Now we’re going to discuss a central concept in mastering – Tonal balance. Tonal balance describes the overall relations between the lows, mids and highs in a recording. When we get the tonal balance right, then the master will sound natural and, well, balanced.
So, what is a good tonal balance? Is there some objective way to measure this? Unfortunately no. Tonal balance is very subjective and it differs widely between different genres. A punk song and a reggae song will generally have very different amounts of bass for example.
Assessing the tonal balance is more of a “I know it when I hear it” kind of thing. As a listener you have an expectation about how a song in a certain genre should sound. If a recording sounds “bright”, “boomy” or “muffled”, it’s usually because the tonal balance of the mix falls outside of the expectations for the genre.
The quickest way to get a grasp of the “correct” tonal balance is to simply hear how other people are doing it. If you are working a lot in a specific genre, then you will also know which records you consider to be the best sounding records within that genre. These are the records that you want to use as reference tracks when setting the tonal balance!
So let’s have a look at a way to balance the sound of your master to the sound of a reference track, all by using your ears.
First add an equalizer to your master with three bands enabled; one low shelving band at 100 Hz, one high shelving band at 8 kHz, and one peak filter band at 400 Hz. All bands should be wide, gentle filters. Keep the q-values at 0.5 to 0.7. If you already have processing on your master, then you can place this EQ right after your main EQ. Or you can use three bands within your main EQ if that is possible.
Next you can import a reference track into the project. You will need to find a way to easily switch between listening to your master and listening to the reference track. If you are using the Mastering Starter Pack for Reaper, then you can place the reference on the third track, right under the mix you are mastering. This third track is specifically made for references and the level will be automatically adjusted so that the reference has the same loudness as your master.
It is very important to match the loudness between the reference track and your master. So if you are not using the starter pack then you need to adjust the level yourself, either by ear or by measuring.
Now it’s time to compare and adjust! You will do this in three steps.
Step 1: First, switch between the master and the reference. Listen only to a couple of seconds of each. Focus on the low-end and try to decide if your master has more or less bass than the reference. Don’t listen to the sound of the bass or anything else within the mix. You just want to know whether your master has more or less bass. Adjust the gain of the low band on the equalizer so that the bass sounds equally loud as it does on the reference track. This was step one!
Step 2: Repeat the process but for the high end. Compare your master to the reference track while focusing on the treble. Is the high-end louder or quieter in your master compared to the reference track? Adjust the equalizer accordingly. Remember to listen only for a few seconds each when switching between the master and reference.
Step 3: Finally repeat the process for the low mids. If you are loudness matching by hand then remember to readjust the level of the reference track after you have tweaked the lows and highs. If you are using the starter pack then this is done automatically.
The lower mid frequencies are very important for the warmth and tonality of the master, but it is also a common area for resonances and build-ups from vocals and acoustic instruments.
If there is too little low mids, then the recording can sound cold and distant. If there is too much then the recording can sound muddy and unclear. In the latter case, it’s a very common mistake to try to fix the muddiness by adding high-end. However, this will generally throw the tonal balance off and make the master sound unnatural and overly bright instead.
If the master and reference track are loudness matched, then you can focus only on the loudness of the low mids and tweak the EQ to get them equally loud.
There is also one more important frequency area that you might want to focus on, and that is the upper mids. This is the area where the human ear is the most sensitive, from around 2 kHz to 5 kHz. You can do this as a fourth step and follow the same method of comparing the loudness of the area to a reference track. To do this you can use a wide peak filter around 3 kHz.
By using this method for adjusting the tonal balance you will hopefully end up with a master that has a natural sound similar to other great music in your genre.
Now we have an excellent starting point for adding a bit of compression. Not to reduce the dynamics, but to improve transient clarity. That’s the topic for the next part!
See you then!
💚 Sofia & Thomas
- Part 1 – How to make your music stand out on Spotify
- Part 2 – Tonal balance – The key to a natural sound
- UPCOMING – Part 3 – How to use compression for shaping transients
- UPCOMING – Part 4 – Getting that smooth high-end
- UPCOMING – Part 5 – The most important thing when learning mastering
