BASSGRID's Terminal Master Effect - need some info

[Rising Night Wave]

thanks crimsonwarlock for that link.

[jam-s]

hehe. well i do not want to go through the whole learning process. i am asking if there is some sort of "cheat sheet" to get via internet. if you can help me with that. to get to know with the basics of mixing and mastering.

Here it is:

Mastering Cheat Sheet: Hire/Find/Kidnap a mastering engineer and a mix engineer.

...or you will have to put in some time in learning at least the basics of it.
(That tutorial video series is a good start.)

[Rising Night Wave]

yes jam-s, okay.

[TritoneAddiction]

Unfortunately I don't think you can buy your way out of this, or rely on a couple of mastering presets. If you want to get good mixes you have put in the work. I say mixing instead of mastering, because mastering shouldn't be the major part to make your music sound good.
I too in the past used to be very reluctant to learning about mixing/mastering, the more technical side of making music. But after a while I realized that in order to make my music presentable or convey the feel that I wanted in a convincing way I had to bite the bullet and just dive in.
But it really isn't that painful. The most basic concepts are fairly simple. Listen to a bunch of mixing/ mastering material on youtube every now and then over a period of time and you'll soon have heard the most common concepts.

Three things that has helped me personally.

1. Don't look at this is something that you're gonna fix quickly. Take your time. Realize that's there's no quick fix here. You'll get better gradually if you spend time on it. Learning about the concepts/rules/common guidelines is the easy part. The hard part is just to have the patience to practise. You just have to do it a lot.

2. This one differs from the way most people look at mixing. You'll see many people cutting up the creation of a song in different categories/stages. Like you write the song and the mix it and then master it. That seems to be a workflow that fit most people.
But for me I don't seperate between the actual song writing, arranging, sound selection, mixing. I do it all simultaneously as I go along. By the time I've come to almost finishing a tune in Reason, I've already mixed sounds, put master bus compression and limiting on the song a long time ago. I just tweak the final things, be it changing note choices, adjusting the mix or change the arrangement.
Using EQ, compressors, distortion etc might fall under the umbrella of mixing. But I just look at it all as "sound sculpting". That way it immediatly feels creative and intuitive rather than a boring technical task.

3. Mixing "rules" are in the end just guidelines to help out. Most of them work a lot of the time. But in the end you need to try them out for yourself and see what works. Find your own taste and workflow. Like someone mentioned before "If it sounds good it is good".


If I were you I would start finishing every tune you make from now on, meaning not just do the fun song writing part, but mixing/mastering them as well before you move on to write another track.
Going back to mix 200 old songs sounds like a complete nightmare tbh. Do you really need to revisit them all? Are they all worth the time? Maybe either spend time on just the best songs? Or alternatively, practise mixing on the worst songs. That way it doesn't matter so much if the mixing sucks in the beginning stage of your mixing.

[Rising Night Wave]

thanks TritodeAddiction for the kind words.

[jam-s]

In case you're still thinking about it: It's on sale right now: https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/rack ... er-effect/
(or you could also get their whole line of REs for just a little more: https://www.reasonstudios.com/shop/bund ... al-bundle/)

In any case checking it out (as a trial) before opening your wallet would be best, of course, as I cannot tell if it is good or not, as I have/use other tools for mastering.