How to sqash a song and minimize noise
in [Audio Recording]
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From: yrret on 24 Jun 2008 13:15 Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't something I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have been pretty good. But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not sure how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches?
From: Scott Dorsey on 24 Jun 2008 13:32 In article <XY98k.27903$Jx.17831(a)pd7urf1no>, yrret <bat(a)ahell.com> wrote: >Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't something >I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have been >pretty good. > >But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to >give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not sure >how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches? When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts louder. If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise much worse. Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start out with very quiet material. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
From: yrret on 24 Jun 2008 14:09 "Scott Dorsey" <kludge(a)panix.com> wrote in message news:g3rb3a$f4f$1(a)panix2.panix.com... > In article <XY98k.27903$Jx.17831(a)pd7urf1no>, yrret <bat(a)ahell.com> wrote: >>Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't >>something >>I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have >>been >>pretty good. >> >>But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to >>give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not >>sure >>how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches? > > When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts > louder. > > If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise > much > worse. > > Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start > out > with very quiet material. > --scott > -- Quiet, as in the original recording needs to happen at low levels. Or the first mix needs to be very quiet? Or both?
From: Scott Dorsey on 24 Jun 2008 14:44 In article <eLa8k.49467$gc5.28081(a)pd7urf2no>, yrret <bat(a)ahell.com> wrote: >"Scott Dorsey" <kludge(a)panix.com> wrote in message >news:g3rb3a$f4f$1(a)panix2.panix.com... >> In article <XY98k.27903$Jx.17831(a)pd7urf1no>, yrret <bat(a)ahell.com> wrote: >>>Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't >>>something >>>I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have >>>been >>>pretty good. >>> >>>But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to >>>give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not >>>sure >>>how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches? >> >> When you compress, you're making loud parts quieter and quiet parts >> louder. >> >> If the original track has noise in it, compressing will make the noise >> much >> worse. >> >> Consequently if you intend on squishing very heavily, you need to start >> out >> with very quiet material. > >Quiet, as in the original recording needs to happen at low levels. Or the >first mix needs to be very quiet? Or both? There has to be a very low noise floor on the original recording. Any noise you have will be exaggerated phenomenally when the compression kicks in. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
From: Badmuts on 24 Jun 2008 16:30
"yrret" <bat(a)ahell.com> wrote in message news:XY98k.27903$Jx.17831(a)pd7urf1no... > Lately I've been doing a lot of mixing and mastering, which isn't something > I've done much of in the past. Its improving, most of my efforts have been > pretty good. > > But for a couple tracks of hard, almost metal music I can't quite seem to > give that hard crush without giving it a gleam of white noise. I'm not sure > how to attack it. Any suggestions or approaches? - Don't squash it that hard and keep some of the dynamics. The end result might sound much more impressive. - Don't squash the entire song but only the parts that need it. Use automation on the plugin, or use your hands on the hardware. - Edit some of the noise out of the original material using a noise reduction algorithm or eq on quiet/noisy parts. Watch out you don't degrade the material. Or, even better, if you're the mixer, re-mix the material so that the noise is out of the quiet parts (muting or lowering volume of instruments etc. not producing sound) - Have the mastering done by someone else. Doing both mixing and mastering is not always a good idea. |