another before and after

[chironomidae]

Hi guys,

your resident lurker/newbie again asking for advice. I think I'm making progress, but I could really use another set of ears and some critique, if you wouldn't mind.

I'm noticing one of the crazy parts about learning this craft is that newbies always have to start with the worst recorded material. I'm starting to see why mastering is usually taught as an apprenticiship. =p

The individual tracks are long gone, I only have the stereo mix to work with.

[UnderTow]

That first clip sounds a bit soft. ;-)

Alistair

[chironomidae]

damnit, I keep doing that. one sec

edit: clip fixed. sorry about that

[NorseHorse]

Are you sure you made the "after" sample from the "before" sample?

The before sample is extremely mono, hardly any side information at all. The after sample, on the other hand, is a very unconventional stereo mix. It's awkward having the drums on the far left. And there aren't any dynamics! Might as well just get rid of the drums altogether.

[chironomidae]

Originally Posted by NorseHorse

Are you sure you made the "after" sample from the "before" sample?

The before sample is extremely mono, hardly any side information at all. The after sample, on the other hand, is a very unconventional stereo mix. It's awkward having the drums on the far left. And there aren't any dynamics! Might as well just get ride of the drums altogether.

Yup, I'm positive. I used Waves S1 Shuffler to widen it. I noticed what you were saying about the drums being off to the left. Basically I had to choose from either having the drums to the left or the vocals to the right - ultimately I chose the vocals, because the drums are pretty quiet anyways.

As for the dynamics... yeah I crushed them pretty well. I'll try backing off em a bit, although I'm not sure what I can do - the whole song is a mess, I'm just trying to salvage it

[MASSIVE Master]

I'd get rid of that thing in a split second. It's messing the whole thing up even worse. All the low end is whacked out - The bass is out of phase, the image is skewed...

This is one of those "make it less irritating" jobs. Do what you can to get rid of all the distortion and squeak a little clarity out of it. Getting "creative" with the stereo image isn't what's going to make it listenable.

[chironomidae]

Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master

I'd get rid of that thing in a split second. It's messing the whole thing up even worse. All the low end is whacked out - The bass is out of phase, the image is skewed...

This is one of those "make it less irritating" jobs. Do what you can to get rid of all the distortion and squeak a little clarity out of it. Getting "creative" with the stereo image isn't what's going to make it listenable.

cool, I agree. I'll try again with that in mind

[davew]

imho, the new stereo spread was much more interesting than the before version, vocals were smoother, but the spread was a bit over the top, and nothing much more was detectable.

[Jesse Graffam]

advice

(by the way, this is ONLY EQs, by far the most lacking skill these days it seems)

[It'sJoeAgain]

Originally Posted by chironomidae

Hi guys,

I'm noticing one of the crazy parts about learning this craft is that newbies always have to start with the worst recorded material. I'm starting to see why mastering is usually taught as an apprenticiship. =p

is that a new myth about masterin?? or did u figured it all out by urself??

The individual tracks are long gone, I only have the stereo mix to work with.

it reminds me of my own poo...terrible, hopeless, pointless...stop accepting dog poo....if this is a charity work fine.... do whatever u like with ur free time but if u are charging $$ to do this crap, it will come back to hound you when ppl read the credits. Even when the artist is of great importance u are better off not to be associated with a project that was ridiculously recorded and mixed...maybe if these were the unreleased first original demos from John Lennon or The Beatles or artists like that, it would be different story......Again that mix is a big turd...to me dog poo...no matter what u'll do to it will never sound right, so smoothing that hideous mid range and declipping the file it's imo all u can do ....

Originally Posted by uncajesse

(by the way, this is ONLY EQs, by far the most lacking skill these days it seems

that's an insult to some real MEs on this forum, no?? ...u shoud know better than to touch sh*t with ur bear hands....ur master is just as horrible as the mix itself only worse 'cause u added mud and useless sub bass frequencies (waht makes u think that's the correct eq for that style anyway??).......sorry unacajesse i kno tha's not wah u wanna hear.........

[Jesse Graffam]

Originally Posted by It'sJoeAgain

that's an insult to some real MEs on this forum, no?? ...u shoud know better than to touch sh*t with ur bear hands....ur master is just as horrible as the mix itself only worse 'cause u added mud and useless sub bass frequencies (waht makes u think that's the correct eq for that style anyway??).......sorry unacajesse i kno tha's not wah u wanna hear.........

Lol, nah. A real ME has a pretty darn good handle on EQ, don't you reckon? I can't imagine it any other way.

Anyways, did you listen to my "advice" with equal loudness? I didn't use anything but EQ, so it's not squished like the others (or should I say I didn't re-squish the peak control I lost in EQing). Can you imagine that the loudness actually makes a difference to how "good" something sounds? I know right? It's almost like this whole loudness war was not totally awesome, duuuude.



And.... I don't just have bear hands... I come fully equipped:



J :P


p.s.
http://stashbox.org/560320/after.png
http://stashbox.org/560323/jessegafter.png
the "mud" doesn't curve any differently on average than the 1st after. yes it has some bass, no it doesn't have an un-natural crazy hump by 10kHz. it's what i wanted to hear, something natural. hey.... i have to go. going to a Swedish All-I-Can-Eat Pancake Breakfast :D right nowwwww

[It'sJoeAgain]

squashed or not..still caca de perro....

[Jesse Graffam]

I can't disagree there @ the original. Can you even tell what he's saying for more than like 3-4 words? I can't. lol

[wado1942]

Not often, but sometimes I get a mix that so bad, any processing at all just makes it worse. In a case like that, I just have to adjust the level so it sits with the other songs on the album.

[chironomidae]

thanks again for the feedback. Yeah I'm not doin this for money, I'm doin this for a friend. I'm just trying to learn here, and I figure the only way I can really learn is by working on unmastered music. I can read and listen all day long, but in the end I don't think I can learn anything without working on raw tracks. This is pretty raw though...

plus, I should mention the other tracks on the disc aren't this bad. I started with what I felt was the worst recorded.