After a long pause in proceedings, due to the fact that everyone seems to want to make records during a credit crunch, I'm back to writing my blessays and with popular demand this one is about Audio Mastering. It would appear to be the part of the process of making a record, that everyone knows of it's importance and yet don't know what actually goes on in the 'mastering suite'. Now as mastering techniques vary from engineer to engineer and between genres of music, I won't go into what a mastering engineer does specifically, but what you would expect to be done in mastering and what you should be listening out for.
1. The Definition.
Basically Mastering is making your collection of songs into an album. It's more than likely that, on their own each of your mixes sounds pretty good, but you'll notice that when you put them together on a CD and listen in the car or at home, you'll notice one sounds a bit dull in comparison to the next and you have to turn the volume up for some of them, or the whole thing is just a little quiet compared to the CD you had on before hand.
Mastering is the process used to make each song roll into the next, EQing where necessary, making the tracks the same loudness (perceptual volume rather than actual volume) and making sure the gaps between the songs gives you the right movement. The treatment you give each track will vary depending on running order. It's the audio equivalent to cutting the edges of your photos so that they fit in the photo book properly and organising them so that you're not jumping from wedding to christening to the photos your mum really shouldn’t have seen.
2. As Much Or As Little As You Like... Or Can Afford.
The Mastering process can start at various places in the album making timeline, but it all depends on money. The more you give your mastering engineer to do the more expensive it gets, but it may well help you to see the bigger picture if you start piecing things together early on. Test mastering allows you to see everything put together and processed as a master so that you can see what you need to change and at the same time see what you thought you needed to change but actually don't. Whenever you start to master, there are a few things that you can expect your mastering engineer to do... and some you can't.
3. Getting The Right Source.
It's important to give the mastering engineer the right material. This all depends on your mastering engineer so talk to them about it. For example, if you're mixing in the box at 96kHz 24bit, your mastering engineer may prefer to have the mixes at full quality and for them to sample rate convert and truncate. On the other hand they may just want 44.1kHz 24bit files from you. If you've recorded to analogue tape, they may be best set up to be able to digitise the tapes via analogue outboard gear and expensive high quality converters.
You may, due to cost, have to digitse them yourself. In this case take advice from your mix or mastering engineer, but the fewer the number of times that your material is converted from analogue to digital and back, the better. Also if you can get around not sample rate converting then your music will sound better too. Analogue tape is the best option in my opinion.
4. Editing
Depending on how you mix and how decisive you are, you may wish to do some editing in mastering. When mixing to tape you may put down a couple of versions per mix to see which you prefer in the real world (e.g. with or without backing vocals). You can then edit between these two mixes. You may need a few bars taking out to make the song move along quicker or make a ‘single’ edit, but you don't want to, or can’t, go back and recall the mix. All this can easily be done in mastering.
If you digitise the tapes yourself, or you're mixing to a digital format, you may wish to edit the takes together yourself. This will save you money, but depending on the takes/mixes you're editing together, they may need to process the mixes differently, which might be more smoothly done in mastering. Also your mastering engineer might be able to add a fresh opinion to mixes and advice on some edits that you can't quite decide on, allowing you to step back and be more objective.
5. Running Order
This is probably one of the most important things when compiling your album.. There are no rules for this really. It's all personal preference and how you perceive your music and album to be. The idea is to take the listener on a journey, not just a random fleet round the houses. In the similar way that an artiste will organise their artwork round the room so as you progress, you are taken seamlessly from idea to idea. You should take your time over this and make sure you're happy with it. The way an album moves can really affect whether someone listens to the whole thing or just picks a couple of tracks to slot into their shuffle playlist.
6. Mind The Gaps
Gaps are very important. Don't underestimate them. They make everything flow together properly. Like the old musician's saying "it's not the notes that you play, it's the notes you don't play". If your gaps are too short it can make the album seem relentless and tiring on the ears. If they are too long then you can loose the all important "suspension of disbelief" and so people don't get lost in the record. The length of gaps all depends on the running order as well, whether you want to keep things up and pumping or slow things down and relax your listener more.
7. EQ and Level
This is running order dependent. The idea is to bring the best out of each track and make sure that each sounds great ,but also to make sure that each feels right following the track before. You may have a really bright track which needs to be nice and bright to make it feel right, but then the track after it might be duller. On it's own it feels the duller track feels bright enough, but after a bright track it might need to be brightened to balance it out. It may not. You ears may be glad of the rest from all the top end. Listen and see how you feel.
The level of the track is very much the same idea. You don't want to have a track that comes in too loud after a nice quiet track. You may need to change the level of different sections of a track to make it feel right after processing. For example the intro of the following track might feel a little quiet after a loud track, but the main body of the song is loud enough, so raising the level of the intro will make everything balance a little more.
9. Compression
Now this one is the Holy Grail, the thing that everyone asks me about, when talking about mastering. Many people seem to think that Mastering compression is more magic than mix compression. I hate to say... it's pretty much the same. It doesn't make you play more in time or sound like Hendrix. It is very important however, and can be so easily over done. At first the extra compression can feel nice, but if you compare the old mixes and listen to the record as a whole, it may become tiring. You obviously want you record to sound loud and compete with other records, but don't kill the dynamics of your album and all that hard work you put into playing in the first place.
Radio's will compress the hell out of it anyway so don't worry about that, and people are always going to turn it up or down as they please. Too much compression at a low level can still feel tiring. It can make you feel like your ears are compressing naturally (read more here) even when they aren't.
10. All in All.
Make sure you work with someone that has been recommended or you know their work and make sure to compare what they've done to the material that you started with. Like mixing you may not get it right first time so don't be concerned about going back and making tweaks (if you can afford). Make sure you take just as much care over this as any other part of the recording process and have fun in the process. Good mastering really can make you hear a record like you're not the one who's made it... and so it feels much better. Believe me. It helps.
Sonny
1. The Definition.
Basically Mastering is making your collection of songs into an album. It's more than likely that, on their own each of your mixes sounds pretty good, but you'll notice that when you put them together on a CD and listen in the car or at home, you'll notice one sounds a bit dull in comparison to the next and you have to turn the volume up for some of them, or the whole thing is just a little quiet compared to the CD you had on before hand.
Mastering is the process used to make each song roll into the next, EQing where necessary, making the tracks the same loudness (perceptual volume rather than actual volume) and making sure the gaps between the songs gives you the right movement. The treatment you give each track will vary depending on running order. It's the audio equivalent to cutting the edges of your photos so that they fit in the photo book properly and organising them so that you're not jumping from wedding to christening to the photos your mum really shouldn’t have seen.
2. As Much Or As Little As You Like... Or Can Afford.
The Mastering process can start at various places in the album making timeline, but it all depends on money. The more you give your mastering engineer to do the more expensive it gets, but it may well help you to see the bigger picture if you start piecing things together early on. Test mastering allows you to see everything put together and processed as a master so that you can see what you need to change and at the same time see what you thought you needed to change but actually don't. Whenever you start to master, there are a few things that you can expect your mastering engineer to do... and some you can't.
3. Getting The Right Source.
It's important to give the mastering engineer the right material. This all depends on your mastering engineer so talk to them about it. For example, if you're mixing in the box at 96kHz 24bit, your mastering engineer may prefer to have the mixes at full quality and for them to sample rate convert and truncate. On the other hand they may just want 44.1kHz 24bit files from you. If you've recorded to analogue tape, they may be best set up to be able to digitise the tapes via analogue outboard gear and expensive high quality converters.
You may, due to cost, have to digitse them yourself. In this case take advice from your mix or mastering engineer, but the fewer the number of times that your material is converted from analogue to digital and back, the better. Also if you can get around not sample rate converting then your music will sound better too. Analogue tape is the best option in my opinion.
4. Editing
Depending on how you mix and how decisive you are, you may wish to do some editing in mastering. When mixing to tape you may put down a couple of versions per mix to see which you prefer in the real world (e.g. with or without backing vocals). You can then edit between these two mixes. You may need a few bars taking out to make the song move along quicker or make a ‘single’ edit, but you don't want to, or can’t, go back and recall the mix. All this can easily be done in mastering.
If you digitise the tapes yourself, or you're mixing to a digital format, you may wish to edit the takes together yourself. This will save you money, but depending on the takes/mixes you're editing together, they may need to process the mixes differently, which might be more smoothly done in mastering. Also your mastering engineer might be able to add a fresh opinion to mixes and advice on some edits that you can't quite decide on, allowing you to step back and be more objective.
5. Running Order
This is probably one of the most important things when compiling your album.. There are no rules for this really. It's all personal preference and how you perceive your music and album to be. The idea is to take the listener on a journey, not just a random fleet round the houses. In the similar way that an artiste will organise their artwork round the room so as you progress, you are taken seamlessly from idea to idea. You should take your time over this and make sure you're happy with it. The way an album moves can really affect whether someone listens to the whole thing or just picks a couple of tracks to slot into their shuffle playlist.
6. Mind The Gaps
Gaps are very important. Don't underestimate them. They make everything flow together properly. Like the old musician's saying "it's not the notes that you play, it's the notes you don't play". If your gaps are too short it can make the album seem relentless and tiring on the ears. If they are too long then you can loose the all important "suspension of disbelief" and so people don't get lost in the record. The length of gaps all depends on the running order as well, whether you want to keep things up and pumping or slow things down and relax your listener more.
7. EQ and Level
This is running order dependent. The idea is to bring the best out of each track and make sure that each sounds great ,but also to make sure that each feels right following the track before. You may have a really bright track which needs to be nice and bright to make it feel right, but then the track after it might be duller. On it's own it feels the duller track feels bright enough, but after a bright track it might need to be brightened to balance it out. It may not. You ears may be glad of the rest from all the top end. Listen and see how you feel.
The level of the track is very much the same idea. You don't want to have a track that comes in too loud after a nice quiet track. You may need to change the level of different sections of a track to make it feel right after processing. For example the intro of the following track might feel a little quiet after a loud track, but the main body of the song is loud enough, so raising the level of the intro will make everything balance a little more.
9. Compression
Now this one is the Holy Grail, the thing that everyone asks me about, when talking about mastering. Many people seem to think that Mastering compression is more magic than mix compression. I hate to say... it's pretty much the same. It doesn't make you play more in time or sound like Hendrix. It is very important however, and can be so easily over done. At first the extra compression can feel nice, but if you compare the old mixes and listen to the record as a whole, it may become tiring. You obviously want you record to sound loud and compete with other records, but don't kill the dynamics of your album and all that hard work you put into playing in the first place.
Radio's will compress the hell out of it anyway so don't worry about that, and people are always going to turn it up or down as they please. Too much compression at a low level can still feel tiring. It can make you feel like your ears are compressing naturally (read more here) even when they aren't.
10. All in All.
Make sure you work with someone that has been recommended or you know their work and make sure to compare what they've done to the material that you started with. Like mixing you may not get it right first time so don't be concerned about going back and making tweaks (if you can afford). Make sure you take just as much care over this as any other part of the recording process and have fun in the process. Good mastering really can make you hear a record like you're not the one who's made it... and so it feels much better. Believe me. It helps.
Sonny
