Mastering -__- I know

[bhapmusic]

this topic is getting old. but, it's important.

I have been learning that mastering now is mostly giving the track some umph on the master track of the overall mix.

however, here we go-

1) when mixing an instrumental, is it best to create separate wav's of different sections of the mix, for example, a drum wav, lead wav, bass wav, pad/horn/string wav, etc. then, to compress each track separately then, an overall master?

2) how come when I mastered an instrumental, and seemed to make it pop very well, without getting any level overages db wise, or sounding nasty at all, when i now use this file of a "mastered version" instead of the mixed version with the project that has the vocals, the vocals now are crushed COMPLETELY. they sound like they have no where to go. Should I be only mastering a full mix? which includes the vocals?

3) if you're a fan of using Bus Compression on the master which i think I'm about to become thanks to Vernanova, what else do you use? any type of filtering, limiter, stereo imaging?

4) is surround sound mastering fully necessary? or at least popular? and is it only capable of being properly mixed if you have a monitoring setup of actual surround sound speakers? (this has always confused me cause most say its surround but mix with a common dual speaker monitor set. (maybe throw in a subwoofer)

5) sorry i ask so many questions

[DJ Kre]

bhapmusic wrote:1) when mixing an instrumental,...

[bhapmusic]

Thanks a million Kre. You could not have been ...

[DJ Kre]

Hey thank you for the kind words! Though my wi...