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The Benefits of Professional
Mastering So your band
is making a CD. You practice the songs, pool your money and book some time
at a recording studio. After you’ve finished recording and mixing, you
realize that the CD needs to be mastered before it’s sent to the replication
plant. The studio says they can take care of it. Good enough. Or is it?
Just as recording and mixing need to be done by knowledgeable engineers with
the right gear, mastering requires specialized skills and equipment. When
done well it makes the difference between a good sounding recording and a
professional CD.
Mastering is the act of assessing finished mixes, making necessary
adjustments and creating a red book-compatible master disc that is delivered
to a replication plant. While there are many cleanup duties involved in the
process (edits, fades, etc.), the true purpose of mastering is to ensure
that recorded music sounds its best in every listening environment, from
boom box to Bose.
To accurately assess sound, mastering needs to be done with the proper
tools, in a suitable environment, by a skilled engineer. Right off the bat
this excludes every recording studio you’ve ever been in...no matter how
expensive it is. Plain and simple, recording studios don’t have the right
equipment to master music. They may have a mastering program on their
computer, but they are missing the other key components of the process.
Unfortunately, by the time a recording is finished, most musicians
(especially independent musicians, who usually do everything themselves) are
so frazzled that they are willing to have their CD mastered at the recording
studio because it means everything can be wrapped up and finalized right
there. Big mistake. Take a look in the liner notes of any professional CD.
Not a single one was mastered at the studio it was recorded in.
A true mastering studio offers several things a recording studio can’t.
Chief among these is a mastering engineer...a different animal entirely from
a mixing engineer. After working on countless songs and albums, mastering
engineers develop an acute sense of sonic and musical knowledge that is key
to successful mastering. It’s also a huge plus that the mastering engineer
wasn‘t there when you recorded and mixed your album. Hearing your songs for
the first time, he/she can offer truly objective advice.
Another crucial aspect is the proper equipment. Unlike a recording studio
that may offer mastering -- or an all-in-one mastering program that
musicians can purchase -- a professional mastering house has the right tools
for the job, no matter what the sonic requirements. Specific compression,
limiting, equalization, dither and editing capabilities are all part of this
process. Also on the list are audiophile monitors, amplifiers and speaker
cable. The bottom line is that in the mastering environment there can’t be
any breakdown in the signal chain. The music a band brings in must be heard
for what it is: no more, no less. This is the only way to make accurate
judgments about what to adjust.
After mastering is done, the finished product has a sound that listeners
perceive as professional. With levels and balance properly adjusted songs
have more impact, power and clarity. Albums achieve a sonic flow. What came
in as a collection of tunes leaves as a work of art.
© 2002
Paul Abbott. |
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