Pink Noise....The goal in Mastering?

[ianbryn11]

Im just wondering how many of you strive for Pink Noise when your mastering material?

I dont have a pink noise generator, or anythig like that, but i do find that many of my tracks resemble the general shape of (what i understand to be) pink noise on a graphic EQ, particularly the one in Ozone 4... A peak at the bass side, and a general slope down to the treble end....

Am i over simplifying it?

How do you guys use your knowledge of Pink noise to help you create better sounding tracks?

[ianbryn11]

Just remembered i took some screen shots last week.... Here is one of them... This was the image on the paragraphic EQ in Ozone after i was done mastering the song... Would this be a pink noise shape? IS this even how you would measure pink noise? or do you have to use a frequency analyzer?

I see this general shape quite frequently when i check mixes... Its usally a bit different for every song... But its always similar...

Ive always liked to hear the bass in music, so i admittedly mix things a bit bass heavy sometimes.. I think the tracks sound good! But i dont know much in the scheme of audio engineering, and particularly mastering...

Anyone are to comment?

[cooker]

Originally Posted by ianbryn11

Im just wondering how many of you strive for Pink Noise when your mastering material?

I dont have a pink noise generator, or anythig like that, but i do find that many of my tracks resemble the general shape of (what i understand to be) pink noise on a graphic EQ, particularly the one in Ozone 4... A peak at the bass side, and a general slope down to the treble end....

Am i over simplifying it?

How do you guys use your knowledge of Pink noise to help you create better sounding tracks?

You can download a pink noise sample from Bob Katz page if you need it. Before a pro ME writes comments, let me share mine as I thought the same thing some time ago.

First of all if you check more masters, you'll see graphs that resemble white or brown noise curves too and this isn't based on the type of music. So I guess this is enough to say that changing the responce to pink noise isn't a standard if anyone thought of that.

What it can be useful is though if you're unsure of fixing a freq. an analyzer might help you with that while choosing frequency. But this isn't a 100% working approach, try if you like and tune a mix to pink noise perfectly and you'll realise it will lose character (and sound harsh).

You might like what you're hearing but when comparing to pro masters you'll notice that its not a preferable sound. Also keep in mind that there's various ways to manipulate/hide a change of an analyzers response (multiband comp. , coloration, LP eq...).

Edit: The responce doesn't look much like pink noise (keep in mind pink noise looks like a straight line with an angle). If I remember right ozone had a pink noise reference curve inside it.

[MASSIVE Master]

Originally Posted by ianbryn11

How do you guys use your knowledge of Pink noise to help you create better sounding tracks?

I think most of us (and that goes all the way back to tracking - Worrying about stuff like this during the mastering phase is like deciding what to cook by how high the flames are) just strive for things to sound good.

The fact that the frequency response on a RTA (which I think you'll find few actually using) resembles 1/f pink is just a natural coincidence. We're certainly not actively trying to make a mix "look" a certain way...

[ianbryn11]

Cool... i try to use my ears as much as possible and not rely on RTA.. That being said i have checked it out on occasion... But im more talking about the gragh on Ozone...

And, as far as a graph of pink noise, Pink noise - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

there is one on this definition which is what im basing my info on... But im still a bit uncler on how to use these pink, brown and white noise graphs in music production....

[ianbryn11]

Originally Posted by cooker

You can download a pink noise sample from Bob Katz page if you need it.

Do you have a link to his site? id be very interested in hearing an audible example of pink noise, also brown and white....

Id also be interested in hearing a song that comes close to either. pink, brown or white noise. So i can put it into context with how music sounds....

[cooker]

Originally Posted by ianbryn11

Do you have a link to his site? id be very interested in hearing an audible example of pink noise, also brown and white....

Id also be interested in hearing a song that comes close to either. pink, brown or white noise. So i can put it into context with how music sounds....

The wikipedia link you gave already has noise example, no need to rush for info you can download the noise sample here: Digital Domain

I didn't take note's about what song is closer to which curve but you can try yourself.

Also keep in mind pink noise is also used for tuning rooms, this might be the reason mixes are familiar to that curve too.

[Cellotron]

Pink noise is occasionally useful as a calibration tool - and I've got a couple generators (one in my Amek Medici, another digitally using the Brainspawn Tonegen plugin that is available for SAWStudio free at Brainspawn - Freeware Plugins for SAWStudio ) - but beyond that it never occurs to me as a "goal" when I'm mastering - ever.

Just make it sound good! Honestly trying to make things more complicated than that really doesn't make sense.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Adam Dempsey]

Originally Posted by ianbryn11

Am i over simplifying it?

Just over-analyzing it. Noise types are primarily calibration tools.

Originally Posted by ianbryn11

How do you guys use your knowledge of Pink noise to help you create better sounding tracks?

The only time I can think of ever putting it directly to use is in using an azimuth calibration cassette test tape.

[ianbryn11]

Originally Posted by cooker

The wikipedia link you gave already has noise example, no need to rush for info

Ha, i just saw those sound clips at the bottom of the wiki page... Thanks for pointing that out... My mixes sound way better than those clips...

I'm on a roll this week with stupid threads...

But, im learning, so much thanks for the explanations...

[Frisbieinstein]

Originally Posted by ianbryn11

Im just wondering how many of you strive for Pink Noise when your mastering material?

I dont have a pink noise generator, or anythig like that, but i do find that many of my tracks resemble the general shape of (what i understand to be) pink noise on a graphic EQ, particularly the one in Ozone 4... A peak at the bass side, and a general slope down to the treble end....

Am i over simplifying it?

How do you guys use your knowledge of Pink noise to help you create better sounding tracks?

Sure. That's why they called them Pink Floyd.