How to master outside of Cakewalk

[TVR PRODUCTIONS]

I never mastered any of my songs. I simply made the best mix I could and left it at that. If I wanted to master a song in something like Samplitude, how do I do that?  Do I simply import my mix from Cakewalk into Samplitude?  Do I export individual tracks from Cakewalk and bring them into Samplitude? I think I should be just be using the stereo file but I am not sure.  Thanks for any input.  

[msmcleod]

For mastering, you usually just need to export a stereo mix from Cakewalk and import it into Samplitude.   Make sure the exported file isn't too loud - you want to give yourself a bit of headroom when mastering.
 

[Alan Tubbs]

Keep the master level at -.3 dB otherwise mp3s will distort during the rendering process.

[Lord Tim]

Actually these days they recommend -1dB for online stuff so when it's transcoded it doesn't peak out, so that's not a bad rule of thumb for your own stuff either I think. For WAV, so long as it's not peaking, it's fine (I usually aim for -0.1dB on my masters intended for CD). But if you do intend for this to go up online, definitely drop to -1.

One tip you might want to do is to "pretend" master in CbB first so you can predict what will happen once you take the mix into Samplitude.

Mastering usually involves some kind of limiting, and if you plan to give it a good whack of limiting (some styles really benefit from being smashed like that) then you'll often find your mix will have a radically changed balance once all is said and done.

So one way to kind of predict what will happen is to strap a limiter over the master bus in CbB and squash it as loud as you think you'll be limiting later. Adjust the balance of everything again to suit it having a limiter on, and then TAKE THE LIMITER OFF and export that mix into Samplitude. It'll sound weird and poky until you start doing the actual mastering but you'll likely end up with better results.

A lot of mastering guys ask for stems as well as the stereo mix just for this reason, so if anything gets lost in the processing, you can bump it up in the mastering suite rather than ordering a new mix from the client.

[bitflipper]

Cakewalk itself makes for a fine mastering environment. There isn't really any benefit to importing into other software unless said software has some unique tools that aren't available in Cakewalk.

Here, I don't need anything beyond Ozone Advanced and its excellent metering plugin, Insight. If I'm mastering a group of songs, e.g. for an album, I just create a new project in Cakewalk for that purpose and import all the songs into a single track. If some of the songs are wildly different from the others, I'll give them their own track with an instance of Ozone on each.

As I'm sure someone will point out, there are, however, advantages to letting someone else master your songs. You not only get the benefit of a fresh set of ears, but also a different acoustical environment that can help mitigate any shortcomings in your own playback space.

[Craig Anderton]

16 minutes ago, bitflipper said:

Cakewalk itself makes for a fine mastering environment. There isn't really any benefit to importing into other software unless said software has some unique tools that aren't available in Cakewalk.

I not only agree, but mastering within Cakewalk offers some advantages you won't have with a conventional stereo mastering program. I wrote about assembling and mastering an album using Cakewalk in this Sound on Sound column.  You'll see why I think sometimes mastering in a DAW is the preferred way to go.

As to peak levels, you need to consider what's called "true peak" instead of what the meters in Cakewalk show. Sometimes, the conversion from digital to analog can create levels higher than the digital signal itself (as to why, this seems like a good time to do a self-serving plug for my latest book, The Musician's Audio Handbook).  True Peak meters, such as the Waves WLM or the (free) meter from Youlean, take this into account and give what the peak reading would be after digital-to-analog conversion. 

Streaming services have their own preferred standards for true peak values. Typically, it's -1 dB for most material, and -2 dB if the file's LUFS reading is relatively high, like -10 LUFS. Note that just because a streaming service says it wants audio that reads -14 LUFS (or whatever) doesn't mean you need to hit that level. You can master to whatever LUFS level you want, and submit it to a streaming service. They'll simply turn it down to reach their target LUFS. 

Hope this helps!