Question about putting different mastered tracks on same disc

[jholiday]

I always get my tracks mastered when they're finished, so at the moment have 5 tracks all mastered. Although they were all mastered at seperate times, they were all done by the same guy.

So can I put them all on the same disc? Or should I get them all re-mastered together?

[DSD_Mastering]

Originally Posted by jholiday

So can I put them all on the same disc? Or should I get them all re-mastered together?

Of course you can put them on the same disc. That's what happens with compilations when you have multiple ME's. The trick is to make them "flow".
But, if there is too much variance and it sounds like a hodge podge put together and you have the means, yes, get them remastered.

Regards,
Bruce

[brethes@mac.com]

Originally Posted by DSD_Mastering

Of course you can put them on the same disc. That's what happens with compilations when you have multiple ME's. The trick is to make them "flow".
But, if there is too much variance and it sounds like a hodge podge put together and you have the means, yes, get them remastered.

Regards,
Bruce

In my book, "the trick to make them flow" is called mastering... So yes, unless the tracks were being referenced with each other when they were individually mastered, there is a strong possibility that you will need some small amount of mastering to make it sound all coherent and sounding as good as possible. The test: burn a CD of all the tracks in the correct running order and see if you are happy with the relative levels & EQs.

[jamsmith]

Or run them all through a pair of MXR Distortion+. Boxes I guarantee they will all sound the same!

[jayfrigo]

Originally Posted by jamsmith

Or run them all through a pair of MXR Distortion+. Boxes I guarantee they will all sound the same!

I think I know a guy from New York that used to do that... or at least it sounded that way!

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by jholiday

I always get my tracks mastered when they're finished, so at the moment have 5 tracks all mastered. Although they were all mastered at seperate times, they were all done by the same guy.

So can I put them all on the same disc? Or should I get them all re-mastered together?

It's often sad to realize that tracks which were INDIVIDUALLY mastered as singles often do not work together when put side by side. That's why I always recommend the album approach first. Since they were mastered by the same guy you might find they work together, but then again not, if only because with a SINGLES approach the ballads often end up too loud next to the rockers. I would not recommend that you reduce the levels or raise the levels of anything that is already a finished master because of the resolution loss.

If you hear problems when the whole thing is assembled by you, first I would recommend you go back to the mastering person and see if he can reassemble it and adjust the levels, going back one or two generations in his case. Hindsight is so much better than foresight, but now as I think of it, one of the best ways to do a set of singles that might later be assembled into a master production is for the mastering engineer to capture a PRELIMITER 24 bit master. Then, it might be possible to regulate the levels on that generation, producing an album without any compromise or loss in resolution.

Yesterday a client came to me with a new album, but two of his mixes I had previously mastered for him as singles a year and a half ago. I told him that it would be much better for me to remaster the two songs again from his raw mixes----and in this case it was definitely the right choice. This is because the new mixes for the rest of the album had enough of a different EQ and sound so that I had to revisit and rethink the mastering of the first two songs anyway and to make them "compatible" with the rest of the album. The client was able to provide for me the original 24 bit mixes of the old songs, so all is well. If all he had available was my 16 bit masters we would have been in sad shape as we would be going down another generation or more of eq and processing on already peak-limited and dithered material----just not at all a good situation. At best it would have caused a loss of transparency and at worst a great increase in distortion compared to the new material.

Hope this helps,


Bob

[narcoman]

Originally Posted by DSD_Mastering

Of course you can put them on the same disc. That's what happens with compilations when you have multiple ME's. The trick is to make them "flow".
But, if there is too much variance and it sounds like a hodge podge put together and you have the means, yes, get them remastered.

Regards,
Bruce

Many, but not all , compilations (well the projects i've been involved in anyway - generally OST stuff) try to source the MIXES not the album or single masters - the compilation album then gets mastered as a whole, and seeing as sequencing and overall tonal analysis is one of the roles of mastering I'd say that putting 5 tracks together separately mastered is similar to putting 5 mixes together without mastering. It MIGHT work but its a bit of a shot in the dark...

[Ecktronic]

Originally Posted by bob katz

one of the best ways to do a set of singles that might later be assembled into a master production is for the mastering engineer to capture a PRELIMITER 24 bit master. Then, it might be possible to regulate the levels on that generation, producing an album without any compromise or loss in resolution.
Bob

I tend to keep a prelimiter 24 bit master on all my work so that I can easily change the volume of the masters if the client wishes this. Yeah it takes up a bit more HD space but its well worth it IMO.

Eck

[Greg Reierson]

Originally Posted by Ecktronic

I tend to keep a prelimiter 24 bit master on all my work so that I can easily change the volume of the masters if the client wish.

Standard practice here. Since all of my digital limiting is ITB I capture the analog chain at 24 bit and assemble the album. Digital "loudness" processing is last. I've found it adds more flexibility down the road with no extra work. It also preserves an unsmashed mastered version for later use.

To answer the original question: Bob is right. Let the original mastering engineer finish the job.


GR

[lowland]

Originally Posted by Greg Reierson

Since all of my digital limiting is ITB I capture the analog chain at 24 bit and assemble the album. Digital "loudness" processing is last. I've found it adds more flexibility down the road with no extra work. It also preserves an unsmashed mastered version for later use.

That's what I do as well. I hope to be doing lots of Unwrapping of stereo mixes to surround later this year where I was the original ME, so this way of working should stand me in good stead.