"Faux" Mastering Advice - Digital Frustration

[Hamburg58]

Hey Guys,
Been reading a lot lately. I've been asked to master a record for a close friend that I mixed the record for as well. I never would do this for my own record.. I'm a big believer in having a professional do my mastering. However he simply does not have the budget.

I work at a studio and will be using PTHD. We do have a Manley, Chandler TG-1, and a few other good stereo outboard compressors. When it comes to compression/limiting and EQ I think I am ok. I did the mixdowns and I am a strong believer in what goes in is what comes out. I cut my bass before I ever add. I only give the vocals what they lack in order to pop out in a mix.

I compress through the Manley coming out with a very low threshold but doing my own mixes this way and telling the mastering guy how I did my mixdown has always proven to have been a successful and satisfying product..

My dilema has to do with conversions.. I've been reading a lot on here about dithering etc. I understand the concept of dithering and what it can accomplish. I simply do not understand when to use it, how to apply it (as a plug in etc).. And I also want to know when and what the best way to conver sample and bit rates would be...

For my mixes, I've been sending the original track out via bus to the Manley and recording it back into Pro Tools. This is also how I do my mixes. I mix completely out of the box.

As far as plugins I have a pultec up and a graphic eq. I have been doing extremely small adjustments (.5 to 1db increases or decreases) and lots of AB comparison.

I have a dithering plugin set to 16 bit (noise shaping) on the original track that is going through the bus with with the plugins and manley treatment then recorded back onto a stereo audio track.. Is this the best way to dither? The tracks were recorded and I bounced them as they were at 24/88.

After this track has been recorded back into Pro Tools I normalize the track to 0.01 or 0.02 db then do my fades....

I then export the Region as a file and export it at 16/44... Burn it on a CD with some other mastered Wav files of similar groups.. Listen in my car. Masters sound good.. But I feel like my mixes are a db or so less than the other mixes I am hearing...

Anyone have any tips? And is this the best way to convert files for CD use?
Thanks!!!

[UnderTow]

Originally Posted by Hamburg58

I have a dithering plugin set to 16 bit (noise shaping) on the original track that is going through the bus with with the plugins and manley treatment then recorded back onto a stereo audio track.. Is this the best way to dither? The tracks were recorded and I bounced them as they were at 24/88.

After this track has been recorded back into Pro Tools I normalize the track to 0.01 or 0.02 db then do my fades....

I then export the Region as a file and export it at 16/44... Burn it on a CD with some other mastered Wav files of similar groups.. Listen in my car. Masters sound good.. But I feel like my mixes are a db or so less than the other mixes I am hearing...

Dither on the last step when going to 16 bit. There is no point in adding 16 bit dither before processing. (And that includes normalising). You could add a dithering plugin _after_ normalising or you could let Pro Tools dither for you when you export at 16 bit.

But as you are converting, you want to convert at 24 bits and only then dither and truncate down to 16 bits. You might want to just export at 24/88 and do sample rate conversion and bit reduction outside of Pro Tools (I would). What platform are you on?

Alistair