Livesets and mastering

Cheaper · Post by **Cheaper** » Sun Jan 31, 2010 8:22 pm

Hi freaks

Theres often a great difference between mastered and unmastered tracks, and i was wondering if artists doing Livesets are getting their stuff (loops etc) mastered or not.

I plan to build a liveset myself, i had some tracks mastered professionally and they do not sound the same when i play live (which is kinda normal)

any thoughts ?

TMPprod · Post by **TMPprod** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:20 am

Flag ! I'm interested in an answer too

lcvl · Post by **lcvl** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 10:29 am

If you play live using finished stereo mixes, having them mastered might make a difference (mostly depending on the quality of the PA of the venue).
Otherwise, if you assemble your tracks live mixing and matching loops and samples, I think the best you can do is stack a few, well chosen plugins on the master bus and let your set play through that mastering chain.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 10:33 am

There was a thread with some info about this somewhere. I have no idea what it was called though.

It would be quite interesting if you were using, for exmaple Ableton live, and you could send your live set to an M.E. and they set up some compression and e.q.ing or whatever and then sent it back to you.

thomasjaldemark · Post by **thomasjaldemark** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 11:56 am

lcvl wrote:If you play live using finished stereo mixes, having them mastered might make a difference (mostly depending on the quality of the PA of the venue)..

"live"

lcvl · Post by **lcvl** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:26 pm

thomasjaldemark wrote:
lcvl wrote:If you play live using finished stereo mixes, having them mastered might make a difference (mostly depending on the quality of the PA of the venue)..
"live"

right.

daveashe · Post by **daveashe** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:41 pm

'Fake' kick drum track for live stuff, to use as the sidechain on the master compressor(s).

Then, if you want to play mastered stuff, don't put the fake kick on that channel and it wont be affected.

Also, send your live stuff +3db and set no gain (0db not -3/-6 whatever db) on your limiter, so live stuff will get processed using the limiter, but already limited stuff will be played without further processing.

Then you can do both at the same time (much more flexible)

damagedgoods · Post by **damagedgoods** » Mon Feb 01, 2010 2:36 pm

daveashe wrote:'Fake' kick drum track for live stuff, to use as the sidechain on the master compressor(s).

Then, if you want to play mastered stuff, don't put the fake kick on that channel and it wont be affected.

Also, send your live stuff +3db and set no gain (0db not -3/-6 whatever db) on your limiter, so live stuff will get processed using the limiter, but already limited stuff will be played without further processing.

Then you can do both at the same time (much more flexible)

Or you can just set up two subgroups, one clean, one with the "mastering processing" (if you feel your tracks need it).

If the club PA is up for it then your set might sound better without anything on the master bus, provided it's mixed well. Less limiting = more punch. Provided, of course, you've got enough headroom.