Reference material

- ask away
steevio
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 3495
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:18 pm
Location: wales UK
Contact:

Re: Reference material

Post by steevio »

yes good advice,

the only problem i see is that the correct material is totally subjective.

personally i like music to breath and have lots of dynamics, whereas some people prefer their music to be compressed to fck and pumping. its all just personal taste.

it has to be music you aspire too, stuff you're influenced by. go through your music collection and pick out your favourite tunes.
User avatar
SafeandSound
mnml newbie
mnml newbie
Posts: 20
Joined: Mon Feb 06, 2012 4:52 pm
Location: London UK
Contact:

Re: Reference material

Post by SafeandSound »

steevio wrote:yes good advice,

the only problem i see is that the correct material is totally subjective.

personally i like music to breath and have lots of dynamics, whereas some people prefer their music to be compressed to fck and pumping. its all just personal taste.

it has to be music you aspire too, stuff you're influenced by. go through your music collection and pick out your favourite tunes.
Agreed but with a successful track the likely hood of it being mixed well and mastered competently will be higher (though not exclusively) and therefore it can serve as a ballpark reference. Most people know if they want a dark warm track or a bright in your face sound, vibe choices. These are global tonal choices. Then you have mix balance choices and instrumental tonal choices, kick, snare, hats, bass leads etc. Usually the bottom end whilst different relatively speaking with different "vibe" of tracks should traverse an aperture that works for clubs and dance music. So yes subjective but a good end result can still have creative technical differences but still work nicely.

Music is not meant to sound the same, but references are useful much the same way as a guitarist learns the licks of their favourite player, musicality is mean to express something, you yourself know what the music means and what you wish to express.

Translation is not easy to judge on compromised systems, that why a hell of a lot of people are willing to pay someone who can factor in a mass of knowledge, kit and objectivity and aim and fire it at your track.

If it was easy we would not be bothering to do such work whether hard hours put in crafting a track or technical work and people would not operate commercial studios as there would be no value in the knowledge. But with time comes experience.

cheers

SafeandSound Mastering
Professional mastering
steevio
mnml maxi
mnml maxi
Posts: 3495
Joined: Fri Dec 23, 2005 12:18 pm
Location: wales UK
Contact:

Re: Reference material

Post by steevio »

i agree to an extent, but this is a contempary view based on current ideas of what constitutes a standard loud dance music master,
personally this doesnt interest me, i just listen to the music, if it sounds good and grabs me then thats the most important thing. If i hear a track that sounds right to my ears, than i will aspire to its production no matter how that was attained.
I can pick 10 tracks out of my thousands of records which 'just sound right' to me, i may never know who mastered it or what hardware/software were used in the process, but they are the yardsticks with which i judge my own work. i wouldnt expect anyone to pick the exact same records, and i'd say it would be a miracle if anyone did.
i'd pick the tunes which do it for me, thats all i'm advising anyone here to do.

some of those tracks came out of the oven just right.

there is the phenomena of over-production, personally i prefer raw live sounding music, i've never liked music that sounds like it's been painstakingly laboured over,

personal taste must be considered.

as a guitarist, personally i prefer John Lee Hooker to BB King
Dal-Tech
mnml mmbr
mnml mmbr
Posts: 237
Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:34 pm
Location: NY, USA From DFW, USA
Contact:

Re: Reference material

Post by Dal-Tech »

Who's good at digital mastering?
Dal-Tech wrote: Everyone else is trying to be cool, not me.
hey everybody : I'm a douche !
Dal-Tech
mnml mmbr
mnml mmbr
Posts: 237
Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:34 pm
Location: NY, USA From DFW, USA
Contact:

Re: Reference material

Post by Dal-Tech »

Having reference material is a little anal unless you are an audio engineer. My advice is leave your music unmastered and pay someone to master it if the tracks is really good and you want to release it. Most of the dance music out there annoys people and is pretty crap so how it's mastered really doesn't matter.
Dal-Tech wrote: Everyone else is trying to be cool, not me.
hey everybody : I'm a douche !
User avatar
John Clees
mnml admn
mnml admn
Posts: 7708
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:21 am
Location: walk the e[art]h : detroit-metro.
Contact:

Re: Reference material

Post by John Clees »

can you give sound clips/references of tracks your company has mastered...?
as in a clip of the before and a clip of the after?
:-flower
Dal-Tech
mnml mmbr
mnml mmbr
Posts: 237
Joined: Fri Jun 19, 2009 6:34 pm
Location: NY, USA From DFW, USA
Contact:

Re: Reference material

Post by Dal-Tech »

John Clees wrote:can you give sound clips/references of tracks your company has mastered...?
as in a clip of the before and a clip of the after?
:-flower
er, what? Maybe you are referring to someone else.
Dal-Tech wrote: Everyone else is trying to be cool, not me.
hey everybody : I'm a douche !
User avatar
John Clees
mnml admn
mnml admn
Posts: 7708
Joined: Mon Mar 07, 2005 4:21 am
Location: walk the e[art]h : detroit-metro.
Contact:

Re: Reference material

Post by John Clees »

SafeandSound wrote:
steevio wrote:yes good advice,

the only problem i see is that the correct material is totally subjective.

personally i like music to breath and have lots of dynamics, whereas some people prefer their music to be compressed to fck and pumping. its all just personal taste.

it has to be music you aspire too, stuff you're influenced by. go through your music collection and pick out your favourite tunes.
Agreed but with a successful track the likely hood of it being mixed well and mastered competently will be higher (though not exclusively) and therefore it can serve as a ballpark reference. Most people know if they want a dark warm track or a bright in your face sound, vibe choices. These are global tonal choices. Then you have mix balance choices and instrumental tonal choices, kick, snare, hats, bass leads etc. Usually the bottom end whilst different relatively speaking with different "vibe" of tracks should traverse an aperture that works for clubs and dance music. So yes subjective but a good end result can still have creative technical differences but still work nicely.

Music is not meant to sound the same, but references are useful much the same way as a guitarist learns the licks of their favourite player, musicality is mean to express something, you yourself know what the music means and what you wish to express.

Translation is not easy to judge on compromised systems, that why a hell of a lot of people are willing to pay someone who can factor in a mass of knowledge, kit and objectivity and aim and fire it at your track.

If it was easy we would not be bothering to do such work whether hard hours put in crafting a track or technical work and people would not operate commercial studios as there would be no value in the knowledge. But with time comes experience.

cheers

SafeandSound Mastering
Professional mastering
I guess that may have been odd to interpret...haha.. I just assume this guy above posted the initial thread...
so my comment was directed to his "promotional response"..
Post Reply