Mastering the oldies

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jack Real
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Jack Real

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Hi

I bought the U2 CD "best of 1980-1990" and I'm not happy with the sound. It is mastered by Arnie Acosta and it's written on the back of the CD that he did his best with the material that he had. I re-mastered the first 3 songs "I will follow, New Year's day and Sunday bloody Sunday" and it sounds better on my sound system. For example, the RMS volume of Sunday bloody Sunday went from .2027 to .3045, there is a little less reverb and the sound is more up-front. I was wondering what are the limitations of the professionals and why Arnie didn't compress more those U2 songs ? I guess the mastering professionals have to keep the integrity of the mixes ?

Thanks,

Jack Real.
 
:confused:

You seem to think that compression equals better mastering and just because you made them sound better on your speakers doesn't mean that is a better mastering job in general. The function of mastering is to make sure the mixes will translate well on all systems. You are just tailoring the mix to the defects in your room.
 
Jack Real said:
I guess the mastering professionals have to keep the integrity of the mixes ?

Uh.........yeah?

I mean, they better damned well keep the intentions of the artist in mind.
 
Keep in mind the date.

Try to keep in mind the year it was mastered. There has been many big changes in the way things used to be mastered and how they are mastered now. The loudness wars became a bigger factor in more recent years.

Also when making a song louder it's easy to think that it sounds better. Compare the two versions back to back at the same volume to see if you did truly make it better or worse. In many cases people find that the "mastered" version they did was no more than an illusion due to the volume increase.

Good luck with the rest of the songs.
sonicpaint
:D
 
Re: Keep in mind the date.

sonicpaint said:
Try to keep in mind the year it was mastered. There has been many big changes in the way things used to be mastered and how they are mastered now. The loudness wars became a bigger factor in more recent years.

Also when making a song louder it's easy to think that it sounds better. Compare the two versions back to back at the same volume to see if you did truly make it better or worse. In many cases people find that the "mastered" version they did was no more than an illusion due to the volume increase.

Good luck with the rest of the songs.
sonicpaint
:D

Hi

It's true that the difference is not big. The work was only required for the first 3 songs. After that, maybe "Pride" need some compression but that's all. The Josua Tree songs are perfect as they are. Anyway, aside from giving more volume to the songs, I will place them in the order they were released.

Thanks,

Jack Real.
 
in addition to Sonicpaints comments,

Compilation CD's have and always will present problems that even the best mastering engineer will not be able to work around. The "stylistic" mixing applied during 1980's are not going to mesh well with the "stylistic" mixing of the 1990's. IF you lisen to alot of the records of the 80's they are awashed with reverb that was cool for its day, but later on that reverb was deemed to be too much and the recording became more dry. At the same time, more digital was being used and the loudness war was on the "upward slope for CD's". Its like trying to make fruit salad with both "ripe" and "green" apples or mixing black and white footage with color footage and have it look like it was filmed in one take. I wonder if U2 approved the compilation or was it a "label" release?

SoMm
 
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