Relationship to mastering

[kansascitydon]

Pardon me if this has been covered somewhere. I did see someone ask about it, but I'm particularly curious about certain aspects of your relationship with mastering.

1. You often seem to have a lot of bottom end in your records. How much do you a) rely on mastering to rein it in or b) do you have a way in which you like to push it harder than you think it needs to be there to trigger the mastering comp, or c) does it pretty much sound like that at an unmastered level?

2. How do you feel about the so-called "loudness wars"? Do you feel the great majority of records are over-loud, or do you just find it exciting... or something else?

3. How often have you lost control of a project at mastering when the label/artist/producer gets involved, and wants to make it something other than what you intended it to be?

4. Considering your use of buss compression, do you ever have mastering engineers complain about not "letting them do their job"?

None of these questions are intended to imply any kind of dislike for the mastering on any of your records. Quite the contrary, I love them. Just curious, as a mixer, how much to consider the impact mastering will/may have on what you're doing, and what the nature of your relationships with other people in the process looks like.

[tchadb]

Originally Posted by kansascitydon

Pardon me if this has been covered somewhere. I did see someone ask about it, but I'm particularly curious about certain aspects of your relationship with mastering.

1. You often seem to have a lot of bottom end in your records. How much do you a) rely on mastering to rein it in or b) do you have a way in which you like to push it harder than you think it needs to be there to trigger the mastering comp, or c) does it pretty much sound like that at an unmastered level?

2. How do you feel about the so-called "loudness wars"? Do you feel the great majority of records are over-loud, or do you just find it exciting... or something else?

3. How often have you lost control of a project at mastering when the label/artist/producer gets involved, and wants to make it something other than what you intended it to be?

4. Considering your use of buss compression, do you ever have mastering engineers complain about not "letting them do their job"?

None of these questions are intended to imply any kind of dislike for the mastering on any of your records. Quite the contrary, I love them. Just curious, as a mixer, how much to consider the impact mastering will/may have on what you're doing, and what the nature of your relationships with other people in the process looks like.

1. My goal in mixing is to have as little mastering as possible. I don't usually get there but the low end isn't the problem, my mixes often need top added.
2. As long as it sounds good I have no problem with volume. Depends on how you do it. I heard some of my mixes through a Finalizer and couldn't get anything close to a decent sound out of it. I've tried it several times but to no avail. I just don't like it. Now, some of the plug in limiters are sounding very good to me. McDSP, Massey, L3's on occasion. I love them. Pump it up.
3. Never.
4. Only recently Bob (Ludwig) has asked me to tone it down. I'm always quite heavy handed with new gear and all these plugs are still quite new to me.
So now I'm trying to tone it down, but louder sounds better to me too.

[wm_b]

When you deliver a mix for mastering what is the peak level you prefer?

Cheers, William