http://www.har-bal.com/cu...t/mastering-tutorial-2

It seems very dogmatic doesn't it. Is this really how you guys work or is it bollocks; or maybe a combination of both.

I kind of ask because Waves LP multiband which features prominently is very cheap today.

this is a good way to START to learn mastering.

the rest, takes experience.

I had a blast with Har-Bal for about two weeks. It's just taken up disk sectors for the past 4-5 years. 

It does have some value as a learning aid, but IMO almost useless as an actual mastering tool. Following their recipe might be useful for a beginner, but ultimately it is only a sure path to mostly mediocre results. 

Bear in mind that the individual referred to as a "top legendary award winning mastering engineer", a "rare individual born with 'golden ears'" who enjoys "worldwide recognition" also happens to be the author of that document. Think there might be a little resume-fluffing going on there?

i've found, that if i do my job during tracking, i should not need a multiband


a single band compressor, with some 'magic settings' (translation: just exactly what this particular song needs) gets the job done.

some select EQ, balancing, and brickwall, again, with 'magic settings', should be all you need.

the HARBAL will let you see problem areas in the beginning, but once you've trained your ears to recognize the problems, you probably will not need it anymore.

Thanks for the thoughts guys.

What had me curious was the very specific instructions for operating the multi-band.

I have never even tried to use a multi band compressor yet. I have always concentrated getting a good quality there-or-there-abouts recording and then some strategic mixing trying to augment the personality of the song.

This article just kind of whetted my interest a bit- it makes out that mastering is no big deal- follow these ten easy steps kind of thing.... 

I might be ready to give it a bit of a nudge I think.

well, the setting of the multiband instructions are more or less correct.

but this is to drive the ENTIRE level down, across all bands, equally, as a VOLUME inducer.

it is also a dynamics killer.

so, you have to decide if you are trying to tame specific frequencies, and bypass the rest....
or compress the entire thing at the same level....
or compress the entire thing and boost certain levels.......
or compress the entire thing, except for just the mids....

etc etc ad naseum

bitflipper


I had a blast with Har-Bal for about two weeks. It's just taken up disk sectors for the past 4-5 years. 

It does have some value as a learning aid, but IMO almost useless as an actual mastering tool. Following their recipe might be useful for a beginner, but ultimately it is only a sure path to mostly mediocre results. 

Bear in mind that the individual referred to as a "top legendary award winning mastering engineer", a "rare individual born with 'golden ears'" who enjoys "worldwide recognition" also happens to be the author of that document. Think there might be a little resume-fluffing going on there?

+1! Totally agree with bit on this, backwoods. I personally don't think anything in this program (I have two versions of it) is anything anyone should take in as "mastering" or even mastering tools. It's just not the right way to do things in my opinion.
 
However, this is the most incredible program of all time for examining a mastering curve done by a pro mastering house and....get this...it's a brilliant piece of software for copping tones for cover material. The catch to that is, you have to be close in your sound selection and get it as best as you can. Then, you can load up something from a pro that you like and try to search for a section where that instrument plays all by itself. When you apply that curve to your own instrument, it's truly astonishing how close you can come.
 
Here's a prime example. I've been working on an old Van Halen album for my cover band for a few years now off and on. We do this particular song in C instead of C# (he plays it in D but dropped a half step via tuning), but listen to how close my guitar tone is to Ed's. It's not spot on, but without HAR-BAL it would be a bit further away if I shared the original file.
 
Eddie original dropped a half step: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4909348/EddieUnchained.mp3
 
Me using HAR-BAL: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/4909348/DannyUnchainedCop2mic.mp3
 
Once I brought that into Sonar, I sweetened it up and got it even closer which I'll share someday. But that's the raw tone I recorded (as close as I could) and then processed it through HAR-BAL using Eddie's curve on that song stealing just the eq from his opening guitar passage. For stuff like this, I love the program! For anything else...there are really no benefits in my opinion.
 
-Danny

Geez - That's pretty close Danny.  Not listening on good headphones at the moment but I can't tell them apart.

Man, that is right there DD! [bows in general direction of New Jersey]! 

I was interested to read amongst the testimonials to that HARBAL thing a guy named Paddi Addison who now works in New zealand. He used to be the main FOH guy for pink floyd and the HARBAL site has him writing some nice things about the plugin.

mostly what I was interested in that mastering tut was the explanation of how to set up the multi-band compressor. I have always been intimidated by those things and was trying to get a gauge of whether or not the advice was solid. 

I like herbal mastering, maybe with some mint and pomegranate?