The Great Professional Mastering Debate

  • Thread starter Thread starter dachay2tnr
  • Start date Start date

Which is the professional job?

  • I'm going for Version A

    Votes: 9 50.0%

  • No way, Version B is the one

    Votes: 9 50.0%
  • Total voters
    18
funny how the scales have tipped for A now...

do I get any credit for being the first to actually vote using the poll?

I spend quite a bit of time listening to music, and watching it on the Pinguin audio meter...

It is rare for a "professional" i.e. commercial CD to have the meter go into the red on the "Correlation Meter". Master "B" was all over the place. Maybe one of these guys (Bruce?) can explain what that's all about, but my understanding is that it is showing if the L and R tracks are in/out of phase. It has two scales, the top going from -1 to 0 to +1, and the bottom scale goes from 180 to 90 to 0. Most recordings stay between +.5 and +1 (on the top scale) and between 60 and 0 (on the bottom scale).

I'll see what happens when I listen to B in mono.... might be interesting.


And on the "autotune vs. chorus" I'm pretty sure the chorus plugin is using the same type algorithms as autotune, and that is why everyone thinks they hear autotune. If I recall correctly, the plugin used here was a Waves plugin. I remember trying it once myself, just to see how it sounded, and thought it sounded remarkably similar to autotune...

Queue
 
YES. What do I win? What do I win? :D

Ok, this was fun. At least to me. I bet this was a lucky guess. I just didn't like the panning thing. I usually like the sounds more spread out, though, but in this case they worked better when they were kinda melded together.
 
HEY! Kramer said I hit the nail on the head, so , Nurse Rachet, I want my award! I want it NOW!

"Sit down and be quiet, Mr. Crawdad."

NO! I WON'T! I think I should win something, even if I voted for B. I MEANT to vote for A! We ALL want our awards! Where are they, Nurse Rachet?! WHERE?!

(Mastering orderlies come to take Mr. Crawdad away for some electroshock therapy)

If you never saw Cookoo's Nest, this all makes absolutely no sense....
 
Whats a Pinguin audio meter? I want one, even if i don't understand it! And, whats the best audio meter for under $200? :D
 
I kinda' dig the brainspawn for a less expensive alternative.

(www.brainspawn.com)

The SpectR Focus accomplishes pretty much the same thing.

I can't help but remind myself how useless these things ae becoming, though. Personally, I think it's the phase innacuracies that I actually find pleasing in a lot of non-commercial mixes. I realize it's probably a stale argument, though, but mono-compatibility is going out of style pretty rapidly.
 
dachay2tnr,
Got caught up in the little experiment here and forgot to tell that I love the tune.BOTH versions.I love listening to vocal harmony groups.I have a lot of tunes by the Four Freshmen and those dudes could harmonize.I also have some Boyz2men(those cats can sing),but thats a subject for another thread.:D!
 
Thanks, Kramer (and sluiCe and Lt Bob and mixmkr). Glad that you enjoyed it. That's why most of us do this, I suspect.

And thanks to all who played. It does take some rocks to post your opinion out there for all to see. So for that, I salute you all.

As to crawdad's request to do another... well first I need to let the open festering wounds heal. :) But seriously, a second "contest" would be much more difficult. To start with, most of the differences in the other mixes are very similar to the differences in this one. Without exception the professionally mastered mixes are much dryer than mine (and I was not "adding" any reverb beyond the original mixes). The ME seemed to be able to "remove" the amount of FX that was apparent in the mix. In comparison, my "wet" mixes sounded amateruish in a lot of cases. For most of the songs that approach worked quite well. In a few others, such as In My Room IMHO, I felt it was more a matter of taste. The dryness in this track seemed to make it a bit sterile to my ears - but again, it goes back to what your taste is.

Anyway, what I'm saying, is that having played this game one time, I think that most of you would easily be able tell my mixes from the "pro's" on any additional songs. But, if there's interest anyway, I'll give it some thought. (Hmmmm.... maybe I should post these on .mp3. This could certainly drive up the "hits". :) )
 
After listening to both I liked "B" better,just seemed a bit fuller.
Both are pretty good so it makes the decision in my mind a bit nitpicky.
As far as professional mastering, what the hell do I know.I guess I'd have to listen to it on multiple stereos to see which was most consistent playback wise.
A million guitar players without gigs and you're recording a-cappela?;)
 
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