The Importance of Mastering in Metal Production – from a Metal Mastering specialist

In our very first Youtube video, join Roland in discussing the importance of working with a metal specialist for the mastering portion of your next album.

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Transcript

Hello everyone. My name is Roland. I’m a mastering engineer at Cavern of Echoes, and this is my very first attempt at making a YouTube video. So we’ll see how it goes. I’ve been meaning to make long form videos for a long time, and I think it was finally time to do one. Today we’re gonna be talking about what is mastering, why it matters, and why it’s important that you get a metal specialist to master your metal album. Let’s get going.

So let me start by saying that there are three archetypes of music production these days. So number one is people who are self mixing, people who do mixing for a living, but they’re doing it mostly at home in the box or big studio productions.

So whichever that case is, you can always benefit from a dedicated mastering engineer. However, I think this video is gonna be mostly talking to people who are either self mixing or mixing at home.

Given the fact that we are seeing like a large amount of music being produced these days, I think that mastering is getting more and more important than ever before. I think some people see it as an afterthought, and I think that’s a mistake. That’s why I think it’s important to talk about what mastering is and why it matters.

So let’s get into it.

Let’s talk about why mastering matters. Number one, think of mastering as the quality control that you’re doing on your own mix or on someone else’s mix.

Now, what this Quality Control steps allows you to do is to bring someone else into the process, listen to what you did in the mix, and then this person is gonna decide what needs to be done to get your mix to that next level.

Number two, mastering matters because it is a completely different skill than mixing.

We’re not listening for the same things. And yes, we’re using largely the same tools, but we’re not applying them in the same ways. Therefore, mixing brain and mastering brain are completely different, and I almost think like it’s really hard to be really, really good at both. So, um, a person with mastering brain will probably not be very good at mixing and vice versa.

A person with mixing brain will probably be good at mastering, but not great. So when you’re talking to a mastering engineer, they’re gonna apply the tools and the processes in a mastering way in a very subtle way. So it requires a more detailed ear for the subtle little things.

And now number three, mastering matters because you’re bringing in someone that is completely impartial and completely alien to the project. So what this means is this person is listening to the mix for the very first time.

They never heard it before. They have no idea how this particular guitar tone was achieved. This particular bass tone was achieved, this particular vocal effect was achieved. All they’re gonna do is they’re gonna listen to it as a whole and they’re gonna start making decisions as such. Therefore, they’re not gonna be impacted by what happened earlier in the process so it’s bringing that extra pair of ears that are completely impartial to absolutely everything that has happened before.

So now here’s a juicy question. Let’s, let’s talk about what is mastering exactly because it, it, it often, it’s a very misunderstood, step in the process and, uh, it’s often thought of as just raising the volume of your track or just stacking plugins on your master bus, which is not the case. So let’s talk a little bit about that.

So number one, like I said, mastering is a process. Most people think of mastering as simply slapping a limiter on your master bus to raise the volume, and that’s it. But it’s, further from the truth. Mastering is a process and it has three simple steps. Uh, and that sounds simple and it is, but it’s not easy.

The thing about mastering is. When a master engineer starts working on a project, the first thing we need to do is we just listen. And then we engage in the process of, okay, where is the song at and what do we need to do to take it to where we can make it sound the best it possibly can?

Think of mastering as the process in which you’re gonna take a mix from point A to point B so that it’s ready for everyone else to listen to it. It is not just slapping an EQ on your master bus.

So now number two, let’s talk about the mastering steps there are three and they’re very simple. Number one, the very first step in the mastering chain is EQ in a mix.

We have to be subtle about it, and the goal of this is to get the mix to sound as sonically balanced as possible. With eq what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to reduce buildups that we hear. We’re trying to enhance the clarity if we feel like the mix is dull. We’re trying to control the low end a little bit.

We’re trying to, um, uh, either enhance or, uh, cut a little bit of the mid range if it sounds too bulky. So when we’re engaging with EQ and mastering, what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to balance the mix as a whole. We’re listening to everything. Together. And then we make EQ moves. Usually they’re very subtle.

It’s really rare that you get aggressive with eq, um, in, in mastering, but sometimes you have to, but usually it will be very subtle, very broad, uh, EQ curves. And usually once you, uh, do the, uh, before and after test, you will hear a massive difference. So that is the goal of EQ number two in the mastering chain is compression. And the goal of compression is to control the dynamics to hit that sweet spot that a mix is gonna sound like it’s glued together, but it’s still gonna have awesome dynamics and awesome punchiness and awesome aggression.

So in order for a compressor to react properly to a mix, it needs to be properly balanced. This is why we put the EQ before the compression in mastering. When we compress a mix, what we’re simply doing is we’re adding glue to the mix if it needs it. And we’re also making sure that it’s not too dynamic, that it’s not too crushed, that it’s just like exactly at where it has to be, exactly where it’s gonna have that, um, sweet spot of, um, dynamic range and glue.

At that sweet spot where we’re gonna achieve an awesome dynamic range, but it’s also gonna sound cohesive and together.

And number three in the mastering chain process is limiting when we add a limiter after the compression, we do that to catch the peaks that the compressor failed to catch. The other reason we add a limiter is because it’s the tool that allows us to raise the volume of your track to commercial levels.

That’s it. The limiter is a very easy set and forget process. Now, the trick is we have to be careful with not pushing too much into the limiter, because then your tracks are gonna get squashed and they’re gonna lose the dynamics. So the limiting, while simple, is also part of this game of trying to figure out.

Is my mix loud enough, but it’s also my mix dynamic enough. So a limiter, the last step prevents digital clipping, but it’s also a very important tool in achieving loudness and preserving great dynamics.

So now there is, those are the three basic steps of the mastering chain. However, there is one more step that we could introduce into the chain that is necessary sometimes, and that’s stereo enhancement. Usually I would, introduce this after compression and before limiting. And the goal of this step is to, play a little bit with, the width of the stereo field of the track.

Sometimes mixes are not wide enough or they’re too wide. And, a simple stereo widener plugin will help with, helping me decide if I wanna make the stereo field wider or narrower, and this step, I put it as an aside because it’s not really necessary though, It’s nice to have.

Now moving on into why mastering metal is a completely different beast than other sub genders let me start by saying that a good mastering engineer will do a good job at. Mastering any album regardless of the genre. The thing is, with metal specifically, I feel like there certain nuances that not everyone is used to and therefore it’s easier and it’s best when you get someone that specializes in it. And here is why:

So number one, the first challenge that you have to overcome where mastering a mental album is you have to preserve the aggression. Without losing the clarity. So what that means is I have to preserve as much of the bite of the guitars without sounding harsh.

For example, I have to keep the drums as in your face as I possibly can without making it sound harsh or like making it sound like it’s too drum heavy. I have to make sure that the vocals don’t sound too upfront, but also not too in the back depending on what the artist wants.

I have to make sure that the vocal sound aggressive enough, but not too aggressive that it’s gonna be overwhelming to the listener. And you know, in some cases sometimes the vocals are too loud in the mix and we have to pull them back a little bit with some tricks that we can do. And oftentimes also, some metal artists want the vocals to be buried in the mix, and they feel like after adding the compression or after listening to the album, the vocals are still too upfront.So we have to deal with that too.

Number two, low end management. I am of the opinion that rock music and metal music specifically have a very. Unique, um, amount of low-end because it’s a lot less than say, hip hop or EDM, but it’s certainly more than pretty much any other music gender out there.

So we’re in this weird middle where we have to kind of get used to it. The low end in metal, I find it to be a little bit tricky than in other sub genres because it has to be big enough to create an impact, but it also can’t be too big that it overwhelms everything else because it shoudln’t be the only focus on the music as it happens in, for example, hip hop or rap. So, a metal focused mastering engineer will know exactly how much low your album needs and. The one special case that I can think of is, some Doom Metal albums where there is a massive amount of low end, so we can certainly adjust for that.

But every other, album, at least that I am familiar with or that I’ve, worked on the low end while tricky. is Usually similar.

And number three, gender specific loudness and dynamics. And this is key because every sub genre of metal, I feel like it requires its own specific, um, dynamic and loudness target. And again, the example doom metal. Usually we want do metal to be more squash than say traditional metal or black metal. So, a good metal focused mastering engineer will listen to your mix first and foremost. And then they will take into account the sub-genre that we’re working on, and then they will decide, okay, how much am I gonna squash this versus how much I’m gonna let the dynamics just live on their own?

Now finally, let’s talk a little bit about what a metal focused master engineer brings to the table. Number one, it’s deep knowledge of the genre. And what that means is when we’re mastering, we rely heavily on reference tracks to make sure that we’re on the same ballpark EQ wise.

So a metal focused mastering engineer will have a vast, deep knowledge of reference tracks , and the difference of genres of metal. So, for example, if you hire me to master a death metal album and you want me to use, for example, Suffocation as a reference track, you don’t have to explain what Suffocation is to me.

That being said, generally speaking, sometimes part of the job is to, uh, look at multiple reference tracks and decide which one is the best someone who listens to mostly Metal or someone who works at mostly Metal will have three or four different reference tracks and will make a very, very good decision depending on the options that they have.

Versus someone who doesn’t listen to metal will probably don’t understand the difference between the three options that were being considered as intimately as someone who does. So, uh, having a large pool of knowledge of reference tracks is really key to making a good job at mastering a metal album.

And like I said, someone who listens to metal and works in metal will know a lot of reference tracks for different genres and then will be able to make a decision when it’s not very clear, or will also be able to suggest reference tracks to the client when the client is not sure. And lastly, someone who listens to metal will have an ear tailored for the critical details of metal. And what I mean by this is, depending on the aesthetic, if you wanna sound low-fi, we will know how to make it sound low-fi.

If you wanna sound modern, we know how to make it sound modern. If you want it to be a little bit more mid range heavy, we know how to do that. So. A metal focused mastering engineer knows how to achieve your vision because a lot of the times you probably don’t have to explain some of the nuances as you would someone else who doesn’t listen to the genre.

So summarizing everything I just said, for the final thoughts of this video, I would like to read a quote from, a blog post that I wrote about this topic on my website, which I will link in the description below. And that quote is,

Mastering is where everything comes together. It’s the bridge between your vision and your audience. And when it comes to a genre, as intense and as passionate as metal, working with a specialist can make all the difference.

So if you’re working on your next album, on your next single, I highly suggest that if you’re a metal band partner. With a metal focus mastering engineer because it will be of tremendous help and of tremendous value. I hope you enjoyed this video. It was my very first, long form format.

I’m excited to do more of these. If you have any questions, please write it down in the comments.
Please like, follow and subscribe and share with your friends. If you want a free, um, mastering sample, send me a DM and the link is the description below. See you guys.