Tips and Tricks for At-Home Audio Production
Whether you’re just getting started as a musician and you’re not sure what to do or you simply don’t have the budget, not everyone is going to hire an engineer to master their album. I’ve been there. I get it.
So, you’ve gotten together with your friends, you’ve recorded your album, you’ve rested up for the night and in the morning? Well, in the morning it doesn’t quite sound the way you heard it in your head. What do you do to get it cleaned up? A few quick and dirty Google searches? Maybe load up that copy of Fruity Loops that you pirated back in 2003?
I’ve seen just about every amateur mastering technique over the years, and I’ve seen just how much of a pain they can be. Please, let me share with you a couple of the tricks and common mistakes that I’ve picked up.
Your Limiter Matters!
A limiter is going to smooth out the peaks in your audio track and prevent clipping. Great for vocal tracks and instruments like drums that tend to come in fast and loud. Unfortunately, a lot of people mastering their own work just toss a stock limiter plugin or an instance of Izotope Ozone onto their main bus and call it a day. If you are truly overwhelmed by all of the options and jargon out there then there are algorithms that can do quite a bit of work for you automatically. You certainly aren’t going to sound studio quality, but there are worse choices out there!
However, if you’re looking for a bit more control over the process, I like to use something like Fab Filter Pro L2, which offers quite a bit more information and control.
Smooth That Sibilance!
For those out there with the ear for it, harsh “S” sounds are a hallmark of amateur mastering. There are a few ways to reduce this. First and most basic, keeping the microphone around 6-8 inches away from your mouth and angling it towards you affects the sound dramatically. With a bit of testing you’ll find you’ll find the sweet spot for your individual microphone.
Naturally, your microphone choice will make a big impact as well. Sibilance lives in the higher frequencies - the 3-9 Khz range - and so microphones that pick up higher ranges will also pick up harsher S sounds. Plenty of microphones that work better in lower ranges are sold as specifically “vocal mics” for that reason. The best rule of thumb is to look for something with a “darker” sound.
Finally, if you’d like to keep the lighter airy tones of the higher ranges intact but lose the S’s, there are some professional tools that you can use for the job. My personal choice here is Oeksound Soothe 2, which is quite easy to use as it does quite a bit of work algorithmically.
Final Words
The fact is, mastering is far from a throwaway step. In a very real sense, the master is the album. The last thing that you want is muddy, floppy low-end sound gunking up something that you’ve worked so hard on. If you’d like to learn more, I’d love to have a chat about your latest project.