Pre-mastering with Audition

I am using AA 2.0 to improve mixes after they come out of my DAW host. I am looking for \better ways to use AA 2.0. For example:

Can the frequency display be set to display a single mix display or one of the channels? This would be helpful for basic viewing purposes, a little less busy. I know frequency display lets you configure sample size, but is there a setting for time averaging or smoothing this display? Free VSTs such as Voxengo SPAN have a nice display but to my knowledge a VST can't be left running in Audition.

The mastering rack is nice, but I can't find any way to control the transport. Is there a way to replay sections, advance forward or backward? When testing effects sometimes I want to listen to a specific part.

Can effects be applied non-destructively and applied in real-time in the mastering view, or do they have to be applied to the data? This seems to be doable in multi-track mode but I am trying to sort out the mastering workspace. An undo window would also be helpful but I realize that is not implemented yet.

Are there any key combinations to A/B two separate stereo tracks in multi-track mode? I can toggle both solo buttons to alternate solo tracks but a trick to do instant switching would help when comparing small differences.

Any other tips for pre-mastering in Audition are appreciated.

I use Audition for mastering and most of the time I work in the multitrack view. I'll often give each song its own track - unless there happens to be more than one song which require the same processing.

You can leave VST's on display in the multitrack view and you can instantly bypass individual effects or a whole rack with one click. You can also use busses when you want a particular effect applied to a number of tracks which also have their own effects settings.

Cheers

James.

Being of the 'old school' - I'm having a bit of difficulty with the term 'pre-mastering'.  What on earth is that, when it's at home?

Mastering would involve creating a master disc.  Pre-mastering, I think, is just the processing involved.

Being of the 'old school' - I'm having a bit of difficulty with the term 'pre-mastering'.  What on earth is that, when it's at home?

You're not the only one wondering... but let's have a go at it anyway: 

It's that awkward indecisive fiddling-about stage between mixing something yourself, probably too soon after laying down the tracks, and comes immediately before the point of realising that somebody else with a better monitoring system and a bit of impartiality could do a better job of actually mastering them than you could... (hehe!)

Mastering would involve creating a master disc.  Pre-mastering, I think, is just the processing involved.

Hmm... that's not really the current definition of mastering (the process), although it's certainly the old one. The current definition runs along the lines of being the process of giving a series of tracks some sense or degree of uniformity, and sometimes order and timing. It often involves getting the overall frequency balance of individual tracks into a more satisfactory state as well. In other words, the creative process before the technical one of actually creating a master disc.

I daresay that others could expand on the definition, but I think that in essence, that's what it currently is. It's certainly what gave rise to my 'definition' of pre-mastering!

It's that awkward indecisive fiddling-about stage between mixing something yourself, probably too soon after laying down the tracks, and comes immediately before the point of realising that somebody else with a better monitoring system and a bit of impartiality could do a better job of actually mastering them than you could

In all honesty Steve, why is that? I mean, yesterday, after spending the previous day laying down the tracks, I decided to do the mixing. All the stuff was trimmed and levels set nice but the mix is woeful. I could be at it for a month and still not get it right. Is Audition on it's own really capable to produce High quality CD's?

I want my stuff to sound like Trevor Horn's 90125 Album

James that is good advice. I will use the multi-track view even though I can't get it to show the spectral or phase displays.

Alternating solo tracks quickly can be done. Set up the A and B tracks in multi-track and set up a keyboard shortcut for soloing the current track. Click on a track and hit the shortcut and the switch will happen without any interruption.

I like the multi-band compressor in Audition. I realize it is Izotope technology, and it is a solid complement to other plugins I am using.

I agree with Steve that pre-mastering is a less common term now. You will still encounter it in books such as Katz's Mastering book.

I'm not wishing to hijack this thread, but all this stuff interests me, as I'm at a loss to understand what a lot of it is supposed to mean.

I agree with Steve that pre-mastering is a less common term now. You will still encounter it in books such as Katz's Mastering book.

SteveG was talking about 'mastering'.  Pre-mastering is a term that has only cropped up relatively recently.  As I said before, I'm 'old school' - to me, you laid tracks and then mixed them (possibly a different engineer/room).  The order of tracks was chosen, a tape assembled with the correct order, levels, spaces, etc. and this was then sent for transfer to disk - this last stage being the 'mastering', i.e. turn the tape into a master disk.  At that stage minor tweaks might be made, usually to accomodate the limitations of the disk format, which the cutting engineer usually knew a lot more about than the person who made the tape.  Even so, any changes made were as minimal as possible and the end resut was pretty much as it left the assembly stage (presumably approved by the artist, producer and anyone else involved).

All this has changed.  We now have 'producers' who have no idea what the term means (and who couldn't 'produce' hot air out of a paper bag).  There's a new breed of 'Mastering' engineer, most of whom seem to be intent on wringing the maximum RMS level from every track that passes through their grubby hands and totally killing the music in the process.  These same guys seem to think it is their business to decide track order and similar things - a decision which surely belongs elsewhere.

..... and now we have acquired 'pre-mastering' - but I'm damned if I know what this involves.

You will still encounter it in books such as Katz's Mastering book.

I bumped into Katz the other week (as you do...!) Perhaps I should have asked him what it really means. I don't have his book, so I can't look it up, unfortunately. What does he say that it is?

I'd love to run into Katz in person. I have to settle for his books. He calls premastering the official term for what most call mastering, happening post-mixdown. I'm not one to get hung up on terms, but I do like how Katz explains it. His Mastering book is very good in my opinion.

Is there a way in audition to have two VSTs displaying at the same time. I would like to have a 3rd party frequency analyzer showing while I am working with another VST. The multritrack view is working well, but it doesn't have a frequency or phase analyzer view.

I'd love to run into Katz in person.

I wasn't actually planning to - we just both happened to be at the same industry facility launch - I didn't even know that he was in the UK until then.

These same guys seem to think it is their business to decide track order and similar things - a decision which surely belongs elsewhere.

My guess Graeme, is that because no-one produces a "tape" for mastering anymore (it's all just a collection of 24bit wav files on a hdd or data CD), the mastering engineer has to put those wav files in sequence as well as do any required tonal adjustment etc.

My guess Graeme, is that because no-one produces a "tape" for mastering anymore (it's all just a collection of 24bit wav files on a hdd or data CD), the mastering engineer has to put those wav files in sequence as well as do any required tonal adjustment etc.

Tape or data files, it's still the same thing.  I don't believe such decisions ore the province of any engineers involved - track order, spacing and all that sort of stuff is a production decision, to be taken jointly by the artists and producer.

I don't believe such decisions ore the province of any engineers involved - track order, spacing and all that sort of stuff is a production decision, to be taken jointly by the artists and producer.

Oh, I agree. I didn't mean to infer that they should be making the actual decisions... just that the job seems to fall to them by default these days (not in all cases, just some times).