Sex and sexual orientation

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Parental Guidance: Educational article: This article refers to human reproductive organs again and again, and discusses some intimate sexual material, although not in a pornographic manner. Parental guidance is recommended not to explain the meaning of terms, but rather the meaning of the content.

 

Sex and sexual orientation

 

“Sexual pleasure resides not in the act, but rather its’ culmination.”

 

This article was long overdue as I owed it to both the sections of the society; the straights and the gays. As the ‘Gay Rights’ issue has been burning in societies world over, including in Russia where a controversial legislation threatens to tarnish the image of winter Olympics 2014, it is time for me to put things into a neutral perspective. In this write-up I will explain how sexual orientation works, is Russian legislation completely wrong or partially correct (there’s a reason why I say so and I will explain it) and also make it clear where I stand on the issue. So lets’ get started.

 

ð Sex, how it works?

Every organism has three basic drives (or needs); basic because they are the most important for an organism’s survival, as well as the propagation of species. The moment an organism comes to life it needs food to survive, next comes safety from physical harm, and finally the need to leave behind posterity. An organism can and will go to any extent to fulfill these needs. Morality is not a question, that’s how powerful these three drives are.

 

Now the thing with sex is; people believe it is the act which is pleasurable. The truth however is; sexual pleasure is derived from the hormones released at the culmination of the act, namely, oxytocin in females, and dopamine in males. The act of arousing or exciting external sexual organs, like penis or vagina, within itself does not give anyone sexual pleasure (I’ll explain it a bit more below). The sexual pleasure is felt at the culmination of such an arousal; ejaculation of sperms in males, and orgasm in females. While the ejaculation and orgasm are the things most humans identify as the source of pleasure, they are nothing more than external markers of the culmination of the act. The real pleasure comes from the release of afore mentioned hormones by our body into our blood streams.

 

Now before I explain the role of thoughts in the act, let me delve on the ways of sexual arousal or excitation of external organs, as it will shed more light on what makes a person straight or gay.

 

As a man I have two ways to arouse or excite my penis; partner or proxy. In the first I can put my penis in a vagina (female), anus (female or male) or mouth (female or male) of a partner, and in the later, I can rub it against a pillow, mattress, or just use my hands. A female can excite her vagina using a male partner’s penis, or a partner-cum-proxy (female partner, using fingers or objects), or just proxy (objects). However, this excitation will give a male or a female no more pleasure than the thoughts enjoyed in brain, which could also have been achieved by watching or reading porn, or just doing some other recreation activity which a person enjoys, like dancing, sports etc. What differentiates the pleasure of sex from other pleasures is the ejaculation or orgasm at the end of such excitation events, that is, the release of hormones inside the body. A man or a woman can actually excite themselves on their own without even thinking of sexual act, and still get the same pleasure at the end of it as having real sex. The only difference would be the lack of enjoyment coming from the thoughts associated with sex, or should I say, the satisfaction of doing it.

 

This brings us to the most important aspect of sexual activity, as separate from sexual pleasure; the thought process. Sexual thoughts give us a pleasure of their own, even without the involvement of sexual organs, or the indulgence in sexual activity. Reading or watching pornographic material, and thinking or fantasizing sexual escapades falls in this category.

 

While arousing or exciting sexual organs, whether with a partner or proxy, there is a distinct chain of sexual thoughts going on in an individual’s brain. These thoughts, although wrongly believed to be pleasurable, actually determine the level of satisfaction an individual will derive from the act at the culmination. Human beings develop liking for not just the activities, but the way they perform them too. Sexual pleasure may be a result of hormones released by our bodies, but sexual satisfaction is the result of the thoughts that culminate along with the act. This is the reason why masturbation (or self arousal of sexual organs) is not as pleasurable, or should I say as satisfying as the real act. What are fetishes? These are association of certain objects or behavior patterns with the sexual excitation process that gives an individual a higher level of satisfaction at the culmination of sexual activity. So where does being gay or straight stand?

 

ð Sex and sexual orientation:

Organisms of different species and origins have bodies designed differently to reproduce their posterity. Some plants and organisms have distinct male and female members in their populations; others have individuals who double up as female and males, with sex organs of both kinds. Human beings have separate female and male members in their population. So biologically speaking, being gay or lesbian is just a fetish, a chain of thoughts developed by individual brains that maximizes pleasure, or rather satisfaction derived from the sexual activity when it is performed with the member of the same sex. So is it wrong or right? And how does sexual orientation affect rights of an individual in a society?

 

Religiously speaking, I do not believe in God! There is no God, and if there is no God, there is no Satan, no sin, and no soul. So as much as the notion that homosexuals are sinners holds no water for me, so does the assertions of homosexual community that they are men trapped in female bodies, or females trapped in male bodies. The simple truth is; an individual has developed a liking for the chain of thoughts that arises and culminates with sexual activity performed with a member of the same sex. Was the development of such a psychological fixation a result of a severe dislike for the opposite sex’s general attitude, or a lack of self-confidence in dealing with the opposite sex, a result of some abuse as a child, or a revolt against the society by way of indulging in a forbidden act, or an initiation into a lifestyle by another member of the minority community, all this is immaterial. Such and many other factors will always be there in the society, affecting our perceptions all the time. That is why some people realize many years later in their lives that they are enjoying sexual activity (that is, getting more satisfaction out of the act) more with members of the same sex, than their partner from the opposite sex. Fetishes and notions can develop anytime. The more important question is of rights as an individual in a society.

 

ð Rights of Homosexual communities:

As a member of a minority community living overseas, I have personally experienced the ugly side of discrimination, both in US, as well as Australia. As such I know exactly the pain members of homosexual community go through everyday due to the attitudes of community towards them. As a member of a minority community I believe, “No person should ever be discriminated against for any class reasons, including their sexual orientation.” How a person enjoys their sexual activity is a private matter, and not the concern of the society, as long as it is not affecting the rightful interests of another member of the community, as in an infidel relationship with another individual’s spouse.

 

Thus I believe homosexuals should have equal right to marriage, and having children. Marriage is nothing more than a social recognition to a couple’s sexual and life commitment to each other, thus separating their union from infidel relationships. And as far as children are concerned; if children of straight parents can develop homosexual orientation, I see no reason why homosexuals cannot raise children with straight orientations.

 

Discriminating and bullying of homosexuals means humanity is doing a disservice to itself by not tapping all the human resources and intellect efficiently. Such an attitude is contrary to the needs of advancement of science, technology, arts and culture; basically the humanity.

 

ð Truth about sexual orientation propaganda and why I said ‘partially right’:

The thing about sexual activity is, being a powerful basic drive as it is, it motivates individuals to actively seek partners. Straight men would love to perform sexual activity with every beautiful woman or girl in the society, even if they are under legal age, or legally married. Straight women would love to have sex with every hot man in the society, provided there are no repercussions from the society. Straight people indulge in everything including one night flings and infidelity all the time. How could homosexual community be different?

 

Homosexual community is a small section of the normal society in every nation, and they want to perform sexual activity with many partners too. So they have no choice but to approach people they are interested in, and find out if they are open to homosexual relationships or not. I have been approached by gay men on more than one occasion, asking me if I would like to have my penis in their mouth or anus, or I would like to have theirs’ in mine. I am a straight guy and hence refuse it flatly. That is the end of the story most of the time. But this is where things get tricky.

 

Women do not offer to have sexual intercourse with me even ten percent the number of times I am approached by gay men, and a fraction of the women who happen to ask me are sex workers. And the other problem is; there are times when members of homosexual community try to influence my choice by mentioning how enjoyable it is to suck another man’s penis, or have it shoved up one’s anus. This is what I classify as propaganda! And may I also mention; I derive sexual pleasure when I ejaculate thinking about putting my penis in a female vagina, and not thinking about having another man’s penis in my anus or mouth, or my penis in another man’s anus. If I were to develop any such mental fixation, it would turn me gay! Being gay or straight is as simple as that; just a fixation.

 

Nobody had to tell me how enjoyable it would be to put my penis in a vagina in a straight relationship. Nobody needs too! Kids grow up into teenagers through various stages, including one in which they hate the members of the opposite sex, and finally find a likeness for the members of the opposite sex on their own. Straight sex comes naturally!

 

Initiating an uninitiated person into a homosexual relationship by trying to impress their views about sex with a member of the same sex, by telling them sexually exciting content is propaganda, and as wrong as making or marketing straight pornography, or straight prostitution. In the example of Russian legislation; if Russia denies homosexuals equal rights or jobs as available to straight members of the community, it is wrong. But if Russian legislation prohibits dispensation of literature, media or content inciting homosexual behavior, it is effectively same as banning straight pornography or prostitution. Where the legislation stands will determine whether it is completely wrong or partially right.

 

ð Where do I stand on homosexuality:

As mentioned above, I believe everybody deserves equal rights, no matter what their class differences are, including their sexual orientation.

 

If you ask me; do I consider homosexuality wrong? My answer would be; “It is your life and your choice. I don’t mind homosexual people living around me in the society. They are same to me as my any other neighbor or friend, for the basis of my relationship with neither of them is sex.”

 

If you ask me; is homosexuality natural? My answer would be; “It is just a sexual fetish, just like I love tall blonde slim women in high heels. Some people like sadistic-masochistic relationships, so on so forth.” Mind you, I may also mention her, I am yet to have the first sex of my life because I used to believe pre-marital sex to be a sin, and now I am yet to find a girl I would love to have a relationship with. I am not going to sleep with every other girl for I don’t like sexual promiscuity. That is my choice!

 

If you ask me; do I want more people to become homosexuals? With all due respect to homosexual community, and given due consideration to their need of having more partners, my answer would be; “Without considering the artificial insemination and in-vitro fertilization techniques, will humanity be able to reproduce if every member of humanity became homosexual? If the answer is no, then how will humanity propagate?” Besides, lesbian tall slim blondes in high heels represent a sexual partner’s loss to me.

 

It’s your life, your choice! It’s all in your head!

 

Fatal Urge Carefree Kiss “Amanpreet Singh Rai”

 

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Is our Universe an electron?

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Is our Universe an electron?

 

“Imagination leads science, and science fuels imagination.”

 

Electrons, protons and neutrons, the sub-atomic particles that we can’t even physically see even with the best of our technology; is it possible that our universe is like one of them? Indeed a weird proposition, given the fact that all matter in our universe is made up of these very basic building blocks of matter. But perhaps I might make better sense after putting forth what I intend to in this write-up.

 

Before I explain this concept let me highlight the limits of not only our knowledge, but our wildest imaginations, by pointing out an example I’ve often used to dispel the superstitious beliefs about God. In fact, no saint, messiah, prophet or else would have shared true enlightenment with you in any simpler words than what I am putting forth in the next two paragraphs.

 

If I ask you; ‘imagine there is nothing’, you will all visualize a dark empty space without any object, matter, gas or liquid. So if I ask you ‘what if this universe of ours wasn’t there’, you all will imagine an empty dark space. But is it the ‘true nothing’? What about the three dimensional space that you are still visualizing? In ‘true nothing’, not even a three dimensional space exists. Now try to imagine that ‘true nothing’. You will still think of a dark three dimensional something, full of solid, gar or liquid even you won’t know, but you still will imagine, ‘a three dimensional nothing’. And this is the limitation of our imagination. I know what a ‘true nothing’ would be, for today “I can imagine a true nothing”. And this is enlightenment!

 

The day you will be able to comprehend true nothing, you will also realize there is no God, for even God couldn’t have originated out of ‘true nothing’. How and where have these three dimensions that we know and live in originated, we will never ever know; and do you know why? Because this universe of ours in enclosed in a space, which is lying inside another space, which is lying inside another space, and so on so forth. We will never ever, and including all our generations to come, will be able to find the answer to this, for there will never be the last space, as there will always be another one outside it. And this knowledge is enlightenment!

 

Yes, it is true Mosses spoke to God! Yes, it is true Jesus was son of God! Yes, it is true Prophet Mohammad met God! Yes it is true that all the ten Sikh Gurus had the same soul in them, and the tenth Sikh Guru was a demon slaying Saint in previous birth who was specially sent by Holy Mother Durga to slay the modern day demons in society. And all this is true, not because there ever was any proof to prove any of these. All this is true because we people want to believe it to be true. Today if I stand in the middle of a huge open ground and shout a hundred times, “If there is any God, I want him to show here immediately to prove his existence to the world and prove he is God”, no one will come. An experiment conducted with one hundred percent accuracy and only one result; no one will show up! Yet people won’t believe me when I’ll declare; “there is no God”. And this is not because my experiment would have failed or I would be lying, but simply because no one would like to believe it. The only truth about every religion is that people want to believe it to be true! It is not nuclear weapons that will destroy humanity. It is religion and politics that sure will. Nuclear weapons might not even make the final means.

 

Anyway, lets’ get back to the current topic of how our universe could be just an electron.

 

Electron and protons are sub-atomic particles with opposite electric charge, while neutrons are charge-free. There is mutual attraction between particles of opposite charge, while similar charges repel each other. Now since I have my reasons to believe so, and this has been confirmed indirectly in one of the latest scientific news as well, our universe is not the only universe in space. There are others around it.  And in our universe there is a force of attraction called gravity, by virtue of which everything in our universe is attracting everything else towards it. But no force has ever existed without its’ counterpart. There always is a contrary force. So how could gravity be an anomaly?

 

Contemplating on this question, baffled as I was, I finally have hypothesized that a contrary force to gravity will exist somewhere in space, something like anti-gravity (called so for want of a better name). In contrast to gravity, this anti-gravity will push everything around it away. So if our universe’s binding force is gravity, there should be another universe whose binding force would be anti-gravity. Now I realize that our universe is spreading with galaxies speeding away from each other, so I don’t expect anti-gravity to help the cause of a universe as such. But perhaps such a universe would be much more dense than our Universe, with the repulsive forces between the components balanced in such a way that its’ constituent galaxies and stars would be held together by repulsive forces coming from different directions balancing each other out. Such a universe however will be a massive giant, compared to our universe, and much like an analogy to proton-electron relationship. Thus my hypothesis originates, that like smaller sized electrons our Universe is one charge, and like many times heavier protons, there will be an oppositely charge giant universe. And just like electrons and protons combine together to form atoms in our universe, quite possibly our universe and many others like it will bond to bigger universes to form atoms of sizes beyond our wildest imaginations.

 

This leads me to another question; if we cannot see electrons and protons in our world with any of our technology, would any creation (analogy to us) be able to see our universe (leave alone us for that matter), for it would be just another electron to them? Can you even imagine the size of such a creation? Should I talk about God again then?

 

The future of humanity is only a “One borderless Equalist world”!

 

Fatal Urge Carefree Kiss “Amanpreet Singh Rai”

 

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Trayvon Martin: Justice still possible

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Trayvon Martin: Justice still possible

 

“Divide your nation in any name, and please your enemies.”

 

‘Right reasons but wrong conclusion’ is how I would sum up the jury’s verdict in the case that has shaken the very foundations of American democracy. But before I explain how the verdict is an important step in getting justice for Trayvon, I would like to request every American to think before they react. You can divide your nation in the name of race, religion, sexual orientation etc, and the only people who will laugh will be your enemies. Now if your minds are clear then read further as to how the lost case is the first step towards the victory of ‘Justice’.

 

The jury erred in finding that Zimmerman had the right to stand his ground under the law of Florida. If the case is going to be decided as to who had the right to stand his ground, then the only answer is; Trayvon. Let me explain!

 

Firstly, the moment Zimmerman decided to go in Trayvon’s pursuit, he had lost the defense of standing his ground, simply because he was no longer standing his ground, but rather encroaching upon Trayvon’s ground. Being followed by a man, possibly armed, and who was threatening, the only person who had the legal right to stand his ground under the Florida law was Trayvon. The fact that Trayvon even yielded his ground by moving away reflects the young kid’s intelligence to avoid trouble. However caught in a proverbial corner, if we were to go by the law, only Trayvon was standing his ground while Zimmerman had encroached upon it with a gun. Hence if jury’s reasoning is correct, then their conclusion is wrong. But thanks to this reasoning, the jury has ensured that the case against Zimmerman is not of manslaughter but premeditated murder. Let me explain this as well!

 

Zimmerman had a prejudice opinion about Trayvon, and as such his motivation to follow the kid was never in question. Now the questions to ponder over are the one’s Zimmerman must have answered to self, before going in pursuit:

1.    What if the kid retaliates and hits me?

2.    What if the kid is armed?

3.    Am I equipped to handle the situation?

Zimmerman wouldn’t have gone in pursuit without answering these questions, and the most probable answer would have been, “I’ve got a gun. If this kid does anything stupid, I’ll drop him dead.”

 

So not only was Zimmerman prejudiced, he was mentally prepared to kill the kid. This would have to be classified as a premeditated murder than manslaughter, for Zimmerman knowingly created a situation where he would need to take a life.

 

So bottom line is, “If jury believes someone had the right to stand their ground then the only person who had that right was Trayvon.” Else, going by the jury’s yardstick, every person in Florida who has a gun will pick up a fight with his unarmed enemy and claim a defense in standing their ground. If who was standing his ground is the most important aspect of this case then I have no doubt it was Trayvon. Imagine being pursued by a big man with a gun. Trayvon Martin might have been just a seventeen year old kid, but he was a real man, for only a real man can stand his ground in the face of a gun.

 

The need however is not to get carried away and destroy the social fabric of the American society by dividing it on racial lines. The question is of Justice, and everybody needs it, irrespective of their race, religion and sex.

 

Fatal Urge Carefree Kiss “Amanpreet Singh Rai”

 

 

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Time Travails

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Time Travails

 

“Every human being desires to travel in time; in the past to fix what went wrong, and in the future to live his fantasies.”

 

Since times unknown man has fantasised about travelling in time, yet in spite of all the progress made by science, humanity seems to be no way near to cracking the puzzle. But how can you find an answer to a question which itself is based on a wrong premise? We want to travel in time for we believe time to be an inherent characteristic of the physical existence, going as far as calling it the fourth dimension. But the concept itself is flawed!

 

The basic characteristic of the three spatial dimensions is; you can identify any point within them and call it origin, and then move in both positive and negative direction from that point. But what happens with time? Let us say we have a clock that runs in the opposite direction to another one which runs in the regular direction. If we start both the clocks at the same time, say 12noon, six hours later first one will be showing 6am and the other one will be showing 6pm. But has the time moved back or forward? You will say ‘still forward’, but I will simply say that six sixty minute units of time have been added to the start of the experiment. Time is nothing more than a mathematical constant whose value when used additively, helps quantize the speed or pace of activities or processes.

 

Chemistry students will know how there are two kinds of chemical reactions; reversible and irreversible. The first ones’ proceed only in one direction, creating products from reactants, say for e.g. combustion of wood into smoke, ash and heat. The second ones’ can proceed either way, creating products from reactants and vice versa, say for e.g. Electrolysis of water to yield hydrogen and oxygen is reversible, for hydrogen can be recombined with oxygen to yield water. But why this discussion about chemistry when we are discussing time travel?

 

Well, let us say that in our example with clocks, we had two separate containers of reactants, one set to hydrolyse water, and the other set to combine hydrogen and oxygen. Now if we start the two processes and the two clocks at the same time, the processes as well as time measurement will both travel in opposite directions to their respective counterparts. And this example roughly sums up what we want to achieve with time-travel.

 

In order to return to the past, we will have to reverse each and every physical, chemical and biological activity that has taken place, not just in our neighbourhood, but the entire universe. This is because our present is a gross result of all such reactions and activities, with energy having been absorbed from all over the universe (radiations  and even matter coming from space and distant stars), and emitted (or lost) to it in the same way. And in case one were to miss the point, let me also mention, every activity that occurs in this universe can have many possible results.

 

So basically if we were to try and return to a previous time, not only will we have to reverse all the activities and reactions, but there is no guarantee that the time (or rather physical state of existence) that we return to, will be the same which we actually had lived through. This happens because the reversal of heterogeneous activity can pick up any possibility out of the bucket of choices it has, very much like the future. Just imagine a ball hit by a baseball player; it can go for a home run, it can be caught, it can drop in no man’s zone, it can vanish in crowd, or even out of the park. These possibilities are affected by other environmental factors such as wind velocity and direction, humidity and particulate matter, etc. Even if you were to start a perfect reverse of the situation from the last hit, it is not necessary that the batter who smashed it would be the same who actually did it originally. Every time you will reverse the processes, at some stage or the other a variation from the original version will occur, and the history you will revisit will not be the same that you have known. The scientific myth in fiction is that any change in the past will drastically alter the future. The truth however is; “Every time you will revisit past, it would be different than what you would have known.”

 

And if you wish to travel in future, you will have to speed up the processes. But remember, once you get to the future, you will not be able to return to this present, due to reasons explained above.

 

In the end, time indeed is just a constant. What is changing is not the time, but our existence.

 

Fatal Urge Carefree Kiss “Amanpreet Singh Rai”

 

 

 

 

 

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Mastering a track (By Fatal Urge Carefree Kiss)

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Mastering a track

 

“First-hand experience when standardised into a knowledge base, then divided into a curriculum to be imparted as training to the next generation, is what we call a formal qualification.”

 

This article is meant to assist the hardworking indie artist community with mastering their own tracks. What is being shared here is based on my personal experience that I gained through painstaking efforts that I put in, both studying music as well as producing it. I do not write to show off my knowledge. I rather want to make sure there’s a brilliant music producer living in every side street of this world. Brilliant music will no longer be solely the property of big labels only. In fact, as in Punjab where big labels have no big bigger significance in music market than any self financing-producing musician, we are going to kick big labels out everywhere. We re-writing the rule books here boy!

 

A.  Purpose of  mastering the track:

1.    The first and foremost reason (even if wrongly) happens to be the need to increase the perceived volume of the track to the same or even better level than the other songs being played by, say a radio station or a DJ.

2.    To make sure the music or sound is not clipping when played at high, or for that matter, any volume. Clipping in layman’s terms would be an instance of the recording sounding rough as if sound was breaking in a nasty way.

3.    To make sure various tracks making the mix are sounding perfectly in tune with each other, and a component or two are not jumping out of the mix in a glaring fashion, unless they are intended to be like that.

4.    To add some special effects which might not have been added to the song at any other stage, like reverb, or in some cases even effects like flanging, resonators etc, if it is being done for musical reasons (explained below).

 

B.  Preparing the track for mastering:

The highest level to which volume for any sound can be raised is 0db (decibel). Any volume above this level makes no difference to what we can hear, however it distorts the sound by the way of clipping (breaking/splitting of voice). So the questions is; how can two different songs when played using the same music player and sound system set at same levels, sound different in their audible volume?

 

The answer to this puzzle can be best explained by using the example of an ice tray we use to freeze cubes in our refrigerators. Let us assume that the sound levels are basically compartments with 0 db representing the tray as a whole. Now we can fill some of these compartments which would mean volume levels less than 0db, or we can fill all the compartments, which would mean a volume level of 0db. But filling all the compartments is not the same as filling them to the brim. We may just fill them all partially, in which case, in spite of us getting cubes out of all the compartments, the total volume of ice generated will still not be huge. Alternately, we can fill them all up to the brim, and the ice we will get out of them will be huge compared to the earlier instance. Same is true for the sound levels. Two songs set at 0db may not have equal levels of volume for one of them might have more sound saturation per db. This is what we do when we use a limiter, the global volume level wars, that is.

 

Now it is prudent to mention here, no matter how much water we try to pour on to the tray, once all its’ compartments are full, the rest is only going to end up getting splattered all over the place and serve us no purpose. Same is true of raising the volume levels above 0db. We won’t hear any difference, except for the degradation of the sound quality, which might be intentional only on a rare occasion when you are looking for a certain sound effect, like I was when I used the gun shot sound in my latest song “You wanna love me”. The distortion made the synthesizer generated sound feel authentic and gave it a quality way different than what any actual sample might have given me.

 

So before you sit down to master your record, the first thing you need to do is to find out the levels at which the individual tracks in your mix are peaking. You will need to use a level indicator plug-in, which in most cases comes in-built with professional DAWs. I use Ableton Live 8 for my productions, and all I do is switch to the sessions view and drag it’s levels indicator window ceiling high enough to reveal its’ full stretch. Just above the level indicator, in a box, when I play the mix, the level indicators of each track show the maximum value hit by the individual track volumes. Thus I know which tracks are hitting above the 0db level.

 

The next step is to find out the track which jumps the most above the 0db level and how much it does. Let us say for example, 5db. Then you lower each and every track of your mix individually by 5db levels. Try the entire process again and keep repeating until each one of your track is below 0db level. If the mix is sounding fainter don’t worry, for limiting will increase the volume way above the original level, and without distortion. By the time you will get the most errant sound under 0db level, the others’ will be way below 0db level, giving you ample headspace to master the track. All tracks are lowered by the same level so as to preserve the sound that you had originally created. Now make sure the most errant sound is getting close to 0db only on an occasion or two, and that to for a brief point. It should be consistently below 0db by at least 2dbs for it to be mastered well. Else, drop down the levels of all the tracks by another 2db. Once you are done with this, your track is now ready to be mastered.

 

Yes, there can be exceptions to this rule. In my track “I will never do” from my debut album “I’m Fine”, I didn’t use a limiter to enhance the volume. Rather I used a utility to increase the volume, and the very tiny bit of distortion that I could hear at a few places, sounded much better than what the song sounded after I properly mastered it. The properly mastered version actually sounded dull than the other. But this is just one exception. And the reason I say it is just one exception is; for my latest song “You wanna love me”, the first single from my second album “Ferocious by instinct”, the only mastering I’ve done is using a limiter with a ceiling set at -0.30db and “No gain” at all. The decision was taken after I had properly mastered it the way I am going to explain here, simply because it sounded way better without mastering, even though the mastered version was way-way louder than the version I released. But what worth is loudness if the essence of the music is lost? Besides, even the non-mastered version for this song sounds as loud as most of the mainstream stuff, effectively removing any need for me to alter the sound. The sounds, whichever and wherever they clip, they enhance the feel of the song, and it is just a case of a beat here or there, far and wide. And just to give you one more example from my works, I intentionally didn’t drop the chorus levels in “Please don’t leave my side” even though I could hear them clip. That trashy sound gives it that “Rock” feeling which raises the chorus to another level, and “Please don’t leave my side” is effectively a “Rap meets Rock” song.

 

So how you will master a particular track will totally be determined by how you want your music to sound like. There are no hard and fast rules. Even this write-up is just another reference point which might assist you somewhere down the line, and not a rule book. So let’s get on with it!

 

C.  Plug-ins that you will most likely use:

There are three basic plug-ins that you will need most of the time for mastering, namely the compressor, Equalizer and limiter. Reverb and multiband dynamics can be used on occasions, but like most other plug-ins their requirement will be governed by what you intend to achieve by using those plug-ins. So let me first delve into the three you will most likely use.

1.    Compressor: A very slight compression with a very slow attack and release will mix the sounds better, and also add volume to the song. The only other reason to use a compressor when mastering is to either mix the sounds that are jumping out of the mix brazenly, with the rest of the mix, or to compress those fainter sounds that give the spice to the mix every now and then but are getting lost in between other heavier or louder sounds (and there is no way to raise their levels without distorting their character that you so liked that you put them in, and no hope with side-chaining). In the first case you will keep the threshold high and in the second you will keep it low, both cases with minimal compression and a slight knee. The idea is not to crush the sounds but to gently alter them. Any extravagant compression will distort the sound in a way not good musically most of the time. Also, in first case the attack will generally be quick to capture the peak, and release slow to keep it under check before its’ level automatically falls to your liking. In the later case the attack will be slow, just to capture the fading ends; and release will be quick to allow it to fade out in a natural way. However like everything else about mastering, this is not a hard and fast rule. Your ear is the best guide.

2.    Equalizer: Normally you wouldn’t need to raise any of the lower or higher end frequencies at this stage for you would have already levelled them off sweetly with respect to other sounds. In case you feel it doesn’t have the punch in the baseline, you can raise a few db in the lower end, but keep in mind this will muddy the low end, and the result will most likely feel heavy on ears. And in case you raise higher end to increase the trashiness, the final result will be jarring. This happens because when you equalize a final mix, you are not altering just the quality of one sound that you wish was higher or lower in level, but every other sound which has a similar frequency range. However you will notice, most of the time the sounds we work on are either towards the lower end of frequency table (drums, bass, sax, piano, male vocals etc), or towards the higher end (cymbals, synthesizers, percussion etc). Hence, most likely so far you would have heavily equalized those frequency ranges in the mix. Mastering is a good time to raise that mid-range of the song, and you can do it liberally, using your ear as a guide. Without a healthy mid-range your mix will more than likely sound lifeless, unless it is a house track with plenty of reverb and echo going on. Hence equalizing for the mid-range is a good idea. But final decision should be determined by your ear, how it all sounds to you and is it really how you want it to be.

3.    Limiter: The most important use of limiter is to make sure your final result does not clip by going overboard (that is, 0db). However an equally important function it serves is to make your song sound louder. A limiter with a basic ceiling setting of -0.30db will serve the first purpose, and depending upon how much you had lowered the levels of the sounds earlier, the gain you can add using this limiter will serve the second function. Don’t be surprised if for a 5db cut you made to the levels earlier, you are now able to give it a 13db gain. The best part is; the sound will not just be loud without clipping, but also fuller. To explain how limiter works and why we need to lower the levels prior to mastering, let us revisit the ice-tray example. Every plug-in you will add to your mastering chain, be it compressor or equalizer, they all add substance to the volume. Now if you start with a tray already full to the brim, whatever a plug-in like equalizer will add will spill over as waste, or a plug-in like compressor will try to squeeze is would be the dirt laden already over-flown water, which will simply not stay in the tray and will leave dirt (distortion) inside the previously clear tray water. By lowering the levels prior to mastering, you are basically emptying a few compartments in the tray so that the effects being added by the plug-ins (which is why we are using the plug-ins in the first place), they will only spill over into the empty compartments without loss of quality. And then when you will raise the gain levels of the limiter, those compartments will get saturated, and you will get the best quantity and quality of ice (sound). Of course, as I mentioned in case of exceptions above, you may already be satisfied with the quality and quantity of the water your ice-tray already holds, in which case all these plug-ins, including limiter, will not be needed. The final call is made by your ear and musical intentions.

 

D.  Other plug-ins:

Let us now discuss some other plug-ins which might find possible use, or perhaps can be avoided.

1.    Gate: Almost never (99.9% times). If you feel the need to use a gate at the mastering stage, something is terribly wrong with one of your individual tracks and you should fix that, rather than fix the master. A gate will adversely affect the quality of sounds that fade in or out. A slowly rising or fading sound behind the shadow of a brimming mix will not be altered by gating anyway thus rendering its’ use worthless. On the other hand, an amazing soft sound starting after a silence, or a brilliant sound fading into the next drop, will either be chopped into an abrupt beginning, or will be cut short by the gate as soon as its’ levels drop below the gating level, leaving a uncomfortable rest/silence between the previous or the next bar. It’s true that 99.9% of listeners will not notice the anomaly whether they are in club, car or home, but if the musician in you is a perfectionist like me, then it won’t let you sleep at night. And if you are going to keep the gating levels too low, or release time so slow so as to let anything in, why the heck use it in the first place?

2.    Filter: What for? If there is a sound you don’t like, negotiate it at the individual track level. Chopping anything below or above a certain frequency at the mastering level effects every other sound that works at the same or similar frequency. If you still insist on chopping the low end rumble for your mix is muddy, then you better sort out your sub-bass, kick, baseline, and low frequency instruments individually. Equalize their low ends to separate the different sounds. Same is the case if your high end is sounding too shrill. The only time you really will need to use a filter is when you have used too many trashy high frequency sounds in your mix, so as to protect your ears, and those of your listeners.

3.    Reverb: Reverb can be used to enhance the overall effect of the mix in case of certain genres like house and trance. Its’ only other use is to make a harsh sounding track softer, or a mix which is sounding lifeless (as if vocals or music was recorded in a room with perfect echo absorption, giving you lifeless results) by giving it a bit of depth and fullness. In old day when musicians were recorded live in sound proof booths, the mixes needed addition of reverb at mastering stage. Now you can do the same with individual tracks. If you have to use reverb at mastering stage, know that even a 5% wet level will give a prominent effect to sound. Besides Reverb tends to muddy up the sounds that fade into or out of silence, thanks to the echo which adds its’ volume into those sounds. Final call, as is the case everywhere else in mastering, is made by your ear and musical intentions.

4.    Multiband dynamics: The only time you will use this is to make the low end sound muddier, or the vocals and music sound trashy. It will have very limited use for most tracks, and your mix will more than likely be better off without it. However, if your vocals and music are not gelling together (in which case the issue is between the singing scale and the composition scale, or could be just a matter of few notes here and there), multiband dynamics can help gel the overall sound of the mix together. This is generally achieved by mudding the low end very slightly, reducing the mid range a bit more, but accentuating the high range in a prominent fashion, so that the overall sound of the song is way trashier than without the use of this plug-in.

5.    All other plug-ins: Chorus, flanger, delays, resonators etc have no use in mastering as such, but can all be used to give special effects (with the use of automation of course), but it will only be exceptional cases where such effects would be musically desired. Experiment, yes you can!

In the end all I can say is; your ear is your true guide. There is no such thing as an “Absolute Mastering Chain” that you could use for every song. Experimentation will help you learn more

 

E.   Lastly, something totally irrelevant to this topic:

Those of you who read my blogs regularly (they appear both on my personal website, as well as my Google Blogspot handle at the same time), you will know how I have been trying to make the scientific community realize that “Time” is not another dimension or an inherent characteristic of the objects in physical realm. Rather, it is just a mathematical constant whose value when used additively describes how quick or slow a certain process or activity was. Now let me take this knowledge a step further and provide a key to the puzzle of space travel.

 

The biggest problem with travelling to other worlds is the distance that lies between. Spacecraft technology and fuel issues aside, the biggest problem is; how can a traveller travel to stars or planets millions of miles away without ageing, and on minimal oxygen, water, food and loo requirements? Even if we are able to travel in time, it won’t help us travel through space, however, the solution to this problem was never related to time.

 

The point to be noted here is, “Time only measures the speed of processes, and does not alter them. We can alter them!”

 

So if we can find out a way to slow down all the biologically processes in living beings without killing them, we can travel indefinitely in space without ageing (for in the absence of gravity in space, physical body will not degenerate). Now all we will need will be an automated space craft, or an automation to wake up people to take turns at minding the craft in travel.

 

We cannot alter the speed of time, but we sure can alter the speed of processes. Elementary my dear friends!

 

Fatal Urge Carefree Kiss “Amanpreet Singh Rai”

 

 

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