Question for mastering an album via online AI mastering

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raymondh
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Joined: 15 Jan 2015

02 Mar 2022

ScuzzyEye wrote:
01 Mar 2022
raymondh wrote:
01 Mar 2022
Did you use just one audio track and overlap the songs to create the cross-fades, or did you put each song on a different audio track for each song?

It can definitely be done, either way in fact, just it isn't as easy or as obvious (when using the one track per song) to create the cross-fade points as it is in dedicated mastering tools that are set up from the start to do this.
I used separate tracks, with each track lined up finish to start, so if all tracks were enabled then it would play the full album.
Each track had the Selig Gain where I was fading in or out the track.
I used Blocks as markers too - just a visual aid really.

Back then (2019), I mastered each track and exported it. So in the Reason mastering project, each track was basically individually mastered, and the purpose of the Reason mastering project was track leveling and crossfades, and to be able to export the continuous mix. On the master bus I put metering tools to check the loudness levels (though I still found myself using my ear).

I'd do it a bit differently these days. Each track would be pre-masters (mixed as well as I could) and then in the mastering project I'd have all the mastering plugins - probably with some EQ and light compression on each track, and a limiter and metering on the master bus. Doing this I feel would have given me the chance for better tonal matching across the tracks.

Just on the metering, I really like https://www.masteringthemix.com/products/levels - worth checking out.

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ScuzzyEye
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02 Mar 2022

raymondh wrote:
02 Mar 2022
I'd do it a bit differently these days. Each track would be pre-masters (mixed as well as I could) and then in the mastering project I'd have all the mastering plugins - probably with some EQ and light compression on each track, and a limiter and metering on the master bus. Doing this I feel would have given me the chance for better tonal matching across the tracks.

Just on the metering, I really like https://www.masteringthemix.com/products/levels - worth checking out.
That's pretty much my workflow these days too.

Each song gets its own EQ, compressor, enhancers, etc., what ever it needs to get to the sound I'm wanting. Then I do a per-song gain limiter. This gets it to the 95% of the way target level. Then for the the global processing (it'd be the master bus in Reason), I have a second limiter that's there to ensure compliance with release specifications (ceiling, true peak, DC offset, apply dither, etc.). I also have a listen bus (Control Room in Reason) where I have my metering. None of the metering tools should effect the sound, but I also have some environmental simulation effects there (after the meters) that I can turn on to simulate playback in less ideal spaces.

And yeah, I have Levels, it's pretty good. I also really like their Expose for checking files after export. My current favorite metering tools are SPL's Hawkeye and Voxengo's SPAN Plus (in overlapping M/S mode).

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selig
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Location: The NorthWoods, CT, USA

02 Mar 2022

ScuzzyEye wrote:
28 Feb 2022
That style of album has also fallen out of style since people stopped buying albums and listening to individual tracks. Way back in the late '90s when I started ripping CDs and building a library of songs I could play randomly I discovered how much I disliked songs that started with the end of another song.

I did mention the Block trick for marking song regions outside of the imported audio. One drawback to that is if the songs are different tempos (which almost always going to be the case). You're going to have to automate the tempo of the mastering project to each part of the project matches the underlying song. Because blocks can only be exact quarter notes in length. Even then with the tempo set, you may not be able to get the exact start and end points that you want. (Or maybe you could set the tempo to something like 600 bpm to get really fine grained quarter notes.)
Sorry, I totally missed your earlier suggest for Blocks!
As for timing, Indeed I forgot blocks are limited (16ths, actually), which is 125 ms at 120 but only 15 ms at 999 BPM. Still a bit imprecise for most work, sadly.
Selig Audio, LLC

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selig
RE Developer
Posts: 11685
Joined: 15 Jan 2015
Location: The NorthWoods, CT, USA

02 Mar 2022

raymondh wrote:
02 Mar 2022
I'd do it a bit differently these days. Each track would be pre-masters (mixed as well as I could) and then in the mastering project I'd have all the mastering plugins - probably with some EQ and light compression on each track, and a limiter and metering on the master bus. Doing this I feel would have given me the chance for better tonal matching across the tracks.

Just on the metering, I really like https://www.masteringthemix.com/products/levels - worth checking out.
That's exactly how I've done it with Reason forever, and Pro Tools forever before that - pretty much just EQ on each channel and limiter on the master, with each song already in the ballpark with regards to how much mastering is actually needed. The older I get, the less processing I tend to do…but it could also be that I'm getting better at this engineering stuff too! ;)

Since I don't submit mixes to anyone who requests specific levels, I generally just use built in meters in Ozone Elements - no need to know much more than how much GR I'm getting and making sure I don't clip (and making sure it still sounds good, of course).
Selig Audio, LLC

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raymondh
Posts: 1776
Joined: 15 Jan 2015

03 Mar 2022

selig wrote:
02 Mar 2022
raymondh wrote:
02 Mar 2022
I'd do it a bit differently these days. Each track would be pre-masters (mixed as well as I could) and then in the mastering project I'd have all the mastering plugins - probably with some EQ and light compression on each track, and a limiter and metering on the master bus. Doing this I feel would have given me the chance for better tonal matching across the tracks.

Just on the metering, I really like https://www.masteringthemix.com/products/levels - worth checking out.
That's exactly how I've done it with Reason forever, and Pro Tools forever before that - pretty much just EQ on each channel and limiter on the master, with each song already in the ballpark with regards to how much mastering is actually needed. The older I get, the less processing I tend to do…but it could also be that I'm getting better at this engineering stuff too! ;)

Since I don't submit mixes to anyone who requests specific levels, I generally just use built in meters in Ozone Elements - no need to know much more than how much GR I'm getting and making sure I don't clip (and making sure it still sounds good, of course).
Your mixes/masters are fantastic, so I can see why it has been your goto approach for years!

I've moved to the metering in Sonible Smart Limiter. Still getting my head around how to use it effectively but I like it more than Ozone, and the Sonible devices are more DSP friendly.

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