Every so often I bang out a track I want to share usually with my Polyend Tracker or similar.
Once I get it on my Laptop it generally sounds a bit weak so I’ll try and do a bit of “mastering” to chunk it up a bit, but I have basically no idea what I’m doing.
As a result I’ve generally just chucked it through Soundgoodizer on FL Studio which makes it sound loud and beefy, but generally a bit OTT and woofy so I’d like to try something a bit more sophisticated.
I’ve got a copy of Ozotope Elements 9, but while that makes the track really loud it seems to bring out a lot of really harsh frequencies which I really don’t like (Even when set to medium intensity) so I haven’t had any success with it.
Stuff I’ve got access to is:
FL Studio
Bitwig
Izotope Elements 9
The Baby Audio Bundle (IHNY2, Parallel Aggressor, Smooth Operator)
I also don’t mind buying something if it’s going to be an easy route to decent results.
To be clear I’m not trying to become a mastering engineer I just want a simple process to give weak sounding tracks a bit of girth and punch with a few simple levers to shape things.
Happy to help in anyway, i do a PWYC mastering service which works well and specifically when tracks are quick ideas that might need to go through some mastering, even if just to get a better sense of what they are or need to be.
I’d happily work on your track next week and can share what i did.
It’s PWYC, but happy to chat more about that , PM me or something as not sure what the deal is with chatting about this so openly on this forum. I know some moderators on a similar forum get funny haha.
Basically the idea is to support people who make music either in their bedroom, spare room, looking to try something, whatever, who might not feel comfortable going through what can often be quite rigid mastering experience, or maybe a budget thing, as based on time and money, so with this being more an agreement that suits where people are and what works best.
If using Ozone, try basic EQ to deal with bass boom and harsh frequencies, and stereo image, look into M/S can help with focusing some areas. Maybe some compression to deal with any peaks should there be any, and Maximizer on the end. Or some variation of that.
Obviously not having heard the tracks this is guess work but hopefully that’ll send you down some path of exploration.
Addition to what pokk said, something that may be a revelation - try using Ozone dynamic eq (or another eq/band compressor) to compress those harsh frequencies. I found that to be a bit of an a-ha when finishing tracks. Also really experimenting with extremities of compression has helped me expand my understanding of compression and how certain sounds are achieved. ex. Totally sausage the track and then slowly increment the threshold, attack, or release
I know you don’t want to go in depth, but these are fantastic resources that can probably be bitten off in chunks FYI…
Imo there’s not really an easy way for beefing up “weak” sounding tracks. Unless you know what you’re doing. I tried to find that simple solution hardware or plugin that makes all my tracks sound great. On this journey i learned to mix and eq better but i’m still struggling and don’t enjoy the mixing/mastering stage very much.
To make my music sound better i try to find the harsh frequencies and turn them down a few db’s with an eq. Very rarely i pull up the low or high frequencies a bit. Then maybe a bit of compression and/or around 2 db’s of limiting.
As i said i don’t enjoy that stage because it’s hard to judge the subtle differences after some time of listening to the same track again and again and my ears get tired too. Most of the time the “finished” track isn’t as loud as “professional” music but at least it sounds better than before.
In some cases my mix already sounds nice and punchy before i have to go into the last phase of “mastering”. And that tells me that the mixing stage is really the most important. I’m mixing while producing the tracks and choosing and combining the right sounds plays a big part in getting a good sounding mix.
This might be a bit much as you wanted a simple solution but maybe there are some ideas that help you on your way.
And i’m also curious what other people might suggest. I’m always open for a more simple and enjoyable method to get a good sound.
Another eye opener for me - try measuring LUFS on some of the tracks you’re referencing to give perspective and don’t forget to gain match when comparing. I was pretty blown away to see that some reference tracks I was using were mastered in -7 to -11 territory (even ambient).
I’m the last guy you should consult on mastering, however this sounds like an issue with your sources more than Ozone, as it’s really just an EQ and Compressor with some basic intelligence baked into it.
That is to say that those harsh frequencies are already there, Ozone is probably just making them a bit louder.
Smooth Operator should help with that though, or try out multi-band dynamics, both before you put it through Ozone.
If it’s very specific frequencies you might want to try and identify them and remove them more surgically with an EQ, certain resonating frequencies are quite unpleasent and can really fatigue your ears quite quickly.
I’ve started having a pretty subtle always on compressor even at the sound design phase… it helps you identify those harsh frequencies early on so you can shape that out without potential negative effects of doing that at the mastering phase. Mastering wise I basically just use a multiband compressor and maybe some subtle saturation… not a pro job but it gets things close to where they should be.
Hell yeah, stoked to give that video a watch later! In the process of finishing my current album, getting the mix/master right has been way tougher than it previously was.
Whatever track I put into the IZotope AI mastering thing. It seems to produce the same nasty sounding peak which makes drums sound really harsh without adding any useful heft.
It’s almost like it’s broken or it’s not integrating with Bitwig properly.
I haven’t had that with Soundgoodizer or IHNY2 or any other plugins so there is probably something I’m doing wrong.
I’ll maybe paste some examples later.
BTW when people are saying concentrate on your mix. I 100% agree when I have stems I never have a separate “mastering” step so I’m talking about “Master bus FX” rather than “Standalone Mastering”
When working on DAWless tracks I can have nothing but a stereo wav sometimes so I’m working with what I’ve got.
Mastering can’t make a weak track sound big.
Thats a fact. It’s in the soundesign/ composition/ combination of sounds/ mixing.
Mastering means finetuning. Very little eq and compression, just to get the wav file to “consumer” Level, to be loud enough to compete with other stuff on Spotify for example.
Have you checked out any of softube’s Weiss plugins? The MM-1 is not bad. It’s extremely user friendly, and can be helpful if you’re looking for something simple to get you in the ballpark.
I haven’t done a whole lot of in-depth A/B testing between this plugin and actual mastering, but I do use it on my mixes to help approximate what needs to be corrected before handing them off to a mastering engineer.
