Mastering

off.the.walls

What exactly is mastering i have a good grasp of recording and mixing but how the hell do you master something?

DamagedTrax

you take years of experience, a stunning room, an enginneer with a great set of ears and ta dah!

in simpler terms it is the final stage of the production process before the record is cut. it involves a few different processes - getting the mixes working across different listening systems thru compression/eq and other processing - sequencing the tracks - adding metadata such as IRSC codes.

off.the.walls

Ah right.

seannash

adding metadata such as IRSC codes.

What the hell is that????

DamagedTrax

its like a digital barcode embedded in each song. it's used by organisations such as PRS to track sales and collect royalties.

seannash

DamagedTrax wrote: »

its like a digital barcode embedded in each song. it's used by organisations such as PRS to track sales and collect royalties.

Thats pretty cool,didnt know that

madtheory

International Standard Recording Code. PArt of PQ encoding for the CD. PITA for downloadable audio.

This is my take on it. I sometimes master stuff I've recorded because of budget constraints. Usually mastering is where you get someone else, whom you trust, to do final QC. Super accurate monitoring is necessary. It's also kind of a legacy from when total recall of a mix was not possible, and getting things on vinyl was a challenge.

So it's a tad over rated.

EMPI

Just thought I's jump in here.

Anyone who says they record, mix and master is kidding themselves. I have been doing this game quite a while and have great contacts in LA and Canada who work with the biggest names. Mastering is a whole other ball game. I'd say 99% of the albums that you listen to have been mastered by a guy (or girl) who only does mastering. It's a specialised game. Trust me when I say if someone says they will do all of it to industry standard for you....... walk away!

Later!

madtheory

EMPI wrote: »

Anyone who says they record, mix and master is kidding themselves.

Tell that to Kevin Shirley.

EMPI

madtheory wrote: »

Tell that to Kevin Shirley.

If you're talking about "A Matter of Life and Death", point taken!

Ah sure it seems there really is no right or wrong way and a lot of the time the intended road gets left for a road less travelled

Regards,
EMPI

krd

off.the.walls wrote: »

What exactly is mastering i have a good grasp of recording and mixing but how the hell do you master something?

It can mean lots of things. A lot of digital only masters wouldn't work on vinyl - the needle can only take so much vibration. The vinyl mastering engineer has to roll off frequencies. It's a dying art - they used to even use an AM radio transmitter/receiver to fix some of the frequency problems.

But what can happen at mastering. Billy Joel's first album - someone at the record company thought it needed to be a bit more upbeat - so they got the guys at the vinyl pressing plant to speed it up.

madtheory

krd wrote: »

they used to even use an AM radio transmitter/receiver to fix some of the frequency problems.

Reference please! Sure you're not confusing FM broadcasting (which uses AM for the sides) with MS processing?

krd

madtheory wrote: »

Reference please! Sure you're not confusing FM broadcasting (which uses AM for the sides) with MS processing?

No, I don't have references.

It's nothing to do with broadcasting.

I was once shown a manual, someone had printed out. I've only heard of it one other time: The website of a vinyl pressing plant in Nashville. The AM transmitter and receiver are over a short distance - I think it may just be a circuit, and not over airwaves. It's some kind of complicated summing and filtering. Supposedly it clarifies the sound.

PaulBrewer

I believe in ye olde days summing the bass to mono wasn't uncommon - perhaps it's that to which you refer ?

madtheory

PaulBrewer wrote: »

I believe in ye olde days summing the bass to mono wasn't uncommon - perhaps it's that to which you refer ?

It must be. Or else there is confusion with the vertical and horizontal movement of the stylus on a stereo disc? Confusing "hill and dale" or L-R with AM?

All of the above is to do with MS processes!

krd wrote: »

I think it may just be a circuit, and not over airwaves. It's some kind of complicated summing and filtering. Supposedly it clarifies the sound.

Yep, that definitely sounds like you're talking about Mid/Sides processing. For FM broadcasting, the signal is converted to M and S. M goes out on FM, S goes out on AM. That's why stereo FM is noisier than mono, because the stereo information is carried via AM.

peter05

madtheory wrote: »

It must be. Or else there is confusion with the vertical and horizontal movement of the stylus on a stereo disc? Confusing "hill and dale" or L-R with AM?

All of the above is to do with MS processes!

Yep, that definitely sounds like you're talking about Mid/Sides processing. For FM broadcasting, the signal is converted to M and S. M goes out on FM, S goes out on AM. That's why stereo FM is noisier than mono, because the stereo information is carried via AM.

just to rehash this old thread, yes everything below 500hz is mono or else it goes out of phase (vertical movement) causing the stylus to lift out of a cut with loss of bass freq. and sound ruining the cut. most engineers will check your phase prior to cutting this is a given.

This link will explain mechanics
http://www.vinylrecorder.com/stereo.html

Edit: anti-Phase can also blow a feedback coil, pretty costly to replace, but 9/10 times engineer is always at fault of this.

stateofflux

ask bob katz

Going Forward

Is it possible or worthwhile to have an fairly decent 25 year old cassette tape format song remastered? Or does it have to have a source such as the original 2" tape?

Silly question?

madtheory

Going Forward wrote: »

Is it possible or worthwhile to have an fairly decent 25 year old cassette tape format song remastered? Or does it have to have a source such as the original 2" tape?

Silly question?

It's surprising what can be done. The key is an excellent deck for playback. I used to do a lot of this in the past with that 3 head tascam and the waves x noise.