Marcello

Hi there! I recorded a guitar track in MONO by mistake, how can I make it in stereo without recording it again? Is it possible?

Thanks Jack! On distorted guitars there's no reverb at all, just on the clean parts I wanted to give it a dreamy sound.

PS: In my opinion the first one is wider, in the sense that the instruments are more panned left and right, you can really hear the difference with headphones when you switch to the second song everything is more centered. I have heard a lot of times that 100% panning LCR is the most used and suggested my mixing engineers, to make to sound wide, at the same time I'm not sure, it seems to me that the second one sounds much better, the first one is more clear and you can better define each instruments because everything sounds more separate of course because everything is more panned, but still the second one is more powerful and mashed together, doesn't sound like is all separate. I'm not sure which is the best way to go.

Hi there! I need an opinion from someone who's quite a pro in mastering. I have recorded and mixed this song with Cakewalk and used LANDR (AI Automatic Mastering tool) to master it. For who doesn't know LANDR you upload your song and AI does the mastering instantly for you, you can upload a reference track also it will apply the same mastering sound. I have two different types of masters here, the first is the Landr standard one, the second I used a reference track from Mogwai album to make it sound similar. What's the best in your opinion? Any other suggestions are welcomes especially about dynamics. Thanks! https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-Td2uUkeB5Ag3Q2C-IAFkoF0AdbaEl3I/view?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lpJwg_Nd4z3ZWopLYt5ZyiRW8BAPtGY4/view?usp=sharing

Ok thanks for the precious advice everyone! I agree you should listen the overall intruments together but I suppose before that I should also listen to the single drum track to hear the kind of sound, the reverb amount etc, then after listen everything together. I honestly don't know how to cut frequencies in specific areas, I did a low pass and high pass filter on the other instruments, but I didn't really cut the frequencies in the middle, the ones you have to find the spots where there are disturbing frequencies, it's a bit tricky. In any case I think it should be fine, if I can here the kick enough I shouldn't cut the bass low frequencies or vice versa, Actually if I cannot hear the drum kick I just tend to raise its volume. Also I have heard from some professional recording engineer that if the kick overlap the bass or similar stuff it's not always bad, sometimes it can make it sound more glued together, as far as it sounds good overall. I'm always afraid if I cut the bass low frequencies it could be too much, not sure how much I should cut, so better not to risk I like having big bass.

Hi there, I have recorded my drums track with a midi plugin. I'm not a drummer and I'm missing a reference track so that I can compare my drums sound with drums samples from some great records. Do you know where I can find only drums tracks from some artist's/ band's record? To compare the sound and make the EQ similar to those? Is it possible to find something like that online? I cannot really compare it all together with bass, guitars and voice. Thanks

I have specified the intent and kind of song, I was just wondering whether there could be some limit, if this is purely subjective fine. I'm new to recording so I just reported what I have read. I'm afraid there could be too much dynamic in a song? I was also wondering what do you do to increase dynamics, if it's just the way it's played in terms of strong/delicate hence " velocity" or a matter of "increasing volume faders where the song should sound louder", because that's what I have done, increase the faders volume of electric punchy guitar parts.

Hi there! I need some tips about the overall song dynamic. I have read that dynamic is important, and that the wave image of the entire song should not be flat but change in volume to increase dynamics. In the song I'm recording I have some clean chilled guitar parts and then some boomy electric guitar parts with powerful drums where the song should explode let's say. So I have kept the clean guitars bus at -8 volume and set the electric guitars bus at -2 volume. Now an interesting point of view of a listener that doesn't know anything about recording, my wife in this case, is that the song pass from a low volume to a higher volume too much, her opinion is that the listener should not have to low down the volume because at a certain point the song gets all of a sudden louder, but should maintain the same volume pretty much. And when playing live for instance you play stronger but is not that you increase the guitar volume from amp, that make sense. So is there a way to understand what would be the right dynamic balance? Like for instance the wave image should increase maximum double or a quarter compared to the clean parts? or something like that?

I guess you also went through first phase of learning before becoming a pro.

Ok well until now I used mono-Right option, with that I can still pan left and right, if I use stereo same thing, if I set it on mono-Left option when I play I don't hear anything, is this correct? is it fine if I set all my guitars in mono-right but then I pan them? I thought that with mono you could not pan the guitars.

Ok well until now I used mono-Right option, with that I can still pan left and right, if I use stereo same thing, if I set it on mono-Left option when I play I don't hear anything, is this correct? is it fine if I set all my guitars in mono-right but then I pan them? I thought that with mono you could not pan the guitars.

Bloody hell actually I totally didn't get the mono stereo thing, should I record the guitars in stereo or mono? What's recommended?

Actually I don't know Lol, I have just recorded guitars with TH-U, that's it, I can pan left or right so should be stereo, I have forgotten indeed to put NONE in input, now I have recomputed the wave image but it's still the same even if input none, no idea.

Hi Guys, I don't understand what's going on in some of my tracks they are displayed as the following, double waves one line on top the other on the bottom. What is wrong with this? is it just a display issue? I hear no difference in sound.

Thanks just saw on LANDR QA, but it's refering to the master bus "7. Don’t cheat Have headroom in mind when you start your mix and keep your tracks at safe levels. If you’re finding yourself trying to recover headroom at the end, fine tune your individual track levels rather than reaching for your master fader and pulling it down. Don’t cheat your way to -6 dBFS. If you’ve used plugins for the sake of loudness and your waveform is big, block-like and peaking at or near 0 dBFS – don’t take a shortcut by dragging your master fader down. You might think you created headroom because your peak level is now lower, but you’ve only squished your mix. For headroom to be beneficial to your mix, it needs to be arrived at in the right way."

"Do I add compression, limiting? Dithering? Music-makers and engineers alike use plugins in creative ways, everyone’s got their little tricks and we love that. Like we mentioned, Compressors are often a vital tool used to control dynamics and we encourage you to use them as needed. Just remember that LANDR can do more for your mix if you’re gentler and more calculated with your compression techniques. Compression can eat up your dynamic range and the heavier you apply it (especially when used on your entire mix) - the less you’re giving LANDR to work with. Limiters are also useful for more than just brickwalling and boosting. Use these wherever you like, but we don’t recommend slapping one on to your master channel and pushing it for the sake of overall loudness - LANDR’s an expert at this and will take care of it for you."

Thanks a lot! for the left right pan, if toocentered it gives the impression that it's mashing up the guitars track resulting in less clarity of what single guitars are doing.

Thanks for the comment!! No need for this, LANDR mastering tool does not recommend it. "Mastering involves compression techniques that use this space in order to add intensity, presence and glue your mix together - if the dynamic range is already gone - there’s not much LANDR can do on that front. The main culprit behind mixes with low dynamic range is heavy compression or limiting. We get it, using compression and limiting at the master or stereo output of your mix adds loudness and intensity, and you want your mix to be BIG! - but if you’re planning on using LANDR for that final touch - LANDR will take care of this for you. If you like mixing loud, no worries - just turn your monitors up!"

Hi there, so I have my guitars track clipping a bit over -6db, I already did gain staging at the beginning without plugin and kept it at -18/-6db, but then adding the plugin it goes over it. now what should I do? 1- low down faders volume ( apparently this is just tricking, the wave form will remain the same anyway, not good.) 2- low down the gain on top of fader (already at -6 gain, decreasing this will take out the gain from the distortion modifying the guitar sound I need, I want it quite distorted, in plugin THU gain is already st max) 3- low down the output volume in the THU plugin ( then I would need to low down the volume of the rest, clean guitars, drums and bass to keep the dynamics, but the overall song volume is already very low, I can barely hear the song playing having the masterbus at 0 volume) 4- other options? What do you suggest?

Honelstly? Not using one! LOL , I'm just looking at the faders that won't go red and using Free-G to see if it stays between -18 and -6db

I get it ok, thanks. I will try with the WAV format!

Thanks a lot for the comments! Do you suggest any particular limiter plugin for cakewalk?

Thanks! but the bass should not be panned right or left correct? it should stay in the center.

I dont understand, down the middle? Please dont consider bass, it’s not definitive. Consider overall sound.

Non mastered https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VcY4ISXdpF7N_I0RFO9SGCxiSrJ162r1/view?usp=drivesdk it barely cracks -21LUFS as can bee seen in the attached