Rachel Netel’s Mastering Notes

For my final LP, I mastered six songs that were already recorded and mixed from various

artists for my professor’s clients at the Mastering house. I used various processing settings in

Sequoia. For each song, I had different goals in mind that helped me figure out which plugins I

wanted to use. The following are my goals for each song:

1. Carl Bahner & Friends—Flyby: I started by fading in since “Flyby” is the first track on

the LP. I took out the cloudiness of the guitar with EQ and compressed it, so the other

parts can come through in the track. I also wanted to bring out the snare in the track

because it was too dull. I also trimmed off the noise at the end of the track.

2. Skye—Bounce: My ultimate goal was to create ambiance for this track. This track

initially had no reverb and sounded very dull. One of the techniques I’ve learned in

mastering was to route a mid-side matrix. I bussed the original track into two separate

auxiliary channels, one for mid and one for side, and sent those auxes to the master. The

vocals were the mids and panned them center because vocals are usually centered. The

string instruments were on the side, and I added reverb to it to give the track ambiance.

The reverb gave more depth for the two instruments. I also added EQ to the vocals to

have more presence and stand out. I kept the percussive noises in the track because I felt

it added a nice touch to the song.

3. Folcrom—What are You Afraid of: My goals were to make the guitar brighter and the

kick needed to be punchier. I kept it bassy as well. First, I trimmed the buzz at the very

beginning. I also trimmed the buzz at the very end after the transients stopped ringing

out. My ultimate goal was to have the vocals more on top of the music. Using the

multiband compressor, I compressed the guitar in order to bring out the vocals.

4. Jeff Mallon—She’s Like a Bomb: The biggest issue I’ve noticed that there was no middle

resonance, and there was too much of the sound on top and bottom of the frequency

spectrum. Everything seemed panned in the middle and sounded mono to me. My

solution to this problem was to use the mid-side technique to spread the track out more.

Also, my other goal was to try to compress the kick in the low end.

5. Dead Letters—Gypsy Girl: My first goal was to bring out the saxes to make them sound

brighter because they sound cloudy. I thought the track sounded boxy overall. I wanted

sharper percussion because the kick and toms were barely there. I also trimmed off the

buzz in the very beginning. The track also didn’t need too much of a limiter since it was

already too loud.

6. Now She’s Gone—Now She’s Gone: The track sounded dull overall and there was too

much thump. My goal was to correct those issues. For the guitar solo, I wanted to boost

the frequency area for the guitar since it has a prominent part of the song. Lastly, I added

a fade out since it is the very last song of the LP.

Processing

The following are the plugins & settings I used to master each of these songs.

1. Carl Bahner & Friend—Flyby

2. Skye—Bounce

3. Folcrom—What are You Afraid of

4. Jeff Mallon—She’s Like a Bomb

5. Dead Letters—Gypsy Girl

6. Now She’s Gone—Now She’s Gone