a question for mastering engineers

cliff richard

cliff richard

New member
ok, this question may have been asked before, and may even be a tad stupid, but here goes.

i was wondering that if you were a mastering engineer, does the genre (or even quality) of music that you are mastering have an outcome on how good a job you do?

for example; if the person has a terrible voice or its just a really annoying track or you hate dance music etc etc. how do you keep your professional ears on? dont you have to feel a track to master it well? or is it all just done by numbers?

just curious as to how you would cope with such a situation 'cause surely you have to listen to a song many times to master it and if its just an awful track then doesn't listening to it all those times strip a bit of your soul away?

cheers.
 
cliff richard said:
ok, this question may have been asked before, and may even be a tad stupid, but here goes...
Click to expand...

Actually this is a great question!

When mastering one often listens to a different perspective. That of audio quality. You are often listening to the more technical aspects of the recording like imaging, frequency balance, etc. and not always necessarily "the song". Kind of hearing "through" the music. You do have to listen from the other perspective as well to make sure it's an appropriate treatment for the style, etc. But that's a different hat that you wear.

It's similar when mixing. My wife would often say to me when playing test CDs, "aren't you getting sick of hearing that yet?" Usually not, because I would be focusing in on a particular element of the mix and how it "sounds".

On the other side of the coin, there could be an artist that I think is great, but due to harshness or other technical issue it becomes very difficult to listen to and requires more frequent ear breaks. For example when I'm working on some forms of Metal I'll need to take a break more frequently than on an acoutic track.

If a person has a terrible voice, I would try to make it the best sounding terrible voice that I could.

Hope this makes sense ...
 
masteringhouse said:
For example when I'm working on some forms of Metal I'll need to take a break more frequently than on an acoutic track....
Click to expand...

Ear breaks... Arguably the most important aspect to "Getting it right".

I think it's fair to say that most mastering engineers get off on SOUND, regardless of style. Goes a long way to explaining the choice of trade.
Musical Style interestingly has a big impact on final volume levels and consequently the approach to compression and EQ.
 
With a mastering project, I can usually stay focused for a couple days even if the material isn't great. If it's a recording gig, a bad band will almost put me to sleep. It can be pretty tough, depending on the mood. I'd say that I tend to go the extra mile a bit easier if I love the band and treat the project more like a "job" if I don't. Either way, they get what they paid for at the very least.
 
I think it would be more frustration with bad (quality) material than anything, like was said ,even though I don't master, with anything I do with sound be it recording, mixing, building speakers, or setting up a home theater, I can put on different ears while working and the switch to the "enjoy" or "not enjoy" mode later.
 
Bad quality doesn't bother me. I embrace it! :D :o

If I don't know the genre at all, I won't work on it, because I have no idea what the end result should be. Therefore no country or hip-hip for me! :confused:
 
When a client tells me that what I've done is exactly what they were looking for, but didn't know could be accomplished, I get the most satisfaction.
 
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