Why ITB Masters WILL NEVER! Be better than OTB

[rayc]

lol inflamatory statement as thread title lol
Well, that's exciting; I've actually used lol. For the 1st & last times too!
Careful Grim, hair trigger & teutonic humour at large, (or small).

 

[kcearl]

Lol.....

 

[karumba]

i've mastered ITB for many years, there is nothing wrong with it. but mastering is not only a job, its a passion. you have to love music. so when i master with analog gear, i get more insight into the music, i'm nearer to the music, i can better feel it, i can touch it. the analog tools are also able "to add something musical". however i'm preparing (cleaning, notching, etc.) the mixes for the mastering still ITB, this is what the digital world can do better. so its not like "analog is better than digital" or vice versa - you should combine & use best of both worlds!

 

[GONZO-X]

Why ITB Masters WILL NEVER! Be better than OTB

well, in the long run, MOST people who will listen, will never notice the difference.
never.


so the real question is, when is it worth it, to pay the extra expense, or purchase the extra outboard gear, if you are doing Non-professional releases?



is OTB just 5, 10% better?
who's going to notice the difference, except the pundants who are not going to purchase your product anyway?

 

[rayc]

To get the most from ITB you have to think OTB, IMHO, AFAIK & IME.

 

[gecko zzed]

well, in the long run, MOST people who will listen, will never notice the difference.
never.

Yup. Even though an ME may prefer ITB or OTB for assorted reasons, in the end, the listener does not care. So the question can only be answered from the perspective of the ME, and that is purely a matter of preference.

 

[Dogbreath]

I'm no ME but I don't see that it matters ITB or OTB. It's the end result that matters and I seriously doubt if anyone would notice or even care what way it was mastered.

My "masters" are kind of a farce, I admit but even at that, friends that hear my stuff (usually ) say that they sound good. Even though I'm listening to the same thing they're listening to and kind of cringing.

and btw...it's "Tom", not "Walt".

lol....

 

[moresound]

To get the most from ITB you have to think OTB, IMHO, AFAIK & IME.

YMMV x

 

[jaynm26]

HEY Moresound Im stealing that, To get more ITB you have to think OTB, haha stole it lol.

 

[jaynm26]

I seen in a post that Massive wrote a while back that levels of -6 dB for mastering or ideal in his book. Hell yeah jus love it when you do things right! Yes sir..(cant recall that post or Massive)

 

[Mo Facta]

Blah blah blah, dark arts, yea yea, whatever, passion and vision, blah blah blah.

Strap an L2 on it after smashing it with Ozone and be done with it.






































How's that for inflammatory?

Cheers

 

[jaynm26]

Blah blah blah, dark arts, yea yea, whatever, passion and vision, blah blah blah.

Strap an L2 on it after smashing it with Ozone and be done with it.
How's that for inflammatory?

Cheers

HAHAHA! You just gotta love Mo Facto lol, anytime I fuck up something or think Im getting to tedious or into minute detail I think to me self "what would Facto do"..Ahhh fuck it IF IT SOUNDS GOOD, IT SOUNDS GOOD!

Gotta respect this guy he goes against the masses lol

 

[GONZO-X]

HEY!

that L2 thing actually works....

whaddayaknow......

 

[grimtraveller]

HEY Moresound Im stealing that, To get more ITB you have to think OTB, haha stole it lol.

I'm not hiring you to nick the crown jewls mate. You stole that from the wrong person.

 

[rayc]

That's OK Grim, it a version of passive aggression. Ouch, it hurts so badly, I love it, I love it, I love it madly.
Do not, I stress DO NOT, make the mistake of whipping a maschocist in anger. One must take the time and peace of mind to enjoy doing so.

 

[grimtraveller]

You can't hurt a masochist !

 

[moresound]

HEY Moresound Im stealing that, To get more ITB you have to think OTB, haha stole it lol.

I was quoting RayC !

 

[jaynm26]

I'm not hiring you to nick the crown jewls mate. You stole that from the wrong person.

Rayc, I steal your knowledge and proclaim the victory all on my own! All in humility

 

[Wessberg]

Most of the times I've heard someone say stuff like "you can get far with ITB, but never as far as with OTB", it's either been someone trying to justify the ocean of money they've thrown at expensive mastering equipment throughout the years, someone with dated plug-ins or someone simply denying the precision and quality of digital as of 2012.

Hereby I'm NOT denying the amazing quality of amazing analog mastering equipment that provide as excellent tools for potentially fantastic masterings.

The devil is in the details though, and in such a late stage of the production process, the mastering, I really only see benefits of working primary in the digital domain. It's a matter of precision and finetuning usually in the mastering process, and you want your eq cuts as correct as possible. Things like linear phase eq or multi-band compression really makes digital shine bright. And in this post. I'm referring to OTB as analog outboard equipment, of course, as digital outboard equipment would be exactly the same as the stuff you put on your tracks as plug-ins.

However, linearity isn't always what we go for, so one of the best uses of analog in my personal opinion is to add some noise and unpredictability in your box of mastering tools.
I've also heard of very great results using stuff like the manley passive eq in the mastering process.

So to sum up - Of course you can do great masterings ITB. Saying stuff like it will never sound as good as OTB I think is false.

 

[RecordingMaster]

Am I the only one blushing when reading through this post?