digital mastering/room accuracy

sylvie.foret · Post by **sylvie.foret** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 6:45 am

i've thought about that. sometimes the eq is bad. occasionally too quiet--which is easily remedied. but then it's almost always the case that the track has other issues, too. funny, because with vinyl i expect differences, tho not always qualitative ones. sometimes you get a bad pressing. but really, there are so few vinyl mastering houses--and they all abide by more or less the same standards. why not the same for digital?

Daniel Logikal · Post by **Daniel Logikal** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:33 am

sylvie.foret wrote:oy. was reluctant to name names.

agreed re. cadenza. alphahouse and esperanza are inconsistent. italo business mixes are always too hot. also, i can't remember the label, but a few individual tracks that come to mind: recent cinelli rmx of franklin de costa. pronsato rmx of se & miskate also a little off, but the original is fine.

recent florian meindl releases on trapez brought this issue to mind--"chase the robot" in particular. great song, the mix is rot. mush. goo. i want my money back.

most reliable : m_nus, beretta grey, archipel, kalimari, clink. karloff, meersteif--i'd like to know who does their mastering.

those de costa tracks must also be trapez. wtf! the cornerstone of minimal puts out crap mixes. appalling...

I think Pheek masters the Archipel & Kalimari releases, but don't quote me on that one.

Torque · Post by **Torque** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 4:08 pm

sylvie.foret wrote:i've thought about that. sometimes the eq is bad. occasionally too quiet--which is easily remedied. but then it's almost always the case that the track has other issues, too. funny, because with vinyl i expect differences, tho not always qualitative ones. sometimes you get a bad pressing. but really, there are so few vinyl mastering houses--and they all abide by more or less the same standards. why not the same for digital?

Well the simple answer to why digital mastering is more varied is that you have basicly unlimited frequency range to work with and with vinyl you have a limit both ways. That and just about everybody has the equipment to master digitally if they produce even though most of them should never be stepping anywhere near the mastering process. In fact most people shouldn't be stepping anywhere near the mixdown process in general, sometimes i wonder if i even should.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 5:01 pm

Torque wrote: That and just about everybody has the equipment to master digitally if they produce even though most of them should never be stepping anywhere near the mastering process. In fact most people shouldn't be stepping anywhere near the mixdown process in general, sometimes i wonder if i even should.

You might well be right, but personally I would rather do my own mastering, even if it means being sh!t at it for the foreseeable future.

As with the little work I have done so far with it, I have seen how big an impact it has on large amounts of the personality and feel of your sounds, things that I would consider expressively important, and without meaning to sound like a dck, things that I would not trust to another person, no matter how talented. Plus, being able to do your own mastering gives you many skills that can be incorporated into your sound as a producer. And as you say, it's easy to get hold of the equipment, so why not?

I think having the opinion of someone who wasn't involved in the process of making the track is still vitally important though.

Torque · Post by **Torque** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 6:01 pm

My view is not the same.
Music is THE most important part to me and if i need somebody else to mix it down to make it sound it's best then i'll do it. Sometimes i do a fine job myself but if i ever run into a wall i take it to somebody who knows. Some people are blessed with golden ears and some are not. In techno there are allot of good engineers but very few good songwriters and musicians. Musicians usually don't have a great ear for mixing but they have a great ear for tone. Some people are very good editors and arrangers but come to a blank when writing music and creating it. Some people are bad at mixing down a track but great at mastering and editing them. I try to play to my stregnths. I take my ego out of the process. If i didn't i would be an asshole 24/7. I just want to make good music bottom line.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 6:42 pm

Torque wrote:My view is not the same.
Music is THE most important part to me and if i need somebody else to mix it down to make it sound it's best then i'll do it. Sometimes i do a fine job myself but if i ever run into a wall i take it to somebody who knows. Some people are blessed with golden ears and some are not. In techno there are allot of good engineers but very few good songwriters and musicians. Musicians usually don't have a great ear for mixing but they have a great ear for tone. Some people are very good editors and arrangers but come to a blank when writing music and creating it. Some people are bad at mixing down a track but great at mastering and editing them. I try to play to my stregnths. I take my ego out of the process. If i didn't i would be an asshole 24/7. I just want to make good music bottom line.

It's obvious that view comes from a good deal of actual experience, both from yourself and the people you've worked with, and I have a lot of respect for your attitude towards getting the job done whilst ignoring the interference from egotistical demands.

At some point in the future I hope to be able to be able to be as functional a piece of the puzzle as possible without letting my ego try and control the whole thing, but for the moment I'd rather focus on being an asshole 24/7. Hopefully one day I will revise this strategy.

sylvie.foret · Post by **sylvie.foret** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 8:50 pm

Torque wrote:My view is not the same.
Music is THE most important part to me and if i need somebody else to mix it down to make it sound it's best then i'll do it. Sometimes i do a fine job myself but if i ever run into a wall i take it to somebody who knows. Some people are blessed with golden ears and some are not. In techno there are allot of good engineers but very few good songwriters and musicians. Musicians usually don't have a great ear for mixing but they have a great ear for tone. Some people are very good editors and arrangers but come to a blank when writing music and creating it. Some people are bad at mixing down a track but great at mastering and editing them. I try to play to my stregnths. I take my ego out of the process. If i didn't i would be an asshole 24/7. I just want to make good music bottom line.

i agree with you. there's no point in being a control freak from start to finish if it's not serving the music. besides, what's harder on the ego--having your music be imperfect, unappreciated, and unplayed, because you're too much of an a-hole to let someone else make a few tweaks. or let someone you trust take your track that extra distance and get mad play and mad props. i know a couple of producers who write awesome tracks all the time, but their ears suck and, consequently, won't hear of having someone else touch them. their mixes are sloppy and their basically great tracks go nowhere. the worst part is, as much as it sucks for your work to go unnoticed, no matter how often you drop it, it sucks even worse for the djs who are dying for tracks like the ones they make--if only they had decent eq. not to mention the faded masses on your 4am dancefloor who won't know what hit 'em.

oblioblioblio · Post by **oblioblioblio** » Sat Jan 20, 2007 9:07 pm

It's all a pretty tough call really, and obviously there's not gonna be one real definitive answer for every producer.

I think unfortunately I have laid out my case quite badly by making out that the main reason for wanting to master my own stuff is being down to inability to let go of my own ego. And whilst that may be quite true, I would consider the main aim of a producer is to communicate oneself effectively (negatively or positively, as long as it is honestly) using the tools that are available, and frankly, in a suite full of mastering software, there are some fucking amazing tools.