Do your masters have square wave forms?

eviltimeban

So many modern albums these days, if you open them up in a wave editor, have that blocked-off, square waveform. Yet they don't really sound like they are clipping. So we're talking about a possible loss of dynamics and a lot of compression.

I've been listening to Thom Yorke's album this week, along with Paracosm by Washed Out - both albums have a very compressed sound, and big wave forms.

When you are mastering, does your stuff end up this way? Do you aim for loudness, or dynamics? And if your wave form isn't squared off, how do you get it as loud as a modern day CD?

DamagedTrax

I dont master but depending on the genre of client, i'll have a few notes for the mastering engineer.

For instance the new hot sprockets album went to Pete Maher in UK with instructions that it was to be open and dynamic, it came back BIG but with very little limiting on the peaks.

But it was mixed big too, lots of small amounts of compression in various stages along the way. I dont think anything got more that 3/4 db compression at any point but my final mix had a dynamic range of about 12db.

eviltimeban

So you weren't happy with that master? Well big dynamic ranges aren't going to go well on radio.

I prefer dynamics too, but find it hard to get that right considering so much other music is non-dynamic. My greatest issue is making it sound loud beside another CD or track - and at the moment a lot of CDs and albums are horribly compressed and over-loud.

DamagedTrax

eviltimeban wrote: »

So you weren't happy with that master? Well big dynamic ranges aren't going to go well on radio.

I prefer dynamics too, but find it hard to get that right considering so much other music is non-dynamic. My greatest issue is making it sound loud beside another CD or track - and at the moment a lot of CDs and albums are horribly compressed and over-loud.

quite the opposite, i was over the moon with the master. it sounded huge but the dynamics are still intact. the drums punch thru even though we only had 5 drum mics (including rooms) on the mix.

and to be honest, the louder a master gets to smaller it really is. ive heard tracks with dynamics sound HUGE compared to tracks with a dynamic range of 6db! unfortunately, broadcast limiting tends to sh1t all over our work in the end

i guess it all comes down to who your target market is and what they tend to listen on.

eviltimeban

DamagedTrax wrote: »

quite the opposite, i was over the moon with the master. it sounded huge but the dynamics are still intact. the drums punch thru even though we only had 5 drum mics (including rooms) on the mix.

and to be honest, the louder a master gets to smaller it really is. ive heard tracks with dynamics sound HUGE compared to tracks with a dynamic range of 6db! unfortunately, broadcast limiting tends to sh1t all over our work in the end

i guess it all comes down to who your target market is and what they tend to listen on.

Ah I misunderstood your reply. I see what you mean now. You got a loud sound but kept the dynamics without using too much compression. That's a good master then.

peter05

Thom yorkes album was by Bob ludwig. It seems to be an understanding in the higher echelon these days that everything is MFI or radio. I think that is why you get the difference for brickwall compression and limiting.

Personaly I don't like to hear a cap sitting on top of masters. It's not meant to sound like you are listen to a box.... arrrggghhh:cool: