mastering a song?

[sene]

how do you master a song. what makes the bad quality go to great quality? thankyou.

[SRVFan2005]

Practice, practice, practice.

Get a metronome and start the song at about 60 BPMs and move to 120 (or some division of the songs tempo) and then up to tempo.

Don't rush through this, and savor every single note you play. Also, if you are just starting music or learning songs, do yourself a favor and avoid tabs. You won't get the same enriching experience with tabs. Learn a good basis of theory. I have dedicated myself to theory after 2 years of being ruined from tabs and on my second year of theory I am grasping alot more music. Also, take the time to develop a good ear. Then, take a recording of your favorite song and go through it bit by bit. You will help yourself 10 fold by doing this. Then you can master the song.

[Camel42]

Learn songs on guitar with tabs. Learn songs on another instrument (for example the piano or saxophone) by reading music.

To master the song. First of all turn your distortion pedal off. You need to hear exactly what you are playing. Memorize and learn the essential parts of the song on the rhythm guitar. The essential parts are the chorus, verse, and bridge. Start with the chorus of a song. Memorize the chords and the order in which they are played. Take it one note at a time. Don't rush. Also if there is a riff that the rhythm guitar plays in the chorus memorize it. Try to memorize it without actually playing it (if you memorize the notes of a riff just by playing them then you will be using your muscle memory, and may learn the wrong rhythm.) Just memorize what the notes look like on the tab (for some reason I have associated colors with these; such as the low F# power chord is red and purple to me, and the low E is black and red.) Think about where the tabbed notes are on your guitar. You should be able to close your eyes and play the riff mentally before moving on. Next put the bands cd in the cd player and everytime the chorus comes along jam along with it. Don't listen the the guitar players so much as the drummer. The purpose of playing along with the CD is to play with the drummer. After you've got the chorus down solid try playing it without the cd. Then play it with the cd again to make sure you have all of the notes and rhythms right. Once you've mastered the chorus on the rhythm guitar do the same thing with the verse, and the bridge. These are the main parts of the song. Next on the agenda would be mastering the intro and outro if the song has them. At this point you have the BASIC rhythm guitar part memorized and mastered. Go through the tabs and look for the parts called rhythm fills. These are usually small details added to a song to make it sound more interesting. Memorize, learn, memorize, and then add the rhythm fills as they belong in the song. After all this (and it does take time,) you should be able to play the entire song as the rhythm guitarist does on the cd without the assitance of the cd.

The next step would be to learn the intrumental melodies in the same manner as above. If there is a lead line in the chorus then memorize that, and practice it with the cd. Go in the same fashion as the verse, bridge, intro, outro. Learn the leads on the rhythm fills (if there are any.) After you have the instrumental melodies mastered its time to learn the guitar solo(s) if there are any.

Learning the solo: look at the tab of the guitar solo. Break it up into phrases. Don't try to learn the entire solo all at one time. Memorize the first 10 seconds of the solo (the amount of time isn't important. The idea is to learn a small section of it.) Play it along with the CD until you have it mastered. Learn the next 10 seconds of the solo. Play it along with the CD. Then play the first 10 seconds and the next 10 seconds together with the CD. Tommarrow (you need to give it time to sink in!) learn the next 10 seconds of the solo....

Learning how to solo:
Ok. Great you've just done everything written above. Now after 3 months of practicing, and back ache, you've mastered Fade to Black by Metallica (or whatever song.) You sound just like James Hatfield or Kirk Hammet (or whatever guitar player(s),) and that makes you a hell of a guitar player, but not really a musican (which the guys on mtv are.) This is why you need to take some time to learn how to read music on another instrument, and study it, and learn it. I guess you could do this on guitar instead of a saxophone, but why not add another prospective to your musical talent? If you know how to play like Tim Reynolds on guitar, and know your music theory on a piano, you'll be a one hell of a lead guitar player.

Mastering not a song, but the guitar...
Record everything that you practice. You will be able to hear the mistakes that you are makeing, and are not aware of. This gives you the power to correct them. Also always play or practice with some sort of time keeping device. Be it a recording of a drummer playing with a band, a drum machine, or a metranome. I suggest playing with some type of drum sounding device or a recording of a drummer first, and then moving on to the metranome. Also it really helps alot to learn how to play the other instruments involved in rock music (the bass guitar, and drums.) Keep in mind that good lead guitar players master rhythm guitar first.

... I just wrote a book lol.

[SRVFan2005]

Learn songs on guitar with tabs. Learn songs on another instrument (for example the piano or saxophone) by reading music.

I disagree with this statement, because tabs are just like reading words but music is an audio thing. You should listen for it with your ears.

[Camel42]

Words are listened to by the ears. Also i think that music is meant to be felt not listened to so much, and that a good story also makes you feel something.

letters make words, words make phrases
notes make sounds, sounds make phrases

This is just what Im thinking right now, and is not my absolute opinion.

[Jovianknight]

Just so you guys know, I think he's talking about mastering as in 'mixing and mastering', not becoming perfect at playing a song.

[Cain]

Just so you guys know, I think he's talking about mastering as in 'mixing and mastering', not becoming perfect at playing a song.

I knew that. :p Well, first off, the technology you have plays an incredible role in the ultimate quality of whatever you record. This may seem like it goes without saying, but after recording everything on a 200 dollar analog Tascam Portastudio, it may cause you to take an uneccesessarily dim view of all cheap technology. Analog tape machines tend to be terrible at reproducing the way the sound actually sounds to the naked ear. Digital computer will do a much better job generally: if you're recording into a computer, it would be better to master use of a good amp modeler like the POD XT rather than messing with mics. Digital consoles are great no matter which way you would like to go: recording becomes much easier, as does mixdown and effects adding. Garageband is much better than you might expect, for instance. I recommend it highly if your music making is a solo operation.

That said, there are ways to make that ****ty Tascam work well for you. First off: pan, pan pan!!!! The only way to get a healthy mix is to pan your parts to different areas of the stereo spectrum. For instance: the way I record songs on my four track goes like this: I tend to play a drum machine track, a MIDI bass track with the drum machine, and an embellishment rhythm guitar part, to support the main part. I bounce all these tracks down to the fourth track and have that one go up the middle. I record a main guitar riff into both track 1 and 2 and then--this is VERY IMPORTANT--pan track one into the left channel, and track 2 into the left channel. Your mix sounds incredibly thick and full this way, and it also allows your speakers to handle the brunt of the bass you decide to put into it, while retaining clarity of your parts. If you pan everything up the middle, your sound gets squashed-sounding, while simultaneously creating an overload of bass and treble that causes your speakers to distort and sound like ****. The third track I reserve for vocals and then I punch in the guitar solo when the vocals cut out.

Panning is important, and also this is something you'll really want to do: emphasize the treble over the bass when mixing down. If you're a kid you loves to listen to all of his/her music with the bass turned up, the tendency to increase the bass in the final mix is almost an irresistable urge. It doesn't matter: resist it. Because your mix will still sound more trebly than you would like, and when you turn up your system's bass it'll distort like mad. So resist it. You'll get a much clearer sound by edging off the bass.

Also, if you have the means, leave effects off and add them after recording your guitar. If you use digital programs with effects, this is the best way to do it. Effects boxes create unneccesary hiss and sound like **** recorded directly into an amplifier. Record with the cleanest sound you possibly can, and add embellishments later. Also, if you have a lot of tracks to work with, record that awesome metal part with less gain than you otherwise would. Turn the distortion down! And then just double it about four times. You'll have a really fat and really heavy, but really clear tone!

That's some pretty basic advice based on my experience. Experiment, and you'll master the art of mastering, so to speak. :thumb:

[electrified]

All u have to do is practice, practice, practice and when u r done practicing practice some more.

[airborne50caliber]

That's some pretty basic advice based on my experience. Experiment, and you'll master the art of mastering, so to speak. :thumb:

nice explanation there, but it isn't mastering. mastering is what comes afterwards when the band has gone home.

To threadstarter, I'd be crazy to try and explain mastering to you. Some people take it to mastering engineers because it is such a complicated process, but I'm assuming you don't want to do that, so look on the internet for articles.

[moaner]

in its simplest terms, i guess mastering is just setting the levels of each track.

but it can also include panning, reverb, effects, all that kind of stuff.

you can never make a bad recording sound good- but you can fulfil the potential of a good recording when you master it well.

[diesel]

Well regardless about which the thread-starter asked about, there seems to be a little confusion about what mastering is.

The first step in recording is called tracking, that's when the band is present and records their instruments. The play either together, or recorded one after the other. The recording engineer is attempting to achevie the best possible sounding source. Nobody really cares about relative levels, ie, is the bass too loud for the guitar to be heard, they just want the best signal to start with.

The mixing stage is what most people here are talking about, the producer sits down with the mixing engineer and sometimes the band, or just the band if they aren't signed. This is where the mix comes together, tracks are mixed, levels fixed (and any parts that need to be re-done, ie, if the drummer comes up with a new solo, those get done here too) All of your effects get done here, the song should sound pretty good right now (some think it sounds best here, especially after you hear what happens next) The two-track mix then gets shipped off to....

The mastering engineer, who takes that nice sounding mix, and gets it sounding finished. The greatest weapons they have include: compressors, limiters, and EQs. Most popular music nowadays gets all of its dynamics squished out by compressors, pushed to the brink of distortion, and after all of this, sounds as "professional" and as loud as it gets. It is also readied for its media, CD, tape, etc. Then the two-track masters are sent to the duplication facility, who take the music and album art and fuses them into those lovable things we buy at the local record store.

Hope that cleared things up.

[headshrinker]

in its simplest terms, i guess mastering is just setting the levels of each track.

but it can also include panning, reverb, effects, all that kind of stuff.

you can never make a bad recording sound good- but you can fulfil the potential of a good recording when you master it well.

What he says is correct.

You also gota rember that somthing that sounded amazing in the room probally was. If whats coming out of the speackers in the control room is ***, start jumping up and down screeming at the engineer cos hes wasting ur money. lol. Also most places can burn u off copies for you to mix ur self, I cnt rember what the the program is called now, and as always Anologe tape studios> Digital studios.

[Cain]

nice explanation there, but it isn't mastering. mastering is what comes afterwards when the band has gone home.

To threadstarter, I'd be crazy to try and explain mastering to you. Some people take it to mastering engineers because it is such a complicated process, but I'm assuming you don't want to do that, so look on the internet for articles.

Untrue. The recording process before mastering has an extremely important effect on the final sound, and a good two-thirds of what I talked about--panning, mixing, setting levels, bass and treble, effects, reducing hiss--are all considerations for the mastering stage, at least with basic applications such as four-track or Garageband.

[Vitriolic Rage]

Cool Edit Pro 2.0 is a pretty good program for recording/mixing/mastering at home.

[gaslight]

Yeah, programs like Cool Edit Pro 2 and Cubase can give you a quite nice sound from the comfort of your own home.

[Moseph]

nice explanation there, but it isn't mastering. mastering is what comes afterwards when the band has gone home.

To threadstarter, I'd be crazy to try and explain mastering to you. Some people take it to mastering engineers because it is such a complicated process, but I'm assuming you don't want to do that, so look on the internet for articles.

The threadstarter is asking a really loaded question.

Mastering is a relatively simple conceptually, but is incredibly intense and difficult in practice.

Professional Mastering Studios make their living by owning the absolute best gear, working in the absolute best environments (acoustically), and also knowing exactly what every single link in the chain/process is doing and how tweaking it will change. Good mastering engineers have years of experience.

Mastering, in my opinion, does involve a certain amount of voodoo in the mastering studio. The basic idea is to make all tracks on a CD have similar dynamic range, overall timbre, and make sure you get a "polished" feel. Many amateurs interpret this as "make the track as loud as it can be without clipping it", but it's much more than that. I don't pretend to know about mastering, but when I do my own version of the process, I try to set the max/mins of each track roughly the same so you don't need to go fiddling w/ the volume knobs when listening and leave the rest alone: I know I'm more inclined to ruin something than make it better. Feel free to experiment though, it's still the best way to learn.

[denizci2000]

how do you master a song. what makes the bad quality go to great quality? thankyou.
Hey dude go to http://www.diskfaktory.com/mastering.asp mastering is not easy as iy looks. Give it to professionals hand.

[airborne50caliber]

way to revive a post that old just to discourage :thumb: