Digital Audio Mastering Manual

Download or read book Digital Audio Mastering Manual written by Alessandro Fois and published by Alessandro Fois. This book was released on 2020-03-16 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Note to the 1st Edition This manual has been translated from Italian by a non-native translator. This will allow full comprehensibility of the text but will not always guarantee an absolute smoothness of the natural expressive form. As this is a technical manual, we do not think that this is particularly serious. However, we apologize to the reader, appealing to his understanding. If the English version of this manual will receives sufficient consent, we will ensure that we prepare a new edition with a more refined translation as soon as possible. Those who would like to help me improve the translation of the English version of this manual and other manuals like this, can contact me at the addresses they can find below. I invite you to report any suggestions, incompleteness, errors, by writing an email to the address below. The manual is available on www.alessandrofois.com under the Books menu Preface The purpose of this manual is to provide concrete and simple help aimed at rapidly obtaining professional-level results, in alignment with the quality standards of the audio production industry, without using analog outboards. The easy application of the criteria suggested below make it suitable for inexperienced operators; but even audio professionals with few mastering experiences will be able to integrate and reorganize the knowledge already acquired through practice. Digital technology has made the equipment necessary to obtain professional results more accessible; therefore numerous home studios were born, dedicated to recording and processing of sound, some of which are managed by sound engineers of good competence, almost like their professional colleagues. Primarily this book is addressed to them, so that they can organize in a more orderly way the knowledge already acquired, fill the conceptual gaps, learn new concepts and procedures, find out inspiration for new mental and professional paths. An experienced sound engineer will smile for some simplified explanations. They aim to make the material accessible. But perhaps he will read these pages equally with pleasure, considering them a mental exercise of “revision”. For beginners, the manual would like to provide support to learn correctly and experiment with the principles and procedures of digital audio mixing. Index of the manual Note on the 1st edition Foreword Index of the manual CHAPTER 01 - Mastering preliminary ITB and OTB Purpose of mastering What you need Analog and Digital Mix analysis Logbook Dynamic Analysis impressions listening Stereo-mono compatibility Tonal Verification Dynamic Verification Review of the mix Creating and Parameters of a Session Your computer's resources Other Specifications Comparison Mastering “on board” Sound levels CHAPTER 02 - Editing Cutting, silencing, fading Start cutting Start silencing Start fading End cutting, silencing, fading Middle cutting, insert CHAPTER 03 - Noise reduction Click Crackles Hiss Hum Traffic noise, wind noise and feedback Conclusion CHAPTER 04 - MS Mastering The MS chain L-R to M/S encoding M/S processing M/S to PARTIALURLPLACEHOLDER decoding How to set the M/S matrix on the Daw Mastering operations with the M/S matrix Conclusion CHAPTER 05 - Stereo image Phase correlation Symmetry Width Center leveling CHAPTER 06 - Stems Stem mastering Addition and subtraction What stems How to export stems correctly CHAPTER 07 - Dynamics and Loudness Dynamic I'm listening Natural Dynamics Recording Dynamics Loudness War Audio Consequences LUFS The Revolution of Streaming Reference Loudness True Peak Level The new standards CHAPTER 08 - The working session Import mixes and stems Main Group Original audio track Audio track test Instrument track Audio Chain Building a template CHAPTER 09 - Tonal correction Acoustic perception HPF and LPF What you need General imbalances Static Equalization Dynamic Equalization Balancing the bass Spectrum Analyzer Test of the medium mix Tonal imbalances in individual sources Coloured Equalizers Automation Quality CHAPTER 10 - Dynamic correction Treatment of abnormal peaks Transient Adjustment De-essing Levelling Compression Smoothing Compression Risks of the dynamic process Mix too compressed Comparison and corrections CHAPTER 11 - Environmental correction Ambient sound Increase body Sharps bass Crushed Mix Width and depth Effects Installation CHAPTER 12 - Other processes Enhancement Exciter Analog Tape Saturator Inflator CHAPTER 13 - Finalisation Enhancement of bass Cosmetic Equalization Verification of loudness Finalizer Limiter Oversampling Algorithm selector Lookahead+Attack and release Channel Links Ceiling - Output LUFS Meters True Peak Gain Listening and Comparing Dithering and Noise Shaping Mastering for vinyl Export Duplication on Audio Cd Encoding Automatic mastering Appendix Monitoring Warning Conclusion Author's Biography Copyright Contacts