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There's currently a great deal of controversy among audio engineers
over the pros and cons of excessive limiting and "making your CD as loud
as possible." Unfortunately, it's often necessary to allow your music to
compete in the pop music world. Be careful though: Applying too much
limiting to your music can make it fatiguing and unpleasant to listen to.
•
Keep it transparent—In mastering, the goal of limiting is to
raise the perceived volume transparently so that you don't
hear any audible side-effects of the process itself. This is
usually best achieved with very fast attack and release
settings.
•
Don't overdo it—Use care when working with the Limiter.
Too much limiting can make the music loud, but small and
wimpy at the same time.
•
If you need a little extra volume, use Soft Clip—In addition
to its signal warming effect, Soft Clip adds a bit of volume
boost to the signal.
Watch Those Output Meters!
•
Keep the output hot, but don't clip the
meters—If the signal causes the output
meters' clip indicators to light, the
sound will distort. Back off the output
section's Level (dB) control so that the
signal's loudest parts reach -1 on the
output meters.
We mentioned this earlier, but it bears repeating: During mastering, you
should set the V-Studio's MASTER fader at 0 dB to allow the MTK output
section's Level (dB) control to determine the volume of the disk image as
it's recorded.
Listening Considerations
The ultimate goal of mixing and mastering is to create a final
product that sounds great on any sound system. Your V-Studio
provides you with the tools necessary to complete that task,
but there are a few things "outside of the box" that can have a
big influence on the quality of your master CDs.
Your Speakers
While mixing and mastering, you rely on
your speakers to tell you the truth—that
is, to provide an accurate sonic picture on
which you can base your sound-shaping
decisions. When you think of it this way,
your speakers are among the most critical
components in your audio chain.
For the most accurate results, you should choose speakers
that are made to reproduce sound in an uncolored way—not
emphasizing or de-emphasizing any particular frequency areas.
This is known as a "flat frequency response. " Such speakers are
specifically designed for critical listening applications, and are
often referred to as "reference monitors" or "studio monitors. "
Most speakers that are sold in consumer electronics stores are designed to
enhance or "hype" the sound of a finished product. Because of this, they're
usually not the best choice for critical listening applications such as music
mixing and mastering.
If you're used to listening to music on consumer-type speakers, you may
find that studio monitors sound a little "unexciting" at first listen. That's
because they're reproducing the sound accurately, not hyping the sound
the way consumer speakers do. It's this very characteristic that allows you
to make the best sound judgements during mixing and mastering.
Roland DS-8 Monitors
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