Global and individual master settings.

[Stereophonic]

How many of you use global settings across an album, and how many of you zero everything before you begin the next song? (I'm referring to analog gear seeing you can only run one instance at a time) I've tried global settings and dislike the results. I find I work much faster and yield better results when I zero the gear for each song. What about you?



Timothy Stollenwerk
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[dcollins]

Originally Posted by Stereophonic

How many of you use global settings across an album, and how many of you zero everything before you begin the next song? (I'm referring to analog gear seeing you can only run one instance at a time) I've tried global settings and dislike the results. I find I work much faster and yield better results when I zero the gear for each song. What about you?

Yes, I always zero everything before going to the next song.


DC

[Virtalahde]

I zero everything, too. The makeup gain of the compressor I might leave untouched as a starting point, if the tracks are levelled well and I'm just touching with compression.

[MASSIVE Master]

I'm about there too... If it's a digital project, I have a tendency to work at a particular level. So the make-up gain on the compressor doesn't get messed with much. If it's coming off tape, it's zeroed out.

[Kayo]

Most times when the songs share a similarity in production or as a project pile.. then, apart from Input/ Compression/ Output, all things are reset to zero.
Sometimes though, things may sound good with a past set .. but the more you dig through it, you find a fresh approach worked out better.

Thus, treating a song on an individual basis, works out to be better than a batch process approach.

Cheers,
FD

[William Bowden]

Usually zero the lot, yesterday though the next track sounded great through the previous setup, and with some minor mid cuts it was on it's way. Pretty rare though unless all the guys are playing similar tonal ranges on their instruments.

I often decide on a bit of a chain when I do my initial listen through to the flat mixes all in a row, but it's subject to change at a moments notice!

I also write notes/observations on the first listen through the unmastered stuff, though I often ignore them later, but somehow I find it helps crystalize first impressions. Anyone else do this ever?

The King

[Stereophonic]

Originally Posted by William Bowden

Usually zero the lot, yesterday though the next track sounded great through the previous setup, and with some minor mid cuts it was on it's way. Pretty rare though unless all the guys are playing similar tonal ranges on their instruments.

I've had this happen a few times as well. Every 50 songs or so, a setting for one song sounds great on another. I'll usually pass the audio through the 'random' setting and then work it from scratch later in the day. It's a great reminder of the beauty in chance.

Originally Posted by William Bowden

I also write notes/observations on the first listen through the unmastered stuff, though I often ignore them later, but somehow I find it helps crystalize first impressions. Anyone else do this ever?
The King

I have never made notes, besides mental notes, on first listen. It's a great idea.

[Alécio Costa]

Several different situations here at my dayjob.

Sometimes the low end is totally nuts, sometimes the highmids are all over the place.

Yesterday I was mastering a rock alternative album and my heavy lifting analog EQ, the IBIs, was kept almost at the same setting from song to song. Just changed some notching with an ITB Linear Phase EQ .