Frequently Asked Mastering Questions

[masteringhouse]

I was recently interviewed by SonicBids and thought that the questions they asked were a very good list of some of the more commonly asked questions regarding mastering (other than the usual question of how to make your CD loud). I felt that it may be useful here for those that aren't familiar with the site:

Mastering- Your questions answered

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Excellent job, T.! That URL should be stickied here.

G.

[masteringhouse]

Thanks G.!

[WhiteStrat]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

[Chili]

Thanks for posting. Much of the interview are points I've already gleaned from your website. I really appreciate you taking the time to share.

I have a collection of songs that I want to put on a cd and sell through CDBaby and other venues. These songs were recorded over a period of a year and a half and include the majority of my learning curve as a recording musician.

Can a mastering engineer provide coherency through a wide range of material tonality-wise and quality-wise? Do you give a listen and then provide feedback or suggestions to the client on ways to improve the mix before committing to final product? How much effort do you put in to salvage a project as part of your normal approach?

As you can probably tell, I don't consider myself a great recording engineer (or musician) but still want to get my stuff out there. I'm just wondering how much to expect from the mastering process to save my bacon.

Thanks again for your contribution to the collective noobs.

Peace,

[poppadp]

omg, i am such a noob here and you just answered a crapload of my questions! THANKS!

Danny

[rayc]

Well, it's stickie in my favourites list anyway. Thanks!

[Elton Bear]

Originally Posted by SouthSIDE Glen

Excellent job, T.! That URL should be stickied here.

G.

Independentrecording.net should be stickied in the newbies board, it might just remove the need for that forum entirely

Great job masteringhouse, cheers for sharing!

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by Chili

I have a collection of songs that I want to put on a cd and sell through CDBaby and other venues. These songs were recorded over a period of a year and a half and include the majority of my learning curve as a recording musician.

Can a mastering engineer provide coherency through a wide range of material tonality-wise and quality-wise? Do you give a listen and then provide feedback or suggestions to the client on ways to improve the mix before committing to final product? How much effort do you put in to salvage a project as part of your normal approach?

Mastering both compilations and albums where songs were recorded in different studios, sessions, etc. can be the most challenging. One issue is what to do when one mix is a lot better than another, the bad mix can really stand out as a sore thumb. Obviously you don't want to make the good mix sound bad just so it matches the other, consistency in an album takes a backseat to making a song sound its best. I usually recommend that the album be ordered so that the songs that sound more similar are together, usually with the worst mixes last. At least that way you make a good first impression. Mastering can definitely bring the mixes closer together, but it can't fix everything.

I definitely like to listen to mixes while they are being mixed in order to make some suggestions before mastering for clients of mine. The more issues that are fixed before the final mix, the less compromises have to be made later in mastering. The interview touched on this, each of stage audio production builds on the other. Each stage will sound better when it has something better to build from.

As far as how much effort, whatever it takes. In some cases I've started with the original stereo mix and if there were issues that I felt were better to fix at the track level asked for a remix. If that didn't resolve the problem and I felt that they were not getting closer, asked for a stems with the problem area(s) separated so that I could try to attack it from another angle. There are some mixes that an experienced engineer can tell from the start that aren't going to be representing the artist well even after mastering. Tracks that are very distorted, out of tune instruments/vocals, drums that are out of time, etc. If the music is cool I suggest that they save up and record elsewhere before mastering. If the music is bad and the recording is bad, I have to ask why someone would want to put something like that out in the first place?

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by Elton Bear

Independentrecording.net should be stickied in the newbies board, it might just remove the need for that forum entirely ...

Glen has put a lot of effort in this site and has done a great job. I agree, the site is a great source of information for frequently asked questions and also has some cool articles with information not on this forum. I believe that this forum has in large part helped to inspire Glen's site (since many of the contributer's came from here). One of the good things about G's site though is that you don't have to sift through a lot of noise to get to the nuggets. One of the good things about the forum is that you can pose new questions, and have a dialog.

I think that both compliment each other very well.

[SouthSIDE Glen]

Originally Posted by masteringhouse

Glen has put a lot of effort in this site and has done a great job. I agree, the site is a great source of information for frequently asked questions and also has some cool articles with information not on this forum. I believe that this forum has in large part helped to inspire Glen's site (since many of the contributer's came from here). One of the good things about G's site though is that you don't have to sift through a lot of noise to get to the nuggets. One of the good things about the forum is that you can pose new questions, and have a dialog.

I think that both compliment each other very well.

Yes, please let's not give anyone the idea that my site can even come close to replacing any of HR's forums. That is not it's design nor it's intent. Dragon and I get along well, and I'm sure that he knows that I have no intention of stepping on his toes in any way.

Tom hit it exactly on the nose when he said this BBS inspired the IRN site, that is exactly what happened. When I first came here a few years ago, I had no clue that there was anything like IRN in the future, I was just looking for a recording and mixing forum in which to get and give ideas. After about a year or so, I saw a real trend at that time for there to be a LOT of confusion about how compression worked and how to use compressors and so forth. The same questions were flying all over the place over and over. So I figured it might be nice to just lay just the basics out in pretty good detail in one central location , not only to help answer the questions, but (quite frankly) to save myself from having to type the same thing over and over again in here (I'm not exactly Mr. Altruism all the time ). That's where the "Compression Uncompressed" applet came from. That CU booklet came to be wildly popular, and people kept asking for more stuff, and next thing I know I committed to building a full-scale site out of it.

After time, and after getting to know some of the fine folks like Tom around here, I invited a few of them to join in and pool some of their knowledge on that site (and welcome any applications from others who may be interested). As you all can see from Tom's interview at SonicBuds, he is both a smart guy and a good writer, so - as hard as it has to be with his schedule as a full time ME and also a college professor teaching this stuff - I think we are all lucky that he has made a couple of excellent contributions to the IRN site as well. I'm hoping there's a few more "Stupid DAW Tricks" and "Around The Console" contributions coming down the pike sometime when his schedule allows (hint hint! ).

But no matter which site it comes from, you know that when it comes from Tom's (or John's or Jay's or Jon's or Ben's) mouth, it's probably worth listening to and respecting. (Unless they've been raiding the IRN stash of rare scotch malts while I'm not looking again, in which all bets are off... ).

And this mastering interview at SonicBuds is something that should (hopefully) be used as a FAQ resource here, because there are sure a lot of F.A.'d Qs answered in there.

G.

[The REAL Jigsaw]

Good read. I'm bookmarking this sucka! Thanks for sharing Tom.


SHAVEZ

[masteringhouse]

Thanks again for the feedback! I'm glad that some of you have found value in the column, and your comments have inspired me to possibly do a bit more writing. A Stupid DAW Tricks sequel is likely in the works.