HarBal & Masterin........
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Posted on Jan 06, 2005 04:16 pm
cocofromscotland
Hello!
Member Since: Jan 12, 2004
Hey Guys
Been playin with HarBal combined with Sound Forge and its a bloody awesome combination.
Now, for a question (dB - ye may know this one). I have 2 questiosn in fact:
1. What order do YOU master i.e. do you take the pre-master and EQ, Maximise/Compress THEN HarBal or HarBal/Maximise/Compress ... or different.
2. I have a mate who paid (wait for it) some "expert" to master his (wait for it) "expertly" (wait for it) tracked demo in (ahu - ye guessed it) "Pro Tools" and the poor laddie got a pile of junk even humble old I could have done better!! Well, maybes its no THAT bad but Im here to tell ye he paid £250 (DOUBLE ALL PRICES FOR USD$ EQUIV) for the recording/tracking and another £200 for the mastering thats £450 ($900 !!!) for something that (In my honest, honest opinion) I could have done myself using Cubase, a Celery PC and a small mixer which I dont own.
Anyway, I digress - to the question - how would it sound and is there much point in trying to remaster this already tracked/mastered CD??? I mean using HarBal and possibly Sound Forge to tidy it up. Will the difference be there (based on what I say i.e. its not that good) or would it simply be audiophiles who can hear the difference??? I would assume if my less than expert ears can hear it, the average punter will?
That goes for all remasters by the way?? I was havin fun trying to beat on auld recordings fi the Stones, Beatles, and had some fun chagin it in HarBal...a VERY COOL APP for sure.
Cheers guys
Coco.
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olddogMember
Since: Jul 02, 2003
Jan 06, 2005 07:05 pm The way I'm doing it is to do everything to it except Maximizing and keeping the mix level @ about -3dB. Then I use HB, then back into Ozone for maximizing. Then I usually load it up into HB once more to check it and if I think it needs it very small tweaks.
You have to be careful with HB because if you don't leave yourself some headroom you'll have a file that could be clipping, that's why I don't use after Maximizing.
Dan
Jan 06, 2005 07:18 pm Yeah, I do essentailly the same thing, WaveLab for EQ, compression, reverb, linear phase, whatever...then into Har-Bal, then into WavesL2.
Sometimes after Waves I'll open back up in Har-Bal just to see how bad the L2 mangled it, not much, but every once in a while it's ugly...
Jan 06, 2005 07:26 pm Well Coco, I guess it depends on how much damage he did when he mastered it. If he already squashed the life out of it while compressing and maximizing than I imagine it would be hard (if not impossible) to fix.
I agree with olddog on not using HB after maximizing. In fact, because maximizing dictates your final levels, it should probably always be the last in the mastering chain.
Mike
Jan 06, 2005 07:28 pm drool ... waves ... drool
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
Jan 06, 2005 10:47 pm Waves Bundles rock.
Jan 07, 2005 03:17 am Nice one guys....nice one. THanks to ye all for this info. I had really hoped you would say that cause thats what I started doing...
I didnt do this previously when I first got HarBal and learned about the clipping the hard way :-) good shout there olddog...for sure.
So - thanks again lads.
Aye, I do also drool wiht the Waves...how much will that set ye back these days then???
Maybe, in the future, I'll see if I can scrape it to my studio from selling an organ or something (I mean like, an internal organ I dont need...hehehe (NOT my liver tho - I DO need that)..hehe.
Cheers
Coco.
Jan 07, 2005 06:17 am The little gain fader helps with the clipping when Harbalizing and/or loudness matching.
Jan 07, 2005 07:22 am Aye, I Will try that when I try to see what I can do with the disc.
This is purely experimental for me. I plan on doign the "door step challenge" with my bud and his band by giving him 2 copies (one mastered and original) and see which one they prefer (completely blank cds so they dont know).
IF I do it right, they should HEAR which one is best huh!! Theres nae cash involved but this is gonna test ma skills to the max...worth a challenge always.
They've just cut a new CD too (which apparently is much better than this one - cant be much worse) so I'll maybe do the works with that one too if this one comes oot good and see where it goes....
Cheers again folks and dB as ever for the masterin advice...top man.
Coco.
