Caustic Song file (optional):
I am new to music production. About 2 years. So there is a lot I don't know. I just tried to use the mastering app on my latest caustic track, and I realize I have some knowledge of how to use it, but not much, and almost no knowledge of what it is that I am actually supposed to achieve with it. So any suggestions would be helpful. I think my track sounds good the way it is, but I know it could sound better. I just don't know how. I don't use a lot of EQ on any of my tracks. I don't know if it's because I don't really use any samples except drums and all my sounds are made with the synths in caustic. Or maybe I just don't hear where it needs it. I'm not going for a heavy or club oriented sound necessarily. This song I gave as an example is more fast paced and dance styled. I don't do that all the time. I want to go for different textures and feelings depending on the song. Do you master on a final singular wav file or can you use the master stems instead? How do you get those stems back together as a final track?
Dont bother learning to master until you have a good handle on mixing. If your mix is bad it will sound even worse after you try and master it. That old saying "you cant polish a turd" applies! If you arent using Eq in your tracks than you really arent going to get a good mix. Sounds need to be placed in a specific frequency range so that they dont overlap other sounds and cause phasing or summing issues. I have been at it on and off for 5 years and I'm still learning how to mix.
Caustic has all the tools required for mastering the track. If you are not satisfied with your track. The main reason is always the sound in your head. Try to make a the idea how your track should sound. Leave the track off for a couple of days( my limit is seven days) after seven days I listen to it. If it sound nice I am doing the export. If not, it goes in my files dump. I will not bother my self to finish it or remix it.
Thats my rule.. :)
https://soundcloud.com/user-meleven/dimension-ten?ref=clipboard&p=a&c=1
You can use another app to render to mixdown which means make a final track out of them.
Hi, it might not make sense to have someone respond who doesn't use the mastering app yet, but Mekanism is right, you can get really close to what you want during mixing. Definitely use EQ, either in the mixer or as FX (I often use both) and you can use HP/LP filtering, too. Every single machine/sound in your song can have frequencies cut out so they don't spill over other sounds or they can have the frequencies that matter the most boosted (not too much!) Once you start this process, your ears will start to hear more separation and clarity and amazingly, it doesn't interfere at all with it feeling textured and layered. When you get levels balanced and sounds EQd well, then you could move on to mastering. To me, it makes no sense to master pieces of the track, the point of mastering is to master the whole. Take your finished mix as a whole and use mastering to polish. This is all the opinion of someone who still feels "nooby" so take it with a grain of salt, or two.
JHS
https://soundcloud.com/jhsound-2