Subject:Mastering Audio Files / Songs

Posted by: FlashGordon

Date:11/16/2012 5:23:17 PM

I just got back from the TAXI Road Rally in LA and one of the workshops talked about "Mastering Music For Film & TV" and I'm wondering what program you ACID heads out there use for "mastering". I record and mix in both ACID & Vegas and am wondering if I should take the final audio mix that I create when I "Burn Disc - Track At Once Audio CD" and bring it into SoundForge or some other program (that I don't have) to "Master". Any opinions would be welcome and appreciated. Also when I was at the Road Rally I asked the Pro Tools guy at their booth if there is any difference between DAWs in the sense that if you have a good room, a good mic and a good preamp / interface, is there a difference in a digital audio file captured / created in Pro Tools versus ACID, Vegas or any other DAW. He distinctly answered "No".
Also something maybe someone can answer is when recording a track in ACID (on my desktop) and Vegas (on my laptop) both give me a prompt "Delete, Rename, Delete All" each "Recorded File" which is helpful to use when I know I don't have a "keeper" I can just click "Delete" and it's gone. In ACID on my laptop (which I use the most) I cannot figure out how to set that function to work the same as it does on my desktop or in Vegas. What am I missing?

Subject:RE: Mastering Audio Files / Songs

Reply by: Iacobus

Date:11/19/2012 12:54:29 PM

I use both ACID and Sound Forge to master. (I'm a musician, though.)

The Pro Tools rep answered wisely; on a level playing field (hardware-wise), I highly doubt anyone would be able to tell the difference between recordings done on different DAWs all recorded at 24-bit/96 kHz.

The "show after every recording session" option must have been turned off on your laptop. It's odd, because once you uncheck the option there are only two ways of getting it back, either by resetting everything within ACID or going into internal preferences and getting it back that way. The latter is more preferred. To get there:

Go to Options on the menu bar. While holding down Shift on your keyboard, click Preferences. Click the Internal tab (in the upper right). In the bottom field, "show only prefs containing," type "post" (without the quotes). For the value, "Show post record dialog," set the value to TRUE. Click OK.

Subject:RE: Mastering Audio Files / Songs

Reply by: FlashGordon

Date:11/19/2012 9:29:27 PM

Thanks for that setting change. That did it and with your guidance it was quite simple. I've never even looked at the "Internal Tab" before. I saw a few other settings I might change in there that might make life easier but that one will definitely help when recording since I hate ending up with tracks that are duds or partials. What kind of music are you making? I'd be happy to trade discs with you with some of my songs I've made over the last twenty years or so including the newest track our six piece just finished. Basic drum tracks, the rhythm guitars and bass were done at our ex-drummer's studio and then I brought those tracks into ACID to do my vocals, flute and sax and my lady Jo's vocals and piano. I think I have a good overall mix but hearing from pros always make me wonder if I can't do a little better. I also still do some capturing of tracks with my Akai DPS-16 and then fly those tracks into ACID. I record just about every rehearsal that way and if the rehearsal space had better acoustics I think we could make a record that way. I'd love to hear your music and if you're into a swap send me a disc to Flash Gordon - 514 Janice Place, Indian Rocks Beach, FLA 33785. Cheers, and thanks again.

Subject:RE: Mastering Audio Files / Songs

Reply by: Geoff_Wood

Date:11/20/2012 8:06:43 PM

No - you don't take your mastering source from a burned CD. Instead of Burn Disc, you Render to a 24/44k1/s WAV file and work on that.

I prefer to 'Master' in CD Architect or SF. In CDA especially, it is easy to hop around all over a CD-full of tracks for mastering each track comparative to the others.

Or you could load up the mixed/renedred tracks into Vegas (benefit of supporting VST plugs) to do similarly.

And the other question - the difference in sound 'quality' of various DAWs give a set file-spec should be less that the effect of moving your head a few inches in a typical listening environment, if any.

geoff