? Mastering with Multiple Tracks

[SideBMusic]

I don't know where I picked this up or if I made it up myself. I'll mixdown the guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion, etc. separately and bring them into separate tracks in a new document for mastering. I've been doing my own mastering because I haven't been producing CD's/albums. I'll put the mastering plugins on the output channel and adjust the tracks for a final mix.

 

I was wondering if anyone else does this and if there are advantages and disadvantages?

[triplets]

You're doing submixes, very common.

[SideBMusic]

triplets, as I said, can't remember why I got into doing that. Is there a particular reason people do submixes?

[triplets]

Because compressors and reverbs might react differently when only certain instruments are hitting them.

[SideBMusic]

I'd like to understand this correctly. Would mixing down a group of tracks and applying a compressor be affected differently than if the group of tracks used a send from the same bus?

[triplets]

You mean using a send for parallel compression?

[David Nahmani]

I'd like to understand this correctly. Would mixing down a group of tracks and applying a compressor be affected differently than if the group of tracks used a send from the same bus?

A send would be used for a parallel compression routing, and that would not give you the same results, no, since you are mixing in some dry signal with the compressed signal. But if you meant mixing down a group of tracks to compress the sub-mix vs sub-mixing the group of tracks by routing them all to the same bus (via their output routing, not via sends) and applying the compression on the Aux that receives that bus, then it's the same thing.

 

Mastering with stems can give more flexibility to the mastering engineer, that's almost kinda like giving him some mixing duties. If you are both mixing and mastering the song then it's really up to you and your workflow really. But IMO if you're going to compress groups then this should be done in the mix as it may affect the way you're going to mix the song (and the way you EQ things, pan them, etc etc...).

[Holger Lagerfeldt]

If the mastering engineer asks for stems, it is in order to optimize something in a way that would not be possible in a regular stereo mixdown without a (serious) compromise.

 

Example: Requesting the a cappella and instrumental separately to fix a serious problem in the vocals, or getting the bass separately from the rest of the music in order to control a sub problem without affecting the kick drum. Usually as few stems as possible.

 

In this case it is still a fairly objective procedure.

 

-

 

If the producer or artist, who mixed the song himself, asks the mastering engineer to use stems it is often because the producer or artist is not satisfied with the mix, and believes it cannot be addressed in a stereo mixdown. Or it could be due to an uncertainty about the mastering procedure (in which case the mastering engineer should inform the client) or a lack of budget to have the song properly mixed and seeking to get it fixed in the mastering instead.

 

In this case it is a borderline mixing job for the mastering engineer. Discussing the wishes of the client is always important, but it becomes even more important when strong subjective elements are introduced into the equation.

 

The risk of errors on part of the producer or artist increases since routing, sum compression, etc. might change the levels and sound during stem bouncing. Remember to always compare the stems with a stereo mixdown of the same mix.

 

Example: drums, bass, guitars, lead synth, pads/strings, lead vocal, backing vocals. All processed. This allows for quite subjective processing, re-balancing, etc. The stems are either processed and mixed down to a stereo file and subjected to subsequent stereo mastering or the stems are summed and live sum processed.

 

-

 

It is very rare that a good mix engineer will send multiple stems for mastering since a mix engineer will generally deliver a mix that sounds like he wanted it to sound. A good mastering engineer will elevate that stereo mix or get out of the way if the mix is perfect.

 

However, it is common for the mix engineer to supply an instrumental, an a cappella, and perhaps a vocal up version. Sometimes a singback version (with the lead removed).

 

-

 

I don't know where I picked this up or if I made it up myself. I'll mixdown the guitars, bass, keyboards, percussion, etc. separately and bring them into separate tracks in a new document for mastering. I've been doing my own mastering because I haven't been producing CD's/albums. I'll put the mastering plugins on the output channel and adjust the tracks for a final mix.

 

I was wondering if anyone else does this and if there are advantages and disadvantages?

A good mix can stand on its own. Mastering of a good mix will rarely require stems.

 

The disadvantages of postponing mix duties to the mastering stage are many: potential routing or muting errors, external side-chain compression or gating and sum compression (or any other sum dynamics) changing the sound during stem bouncing,and last but not least re-balancing the whole track during stem mastering and making unnecessary compromises.

[SideBMusic]

Great info. Thanks for your replies.