Please HELP! (CD Mastering)

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Level 1

0 points

Please HELP! (CD Mastering)

Ok, so we have our music recorded and mixed to what we feel is excellent quality. We burned a disc to take to STP for sweetening/mastering. Ripped tracks to iTunes library and went into STP, selected File>Open.... The file opens fine, but upon playback STP adds static, clicks and pops that absolutely aren't there on either the master recording, or during playback in iTunes. And furthermore are not due to clipping, the waveform and the level monitors show well below 0.0db. Also, it seems like any kind of enhancements we do (de-esser, EQing) to alleiviate these issues only make them worse. Is it processing speed? Not enough RAM? Software unfit for the job? This is holding back a CD release and giving me and my band brain bubbles. We are running all updates for hard and software, ad are now on STP v. 2.0.2

Also could use some tips on sweetening, i.e. how to boost levels without clippage..call me stupid if you must, sometimes that's how I learn best.

🙂

Message was edited by: nfarrow

MacPro, Mac OS X (10.4.11), DualCore 2.66GHz, 1GB 667MHz

Posted on Nov 22, 2007 12:08 PM

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Answer 1

mlehmann

Level 4

3,206 points

Nov 22, 2007 7:21 PM in response to nfarrow

First, don't burn an audio CD and rip it with iTunes. Instead, take your original audio files (I supposed they're either WAV or AIFF) and transfer them with a FW hard drive, a USB key, etc... When you burn an audio CD, there can be mistakes and you don't want that.

For sweetening and boosting levels, you may want to take a look at Multipressor followed by Adaptive Limiter.

And if you want your CD to sound really good, give it to someone else for mastering. I really don't want to insult you but mastering is a difficult art and judging by your questions, you still have a lot to learn. And btw, if you want to learn about mastering, let me suggest you to read "Mastering Audio: the art and the science" by Bob Katz. This is a must for anyone interested in mastering.

Good luck!

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Answer 2

nfarrow Author

Level 1

0 points

Nov 26, 2007 10:41 AM in response to mlehmann

First off, thanks for taking the time to reply. I know my ?'s may seem down-right stupid, but you have to understand my level of frustration with STP at this point. I don't understand why making a CD is problematic as that's what the CD Printers and mastering artists and studios ask you to bring to them for press, mastering or sweetening. Furthermore, the CD sounds great through my Genelec monitors (as well as 3 different stereo systems and 2 different car CD players) which, trust me, if there were errors, they would be outstandingly obvious. Also, my first inclination was to transfer files from my recorder (Mackie SDR-24/96, in WAV file format) however, what you are suggesting is completely re-mixing and entire album when it clearly states in the STP manual that importing files from CD is a perfectly acceptable practice. Especially since STp cannot read the timecode for my recorder so I would literally have to place ALL tracks by hand (so to speak), I am not OK with re-mixing an album when I have an awesome result already accomplished. And I still need to know why STP puts these pops and clicks onto BOTH the WAV files directly from my recorder AND the CD.

I may have much to learn on the computer side of things, but I have never had problems like this with my standard studio equipment and have mixed a lot of music "the old fashioned way" so I am not a complete idiot, instead I think the software developers have even more catching up to do with the tried and true analog systems that have been most effective for a lot longer than any software has even existed.

I'm really not trying to be a jerk here but, I have had it with trying to fight STP and it's weaknesses.

Thanks again for your reply.

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Answer 3

mlehmann

Level 4

3,206 points

Nov 26, 2007 11:57 AM in response to nfarrow

I understand your frustrations. I was not saying you should remix again your record, I was just saying that burning an audio CD is not a 100% error-proof way of working. Usually, it's much safer to use a computer format (WAV or AIFF) to transfer files. I know plenty of people are using audio CD for replication but usually, professional mastering suites are using DDP for delivery because it's much safer. Anyway, you can still burn audio CD for masters but you should always listen to them before sending to replication.

Since you're using hardware, you're probably bouncing your songs directly to a CD burner, hence it's not possible for you to transfer your master files as WAV (Correct me if I'm wrong). Did you try to import your audio files directly from STP instead of using iTunes to rip them? You can also copy your files from the CD directly to a folder on your desktop and your computer will convert them to AIFF files. If you still have clicks and pops, you'll need another software to import them. You may want to take a look at Switch:

http://www.nch.com.au/switch/index_b.html

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Answer 4

nfarrow Author

Level 1

0 points

Dec 4, 2007 1:28 PM in response to nfarrow

I'm just gonna get a new flash recorder, if I still have issues I will let you all know.

🙂

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