GarageBand Mastering Headache

rsherid · Apr 30, 2010

A while back I asked about mastering. I was directed to Audacity and to uncheck the "Auto Normalize" function. I thought it had worked, but now I feel like I'm back at square one. This song I'm working on (short clip at bottom) is just not loud enough despite my best efforts with Audacity.

The only thing that's made a difference that I can hear is if I turn up the master volume within GB and export it as such. However, when I do get it loud enough for my tastes, it clips as a result. Could anyone mess with it and tell me how to pump it up? It would be greatly appreciated and let me finish this thing.

Short clip: http://makeoutmusic.knoxware.org/gossipculture/mp3/what.mp3

Aniday · Apr 30, 2010

rsherid said:
A while back I asked about mastering. I was directed to Audacity and to uncheck the "Auto Normalize" function. I thought it had worked, but now I feel like I'm back at square one. This song I'm working on (short clip at bottom) is just not loud enough despite my best efforts with Audacity.

The only thing that's made a difference that I can hear is if I turn up the master volume within GB and export it as such. However, when I do get it loud enough for my tastes, it clips as a result. Could anyone mess with it and tell me how to pump it up? It would be greatly appreciated and let me finish this thing.

Short clip: http://makeoutmusic.knoxware.org/gossipculture/mp3/what.mp3

The track as a whole is fine volume-wise. However your song needs remixing. Music is overpowering your vocals. Could use some compression, as well.

ImpostorOak · Apr 30, 2010

Yeah, the synth keyboard is really overpowering. It could stand to be brought down a little, but some EQ could help the vocals stand out more too. As for making a song louder, the amplify tool in Audacity will amplify it without clipping (unless you tell it to allow clipping).

Plumbstone · May 1, 2010

Even without going back to the mix a good multiband limiter such as waves L3 could give you a quick fix, From a listen a few poi8nts that spring to mind straightaway are firstly your drums, they seem to be flamming alot, do you have some sort of slap delay on them or are they doubled up somewhere? You want your drums to be clean and punchy so would normally use eq and compression and maybe a small reverb on the snare/hats.

The music is definitely overpowered by the keyboard, turn it down by at least 5dB and roll off everything below 200Hz, try some m ild distortion or tape saturation on it too.

Finally your vocal is too dull and wet. You need to compress it quite heavily and eq loads of top end into it, less reverb too.

Mixing is a bit of a black art and does take years to get good, keep pluging away and you'll get there. If youi upload a complete version of your song somewhere you may find a kind soul will master it for you.....

rsherid · May 1, 2010

Thanks, all. These are the tips I needed.

So the problem is the mix, not the volume? Can I use the compressor in Audacity?

rsherid · May 1, 2010

ImpostorOak said:
Yeah, the synth keyboard is really overpowering. It could stand to be brought down a little, but some EQ could help the vocals stand out more too. As for making a song louder, the amplify tool in Audacity will amplify it without clipping (unless you tell it to allow clipping).

I usually use thus feature, but it won't let me Amplify UNLESS I select "Allow clipping." I'm not sure why.

Aniday · May 1, 2010

rsherid said:
Thanks, all. These are the tips I needed.

So the problem is the mix, not the volume? Can I use the compressor in Audacity?

Why don't you use the compressor in Garageband? No point in constantly switching between DAW's.

rsherid · May 1, 2010

Aniday said:
Why don't you use the compressor in Garageband? No point in constantly switching between DAW's.

After messing around with all kinds of compressors, I find adjusting iTunes' EQ to 6dB makes it sound somewhat pro next to the rest of my music library. However, this is only when in iTunes. Cog or Quicktime, for example, play it as quietly as before. I can export it as an .MP4 with these new EQ settings, but, again, Cog and Quicktime don't notice the EQ adjustment.

rsherid · May 3, 2010

Here's a new mix with all of the mastering I could manage. A lot of the reverb has been taken out, drums have been fixed, and some levels have been adjusted: http://makeoutmusic.knoxware.org/gossipculture/mp3/Mac Audio_recording 19-02.mp3

The main electric piano may still sound loud, but it sounds too flimsy/cheap if it's quieter. I'm going to re-cut some of the pitchy vocals, but you get the idea. Any critiques welcome.

Aniday · May 3, 2010

rsherid said:
Here's a new mix with all of the mastering I could manage. A lot of the reverb has been taken out, drums have been fixed, and some levels have been adjusted: http://makeoutmusic.knoxware.org/gossipculture/mp3/Mac Audio_recording 19-02.mp3

The main electric piano may still sound loud, but it sounds too flimsy/cheap if it's quieter. I'm going to re-cut some of the pitchy vocals, but you get the idea. Any critiques welcome.

Yep, music is still too loud. Vocals sound like mumbling along with pitch issues so it's pretty much impossible to hear the lyrics.

If you have a problem with cheap sounding instruments then use better samples. Garageband has good sounding software interments, experiment more with those.

rsherid · May 16, 2010

Here's the final mix as I see it: http://bit.ly/bV1UTZ

Things I've changed:
- Re-recorded the vocals so they're sung and mixed louder
- Made the drums a single track to get rid of that tape delay effect (which I admit sounded bad)
- Pumped up the bass because I could barely hear it through my MacBook speakers (I know they're not monitors, but the majority of the listening public doesn't use studio headphones to listen to music

)

My main concern, again, is the the overall volume. When played in Cog, it sounds fine, but when played on MySpace it sounds quieter. I've turned Audacity's Amplify/Leveler options up as loud as they could go without clipping and used WireTap Studio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izz9OQYqI6I) instead of GarageBand's Share option, but it's still bothering me.

I think I've mixed it to sound as "warm" as possible, but I feel that's lost when you can't hear it as loud as an average studio recording. A lot of this might just be in my head, but I need to know so I can use these set levels (drums, vocals, bass, etc.) for future recordings.

newuser2310 · May 17, 2010

rsherid said:
Here's the final mix as I see it: http://bit.ly/bV1UTZ

Things I've changed:
- Re-recorded the vocals so they're sung and mixed louder
- Made the drums a single track to get rid of that tape delay effect (which I admit sounded bad)
- Pumped up the bass because I could barely hear it through my MacBook speakers (I know they're not monitors, but the majority of the listening public doesn't use studio headphones to listen to music )

My main concern, again, is the the overall volume. When played in Cog, it sounds fine, but when played on MySpace it sounds quieter. I've turned Audacity's Amplify/Leveler options up as loud as they could go without clipping and used WireTap Studio (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izz9OQYqI6I) instead of GarageBand's Share option, but it's still bothering me.

I think I've mixed it to sound as "warm" as possible, but I feel that's lost when you can't hear it as loud as an average studio recording. A lot of this might just be in my head, but I need to know so I can use these set levels (drums, vocals, bass, etc.) for future recordings.

way too much bass, it even makes my crappy monitors resonate to ****, which drowns out everything else.
mix is a bit muddy, almost as if there's too much going on at once.
ie around 1.07.

@ 1.57-2.30 it sounds hideous.

Volume is fine though.

ChrisA · May 17, 2010

rsherid said:
- Pumped up the bass because I could barely hear it through my MacBook speakers (I know they're not monitors, but the majority of the listening public doesn't use studio headphones to listen to music )

Your logic is flawed. Yes most people do not have studio monitors. But you can't know what they have so your best option is to get __accurate__ monitors and make it sound good on those.

In general when ever you think "everyone who does this kind of thing for a living is wrong and my way is better" you will be wrong. OK in a very few cases you will be the inovator but 99.99% of the time you will be wrong. I think your idea about using notebook speakers for monitors falls into the 99.99% category.

You keep thinking it all about being "loud" no. that is wrong too. It's about being avoidable. If you want loud just go buy a big speaker and a 5,000 watt amp. It will be loud but still you will not be able to hear.

What you need is for the various parts to be separated so that each can be hear clearly. The best thing would be to read a book on mixing and mastering. I am not the expert but I know enough to know that you really want "clarity" not just "loud"

rsherid · May 17, 2010

I'm not using notebook speakers for monitoring, but merely testing them out along w/ car speakers. Previous to this recording, I couldn't hear my bass at all when I could hear it fine w/ other bands so I came to this thread seeking what to do.

This is the scenario: When I keep the bass at the proper levels it sounds fine in headphones and also in these mini monitors of mine, but when it's just playing through the MacBook speakers, you hear everything (synth, vocals, drums) BUT the bass. It bothers me because you can hear the bass in a song like "Static on the Wire" (heard here) fine in all three settings: notebook speakers/headphones/and monitors.

I certainly don't think my way is better. I don't even have a way! I'm quite the amateur, but I am trying to give my songs the best quality working with what I've got.

newuser2310 · May 17, 2010

rsherid said:
I'm not using notebook speakers for monitoring, but merely testing them out along w/ car speakers. Previous to this recording, I couldn't hear my bass at all when I could hear it fine w/ other bands so I came to this thread seeking what to do.

This is the scenario: When I keep the bass at the proper levels it sounds fine in headphones and also in these mini monitors of mine, but when it's just playing through the MacBook speakers, you hear everything (synth, vocals, drums) BUT the bass. It bothers me because you can hear the bass in a song like "Static on the Wire" (heard here) fine in all three settings: notebook speakers/headphones/and monitors.

I certainly don't think my way is better. I don't even have a way! I'm quite the amateur, but I am trying to give my songs the best quality working with what I've got.

Your other tune on your myspace is a lot better. However your mypace page sounds a bit up its own backside tbh. I would have spent more time learning production techniques rather than writing that rubbish.

Not having a pop, I just think your tracks need a bit of work with the arrangement, levels and eq before you even consider 'releasing an ep'

rsherid · May 17, 2010

Which EQ option do I want: Parametric, Graphic, Visual?

newuser2310 · May 18, 2010

http://tweakheadz.com/guide.htm
http://www.tweakheadz.com/EQ_and_the_Limits_of_Audio.html

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