Mastering issues !!

[gritz]

Hi all,

I have question which I hope you can put your two pennyworth in.

So recently had one of our tracks mixed by a producer and then it was mastered by a third party who specialises in mastering.

On listening to the mastered version, I found that I can now hear “mouth noises” with the vocals now, pops and swallowing and taking the breath sounds
Which I’m sure I cant hear in the mixed version.

I asked the guy doing the mastering who said that would be the job of the mixer and all he does is enrich and get the mastering mix correct.
When I asked the producer he said that when we hear the master on a speaker or on normal headphones we probably wont hear that and that my studio headphones
Are too sensitive.

I have reached out to the producer to remix and get that balance right plus the backing vocals are too high and clash with the guitar solo at the end of the track which he
Will also handle but obviously costing me more money to resolve as he said I approved the mixed version which sounded fine but these issues arose after mastering.

How do you listen to a mix with confidence and know that the master radio version would sound great.

Previous masters actually sounded better after it was added to apple music as well so not sure why that is… can you advise?

[MrFigg]

Hi all,

I have question which I hope you can put your two pennyworth in.

So recently had one of our tracks mixed by a producer and then it was mastered by a third party who specialises in mastering.

On listening to the mastered version, I found that I can now hear “mouth noises” with the vocals now, pops and swallowing and taking the breath sounds
Which I’m sure I cant hear in the mixed version.

I asked the guy doing the mastering who said that would be the job of the mixer and all he does is enrich and get the mastering mix correct.
When I asked the producer he said that when we hear the master on a speaker or on normal headphones we probably wont hear that and that my studio headphones
Are too sensitive.

I have reached out to the producer to remix and get that balance right plus the backing vocals are too high and clash with the guitar solo at the end of the track which he
Will also handle but obviously costing me more money to resolve as he said I approved the mixed version which sounded fine but these issues arose after mastering.

How do you listen to a mix with confidence and know that the master radio version would sound great.

Previous masters actually sounded better after it was added to apple music as well so not sure why that is… can you advise?

I can't mix or anything. total crap at it. Got the IKMultimedia Lurssen Mastering console on some Group Buy deal. Drag in the wav, choose a preset, push a button and it does it all for you and spits out a sparkly, great sounding song. The Master masters'll just bleed you for money man. The future is now.

[Rising Night Wave]

Hi all,

I have question which I hope you can put your two pennyworth in.

So recently had one of our tracks mixed by a producer and then it was mastered by a third party who specialises in mastering.

On listening to the mastered version, I found that I can now hear “mouth noises” with the vocals now, pops and swallowing and taking the breath sounds
Which I’m sure I cant hear in the mixed version.

I asked the guy doing the mastering who said that would be the job of the mixer and all he does is enrich and get the mastering mix correct.
When I asked the producer he said that when we hear the master on a speaker or on normal headphones we probably wont hear that and that my studio headphones
Are too sensitive.

I have reached out to the producer to remix and get that balance right plus the backing vocals are too high and clash with the guitar solo at the end of the track which he
Will also handle but obviously costing me more money to resolve as he said I approved the mixed version which sounded fine but these issues arose after mastering.

How do you listen to a mix with confidence and know that the master radio version would sound great.

Previous masters actually sounded better after it was added to apple music as well so not sure why that is… can you advise?

I can't mix or anything. total crap at it. Got the IKMultimedia Lurssen Mastering console on some Group Buy deal. Drag in the wav, choose a preset, push a button and it does it all for you and spits out a sparkly, great sounding song. The Master masters'll just bleed you for money man. The future is now.

[Popey]

Hi all,

I have question which I hope you can put your two pennyworth in.

So recently had one of our tracks mixed by a producer and then it was mastered by a third party who specialises in mastering.

On listening to the mastered version, I found that I can now hear “mouth noises” with the vocals now, pops and swallowing and taking the breath sounds
Which I’m sure I cant hear in the mixed version.

I asked the guy doing the mastering who said that would be the job of the mixer and all he does is enrich and get the mastering mix correct.
When I asked the producer he said that when we hear the master on a speaker or on normal headphones we probably wont hear that and that my studio headphones
Are too sensitive.

I have reached out to the producer to remix and get that balance right plus the backing vocals are too high and clash with the guitar solo at the end of the track which he
Will also handle but obviously costing me more money to resolve as he said I approved the mixed version which sounded fine but these issues arose after mastering.

How do you listen to a mix with confidence and know that the master radio version would sound great.

Previous masters actually sounded better after it was added to apple music as well so not sure why that is… can you advise?

I can't mix or anything. total crap at it. Got the IKMultimedia Lurssen Mastering console on some Group Buy deal. Drag in the wav, choose a preset, push a button and it does it all for you and spits out a sparkly, great sounding song. The Master masters'll just bleed you for money man. The future is now.

The mastering console sure sounds good but watch out if you don't have a good computer.

I got it free and at some point I will be able to use it but currently it grinds my pc to a halt.

[MrFigg]

I can't mix or anything. total crap at it. Got the IKMultimedia Lurssen Mastering console on some Group Buy deal. Drag in the wav, choose a preset, push a button and it does it all for you and spits out a sparkly, great sounding song. The Master masters'll just bleed you for money man. The future is now.

The mastering console sure sounds good but watch out if you don't have a good computer.

I got it free and at some point I will be able to use it but currently it grinds my pc to a halt.

Haven’t had a problem here and I would say my PC is superduper hi spec. I use it standalone. Export the wav from Reason and then drag it into Lurssen. Are you using it as a plugin within Reason itself?

[Popey]

The mastering console sure sounds good but watch out if you don't have a good computer.

I got it free and at some point I will be able to use it but currently it grinds my pc to a halt.

Haven’t had a problem here and I would say my PC is superduper hi spec. I use it standalone. Export the wav from Reason and then drag it into Lurssen. Are you using it as a plugin within Reason itself?

Ah good point I have always used in a daw this may make a difference (but my i5 is pretty old too)

[MrFigg]

Haven’t had a problem here and I would say my PC is superduper hi spec. I use it standalone. Export the wav from Reason and then drag it into Lurssen. Are you using it as a plugin within Reason itself?

Ah good point I have always used in a daw this may make a difference (but my i5 is pretty old too)

Got an i5 as well. There's not really any need to use it in a DAW...I mean you're mastering a track right? . Give it a go standalone. I was really amazed at the difference before and after.

[selig]

How do you listen to a mix with confidence and know that the master radio version would sound great.

The master should sound better than the mix, not worse. If you like the mix, you can either re-master (with a different engineer or yourself) or just release the mix as is (since you like it as is, right?).
There isn’t ‘one way’ to mix or master, and as producer YOU are the ‘decider’. Maybe these folks are not the right fit for your vision, maybe they just missed something. If I were the mixer I’d likely fix it for free as a matter of pride in my workmanship, assuming the fix was relatively easy.
As a learning opportunity, check out your raw vocal tracks and see what you can do to clean up the mouth noises, knowing now that they can be exaggerated by the mix/master!

[PhillipOrdonez]

Hey Gritz,

That's why a mastering engineer is still relevant. They are doing QC. Stuff gets missed at every stage, and having another layer of control is great. It sounds like the mix engineer missed those details, which is odd when that's part of the mix engineer's job.

To prevent this in the future, you could request a master from the mix engineer (at the very least a version with limiting applied), where any of those issues should become apparent, before approving the mix and sending it over to a mastering engineer for final touches.

Another option would be to negotiate a number of revisions from the mixer beforehand.

Would love to hear Selig's opinion on this as well.

[PhillipOrdonez]

Ahhh Selig beat me to it with an excellent point of view, as expected.

[RobC]

The only way such things can pop out after mastering, would be after heavy limiting.

"Your headphones are too sensitive", what a great excuse. : D Too bad it has nothing to do with dynamic range.

And seriously, what producer doesn't hear swallowing sounds???

Ahh, this industry never ceases to amaze. : )

[gritz]

Yes it’s a shame as the previous work that both the producer and the mastering engineer did was excellent

[Steedus]

For what it's worth, some vocal noises like breaths are actually good to keep in. If you remove everything but the actual singing it can sometimes sound too chopped up and unnatural. Though if they're clearly too loud then that's a problem.