood of the piece.

Video:

Secondly, The Mechanicals (Part 2) [End Of The World Remix], which was a collaboration with my friend Jimmy 'Jamz' Aaron. Since the track has a lot more energy to it and uses a lot of the same footage, I chose to keep it in colour.

Video:

For those of you that are interested in such things, the mechanical devices seen in these videos are a hand-cranked rolling mill, a vintage Remington 12 typewriter (which can be seen in this post), and a vintage electric sewing machine (the make and model of which escapes me at the moment). They were filmed with a Nikon D7000 (as are all my videos of late) with an 18-55mm kit lens and a 40mm macro.

Thanks to: Jimmy for the collaboration, my dad for the use of the rolling mill, and my uncle for the use of the typewriter.

You can, of course, still purchase The Mechanicals e.p. via my bandcamp page, and read all about it in this post.

Digital Single: Reactor Four

This month's free single is a double-bill inspired by nuclear disasters: Reactor Four (Chernobyl) and Fukushima Fifty (Fukushima Daiichi). Both of these horrendous events continue to threaten life on this planet and will do so far into the future. My music is often inspired by grim subject matter, and writing about the real world instead of fiction for a change is my own small way of creating awareness.

Bandcamp Player:

Reactor Four is built on a moody percussion loop created by a rhythm box manufactured in the 60s: the Univox SR-55. Two instances of the loop were pitch-shifted, fed through a software emulation of the famous Moog ladder filter (to enhance the noise that sounds like crickets), compressed, and then fed through two stereo delays. Over this I added an odd pulsing arpeggio and bassline (K-Station) various synthesized percussions (KS & HS-60), and ye-olde strings in the form of GMedia M-Tron (a Mellotron emulation). HS-60 provides further synth sounds, and the Korg Monotribe is brought in on the outro to supply some acid basslines and theremin-like pitch-ribbon improvisation. Vocoding was done as usual through the K-Station. The 'big 80's drums' were originally done via MIDI keyboard, but I re-did them using the Alesis SamplePad once I discovered what a difference variable velocity (aka. loudness) made. The drum samples themselves were taken from the Alesis SR-16.

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Fukushima Fifty was originally envisioned as an addendum to Reactor Four, hence it has the same tempo. The music went in a different direction so it became a track in its own right. A rhythm loop from the Casio MT-100 provides the backbone. I also used a tone from that quaint little keyboard during the refrain. The vocoder that opens the track was slowed down to half-speed, because I liked the imperfections it added. K-Station, HS-60, and Monotribe were also used. Crumar Performer provides the strings this time, and electric guitar adds a touch of menace to the outro. It was recorded through the distortion effect on the Roland SP-404. I honestly can't remember if the soaring 'Vox Humana' synths at the end are HS-60 or Alpha-Juno, but I think it's the former. Percussion-wise, there's some Speak & Spell, but the bulk of it is synthesized from scratch.

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