How do you master a CD?

[masteringhouse]

AAAAHHHHHHHHH....

See I still haven't done anything in 24 bit. But I guess the effects are usually 32 bit or higher, so I really should give that a go.

Mental note: don't mix from 24 bit to 16, upsample back to 24 for mastering, dither back to 16, upsample back to 24 for final cd editing, and dither back to 16.

Upsampling means changing the sampling rate, not the wordlength.

Try to keep wordlength changes to a minimum. Mix at 24 bit, master at 24, CD edit at 24 then dither to 16.

 

[Reggie]

What about upsampling though. Are you a fan or no? I've heard that doing it prior to further processing can move alaising filters further away from the audible range, but I would think the damage was already done when the original project was setup at the lower rate.

 

[masteringhouse]

What about upsampling though. Are you a fan or no? I've heard that doing it prior to further processing can move alaising filters further away from the audible range, but I would think the damage was already done when the original project was setup at the lower rate.

Excellent question.

The damage may already be done, but further processing to the audio can cause even further damage (alias freqs in this case). In theory upsampling helps for the reason that you described, but in practice sample rate converters can also cause damage, so it's a bit of a trade-off. Here is a page that demonstrates this:

http://www.audioease.com/Pages/BarbaBatch4/Barba4SRCTest.html

Given high quality SRCs though, general consensus seems to be that it's good to do.

 

[Cloneboy Studio]

I have two ways to master stuff:

1.) The wrong way: I do it myself after having recorded and mixed it. (Usually because clients are being cheap.)

2.) The right way: I send it to John Scrip at MassiveMastering to do it for me. (Because clients want to do it right.)

 

[Reggie]

I have two ways to master stuff:

1.) The wrong way: I do it myself after having recorded and mixed it. (Usually because clients are being cheap.)

2.) The right way: I send it to John Scrip at MassiveMastering to do it for me. (Because clients want to do it right.)

1.) I feel your pain.

2.) Suckup!