Editimi & Masterizimi Audio

1. Editimi & Masterizimi Audio Dr. Frida GJERMENI

2. Issues • What is Audio Mastering? • Studio Acoustics • Standing Waves in the Studio • Best Audio editing and mastering SW • Tonal/Spectral Processing (EQ in Audio Mastering)

3. What is Audio Mastering? • The term audio mastering derived from an older term known as ‘premastering’ which is the process of preparing a finished mix to be pressed to vinyl disk. • The preparation will typically involve EQ and compression aimed at balancing tone and controlling levels, • equipping the track with ideal • sonic characteristics for pressing • to vinyl.

4. Why mastering is important? • The limitations of Vinyl Disk • Processes like EQ and Compression to be applied • The limitations of the consumers player • The environment the music is being played in. • Different the environment the mix is produced/different environment it is played and listened by the consumer

5. Tone • Even fairly expensive speakers are not always one hundred percent true.  • Can’t reproduce every frequency at the same level • If your speakers are a little bass heavy, you will naturally compensate in your mixing, and vice versa.  • The flatter your speaker’s frequency response, the more suitable they are for mixing or mastering. • Correct the tonal imbalances derived from an imperfect listening environment.  • Your listening environment is a crucial factor in creating a well balanced master.

6. Loudness • By the use of dynamics processors like compressors and limiters, mastering is able to surface every little detail – the quiet bits become louder but don’t sound like they have been turned up.  • Apart from background noise, you’re also up against the quality of the speakers the music is being played on. • Mastering equips a finished mix with the power to sound correct on whatever system it is played on. 

7. Studio Acoustics • Audio Mastering-the design of the room within which we are working on. • Unsuitable studio acoustics can also be quite harmful to the end of the mastering result. • Similar to how the speakers have a ‘frequency response’, the room’s response to different frequencies will vary also.  • The more ‘neutral’ our room’s response, the more accurate the sound reaching our ears will be. • the size, shape and raw surface materials of the room.

8. Size and Shape • The worst case scenario for a studio would be a perfect cube with flat walls, floor and ceiling. • The cube shape itself as it causes a specific set of frequencies to appear to be louder compared to the speaker sound, particularly in the lower frequencies. • Rooms with parallel walls will ‘resonate’ at certain frequencies. • The frequency at which resonance occurs is referred to as the room’s ‘mode’ and is directly related to the distance between the walls. • What you will also find is that depending on where you are sat, you will experience differences in the way the room resonates. • Two identical waves overlapping will increase the audible level of that frequency.  • The overlapping of identical waves is known as ‘constructive interference’, whereas the overlapping of anti-phase waves is known as ‘destructive interference’. 

9. Golden Ratios • This is the ratio between the height, width and length of a room. • the golden ratios are a proven way to obtain a more accurate listening space as they allow for a uniform distribution of resonant frequencies around the room (yes, resonance still occurs).  Surface Material • A surface material will have different reflective characteristics depending on the frequency of the sound wave hitting it. • A soft surface material such as carpet will absorb much of the higher frequencies preventing them from being reflected back into the room. •  However, a low frequency will pass straight through the carpet to the reflective solid surface beneath. • Reasonating “trapped” lower frequencies • ‘neutralise’ them the best we can so we can trust the speaker’s sound

10. Room Contents • Large furniture with soft surfaces such as beds, sofas and padded chairs all soak up a certain amount of the lower frequencies • Their material is porous but quite dense, so although the powerful low frequency energy is able to enter the material as vibration, a lot of the energy is dispersed as friction and heat. •  Wall-mounted tiles made of acoustic foam placed strategically around the monitoring position is a proven way to achieve a professional monitoring environment.  

11. Acoustic tiles Bass traps Diffusers

13. The arrangement of the speakers and the space behind the listening position

15. Standing Waves in the Studio • Sound waves travel through the air in alternating stages of high pressure and low pressure.  • Once a sound wave has begun travelling through the air (and let’s imagine a simple sine wave for this), it reaches its peak power of high pressure. • Dips to a pressure of zero then begins a period of low pressure, which again returns to zero (back to the starting point).  • The distance across the air from the sound source that it takes the wave to complete this full cycle is known as the wavelength.  • Low frequencies have a longer wavelength than high frequencies.

16. The speed of sound through air at room temperature is 344 metres per second.  • The number of full wavelength cycles that can happen per second at a given frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz). • We’re able to measure the dimensions of a room in metres, and then calculate the frequencies that may be resonant, causing them to sound louder than they should. • A resonant frequency -is a frequency that is amplified by the dimensions of a room. • Two flat parallel walls that are 4 metres apart. • Any distance, including 4 metres, must be able to perfectly contain a sound wave frequency. • Speed of sound (in metres per second) / distance between walls (in metres) = frequency (in Hertz) • So for the above scenario: 344m/s ÷ 4m = 86 Hz

17. 86 Hz exists between our two walls, bouncing back and forth and reinforcing the energy from the speakers more so than other frequencies and making it around 3dB louder than it should ideally sound. • As well as 86 Hz, half of this measured frequency is also able to reinforce, as will doubling 86 Hz, quadrupling, and so on. • This means that as well as 86 Hz, we will be incorrectly hearing 43 Hz (half the frequency, twice the wavelength) • 172 Hz (twice the frequency, half the wavelength), 344 Hz (four times the initial frequency, quarter the wavelength), and upwards within our studio • These waves at these frequencies will become standing waves in our studio.

18. Best Audio editing and mastering SW • Audacity-open source, available for all the platforms. The best SW in getting the job done. • Effects, leveling, noise reduction, all the primary stuff you’ll need is there within just a few clicks.  • Apple Garage Band-Apple, user-friendly audio editor.  It’s Mac-only, so no Windows or Linux love here. • 3. WavePad-WavePad is free and full-featured, there is a single limitation to that: the unlicensed version is for non-commercial use only. 

20. 4. PreSonus Studio One Prime-three versions, one free, Artist and Professional rich-features-to buy liscence. • It’s available for both Mac and Windows.  • 5-ocenaudio- The software itself is incredibly efficient and doesn’t bog down easily, so when their features page says the program handles large files well, they aren’t kidding.  The usability of the interface is incredibly clean and easy.

21. Best Audio Editing Software – Premium Options 1. Apple Logic Pro X • The advanced features, you get a UI that can handle anything you throw at it. The UI is complex but intuitive because it was designed by Apple.  It’s a bit pricey at $199.99. 2. Adobe Audition You do multitrack editing, post-processing and effect layering, and various levels and hum reduction.  You can also save templates of effects and post-processes so that you can run them automatically as scripts upon import.   Adobe products are not user-friendly. Unfortunately,Auditionis no different. 3. Avid Pro Toolsthere’s a newbie-friendly version called Pro Tools First that’s totally free. 

22. 4. Reaper is a full-featured DAW that can do anything that pretty much everyone but the top-level pros would need.  • There are a ton of advanced features packed into Reaper, too, like spectral editing and entire, in-app scripting support for making macros and complex automations using Python, Lua, or EEL.  • Reaper is known for being stable, and that means a lot when you’re working on a major project.  5. IzotopeRX6 Izotope has made a name for themselves for putting out software that really and truly performs. ileyes, you can absolutely do the basic cutting, snipping, pasting, and equalizing, this RX suite really focuses on making your job easier

23. Audio Mastering SW • Waves – Abbey Road TG Mastering Chain • Eventide Elevate Bundle • Izotope Ozone 8 • IK Multimedia T-Racks One • AudifiedMixChecker • Expose by Mastering the Mix • Barricade • Dynone