The Art of Subtractive EQing & Mastering

While I haven't posted in a while I've been very busy working on a number of project.   Mainly for the past few months I've been digging into Studio One Pro and its awesome abilities.   I've also been faithfully listening to various PodCast to learn more about mixing and proper use of all those cool plug-ins.   One of the most productive lessons I've learned has been the concept of "subtractive EQing"  This is a common practice among most engineers.  Basically, its all about removing bad tones bring out the best sound.  It's amazing how good your mixes begin to sound when you begin following this concept.  Vocals clear up, guitars sound crisper, etc, etc.  But you have to use it with caution as you don't want to remove too much. 

I also came to the conclusion that I don't have the right equipment or room to effectively master my projects.  I also don't have the experience but that's besides the fact.   From this point on any project that is destined for public audience will be mastered.  Over the past few weeks I've sent tracks to a mastering studio in  Nashville with great results.   Yes it cost about $35 track but it's well worth to have a professional make it sound the best it can... also to know that your music will sound great on any device or speaker.

My studio will have a few projects hitting iTunes soon and when they do I'll be sure to post so you can check out the mixes and let me know your thoughts.

That's it for now...

HT

New EP Session Update 12-19-11

We've had too many sessions to continue naming these posts by the session number so we'll go with the date instead.  We spent time last night finishing up two of the acoustic tracks working on panning, note correction and a few other things.   I upgraded to Studio One Pro and I'm starting to learn about it's mastering features.  This will make things so much easier.   One more song to record and we should be working on final mixes and mastering next week.