Mixing or mastering???

[DemocracyRose]

We have talked alot about, on this board, which stages Chinese Democracy are in...

Could someone explain me, what do you do first and last? When youre making an album

For example, do you record the Bass before the Drums? Or do you mixing before mastering... and so on...

Please help....

[Lesty]

mixing, mastering, masterbating..it's anyone's guess what stage it's in.
But from what I know, the mix is done after everything is recorded, and the final mix
gets mastered after that.
There's no one way to record an album, but I know that usually drums and bass
are often first, followed by guitars and any other instruments. Vocals are almost
always done last.

[pilferk]

We have talked alot about, on this board, which stages Chinese Democracy are in...

Could someone explain me, what do you do first and last? When youre making an album

For example, do you record the Bass before the Drums? Or do you mixing before mastering... and so on...

Please help....

Tracks can be layed down and/or mixed in pretty much any order.

Mixing comes first, then mastering.

Mixing is taking ALL the tracks (vocals, percussion, guitars, etc) and combining them into the final song.  Mixing can make or break an album...make a great album sound mediocre and make a mediocre album sound phenomenal.  To quote the commercial: "It's all in the mix"....

Mastering is, to simplify it greatly, the act of burning the CD.  It's more complicated than that, and you don't actually get a CD (you get a complete digital "image" of the CD), but that is, in essence, what it is.  Mastering is the FINAL step in the creation process, usually (ignoring promotion, etc.)

[DemocracyRose]

Thank you veeeeery much, for info... 

[izzbo]

Yeah, Mastering is a bit more involved. To add to the discussion, the mastering engineer tweeks the overall sound of the final mix. Compression, EQ, dynamics, tonal optimization, etc..... but usually stay away from tweaking the individual tracks.

[pilferk]

Yeah, Mastering is a bit more involved. To add to the discussion, the mastering engineer tweeks the overall sound of the final mix. Compression, EQ, dynamics, tonal optimization, etc..... but usually stay away from tweaking the individual tracks.

Correct.  I just didn't want to make the explanation any more complex than I had to.  Most people's eyes start to glaze over when we discuss the "technical" nuances of many of the processes of music.  I figured I would, for ONCE in my posting life, err on the side of brevity and simplicity.