Off Topic Mastering.

[jamie_au]

Years ago audio was always striving for the highest quality possible, nowadays it's made for ipods etc. Maybe it will be all done by the same person in the future. Maybe we'll send the mix off to be professionally mixed and then we'll master it ourselves?

This is probably the most important quote here. Masterers nowadays seems to be directed to 'compress it as much as possible to get it louder.' Dynamic range is gone.

 

[metalmarty]

This is probably the most important quote here. Masterers nowadays seems to be directed to 'compress it as much as possible to get it louder.' Dynamic range is gone.

Yup, you hear it noticably in metal nowadays as well. All "modern metal" albums move A LOT of air, but there's hardly any difference left between hard and soft sounds. Then again, most youngsters can't even hear the difference between MP3, vinyl and CD's anymore. People are growing up in a completely MP3-realm. Such a shame. In a little bit you'll only play your nice warm dynamic tube amps for yourself, not a soul will hear the difference on the track itself.

 

[knguro]

Yup, you hear it noticably in metal nowadays as well. All "modern metal" albums move A LOT of air, but there's hardly any difference left between hard and soft sounds. Then again, most youngsters can't even hear the difference between MP3, vinyl and CD's anymore. People are growing up in a completely MP3-realm. Such a shame. In a little bit you'll only play your nice warm dynamic tube amps for yourself, not a soul will hear the difference on the track itself.

So true!...

 

[Slingy]

The only dynamic music left is classical me thinks. Sounds amazingly rich and full with lots of quiet and loud on my old tube console stereo.

 

[DrKev]

Then again, most youngsters can't even hear the difference between MP3, vinyl and CD's anymore

Back in "our day", pre-CD, most people couldn't tell the difference between vinyl, cassette (normal, chrome or metal), 8 track, and FM radio. They just heard a song they liked and didn't think any deeper than that. Same thing today. Take out the romance of lost years - most people listened to a record with a worn needle and what ever cheap HiFi they could afford. That can sound worse than even sub-90kbps MP3.

One advantage to today's 'world' is that we have less mixes and masters to worry about. One mix and master for headphones and computer speakers and you've covered most of your market. No need to worry about vinyl and tape and FM radio and a mono mix for AM radio, will it work well on home HiFi speakers and headphones and in the car...

Maybe we'll send the mix off to be professionally mixed and then we'll master it ourselves?

Hell, I hope not. Jack Endino (whose blogs are great reading BTW) said something to the effect that a good musician or songwriter will record perhaps a small hand full of records in their lifetime. A decent producer or engineer will work on hundreds. Often the difference between a great album and a poor demo is knowing when to get work done by somebody else with the real know-how and experience.

For the sake of the art of making good records, I hope that knowledge never gets lost. The digital age in music has made making records easier and more affordable for everyone but quality suffers in every way.

 

[mesavox]

From having worked with a guy who REALLY knows how to produce and mix a record.... Mastering is overrated. That's not to say it is unnecessary or something to be overlooked, but an ok mix is going to sound ok even if mastered by Bob Ludwig. It's not going to be able to be made all that much louder than it already is, and a good mixer has already pultec'd this and neve'd that to shape all the eq and compression just the way it should be.

I used to think that mastering is where records get that big boomy sound, but we received our preview, unmastered mixes and they sounded mastered. I compared them to ever song in my itunes, and nothing sounded any bigger at all. The mastered versions are just a touch warmer (slightly less harsh top end and slightly tighter bass) and were JUST A TOUCH louder.

Get your stuff mastered by someone who knows what they're doing, but far more importantly, get it mixed by someone who REALLY knows what they're doing.

 

[knguro]

Get your stuff mastered by someone who knows what they're doing, but far more importantly, get it mixed by someone who REALLY knows what they're doing.

Exactly!!! This is something that I always thought, is you are working with someone that really knows about the mixing process and how every instrument fits on its range of frequencies you’ll have a great mix at the end with a few or unnoticeable arrangements to do. Once again correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[DavidOfOz]

I was invited to sit in on a mastering session earlier this year with a well-respected Melbourne-based engineer. The thing that struck me most was that equipment and software, and knowing how to drive it all, is only part of the story. There's also a real "art" to mastering. And while I'm happy to do my own mixing, from now on, I'm going to leave the mastering to the experts!