I’ve been making dubstep and dub on Cubase LE 5 for nearly two years and I’ve always had the same problem when exporting my finished pieces, even when the bit depth is at 32 Bit and the sample rate at 96.kHz it never sounds as clear or loud as professional artists, I looked at some videos of various dubstep producers in the studio to see if it was because the equipment (Soundcards, Monitors, midi-contorllers etc.) they were using was just better and more expensive gear than mine but they were all pretty much the same, some were even more basic than mine.
if anybody can give me some tips on mastering and exporting dubstep to achieve a professional quality track in Cubase LE 5 I would be really happy
ps. I mostly use the sylenth 1 as my synthesiser, and i’ve realised it is very basic, if this is not helping matters please let me know
You are looking in the wrong places for quality. Recording at 96kHz is not necessary. I recommend 44.1kHz (or 48 if you want video resolution). Most ears can’t notice the difference, and it costs you the extra step of resampling.
Recording at 32 bit is also unnecessary, 24 bit is more than adequate (can’t say I’d recommend 16 bit though).
Where you are going wrong is the EQ and effects. For best results, I would recommend that someone else master your tracks. If you don’t have the money, you probably want to do that yourself.
To get the maximum volume out of your song, go to your Master section in the mixer and add a compressor to the first slot. Select a good sounding preset, one that doesn’t make the Gain Reduction meter surpass -15. That’s overcompression and will make your audio sound overcooked. Then add a limiter (pre-fader) as the last plugin in your chain and set the output to -.3 (that’s important)! Then set the release to minimum and raise the input until you hear distortion at the peaks, then bump it back down. That’s about the best you can do in C LE 5 without 3rd party mastering plugins. Others may have better techniques, but that’s how I do it.
