# Indie musician looking for some mastering help.



## Skittlebutt (Apr 18, 2012)

Okay, so, I make music. (Duh.) But I usually do MIDI works, as that is my comfort zone and I can toss some out pretty interesting things in MIDI format.

BUT ANYWAY, recently, I got bored and decided to try some legit VST filled dancy derps in FL. And. Lo and behold, I can't master to save my f*ing life.


So, I am coming here for some halp. I would totally love it if someone could take me under their arm (wing?) and teach me the ropes of mastering, and help me get these songs to not sound like a pile of poo.

Sincerely, Jinx~

P.S, my first two ideas can be found here: http://www.furaffinity.net/gallery/skittlebutt/


----------



## Aidy (Apr 18, 2012)

Experiment, I do mastering in Pro Tools so I don't know how different it is in FL (I detest FL, I've been trained with professional software rather than that so sorry). See what sounds good, that's the whole point in mastering. As long as you have no deadlines you have all the time in the world to try it out, for example in an Indie rock track you'll want the guitars and vocals to be most prominent. Grab those and try using certain effects on them, boost their frequencies and so on. Usually with guitars I boost the gain and up the mid/high frequencies only slightly depending on how well they were recorded.

The bass should be obvious, in rock music you don't want a banging bassline because it isn't EDM. Have it just so you can hear it, but so it's in the background, the drums should be similar. You'll want them 'there' but not right up in your face. Honestly it's hard to give advice with it apart from what each thing does, it's your music, do what you think sounds good with it. When I produce music, I spend hours and hours mastering each instrument so it sounds good to me because in the end, as long as you're happy with it then it's good. 

It'll be the same no matter what the genre, the main tune is the thing people want to hear unless you're making a genre like DnB where the main instruments are fairly obvious.


----------



## Skittlebutt (Apr 19, 2012)

Aidy70060 said:


> Experiment, I do mastering in Pro Tools so I don't know how different it is in FL (I detest FL, I've been trained with professional software rather than that so sorry). See what sounds good, that's the whole point in mastering. As long as you have no deadlines you have all the time in the world to try it out, for example in an Indie rock track you'll want the guitars and vocals to be most prominent. Grab those and try using certain effects on them, boost their frequencies and so on. Usually with guitars I boost the gain and up the mid/high frequencies only slightly depending on how well they were recorded.
> 
> The bass should be obvious, in rock music you don't want a banging bassline because it isn't EDM. Have it just so you can hear it, but so it's in the background, the drums should be similar. You'll want them 'there' but not right up in your face. Honestly it's hard to give advice with it apart from what each thing does, it's your music, do what you think sounds good with it. When I produce music, I spend hours and hours mastering each instrument so it sounds good to me because in the end, as long as you're happy with it then it's good.
> 
> It'll be the same no matter what the genre, the main tune is the thing people want to hear unless you're making a genre like DnB where the main instruments are fairly obvious.



I mean "poo" as in it might sound good on my speakers, but sound like ass on something that isn't HDMI output on a TV that sucks at bass anyway.
I know what I want it to sound like. I just need help GETTING there.


----------

