Free Audio Mastering Tutorial - Focus On Results WITHOUT Buying New Equipment

Free Audio Mastering Tutorial that focuses on results WITHOUT buying new equipment, is NOT written by a patronising boor and does NOT require a degree in Astrophysics to get past the first paragraph???

(I know... I did a little wee too).

Since my last post I've started to attempt to master some of the tracks I've made recently. I soon hit a wall and started looking for some free help...

In the past, the few times I've had the opportunity to use a professional mastering service have been when I've been signed to a label who has handled the mastering process for any releases, or when I've played in bands and we'd split the bill five or six ways.

Unfortunately, mastering services are expensive enough to be beyond the reach of most of us without label backing. The other option is to attempt it yourself but this is often pretty daunting... Especially when you google pics of mastering studios and they look like Spock should be standing in the corner talking on a cell phone that hasn't been invented yet, and the engineers themselves are revered like some breed of maniacal dark sorcerers with alchemical abilities known only to the spirits of lost shaman....

Personally, whilst I could always visualise the process of making a song in the studio, the mastering aspect always seemed shrouded in intrigue and secrecy.

And money...

Yeah.

Cash.

How the shit do you afford all that gear?

Never.

I always got disheartened when I browsed Thomann's 'mastering' section and saw the price of all that outboard because I knew I'd never own it, and therefore never become self sufficient in that aspect of music making...

Unlike their excellent reverse engineered SM57s that cost £17, there sure ain't any cheap versions of those £7000 valve consoles with Beatle spit still on the dials... Or those little boxes that have two control knobs and a signal path like something out of Gwyneth Paltrow's new diet book and yet STILL cost more than your entire set-up.

I guess in the end I just figured I'd do it myself and everyone else could just get lost if they thought it was crap...

I did all the "mastering" (if you can call it that) myself on my last album because I didn't have a budget and the record wasn't being released on a label that could provide mastering services.

Like most people attempting this themselves, I basically shoved the following signal chain onto the master tracks -

1) A crude HP and LP filter from a graphic EQ

2) An exciter

3) A compressor that had a 'mastering' preset (which I played around with a bit)

4) A stereo widener  

This worked to a degree I suppose, I really wasn't bothered about trying any harder at the time. I read a few Sound On Sound articles from their archives and just went with it... I knew I was probably making "mistakes" but I was worried about getting too engrossed in the process for fear that I'd never get the record finished!

To put it bluntly, I stank at mastering and didn't know how to get any better.

Anyway,

Present day me comes along and I'm working on a record that is incredibly varied (It's a compilation of different artists all playing different styles) so I searched to see if there is any online resource available FOR FREE that can help me to master this shit like Bruce Lee.

Enter: http://www.masteringtuition.com/

This site is run by David Eley who runs a mastering studio in Manchester called TGM Audio Mastering.

In his 'about me' section David explains that he starting making electronic music at 12, he then studied music, went on to become a college tutor and eventually gave that up in favour of his increasingly lucrative and successful mastering business.

Sweet Christmas.

So David, being punk as fuck, has written a book named 'Pro Audio Mastering Made Easy' and it's focus is on achieving a professional quality mastering sound WITHOUT buying new equipment.

Most of the plug-ins used are standard built in plugs found in any DAW and the rest are freely available. For instance, a number of Voxengo plugs crop up and these feature heavily in my previous blog on free vst.

Now my dad is one of those people who is dyslexic as shit but when I was a kid he could explain any concept to me, great or small, in a way that I could visualise and understand. Be it Quantum Mechanics or Russian troop movements at Stalingrad, he was there with the knowledge and the patience to explain it in terms that lodged in my brain.

David's way of writing gives me the same warm fuzzy feeling, the way the book is set out is a joy to read and is in no way dry like a desert dwelling Ryvita. Reading this book feels like warm spaghetti hoops are wriggling up, up through educational ectoplasm and into your until recently unperturbed gray matter, compelling you to run like bat shit to your latest mix and dive right in with your newly upgraded memory banks.

Working along from the book is great. Having RMS compression, limiting, stereo enhancement explained in a way that doesn't criticise you for NOT KNOWING ALREADY (you bloody oaf) is great. I've been working with these concepts for years but there's always new insight to be sought and David has helped me to further my understanding enormously. I now know WHY things happen when you change parameters. I'm due to start uni in a few weeks as a mature student and this book is going to turn me into a cross between Hermione Granger and those super profound copper bug dudes from Fifth Element.

I've learnt so much and had such amazing results that I've forked out for the advanced book which you can find here:

http://www.masteringtuition.com/index.php/advanced-techniques-ebook

This is currently available at a reduced price of £8.79 (usually £19.97) and includes both books as an ebook. You can view it in PDF, download it to a kindle or print it out. I've printed mine, stuck it all in plastic wallets and put it in ring binders. It's full of QR codes so you can scan them to link to videos and listen to example tracks. There are even tracks on the website that you can download and work along with and THEN compare with David's examples of the same track.

This guy must have been one hell of a teacher...

Rest assured, the first part of the book (the free part) is a self contained tutorial in itself. The second part that costs just takes you further.

There are good reviews from a number of reputable sources and people from all backgrounds seem to be digging the both the site and David's approach to writing the book. I don't want to rehash any of the material by way of 'example' because I just wouldn't do it justice. This book comes highly recommended, is universal to any style of music and is totally free so no excuses not to check it out.

Anyway, I don't want to come across like a salesman, I just get mega enthusiastic sometimes.

Smell you later.