My entry was 1782
First, I would like to excuse me to have dared to take part to this Wump. I'm certainly not a ME.
I’m only a musician who loves playing, recording and tweaking sound.
And I realized I was really arrogant when I jumped on this Wump.
The monitoring's gear and the untreated room I use are not in the Mastering's class and I understood when reading comments that there was a lot of things I could'nt hear (due to my poor ears or my poor monitoring, or both).
I'd like to say I loved the original mix (thanks to you Alex) which sounds well balanced to my ears. And I tried to stay as close as possible to the original file.
1st, I tried to deal with mentionned phase issues .
Certainly a mistake, if I could see a few signals out of phase in the corelation meter, I counld'nt hear enough issues to need a repair but anyway I tried but could’nt fix them and just narrowed the stereo imaging.
2d, As my knowledge in EQ’s managing is weak, I just tried to EQ as my ears leaded me, this was only a feeling’s approach...
3d, I tried to reach a louder RMS volume without loosing to much dynamics.
My chain in Wavelab was :
. Voxengo M/S : mode Inline , Mid Gain : + 0,6dB, Side Gain : - 1dB
. Waves RBass : Freq 94, Intensity -16,9, Gain 0dB
. Timeworks EQ : + 0,3dB @ 42hZ Q=1; + 0.7 @ 81hz Q=1; +1db @ 201hz; + 0.2db @ 1Khz Q1; + 0.7 @ 3.4 Khz Q3.1
. Rcomp : Threshold 0, Ratio :2.51 ; Attack : 12,O ; Release : 199 ; Gain : +0.8dB
. Magneto : Drive 9,5, Tape speed : 30, Output : + 0, 4dB
. L2 : Threshold : -1.6, Ceiling : 0.0 , IDR : 16bits Dither : Type I, Shaping : Normal
My monitoring system is a 2 way JMLab 906 with an Atoll In80 amplifier (a kind of midrange hifi system, not bad and quite natural but cutting @ 45hz).
When A/B listening with all the other entries , I could hear I would have liked to do a real good job (IMHO) like 1974 or 5576.
Sorry for the others to be an old school’s guy, but it’s hard for me to listen to so loud RMS levels, even if I know now it’s close to the Incubus CD’s (on this point I did’nt match the client’s willings).
If I want to listen loud, I use the volume’s knob, but that’s just me. (BTW the Buce's remark about lowering a little bit the softest parts seems to be a good idea).
It does’nt mean those loud masters are bad (some of them like 2112 keep a really good balance with high RMS level).
But, as a musician I’ve learned (not only theorically, but mainly in my percussion player’s job) that dynamics is one of the major components of sound. So it’s a little bit hard for me to listen to tracks who leaves so less place to this main element.
But, I’m now an old one (48 and already an happy grand father...) and I have more habits to deal with Jazz and acoustic’s musics (where so high RMS levels are'nt required).
So my opinion is without value about Pop/Rock music.
Anyway, I’d like to thank to all of the participants (specially Alex, Brad and MassiveMastering who allowed us to realize this Wump).
This was really a good experience for me an I learned a lot.
Thanks again.
PS : Sorry for my poor or sometimes strange english.