Mastering with Music Creator 5

Hello,
1. I record with MC5 is there a program or software that i can purchase to do mastering so that i may have more control over my final mix...
2. Im using Audicy (spelling maybe) sound card which has this interface so to speak. It has this instrument input with a gain knob and the usual head set with output knob.
My biggest question would be what to do or how to mix down recordings alot better using MC5...I would really appreciate advice....
Thanks,
Danny 

 1) World is full of software. What is your budget? If you ask me for one suggestion I'd say Izotope Ozone 4.
2) Your soundcard plays no role in the sound of your final exports. A good soundcard, good monitor speakers and acoustically good room makes mixing and mastering easier. It's up to those three to make it possible to hear how the projects actually sound, but the data creation is up to MC. Then again, the quality of the original recordings depends very much on the quality of the soundcard (and microphones, guitars etc.).

Audigy and other SB products are not on the list of recommended soundcards here, but with right settings you can manage with them. It's not a question of sound quality but other issues.

Best way to learn how to mix is by doing it. You can do quite a bit to master your mix in MC. Learn to work with the tools you have and add only when you need to. Mixing is an art and the most important tool is your ears.  The songs forum is a great way to learn to listen to how other people hear and mix their music. As Beagle mentioned, when listening and commenting on other people's music they generally will return the courtesy of doing the same for your music as well. There are a number of different techniques that different people use to approach their work flow. It's all a matter of learning how to work with what you have to get the most of what you've got which will help you to determine what it is that you need to improve to get where you what to be. Mixing is only part of the picture. It's important to start with a captured performance. All the mixing in the world isn't really going to make a bad performance or a bad signal sound good. Having equipment which will capture a decent sound and reproduce it accurately is half the battle. Mixing the different signals to get a good group performance is the second half of the battle. Mastering is usually only applied when one bundles a number of different songs together to form a final album.  

The terms 'mixing' and 'mastering' have been used interchangably so often that many folks think they're the same thing. They're 2 different things. You mix a song. You master an album.
But I think we all know what you mean.
When mixing a song, you want a good sense of space, spreading the instruments around in the stereo filed.
The usual mix for pop/rock songs has the bass guitar, lead vocals, kick drum, snare and any solos in the middle. Cymbals and toms are left and right, just as if you were standing in front of the drum set. Guitars or other backing instruments spread to the sides. Background vocals (BGV) are usually off to one side.
Then you get to adding some compression where needed, using equalization to temper any overly-loud frequencies, or to boost a particular freq that may be too low. Reverb here and there to increase the spatiality of the song, or a specific instrument.
Maybe a compressor in the master bus for the final mix.
So a good EQ, compressor and reverb are the basic tools you'll need. MC 5 has all of them, I believe.

BENZOFOG


I know Gregg but it seems either my levels are in the RED!!! at final mix or too soft to ROCK out at final. YES! i can bring the levels down but I seem to be losing something I started out creating for example i turn down the mix to get out of the red I lose that punchy wet kick sound that I love....I want crunchy guitars crisp bass and a wet kick is that too much to ask. Lord i just about on the floor kicking and screaming...wish my worthless back would let me get down to the floor lol

That punchy wet kick sound does not disappear anywhere if you lower the level clearly below red. It will be there when listening the final CD loud enough . It's the loudness of your monitor speakers, not the Master Bus, that makes the kick sound loud and juicy, if you want to look at it that way.

If the kick can't be heard among the other instruments loud enough then your mix balance and/or EQ is simply wrong. Be careful not to get used to mixing with too loud monitoring volumes.

One important thing to learn is: It's usually more fruitfull to cut than boost. If you always keep boosting the part you want more upfront instead of cutting the others to make room, you'll  put yourself against the wall.

The Herbster speaketh the truth!

Here is a screen shot of the track view on a recent song.

Track 1&2...vocal tracks with clipping IN THE TRACK of the wave form.... at M-15


Notice track 8... which happens to be a synth track that is frozen.... has nice full "clean" non clipped waves.

That is what you want to achieve...ideally. (track 8's waves... not the clipped ones in 1&2.)

I was speaking about it takes time.... this wave form in 1&2 are from another person here in the forum who recorded these about 2.5 years ago. I know for a fact that this person has improved also from recording and learning. I'd wager that the tracks from their studio now are nothing short of perfection in regards to levels and no clipping.

all audio tracks (whether recorded direct or mic'd or whether bounced from MIDI/output tracks) should be peaking at no more than -6dB and the project should be 24bit resolution.  this gives you the best chance to create a summed project with the best options for mixing.  when you start mixing a bunch of tracks together even at -6dB you're going to hit 0dB pretty quickly (it really only takes 2 tracks with the sliders at 0 to sum to 0dB if both tracks peak at -6dB!).

so leave yourself some headroom for mixing!  even -12dB is good as long as you're using 24bit resolution.