Mastering (Logic Pro, Mac)

[prozeyic]

I have little to no idea on how to master in Logic.

The main thing I'm worried about is all the clipping, and I have barely any idea what to do when it comes to limiting and compression.

Can anyone give me advice or link me to some tutorials/guides on basic mastering in Logic?

[itroitnyah]

Don't mix at high volumes and you'll avoid clipping. Mastering is mostly just to level out of the frequencies on the frequency chart, and louden the song. Although there may be more to it than that. Just use a multiband compressor to compress certain parts of the song down to equal volume levels and do some very light EQing and a bit more compression to make sure that the song's overall volume isn't fluctuating a ton, and then put a limiter on there and boost the gain slightly to make the song louder.

Do everything very lightly to make sure that you don't overcompress or over EQ the song and make it sound weird.

Here's a little tutorial that is made with FL in mind, but you can use with any DAW pretty much: beep

here's another guide

[prozeyic]

The issue is more because I don't know where things are and what order I should put things in with Logic. Reason looks like a real rack which means everything is wired together so you can literally follow the cable. All I did in the mastering phase in Reason was used the mastering suite with a compressor, equaliser and maximiser. Not sure what the order was. As far as I know the compressor level'd out the song volume wise. I'd boost the mids by a tiny bit with the equaliser and I'd use the maximiser as a limiter so the song wouldn't clip too much.

But in Logic it isn't as simply laid out. I'm not sure what order I should do things in and what I should use.

[itroitnyah]

It should just follow the line of plugins from top to bottom or left to right just as you would read a book.

[S.P.P]

I always add these plug-ins to the master track in this order:

1. EQ:Cut -30hz and +18khz
2. Compressor: Light overall compression to 'glue the track together'.
3. Multiband compressor: Light compression on the low, mid, and high individually.
4. EQ: Finalise the EQ after the light compression. Boost and reduce where needed.
5. Ad Limiter: Finish up the gain level of the track.


I use Logic Pro 9 at college, if you'd like you can send me an unmastered wav and I'll screen-cap a video of what I do with it? PM me or something.

[prozeyic]

I know what most of that means but I don't know how to do it .-.

[itroitnyah]

Alright, start with an EQ unit. Cut with a HP at ~25Hz, and with a LP at around 18kHz. Add on a compressor, and put a low threshold of about -20 to -25dB and a compression ratio of a bit lower than 2:1 with a quick 50-75ms attack and about 150ms release. Add on the multiband compressor and for the low end of the compressor, put a -20 or so threshold with a really low compression ratio of barely higher than 1.2:1, for the middle have a threshold of a bit lower than -10dB and a low compression ratio, for the high end make the threshold a bit higher then -10dB and low compression, and then boost or change the gains as needed. Add in a nother EQ unit, and boost some frequencies around the 6kHz-8kHz range. Add a limiter and set the ceiling to -0.3dB, and boost the gain enough to louden it without distortion. Then you can just play around with the knobs a bit on the multiband compressor to get it to sound a bit better, there isn't a surefire way to master correctly, a lot of it is by ear. And another tip, just after you finish a song take a week break from listening to or working on that song before you master it. It'll help give you a bit of a fresh perspective on the song and master it better.

[Nine Volt]

Why would you cut above 18kHz? Most people can hear stuff several kHz above that. If anything, cut above like 20-21Khz

[the4thImpulse]

Why would you cut above 18kHz? Most people can hear stuff several kHz above that. If anything, cut above like 20-21Khz

Correction: Most people never hear above 20kHz, even then that's typically when they are young and their ears have not been damaged to the extent of a regular adults. Some few people can still hear above 20kHz in their young adult life, but that's very rare. The highest frequency most middle aged adults can hear is only 12-16 kHz. I know I can only hear up to 17kHz.

[S.P.P]

Some people can hear frequencies 18kHz+, but it seems redundant to have those frequencies sitting there. The main body of the instruments are likely to be sitting lower in the spectrum than that, surely? Why not remove those frequencies and tidy up the mix a little? That's how I see it anyway, and by no means is this THE correct way, neither is yours THE correct way. There's no definitive way to master, same as with mixing. Whatever works, right? ^_^

[Nine Volt]

I'm pretty sure I can hear above 21.6kHz. I just checked it out with multiple sounds and it was pretty clear. 21.6kHz is the highest my HP filter will go, plus I EQ'd out everything below that incase my HP didn't quite do it. Unless that's an unreliable test (I did it with white noise, a plain saw wave, and a plain square wave).

[S.P.P]

That's an impressive hearing range! Fair play if you master that way. I'll start cutting higher, just for you 9V. So you can get all the high frequency goodness out of it. :3

[the4thImpulse]

I'm pretty sure I can hear above 21.6kHz. I just checked it out with multiple sounds and it was pretty clear. 21.6kHz is the highest my HP filter will go, plus I EQ'd out everything below that incase my HP didn't quite do it. Unless that's an unreliable test (I did it with white noise, a plain saw wave, and a plain square wave).

A filter is not the most reliable way of doing it due to its natural roll off slope. Try a pure sine wave generator, one where you can sweep the frequency up a down.

We are getting really off topic here.

These are some videos on mastering, they use my favorite mastering plugin but it costs $250. The techniques can still be applied to any mastering plugin (EQ, compressor ect..)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Um-4oL ... sults_main

[JSynth]

But in Logic it isn't as simply laid out. I'm not sure what order I should do things in and what I should use.

At the most basic level, use these effects:
- Channel EQ (EQ > Channel EQ > Stereo)
- Multipressor (Dynamics > Multipressor > Stereo)
- Adaptive Limiter (Dynamics > Adaptive Limiter > Stereo)

The Adaptive Limiter should always be last and the EQ is usually first.

Beyond that, I can't really give you the best advice. I'm still a little new to mastering, and I don't want to hand out bad tips.

Edit:

Why would you cut above 18kHz? Most people can hear stuff several kHz above that. If anything, cut above like 20-21Khz

Any noise in that range is going to be irritating. It's not uncommon for producers to cut out that range, if not greatly lower the volume.