The Big Day Part Three: The Master

June 1, 2018 Liam Peacock

Hi folks, welcome back to the series where I talk about how I wrote, mixed, and now mastered the track, the Big Day.

The track was written to be placed on wedding videos, emotional content, that sort of thing. Take a listen to the final version of the track down below in the YouTube video. Remember, while you’re there, please like and share the video, drop a comment, really helps me out!

What is Mastering?

Although I have answered this question before in previous track walkthroughs, I think its necessary to explain Mastering, at least in brief.

Mastering in this case is the process of preparing the mix for release. That means applying EQ to the whole mix, using multi-band compression, limiters, maybe another reverb. A lot of this is track dependant and certainly context is necessary. If this track were going in to an album, my process would be quite different.

The first thing to think about is the signal chain. What I am referring to here, is the order in which you place your plugins. For example, I could place a compression plugin on the mix track, and then an EQ plugin. The problem here, is that Compression is about volume management (to a point) and so is EQ but in different ways. EQ boosts the volume of certain ranges or bands of frequencies in the frequency spectrum. Compression reduces the peaks in the waveform to be more in line with the rest of the waveform, so you can then increase the overall volume of the track without running into clipping issues where the peaks were original.

Very basic and not very technical explanation right there but let’s go with it.

So, if the EQ is first in the signal chain, then whatever the Compressor does after that is applied to the sound or waveform AFTER the EQ has done its job.

Now we’ve got that out of the way I’ll start explaining the plugins I used and their order in the signal chain.

First, the EQ

With the EQ applied first in the signal chain, it presents the first opportunity to sculpt the sound and shape it for reproduction and distribution.

I applied a cut to the frequencies below 32hz, just to roll off some of that low-end rumble that most speakers won’t be able to play. I did this because I know that most of you listening to my music, are not listening to it on perfect sound systems with the ability to play these frequencies.

I also boosted some frequencies, mainly the High Mid Frequencies (HMF on the image) and the HF (High/Higher Frequencies).

I boosted the HMF by 0.7db, just to increase the presence of a lot of the instrumentation, especially those with the melodies with parts that play in a higher octave, therefore a higher frequency range. These kinds of parts stick out to the listener anyway, because of a thing called psychoacoustics but gently boosting them doesn’t necessarily hurt.

And then I boosted some of the HF by about 2db above the 5.8khz range, just to increase the presence of instruments like cymbals, sticks, hi-hats, whatever it might be.

Next in the signal chain, we have…

The Compressor

As I discussed above, the compressor should follow the EQ in most cases. You could even apply another EQ after the compressor, to further shape the sound. Anyway, the Compressor.

Now there is a lot of information to unpack when you look at that image, but the important thing is really to understand what a Multi-Band Compressor does. A Multi-Band Compressor allows me or whomever, to apply different types of compression, to different bands of the frequency spectrum. So if I have a lot of percussion in the low end of the spectrum, that requires a different attack (how quickly it takes the compressor to react to the incoming signal), then I can apply settings to deal with that, while not affecting the other bands of spectrum. Naturally, this means I can apply different settings to the other bands. Scalpel vs Chainsaw.

Because of the nature of the track, being relatively slow and melodic, there wasn’t a great deal I needed to do with multi-band compression so taking a stock pre-set and tweaking it here and there to audible taste was enough.

Signal Chain Part 3, the Limiter

The Limiter is similar to a Compressor, in that it challenges the dynamics of the track. Essentially, the Limiter cuts audio above a certain threshold, allowing the Mastering Engineer to create a louder track, without clipping and screwing up your headphones.

Basically, the way I use a Limiter, it’s the last stage to make sure that the track isn’t clipping. I only apply a Limiter once I am completely happy with the sound of my master.

And that’s it. That’s pretty much everything I did when Mastering this track. If you have any questions, anything, in particular, you’re interested in, let me know by dropping a comment down below and I’ll get back to you!