digital mastering/room accuracy

[sylvie.foret]

suppose you were a great writer but couldn't spell for shite (like many of the greats). your brilliant work never get out into the world--changing minds and hearts and all that-- because you believed that having a proofreader would somehow make the work less "you"? would you expect your readers to muck through all your typos and love it nonetheless?

that being said, you CAN do a lot with mastering software and a good room, but it blows my mind what someone who REALLY knows what they're doing can do with mastering software and a good room.

[oblioblioblio]

suppose you were a great writer but couldn't spell for shite (like many of the greats). your brilliant work never get out into the world--changing minds and hearts and all that-- because you believed that having a proofreader would somehow make the work less "you"? would you expect your readers to muck through all your typos and love it nonetheless?

that being said, you CAN do a lot with mastering software and a good room, but it blows my mind what someone who REALLY knows what they're doing can do with mastering software and a good room.

I suppose it all boils down to where you see the line being drawn as to where art ends and science begins, and what 'ist' should be doing which part of the finished product.

More and more these days though, that line is getting increasingly blurred, with musicians using fairly complicated scientific equipment, and scientists having to make creative decisions about the sound of the music.

And personally, I think that to make great art it takes a combination of knowing the rules and limits of science, and the ability to use them creatively.

'm certainly not advocating bad mastering, I just think that it can be learned and used as a tool like any other.

[kage]

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

Thanks.. I do the pre-mastering and help with mixing for the beretta grey tracks before it goes to the plant for vinyl mastering.. We work on the mixes for months before they are ready.. a lot of testing in the clubs, cars, different studios.. Our mixes are never perfect, but we do our best

[Measax]

stop me if I'm wrong...but the problems with room accuracy...shouldn't speaker placement help that to some degree? It seems to have helped me.

[sylvie.foret]

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

Thanks.. I do the pre-mastering and help with mixing for the beretta grey tracks before it goes to the plant for vinyl mastering.. We work on the mixes for months before they are ready.. a lot of testing in the clubs, cars, different studios.. Our mixes are never perfect, but we do our best

yes--that's what it takes, it seems. you have to listen to it in lots of different contexts to come up with the right blend. i remember hearing about how in the 80s mr. fingers and the jackmaster and those heads in chicago literally used to take reels of 1/4" into the club straight from the studio and test their tracks out that way. i have original pressings of a lot of those tracks--they sound impossible now, but the levels are actually spot on.

[sylvie.foret]

stop me if I'm wrong...but the problems with room accuracy...shouldn't speaker placement help that to some degree? It seems to have helped me.

no--you're totally right. i know for a fact that my room sucks--and i do my best with it. most of us probably know the limitations of the spaces we work in and compensate accordingly. maybe this is old school, but i really think a track should sound great no matter how loud you've got it.

the best is when you hear a track once, like on shitty computer speakers, and you just know it'll sound great everywhere. at midnight, at 7am--in the club, at a house party, in your bedroom--and it stays in rotation for way too long. it's a subtle thing and probably my own personal quirk, but sometimes i'd rather play a track that transmits better over one i really like but isn't mixed well. i find that if i'm doing the most i can to maximize the sound quality from the booth, people really respond. if people's ears are getting poked, they take too many potty breaks and go outside to smoke cigarettes every time there's a breakdown.

[Christ]

There are some artists that would have benefited from using a proper mastering outfit. Some of the digital releases sound horrible.


It never hurts to have a good mastering engineer to do the mastering.
From a business standpoint etc. In the long run it could save both money and time.

Sure you can get some software and do the "mastering", but being a mastering engineer takes years of experience. There are a reason most "proper" labels past and present use different people for each part of the process.

[nonstatic]

the vast majority of artists should not be doing their own mastering. theres a reason why there are so few successful mastering engineers...it is tough and it requires a lot of money (and HARDWARE, people).

i dont want to rehash a hardware vs. software debate, but mastering is the one place where it still matters. ask any successful mastering engineer if you can master completely in software and they will laugh in your face.

at the very least you need a well tuned room, which puts 99% of techno producers out of the equation.

however, even if you get a decent mastering engineer, it is often not their fault that the end product doesnt sound too great. this is due to producers not realizing wtf headroom is. if i turn in a track to be mastered which is peaking at 0db and the RMS is not much below that, there isnt much the mastering engineer can do for it. roll off the highs and mono the bass for vinyl, and next to nothing for digital. mastering engineers are getting stuff that is so crunched already, it makes their job a lot tougher.

the answer is for producers to ease on their levels, and just do their best to provide a decent mix. hey, the labels are paying money for mastering, let the person do their job.