going back to the original question.... There is actually a function
called bounce in Logic. Bounce was slang term used by engineers in the
days of limited tape tracks, but Logic uses that term to create a "mix
down" of all or part of a piece in Logic.
to see the overall level, you can just play it through in logic, and it
will show you its highest peak reading in the meter. you have to click
on the meter to zero this out in fact. it works on every track. You can
manually adjust things to get -3db to -6db as Pete said. I just slap a
limiter (UA's precision limiter) across the master, and have it output
-1 db. But I am not sending to a mastering house.
Regarding analog summing, I would like to see the link to that test.
Extremely few people are going to buy a Trident desk and huge reel to
reel tape deck. But there are other things like the Dangerous summing
buss, and some of its clones. There are also the poor man's approach to
those things, like using Vintage Warmer or Duy Tape plug ins, or even
playing back the mix through speakers and recording it in a room, then
blending some of that back in.
-----Original Message-----
From: pete_buchwald <pete_buchwald@yahoo.com>
To: Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sun, Aug 9, 2009 8:49 am
Subject: [Logic_Cafe] Re: Mastering on one track
Andy,
The standard "mastering" method is to boun
ce your mix down to a stereo
track aif. or .wav, with the peak level being between -3 and -6 dB.
One way to achieve this by selecting all faders in your Mixer window
(click-drag to highlight all except the master fader, leave that at 0),
then adjust the faders. Play your mix at the loudest section, and
watch the master fader meter, make sure it stays in the black, around
3-6 dB.
The other way to bounce your mix and keep it with some headroom (the -3
tpo -6 dB) is to put your adaptive limiter plugin on the master channel
strip, which is probably a better idea for more minor adjustments in
overall peak level. On the plugin, I think the bottom knob sets the
max limit of dB, set that to your desired peak level.
Once you've bounced your track, to either two mono aif/wav files (left
and right) or stereo interleaved. You can try your hand at mastering,
in the free Waveburner application that you got with your Logic
purchase (Applications/Waveburner).
Or you can pass this file off to your mastering engineer.
An interesting blindfold study was done as a part of the "Shane
Wilson's Guide to Mixing" where they took their Pro Tools mix, and
used different methods, analog/digital to convert that multi-track mix
into the two track stereo mix. His preferred method was to send four
stereo stems (drums, bass/guitar, vocals, keys) to a=2
0Trident analog
mixer, and then to half inch tape. Then he'd record the tape back
into Pro Tools for his digital .wav version. Of all the methods for
summing to the stereo track, the "in the box Pro Tools" seemed by far
the weakest to me, even when you discount the inherent problems on
creating a fair blindfold test of this nature.
I hope this helps,
Pete
--- In Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com, "Man Parrish" <realnyc@...>
wrote:
>
> Hi Andy..
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by "bouncing" your tracks first.
> Of you mean recording all of your virtual instrument tracks before
you mix down to master, then that is a good idea, and mostly depends on
the strength of your computer. I always do a "save-as" mysong/mix so I
don't mess with the original in case of changes or mess ups, etc
>
> By mixing virtual tracks down, you free up your processor to use
some of the more powerful mix down tools (like additive compressors and
3rd party mastering suites)
>
> You also record them to disc, so at a later time, you don't have
to remember your virtual instrument or sampler settings. And the tracks
are ready to go, if you send your tracks elsewhere for a remix.
>
> I reciently had a problem, where I needed to fix a mix. I bought
an 8 core mac and everything else (lik
e my sample drives) stayed the
same. But when I switched machines, my Kontact sampler couldn't find
the sample locations that were from my old mac. Stupidly I didn't write
the sample tracks to disk, Pr the names of the samples, so I lost a key
sample to a remix I did.. Fustrating after 2 days of searching my
drives!!
>
> Hope this helps, if you were referring to something else, please
let me know and maybe I can help!
>
> Best of luck!
>
> - Man Parrish
>
>
>
> --- In Logic_Cafe@yahoogroups.com, Andy Brook <bbgrove@>
wrote:
> >
> > I'm learning so much from the macProVideo tutorials - thank
you for
> > recommending them. I'm on mastering at the moment and the
tutorials
> > use a single stereo track. This is probably a stupid
question, but do
> > I first bounce the various tracks in my song before mastering?
> >
> > I'm sure that's what I should do, its just that I haven't
actually
> > been told to do that so maybe there is another way of doing
it.
Show quoted textHide quoted text
> >
> > thanks in advance
> >
> > Andy B
> >
>
