Here’s tip for quick mastering. This is for when you want to get your track hot and nothing really else. Here’s a couple of examples as to why you would want to use this technique; You want to show it off at a party, radio, djing, etc.
1. Import your stereo mixdown into your favorite wave editor/ sequencer.
2. Normalize your track to 0dB. I know there are a lot of people out these who don’t recommend normalization. It has a purpose though. We just want it to get as hot as possible before we add an effects chain.
3. Next add a compressor to the channel/ main bus. Set the threshold to -30 to -36. Adjust the ratio 1.14:1. Add about 6dB of gain. Now adjust the attack and release to taste.
4. Put a parametric eq in the chain. Roll of the high end as much as possible so it doesn’t effect the highs. Roll the bottom off at about 30Hz. Do any fine tuning of eq here if you want.
5. Now put a limiter on the chain. Set the level to -0.3 and pull the threshold down to about -4 or -6.
6. At this point we are going to go back the parametric eq and make some adjustments. The limiter will bring out the mid-highs and highs. You will probably need to make a cut in this range. If you want to be fancy you can add a multiband compressor in the chain to tighten up any frequency ranges that you want.
7. Finally we export it out to 16 bit/44,100kHz. Be sure dither if your track is higher than 16 bit.
That’s it. Now you have your quick mastered track. If you want to hear an example you can go listen to my EP preview of AMe one and the Depressed Robot in the music section or go to http://ameone.imeem.com or http://www.myspace.com/ameone. Unfortunately all these tracks are 96kbit mp3s.
Remember this is just a quick mastering job. For those times when you need it hot. I recommend doing it properly or getting someone else to master your tracks.