Mixing mastering

[Don W]

How will mixing and mastering affect / improve the finished quality of the sound of a solo acoustic studio performance? I have recorded my first CD and am kind of clueless about the whole recording / engineering thing. Need education.

[Doug Young]

Solo acoustic guitar, or guitar+vocals, or other instruments added?

For just solo guitar, there's not a lot to "mixing", maybe adding some reverb, possibly some EQ. If there's only one instrument, there's nothing to "mix", and whatever you do is more like the mastering step: adjusting levels, EQ to make sure it plays well on multiple systems, adjusting timing, fades, etc, between tracks, generally getting things ready to be released. Mastering is hard to define because it's kind of like detailing a car, or maybe final QA of a manufacturing process - it's just going over everything and doing whatever is needed to make something ready for release. A mastering engineer might say "perfect, nothing's needed at all", or "this has to be totally reworked", it all depends. A big benefit to mastering is having someone else do it - you get a 2nd set of ears, someone with hopefully much better equipment and experience with lots of people's similar (hopefully) music. Some solo guitarists literally just record a raw track, do any editing, then send the raw track off to a mastering engineer to do everything else, EQ, reverb, whatever is needed.

The following video is a bit old now, but might be useful. I tried to show the process I followed of "mixing and mastering" a solo guitar track off my last CD, from raw to finished. It's just one example, things could be radically different depending on your music, your recording, your mastering engineer, the sound you want, and so on:

[runamuck]

It seems to me that it depends on who does the mixing and how experienced they are as to what the outcome is.

But the most important part is how well it was recorded. If you post a recording link you'll get better feedback I think.

[Don W]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Solo acoustic guitar, or guitar+vocals, or other instruments added?

For just solo guitar, there's not a lot to "mixing", maybe adding some reverb, possibly some EQ. If there's only one instrument, there's nothing to "mix", and whatever you do is more like the mastering step: adjusting levels, EQ to make sure it plays well on multiple systems, adjusting timing, fades, etc, between tracks, generally getting things ready to be released. Mastering is hard to define because it's kind of like detailing a car, or maybe final QA of a manufacturing process - it's just going over everything and doing whatever is needed to make something ready for release. A mastering engineer might say "perfect, nothing's needed at all", or "this has to be totally reworked", it all depends. A big benefit to mastering is having someone else do it - you get a 2nd set of ears, someone with hopefully much better equipment and experience with lots of people's similar (hopefully) music. Some solo guitarists literally just record a raw track, do any editing, then send the raw track off to a mastering engineer to do everything else, EQ, reverb, whatever is needed.

The following video is a bit old now, but might be useful. I tried to show the process I followed of "mixing and mastering" a solo guitar track off my last CD, from raw to finished. It's just one example, things could be radically different depending on your music, your recording, your mastering engineer, the sound you want, and so on:

Doug...thanks this is great...the studio where I did the recording is doing the mix and will send me a CD for approval then I will be going off to a different studio for mastering. Can't wait to hear the finished product.

[Doug Young]

Sounds like you're all set, others did the recording and will handle the mix and mastering. Your only challenge is to listen and provide feedback in a useful way if you don't like something. Congratulations on finishing the recording and hope you are happy with the results!

[rick-slo]

You can learn to do it yourself. Not that difficult. Usually you do need some decent software though. The harder part is getting a good raw recording.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

You can learn to do it yourself. Not that difficult. Usually you do need some decent software though. The harder part is getting a good raw recording.

I've been told the person who represents themselves in court or masters their own mix has a fool for a client.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I've been told the person who represents themselves in court or masters their own mix has a fool for a client.

Plenty of my solo guitar recordings are posted here on the forum and elsewhere.

Where are yours?

In any case usually the essential factor is the original recording. Post recording tweaks are pretty straight forward.

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Plenty of my solo guitar recordings are posted here on the forum and elsewhere.

Where are yours?

In any case usually the essential factor is the original recording. Post recording tweaks are pretty straight forward.

Sorry to ruffle your feathers. (There IS a smiley to assist with those who are overly sensitive to an old joke.) Although my comment is meant to be taken lightly there is usually a reason why 99 times out of 100 the recommendation from folks who do this professionally is to have your work mastered by someone outside of the performance or recording end of doing the work.

As for a lack of posted music I don't really feel the need to impress anyone hanging out on a forum.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Sorry to ruffle your feathers. (There IS a smiley to assist with those who are overly sensitive to an old joke.) Although my comment is meant to be taken lightly there is usually a reason why 99 times out of 100 the recommendation from folks who do this professionally is to have your work mastered by someone outside of the performance or recording end of doing the work.

As for a lack of posted music I don't really feel the need to impress anyone hanging out on a forum.

It's called sharing, which is kind of what many of us do on the forum. I understand your reluctance however.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

I've been told the person who represents themselves in court or masters their own mix has a fool for a client.

Lots of old wives tales, platitudes, and mythology surrounding audio production

But as old Al said reality is "Relative"

[DukeX]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

The following video is a bit old now, but might be useful. I tried to show the process I followed of "mixing and mastering" a solo guitar track off my last CD, from raw to finished. It's just one example, things could be radically different depending on your music, your recording, your mastering engineer, the sound you want, and so on...

That was an excellent demonstration, Doug, thanks for sharing!

[Don W]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

Sorry to ruffle your feathers. (There IS a smiley to assist with those who are overly sensitive to an old joke.) Although my comment is meant to be taken lightly there is usually a reason why 99 times out of 100 the recommendation from folks who do this professionally is to have your work mastered by someone outside of the performance or recording end of doing the work.

As for a lack of posted music I don't really feel the need to impress anyone hanging out on a forum.

No problem...I should probably bare my soul with this. The recording that I just completed will be a "not for sale" CD that I will give away. The reason for this is I want to share my guitar playing and my favorite songs with people. I have terrible performance anxiety and have a really hard time completing a complicated fingerstyle piece in front of even a small audience. So this is how I share as I work on my anxiety issues. Also ...once I figure out how to post a song I will do that in non video format....hehehe. Thanks for all the support and help with my ongoing technical education. Thanks especially to Doug for his input.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by Don W

No problem...I should probably bare my soul with this. The recording that I just completed will be a "not for sale" CD that I will give away. The reason for this is I want to share my guitar playing and my favorite songs with people. I have terrible performance anxiety and have a really hard time completing a complicated fingerstyle piece in front of even a small audience. So this is how I share as I work on my anxiety issues. Also ...once I figure out how to post a song I will do that in non video format....hehehe. Thanks for all the support and help with my ongoing technical education. Thanks especially to Doug for his input.

Everyone has started out at some point. I have learned a lot about recording (solo guitar at least) over
the last fifteen years or so. There have been many, many, threads on this general topic posted on the
forum by a variety of people. Spend some time browsing through some of them.