Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Vocals too high in the mix? Too low? Not even sure? Snare sounds wonky? And how do I make everything louder than everything else? Step in, step in, for your mix Viagra from people who know the secrets.
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rayc
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Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Post by rayc »

I was going to put this in the Listen section but figured thta it might be more appropriate in mastering as it has been mastered.
I used Fran Ashcroft from Happy Beat.
He's done the last few things I've done - the stuff with more guitar and fewer effects.

Any thoughts or comments on the final mix (though I won't remix I will take notes) and the mastering?
Cheers
rayc
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JD01
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Re: Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Post by JD01 »

First thought - its fucking loud!
Sounds great though, ray. It sounds like something that's been done professionally. So, did you just send them your best mix with no mastering limiters on it and tell them to crack on?

I think its the best version I've heard of this tune though.
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Greg_L
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Re: Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Post by Greg_L »

Yeah that bad boy is loud. Her vocals sometimes get a little grating in the high mids, but it's not too bad. Pretty fairly clear and punchy. Pretty good overall.
Rebel Yell
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rayc
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Re: Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Post by rayc »

James,
Yeah, I used Wetransfer to send .wav file of a relatively clean mix. No comp, no limiter and no FX other than a little EQ, (a tiny notch out at 98Hz and a little high shelf). He's in the UK - Happy Beat Records.
Thanks for your kind words.
Greg,
I noticed that in the mixes I sent and tried to address it but it seems to result of the engineer Trudy used to record the vox with in a "prof" studio. The files I received from the session were, frankly, awful even to my cloth ears. I wasn't able to deal with it without doing further damage. He seems to have used a clean up filter on the vocals after the session to remove noise etc.
Thanks also for the kind words.

LOUD did you blokes say? yeah, comes in at -1 when I pulled it into Reaper. It was a VERY quiet mix. I didn't actually notice the volume as I have my upstairs comp fairly quiet.
Cost me UK25 which is about AUS$45.
Cheers
rayc
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rammer24
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Re: Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Post by rammer24 »

Everything clear and balanced well. But that's a mix thing. I think you should take most of the credit for this sounding good. Do you know what he did in the mastering? He made it louder than a fucker, I know that. Hopefully he did more than that. Love those drums in a box. Thet blow me away every time I hear them.
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Tadpui
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Re: Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Post by Tadpui »

Nice one, Ray. After having heard several preliminary mixes for this one, I do have to agree that this is the best I've heard it sound. It's got a lot of upper mids in it, maybe that's what contributes to making it sound and feel loud. Not a ton of bass in it, which is a little surprising. It's definitely cool to hear something that's been mastered by a pro though. I'd be curious to see what kind of signal chain he put it through.
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Tadpui
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Re: Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Post by Tadpui »

double double post post
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rayc
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Re: Heart Shaped Bruise - Professionally Mastered.

Post by rayc »

Thanks Rami & Tadpui for your generosity.
Yep, the BIAB drums aren't bad - and this drum track was the 1st time I'd use the prog as well.
Here's an MP3 of the .wav file I sent for mastering. It has a little high shelf for brightness and a 3 dB notch at 98Hz because there was a LOT of bass happening.
HSB030417onlyEQ.mp3
On the mastered version the bass slopes off from 50Hz and on the mix it's almost exactly the same.
What can you hear has changed (apart form the Soundcloud treatment I suppose?
The ME said "The low and mids responded really well."
I assume he did something there, maybe added a tiny bit of reverb & compression then made it LOUD but I can't really tell.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Cheers
rayc
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