Here is an old guide I used to first master my songs. This is the foundation of the presets I actually use now. Here you go!
The Cool Edit Vocal “Mastering” Guide
This is the shit I use that makes my quality sound as good as possible. I didn’t make it, it’s just what I use.
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(Added this one myself, cuz it’s very essential) NOISE REDUCTION: To get there go to EFFECTS> NOISE REDUCTION> NOISE REDUCTION… Aight listen, this is VERY important.
-Step One: Highlight a blank part of ya verse (ie: the first few seconds when you weren’t sayin nothin), go up to Noise Reduction and press GET PROFILE FROM SELECTION, then set the NOISE REDUCTION LEVEL to 100…Then press CLOSE (NOT CANCEL).
-Step Two: After that, highlight ya whole verse and go to Noise Reduction again, and click OK (DON’T CHANGE ANYTHING THOUGH).
Done wit that. ^ You gotta do tha whole noise reduction thing, step by step on every set of vocals you record, cuz you can’t preset it.
ECHO: To get there follow these Arrows…. EFFECTS> DELAY EFFECTS> ECHO… Ok, now in echo there should be 3 Catagories of ECHO configuration… 1)Decay, 2)Delay , 3)Initial Echo Volume…
-Step One: On Decay to the right of the TWO SLIDING bars should be two WHITE BOXES with some random numbers in em, could be 5, could be 32442, doesnt matter…. ur going to enter into BOTH boxes, 8, which will be for the %…
-Step Two: On Delay its the same thing, but in the TWO WHITE BOXES put, 400 for the ms….
-Step Three: On Initial Echo Volume to the right in the boxes put, 9, which will be for the %….
-Step Four: Go to the top right where it says “ADD” and, title this as whatever name u want, so it can be set FOREVER as a preset….
And thats ALL there is for the echo…..
HARD LIMITING: To get there go, EFFECTS> AMPLITUDE> HARD LIMITING… In here you’ll only have two set 4 boxes… easy..
-Step One: On the right of Limit Max Amplitude To Should be a white box, inside of it, put in… -6.5 for the dB…
-Step Two: On the right of Boost Imput By Should be a white box, inside of it, put in… 1.8 for the dB…
-Step Three: On the right of Look Ahead Time Should be a white box, inside of it, put in… 7 for the ms…
-Step Four: On the right of Release Time Should be a white box, inside of it, put in… 100 for the ms…
YOU CAN NOT PRESET THIS ONE, However, no matter wether u turn ur comp off or not it will ALWAYS be there, unless u fuck with it then it will change to what u just put in….. but for now, it will stay as this as long as u dont touch it again….
Dynamics Processing: To get there, go… EFFECTS> AMPLITUDE> DYNAMICS PROCESSING…
BTW – this ONE is the hardest to configure of all of em, but if you’re patient i will make it worth your while……
Step One: Notice at the top there is 5 tabs…. Graphic, Traditional, Attack/Release, and finally BAND LIMITING… here we go….
-Step One: Click on the tab that reads TRADITIONAL…
-Step Two: Now you will see, some numbers along the side in order from top to bottom, this catagory is the “Sections” and the order of them goes…. 2,3,4,5,6…. CLICK THE WHITE CIRCLE ON THE RIGHT OF THE 2 …. Now you should see 2 FOLD DOWN TABS, in the top one set it on Compress, on the bottom one set it on Expand…
-Step Three: Next to those tabs you clicked, to the right, you should see the catagorie ” Ratios” In the first and ONLY TWO WHITE BOXES in the “Ratios” Catagory that should be white will go these numbers…. Just to the right of “compress” in the white box, put… 1.5…. below it on the right of “expand” put…. 1.1… Now there SHOULD only be ONE WHITE BOX LEFT, and it should be to the right next to the presets with a “dB” on the right of it, and inside this white box you’ll put… -40.7…
Wooohooo, we’re now done with the “traditional” box…..
-Step Four: Click on the tab that reads, “Attack/Release”… There once again is different catagorys, however, only 2 of them…. ” Gain Processor”, and “Level Detector”… Under “Gain Processor”, there should be 3 sub catagories (Output Gain, Attack Time, and Release Time)… Next to Output Gain in the box put, 6… Next to Attack Time in the box put, 1… and finally in Release Time put, 500….
-Step Five: Now under the catagory, “Level Detector ” there is 3 sub catagories again (Input Gain, Attack Time, and Release Time)… Next too Input Gain inside the box put. 0… Next too Atack Time, put, .5… Next too Release Time put, 300….
-Step Six: Just below “Release Time” in the “Level Detector” Section, you should see 2 CIRCLES YOU CAN CHECK… make sure RMS is checked, NOT PEAK….
-Step Seven: Below that you’ll see “Lookahead Time” and you’re going to put a 3 there….. MAKE SURE YOU DONT CHECK, “NOISE GATING” AND “CREATE ENVELOPE ONLY” they’re bull shit little options….
Now on to the BAND LIMITING….
-Step One: Click on the tab that reads, “Band Limiting”…
-Step Two: You’ll see ONLY 2 WHITE BOXES, they’re just to the right of the 2 cutoffs…. 1) Low Cutoff, 2) High Cutoff…. For Low Cutoff put, 0…. For High Cutoff put, 24000……
DONE!… You’ve just completed the DYNAMICS PROCESSING Phase…. now add this as a preset motha fucka!… Time for the GRAPHIC EQUALIZER and we’re done ladies…
GRAPHIC EQUALIZER: To get there go, EFFECTS> FILTERS> GRAPHIC EQUALIZER… simple as hell girls, simple as hell…
-Step One: We can kinda cheat here, First off make sure ur set on the tab at the top that reads, ” 10 BANDS (1 OCTAVE), Ok… now you should have a list of presets… SCROLL ALL THE WAY DOWN, and you’ll see one that reads, “Vocal Pressence (BOOST)” click that, but DONT hit OK…
-Step Two: You only have too change 1 thing in here, so this is a piece of cake…. You should see a BLUE DIAGRAM indicating what your levels will peak at during ‘actual response’… You’ll see a bunch of virtical SLIDING BARS, that have numbers above each of them…. find the one with the 2 above it… Now… JUST LEFT CLICK on the sliding piece in the middle of that bar, so your computer recognizes you want to adjust just that level….. Once you’ve done that…. Look just below the sliding bar ur on, and find the white box on the right of the catagory ” GAIN”… Inside this box put, 1.99… to the left of it you should see another catagory that reads, “BAND”, inside its box it should say 2000 Hz, if it doesnt, find it…… DO NOT TOUCH ANY OTHER SLIDING BARS, ONLY THE ONE I NAMED….
FINISHED!…. Now preset that bitch…. and you’ve got urself made….
The order I do these methods in goes as typed: Noise Reduction, Hard Limiting, Dynamic Processor, Echo, Graphic EQ, Hiss Reduction…
Ad Libbing Tips: When you ad lib, record ya ad libs twice. With one ad lib, put it 50% onto tha left speaker, and with tha other, put it 50% onto tha right speaker.
