Week #135: An Efficient Workflow for Pre-Masters
 
So you’ve recorded all your tracks…but that doesn’t mean much unless your project ends up in a finished form, which usually means mastering (whether by yourself or someone else). Some people master by inserting processors in the final stereo bus, and in some cases that makes sense. But if you’re putting together an album or collection of songs, mastering individual songs on an ad hoc basis ties your hands. It’s much better to create “pre-masters” with no master bus processing (along with some headroom—at least a couple of dB), and collect them as a group. Then you can bring them into a program like CD Architect, or Studio One’s mastering page, to work on them together for sonic consistency as you assemble the album.
 
This is something I do often, so I’ve come up with a workflow that I find quite efficient. Referring to the screenshot, here’s how it works.
 

 
The project itself has all the tracks (1-17) recorded. When I’m happy with the mix, I don’t export it; I bounce it to a new track (tracks 18-21, with 21 being the most recent mixdown). There are four main reasons for mixing down within the project:
 

• Take advantage of the drag-and-drop Browser (more on this later)
• The final mix is part of the project—backing up the project backs up the mix too
• There’s a logical tie-in with the Mix Recall function
• A-B comparisons with other mixes are easy

 
For example, suppose I’ve completed a project (at least in theory…). I do a mix by bouncing the tracks to a new track, and save a corresponding Mix Recall scene. Here are the parameters used for bouncing—pretty much everything, saved as a preset called “Mixdown.” (And by the way, if you don’t know the virtues of saving Export presets for different applications, it’s a topic worth studying.)
 

 
Another tip…assign the mixed track output to your hardware out, not the master bus, just in case you do end up inserting something in the master bus and forget to bypass it, or change the master bus level.
 
Anyway…after there’s a mix, I live with the track for a few days, play it over some different systems, and typically find I want to make a few tweaks. So, I re-open the project, make the tweaks, bounce to a new track, and save another Mix Recall scene. In the screen shot, you can see I’ve done this four times. Each mix file is named with the date—the same name as the Mix Recall scene, so it’s easy to see which file corresponds to which Mix Recall scene.
 
Now put that thought on hold for a second.
 
THE PRE-MASTERS FOLDER
 
I’ve also created a folder called Pre-Masters, which you can see in the Browser. This collects all the songs that are part of a project (in this case, the follow-up to my “Neo-” album, titled “Simplicity”). This folder is also the folder from which I draw files for the album assembly process. For easy access, I’ve saved the folder as a Content Location preset (which is a very handy feature if you haven’t explored its talents).
 
When I create a new mix to use for the album assembly and replace a previous mix, I right-click on the existing version in the pre-masters folder, select “Rename,” hit ctrl+C to copy the name, and then delete the file. Next, I drag the new mix over into the Browser, right-click and select “Rename,” then type ctrl+V so it has the name of the previous mix. This is important not just to keep the names straight, but because the program you use to assemble the files into an album will likely not recognize a file with a different name.
 
The eventual result is a collection of pre-masters that are just what I want, so they’re ready to be mastered and graduate to being an album. But we’re not done! After all, this is a "Friday’s Tip of the Week," so…
 
BUT WAIT—THERE’S MORE!
 
As wonderful as Mix Recall is, the process of recalling a mix isn’t instant, especially if there’s a lot going on that needs to be recalled. And since auditory memory is short, using Mix Recall to do A-B comparisons can be iffy.
 
So you might be wondering whether the mix from yesterday is really better than the one you did today. Or maybe the first mix, which you did a while ago so you’ve forgotten about it, captured a moment you were never quite able to duplicate. This is why having all your different mixes (and Mix Recall Scenes) contained in the project can be so cool.
 
To A-B mixes, just enable the Exclusive Solo button. Now you can solo with total abandon among the mixes to A-B them. Furthermore, you might find that part of one mix was better than the same part in another mix. Easy: “Split at Selection,” then replace the appropriate part of a mix with the other section. I’ve even used this technique to add interest in a song—it’s almost like a weird kind of snapshot automation, where there’s a shift in the song’s feel when the new section appears.

telecharge

Anderton
...good luck sharing them or moving them to a different computer.
 
Over the years I’ve created a bunch of presets for various Sonitus effects, and they are an essential part of my SONAR toolbox.

Any chance you're willing to share some of these? You know, for testing purposes.

Stay tuned...there's a reason why I didn't show the bank name. All will be revealed at the appropriate time.