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Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science?
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You are comparing your mixes "right out of the board" to commercial releases. And there is a step you are not taking into account.
After a mix, a track will go to a mastering engineer, who will do all sorts of interesting things to a mix, including make it as loud as possible.
This process is as much an art as a science. If you're interested in more, have a look at a book by a guy named Bob Katz. "Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science".
I really like the book by Bob Katz on Mastering Sound. http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-The-Art-Science/dp/0240808371
But i recommend not to read all chapters in a row, because there are a lot of information for a Professional Mastering Engineers, and it is sometimes difficult to read. But it will be useful to you to read about Compressing, Sound Equalizing, Limiting, Gaining, etc, etc.
no problem man, if you want any work done in the future feel free to hit me up any time :)
mastering is tricky and takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to do (i'm still learning myself after 3 and a half years). it's not a skill that you can learn overnight.
secondly, the programs you use are important. i do all my composition, recording and mixing in ableton live but use magix sequoia for mastering as the tools it has to offer are so much better than what live has when it comes to things such as spectrum analysers, stereo analysers and spectrographs so i can see exactly what is going on in my mix. for plugins, i use sonnox limiter (AMAZING limiting/dithering software), izotope ozone 5 multiband compressor and exciter, fabfilter pro Q and sequoia's stock stereo imager.
finally, as a rule, mastering should NOT be used to correct any issues with your mix. the saying is "you can't polish a turd" - if you try and master a badly mixed song, the end result will still sound bad. what i'd recommend for someone who wants to learn to master is to check some tutorials out on youtube and to learn how to use a multiband compressor and a limiter. it's also important to # learn the fundamentals of mastering (why is it done? how to master different genres of music? what is dithering? etc.) if you want to read up further, check out mastering audio by bob katz, it's a great book.
remember, you CAN use any DAW and any old multiband/limiter/stereo imager to master a track. FL studio has many, if not all of the tools you need to master a song by default.
again, just to remind you, i'm not a professional by any means but i hope this helped you out :) if you have any questions i'll be happy to try and answer them!
Mastering Audio by Bob Katz
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240808371
Get the book Mastering Audio by Bob Katz
https://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240808371
I've thought of countless ideas for apps/devices/plugins, that would be useful, but with 0 coding skills they are a pipe dream.
Your coding skills could come in really handy for solving problems that you come across whilst working as a sound engineer. You could combine both areas and set yourself up as a Creative Technologist type, have a Portfolio website with some free software tools, and a blog with your discoveries.
For inspiration check out:
https://www.admiralbumblebee.com/
https://productionadvice.co.uk/about/
Imo, the best tools are usually made by people actually working in the industry under the pressures of current working practices. So getting as much work experience as possible is ideal. If you your dad has a set-up, maybe you can find some musicians/bands in the local area at gigs who need to be recorded/mixed, and offer to do it for free.
If you want to learn more about the fundamentals of audio production, check out Bob Katz: Mastering Audio: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mastering-Audio-Science-Bob-Katz/dp/0240808371
Definitely very technical but Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science
Hey,
First of all the OP didn't mentioned specifically that it was 32 bits floating point, but it's probably a safe assumption that it is the case.
Second, I don't agree with you: the best practice is to dither whenever reducing bit depth. Here are a few interesting articles about this by people who are widely known for their expertise on what they are talking about:
Chapter 4 of Bob Katz's Mastering Audio, The Art and the Science
Ian Stewart for Izotope
Ian Shepherd for Production Advice
Having said that, I know that "dithering" in a floating point system has its challenges but it doesn't change the fact that applying random quantization noise whenever reducing bit depth is preferable.
For those who want to dig deeper about dithering and floating point systems here is a good article about that.
I would recommend Bob Katz book on mastering. It covers all the main techniques and has beautiful diagrams. http://www.amazon.com/Mastering-Audio-The-Art-Science/dp/0240808371
According to this interview he wrote this book based on his experiences with jazz and classical recordings, so I wouldn't take his opinion too lightly.
I also didn't say it was classical per say (Please note: No edit stamp on my previous response). In my experience movie scores are always released with a very high dynamic range, and while the single release on a film can be worse it typically does not reach those kinds of levels.
This is a warning about the loudness wars. You can laugh at me all you want (You literally did) but it doesn't change the fact that it's coming.
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