The official blog of Pablo Wegesend (aka Pablo the Mad Tiger Warrior)
Nothing written here is an official opinion of any of my employers, teachers, friends or relatives of the past, present or future
Just myself, written only on my personal free time! (wish I could have more free time to blog some more)
Contact madtigerwarrior@yahoo.com
Thursday, July 27, 2023
editing volume for tracks
As an independent digital musician, I don't have the resources that major record labels have. I don't have additional funds to spend on mastering tracks.
Mastering is sort of like editing someone else's music. Just like newspapers have staff to edit someone else's article for the purpose of clarity, record labels have sound technicians to edit someone else's tracks to ensure sound quality.
Mastering has nothing to do with "hey, make more pop-flavored tracks to appeal to the masses". It's more about making sure the track sounds right when you hear it on the speakers.
You can learn more about what mastering is by reading the following article from Audio Issues titled "Why It’s Necessary to Master Your Music (And How To Do It)".
One example about the lack of proper mastering, you can see in this video clip from "Wu Tang: An American Saga", RZA and his business partners were playing a demo, and the DJ refused to play it at his nightclub because of the sound quality. The DJ suggested that RZA and his associates should get the tracks mastered.
"Wu Tang: An American Saga | Mix and Mastering issue scene S2E5"
Obviously, RZA learned his lesson and his Wu-Tang Clan became hip-hop legends
========
As for Pablo the Mad TigerWarrior instrumental tracks, it's mostly mixing soundloops that I found on Magix's Music Maker softwares, so I don't really have to worry about recording live instruments or vocals!
I think still most of the Pablo the Mad TigerWarrior instrumental tracks have great sound quality, but even the best recognize that they could've improved on some of the works they already released.
One example is the instrumental track "Heavy Metal Carnival Accordion". That track was made using Magix Music Maker Live 2016. I used an accordion soundloop, a banjo soundloop and some heavy metal sound loops.
The track started with a banjo sound, then all of a sudden, you hear an accordion, heavy metal guitars and heavy metal drums.
The problem was when I released the track for distribution (as part of my 2018's "Urban Honolulu Metal Industries" album), I didn't properly edit the track for volume.
So for example, listen to this version of the track
After the track starts with the banjo sound, the heavy metal guitars and drums all of a sudden comes out with a very high volume.
A person could listen to the banjo intro, hear the heavy metal sounds so loud, that they want to immediately take off their headphones.
That wasn't on purpose! I didn't mean for it come out that extreme! This was due to not enough diligence on volume editing.
But since it was already released to iTunes, Spotify and other platforms via CD Baby, it's too late unless I want to spend even more money that I really don't have now.
But I did edit the volume for the "Heavy Metal Accordion" and have made it available for listeners on Soundcloud, Bandcamp, and YouTube (all of which don't require spending money to place your tracks on).
So now you can hear my properly-edited-for-volume version of "Heavy Metal Carnival Accordion" in the volume edited version here
"Heavy Metal Carnival Accordion (volume-edited version)"
Notice the difference?
Still the same sounds, just that I adjusted the heavy metal guitar and drum sounds so I don't overwhelm the listeners after a few seconds of the banjo sound.
============
As for Pablo the Mad TigerWarrior 2020 album "Naptime Music", the tracks were great.
The tracks were placed in order so that they can flow into each other smoothly!
The problem was I didn't get the album mastered.
So when I actually listen to the "Naptime Music" CD, one track comes out soft, then the next track come out too loud.
That was not my intention. Definitely not for a CD for "Naptime Music"
If I had gotten the album mastered, the sound technicians would've edited the volume so that the tracks would smoothly transition to each other so as to not change the vibe so much. If it was mastered, the CD wouldn't have a track that comes out too loud for actual naptime.
The tracks by themselves were classic. But when played as part of an album, they don't flow together because I didn't get it properly edited for volume.
But hey, we live & learn!
Every person starts off a hobby with limited knowledge and experience, and as time goes on, we learn new things, and we end up saying "should've, could've, would've"
But hey, at least I'm admitting my errors.
But I still think most of Pablo the Mad TigerWarrior's tracks are great.
