Dubstep Music Mastering - Part 6

In this final part of our mini guide I am going to give you a real world set up you can use on your dubstep track. Applying these processes will give you a much louder master, ready to send out to labels and distributors.

Real world master process:

Start with an EQ, remove the subsonic frequencies using a linear phase EQ, low cut at around 25hz (even in dubstep music as harmonics this low do not add any thing to the track). Use the EQ to add some broad sweeting to the tracks top and bottom ends, a boost at around 70-80hz, wide Q, 1 to 3db boost. Then a 2/3db boost at the top from about 8khz- 20khz depending on the track.

Remove any muddiness from around 200-400hz using a precise cut of about 1 to 4db remove any problem frequencies using surgical cuts with very narrow Q settings. The best fault-rectifying mastering EQs are linear phase EQs because they have a very transparent sound, and do not add any coloring to the mix. This works well for dubstep as it keep the mix sounding 'true'.

Then move on to the compressor, a low ratio of around 2:1 works well for dubstep with 3db of gain reduction, using an auto release setting. This will help bring the dynamics of the track in line. It's generally not a good idea to EQ after compression because aggressive EQ setting will cause peaks above the 0db threshold and you want to ensure that the compressor is working in full. You can try using a multi band compressor before the limiter to control the compression of different timbre sections.

The last process will be the limiter, or maximizer. Try moving the fader down until the peaks of the track are being dealt with to about 3db of reduction, but with out causing to much distortion. Even if you like your dubstep distorted, its not needed or wanted at this stage.

To get even more volume out of your track you may consider the oxford inflater or the UAD precision maximizer, these are 'psychoacoustic' processors and will maximize perceived loudness with out resorting to sometimes problematic limiting and ultramaxamizing. Dubstep producers have been using this processor to great effect.

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Dubstep Music Mastering - Part 1

I'm going to give you a 'ground up' teaching of mastering techniques that can be applied to dubstep, and then a real world example in the final part. This way is better than giving you lots of real world examples because you will end up with a true understanding of why you need to EQ and compress things in a certain way, not just copy a formula that will fail you.

Perfect your mix.

Don't presume mastering will be a magic remedy that will cure all your imperfections. You should get your dubstep mix sounding as close to perfect as you can before even thinking about mastering. Making sure you have your sounds well separated, with good subtle EQ and 3D sound stage placement (using pan, and reverb etc). Once you feel you can't do anymore using the tools available you should then turn to the tricks of mastering such as multi-band compression, linear phase EQ and brick wall limiting.

Don't master 'in the mix'.

Even thought it is very tempting to add some nice EQ and compression on the master output while you are still making / mixing the track, it is strongly advisable that you wait until you have finished until applying these processes. You will nearly always get a better final dubstep track at the end. Of course its OK to test rough mixes with some master EQ / comp, but always bounce the finished track down 'dry' and make a backup copy before you start mastering.

Get some body else to do it.

One of the most important things a professional dubstep mastering engineer can bring, is a fresh set of ears. You may have listened to your track a few hundred times and have become accustomed to its flaws, its therefor recommended to outsource this final part of the process. There are plenty of on line service that offer tracks for around 30.00 (2009). If that is not an option, you could always ask a friend.

Less is more.

Every time you apply a dubstep mastering process you are risking degrading the quality of the audio, even simply adding 'normalization' or gain change can add small unwanted artifacts to the file. So always plan your processes and try and use as few as possible. So instead of normalizing at the start and at the end, just do it once at the end etc.

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Dubstep Music Mastering - Part 5

Know your limit.

Even the very best dubstep limiters have their limits before they cause distortion. Get to you know yours, and exactly how far you can push it with it having a detrimental effect on your master.

Flatten it out.

Timbre is important to how we perceive loudness in dubstep, so make sure a good amount of time is spent trying to achieve a flat frequency. You can do this easily by using a spectrum analyzer and finding the peaks. The best tool to cope with these is a linear phaser EQ because it will correct the frequency imbalance while also being very transparent. The first time i heard a linear phase EQ, I thought it was a joke because even cranking the effect would not have any real audible results, however that is the point of it. To give you equalization with out adding any of its own 'character' to the mix. Very cleaver dubstep tip.

Secrets of dubstep mastering.

Limiters are not the only way to create loudness, sonnox's 'inflator' is a brilliant way of giving the perception of loudness with out resorting to brick wall limiting. Distortion in small amounts can also work wonders and not forgetting multi band exciters to tickle the top and the bottom of your track to add extra sparkle and energy.

Hows your bottom end?

The bass end is vitality important to a good dubstep mix. Start from the ground up, use high pass filters on nearly all, if not all instrument tracks so the bass has its own defined space from around 100hz and bellow. To further enhance the bottom end, you might want to use a high pass filter on the whole mix, filtering out any frequencies under 22-25hz. The 'subsonic' frequencies will take up a lot of head room, and provide almost no audible gain, best to cut them out.

Safety precautions.

When processing the final 'normalize' of the dubstep master, opt for -0.1db. This will ensure you get no clipping anywhere on the track and that your hard work will not be ruined when the duplication house rejects the master for clipping reasons.

Mind the gap.

Don't cut the start of your dubstep track to the very first waveform, leave a few milliseconds so that your track is not compromised when a CD player DE-mutes or when the CD drives spins up on a digital system.

Fades.

Experiment with different fade outs on your dubstep track, the standard linear fade is rarely the best option.

Dithering.

This should only ever be preformed once during the mastering process and is best left until last.

Use time gaps creatively.

Use the previous tracks tempo to work out when the next track should start, or using the same principal but a few milliseconds before to make the track jump out!

Verbatim.

Although technically cheap CD's and expensive CD's will have the same quality (being a digital format, 0's and 1's cant be miss represented) the burn dye on more expensive CD-Rs will hold the data longer, and you will

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Dubstep Music Mastering - Part 4

Attack / Release.

Using slow attack and release setting on the compressor will result in a smoother dubstep mix that allows the finer details to breathe with out getting any obvious 'pumping' effects.

Use the low ratios.

Unlike using hard hitting compression on individual instrument tracks, when using compression in a dubstep mastering situation go steady and use the low ratios to massage the track in to place, start at 1:5:1 through to just 2:1.

Pump up the the volume.

When trying to create hard hitting dubstep music, the release setting on the compressor can be key. You will need to find the release time that fits the tempo of your music so that as the mix is pulled down by the strong kick drums it swells up again until the next kick drum. The gives the effect the track is pumping in time with the music.

Learn about decibels.

You should aim to refine your perception of how much you are actually affecting the dubstep audio signal, an unexperienced producer might happily aim for 6db of gain reduction but that will technically half the signal level, you should accurately aware of every 0.5db change you make, and should understand exactly why you have made that change. Not just do it because you spend a load of cash on some nice plug ins and feel you have to use them.

Are you using the right compressor for dubstep?

All the compressors on the market have different attributes and sounds because they are based on different statures of hardware versions, none is the best or worst but each has its own characteristics and they can be drawn upon to credit your track with there best features.

Control the peaks.

If you come to master and you have any abnormal peaks, go back and try to edit these out in your sequencer before applying dubstep limiting and mastering features. You could use automation or a soft quantize to eliminate that extra loud part. This will make a big difference when limiting because the limiter will not have to act so hard on the rogue peak.

Keep it simple.

For maximum loudness keep the arrangements simple, creating multiple layers of sounds will detract from there loudness. Think about your top 10 dubstep tracks, they are most likely very simple but highly effective and powerful.

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Dubstep Music Mastering - Part 3

Low cut.

To increase headroom in your dubstep tracks, and get rid of ineffective and unwanted subsonic frequencies, apply a low cut around 20-30hz, if you don't have monitors that go that low then maybe leave it - you would not want to remove something you cant hear properly as you might take away something that you might want to have in.

Subtle shelfs.

Try to apply a gentle shelf EQ to get the smoothest boosts, another way is to use a wide parametric EQ. This will provide the most musical and dubstep like EQ boosts.

Killer dubstep tip: Multi band compression.

Aside from EQ you may want to experiment with multi-band compression for changing the timbre of you mix. For example you could compress the low end more to bring up its relative presence in the mix. This can have a cleaner result and means you could use less process, further enhancing your final output.

Boost it wide, cut it slim.

Generally speaking a smooth wide boost, coupled with surgical narrow cuts on problem frequencies will give the best overall result.

Go easy.

If you find your self adding more than around 5DB of EQ you will probably be better off to go back to the original dubstep mix and find the problem there. As a rule you should not need to be adding more than 4/5DB for your first 50 attempts. Only when you have a lot of experience should you consider using such a drastic measure.

Treble.

One common misconception is that the high end of a track is all above 12khz, however its actually much lower at around 2khz. One good power tip when learning about frequency ranges is to run a commercial finished dubstep track through a high pass filter, turn up your speakers and slowly move the fader down, letting through more low frequencies. This will show you were you start to hear the punch, knock, bass etc and build a easy picture in your head of what applies to what dubstep frequency range.

Careful with using multi band compression.

Although multi band compression can have a amazing and dramatic effect on a poorly balanced dubstep mix, it can also wreak havoc with a good dubstep mix. If you feel your final mix is well balanced then a single band mastering compressor is likely to have a better result.

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Dubstep Music Mastering - Part 2

Never go past 0 DB.

Carefully monitor every process to ensure the levels never creeps past 0DB, this tends to happen more when using heavy limiting in dubstep, but can also happen with aggressive EQ.

A/B Properly.

An easy mistake to make is to make poor judgments by A/B testing to quickly. For example, when applying compression the better setting might not sound so good initially because its not as loud. However once normalized its would be the superior setting. Also A/B test by quickly switching between two or three of your favorite dubstep tracks to see how those producers do things.

Get your dubstep studio as quiet as possible.

Although good dubstep monitoring equipment is essential, it can be wasted money if your room is not set up properly. Some quick and easy tips are to get silent fans in your computer, and invest in some acoustic tiles to dampen pre-delay and early reflections. Essentially your room will be acting like a reverb plug-in unless you add some kind of sound dampening. This can result in over, or under use of EQ.

Test, Test, Test against other dubstep tracks.

A good idea is to listen to your efforts on as many systems and spaces as possible and pay close attention to the results. Over time this will teach you how your mix translates over multiple systems, although to perfect can take more than a lifetime. This is why a mastering engineer is worth his weight in gold. Or printer ink (as thats more expensive than gold!).

Learn the frequencies.

This might sound obvious, but building a mental picture of the dubstep frequency range in your head will pay dividends in all areas of dubstep production. In my view it maybe the most important thing in getting you mix and mastering efforts right. Try and attach words to each area, like warmth (220-320), muddiness (340), knock (600-1k), clarity (4k-7.5k) etc.

Cut it out.

When mixing / mastering dubstep (forget sonic sculpting) its nearly always better to make a frequency cut, rather than a boost. This is because the human brain will deem a sound more natural sounding by using a cut because that is what happens in the real world, sounds are absorbed by different materials (like wood, and concrete) resulting in certain frequencies being removed. Therefore when boosting EQ the brain will not be as used to it as a frequency cut. A good trick if you do want to boost a frequency is to cut all the other frequencies apart from the one you want to boost and then turn the whole volume up. As a rule a 1DB boost is equivalent to a 3DB cut.

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