Go Back   Home Recording Forum > Recording Engineers / Producers > Mastering

Mastering Confused about mastering? Who isn't! Let's take the myths out of mastering.

Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools Display Modes
  #1 (permalink)  
Old 06-05-2007, 06:05 PM
brandondrury's Avatar
Supreme Overlord Commander
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 19,209
Rep Power: 25
brandondrury has disabled reputation
Default What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

Mastering is an often misunderstood subject. In fact, I don't think I REALLY knew what it was until I took a trip down to Independent Mastering in Nashville.

This week I'll be interviewing Eric Conn (from Independent Mastering). His mastering credits are a Who's Who of country, rock, and pretty much everything else too. (I still want to know why he never mastered a Van Halen album...har har).

So what do you want to know about mastering?

Post your questions here. The best questions will get asked.

I'm going to limit the interview to 10 questions so ask wisely.
Reply With Quote
  #2 (permalink)  
Old 06-05-2007, 07:50 PM
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 48
Rep Power: 3
bubba is on a distinguished road
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

I gotz to know. Is it OK to "kiss" 0db here and there, or even, shall I dare ask it: +.1 or .2 once or twice? I have done it going from 32 float to 16-44.1 and I couldn't hear it. Supposed to leave a .2 cushion?

Bubba
Reply With Quote
  #3 (permalink)  
Old 06-05-2007, 08:52 PM
brandondrury's Avatar
Supreme Overlord Commander
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 19,209
Rep Power: 25
brandondrury has disabled reputation
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

I can answer this more or less.
Quote:
Is it OK to "kiss" 0db here and there
The first time I met Eric Conn (at the Wagener Workshop), someone asked him this question. Some magazines have said that you should set your L2 or limit for a max peak of -.1dB. Eric said "He doesn't care. He goes to 0".

Quote:
Is it OK to "kiss" 0db here and there, or even, shall I dare ask it: +.1 or .2 once or twice? I have done it going from 32 float to 16-44.1 and I couldn't hear it.
What were you listening on? For whatever reason, it is fairly well known that recording software has extra headroom built in so that when a person thinks they are clipping, they are not always clipping.

The way I understand it, every D/A converter in every cd player ever made handles this a little bit differently.

I ask, "Why risk it?". While I have no use for abusing the L2, it's certainly not going to hurt anything to reduce the possible clipping transients by .2dB.

Brandon
Reply With Quote
  #4 (permalink)  
Old 06-06-2007, 05:54 PM
Senior Member
 
Join Date: May 2007
Posts: 143
Rep Power: 5
Jroye82 is on a distinguished road
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

Ask him where babies come from.
Reply With Quote
  #5 (permalink)  
Old 06-07-2007, 04:44 AM
brandondrury's Avatar
Supreme Overlord Commander
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 19,209
Rep Power: 25
brandondrury has disabled reputation
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

How about......"Does the modern trend of mega loud mastering have any correlation to RIAA profits going down?"

Brandon
Reply With Quote
  #6 (permalink)  
Old 06-10-2007, 11:11 PM
.tom's Avatar
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 388
Rep Power: 10
.tom will become famous soon enough
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

yeah, ask him if there's anyone in the a/r dept that nose anything beyond money.... okay, ask him if there's evidence in mixes he sees, that anyone's really using katz' k-system? ..does this guy master in both digi/analogue formats?
Reply With Quote
  #7 (permalink)  
Old 06-11-2007, 02:31 AM
Midiman's Avatar
Member
 
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 47
Rep Power: 3
Midiman is on a distinguished road
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

Hi Brandon! Ask him is it possible to do a good job of mastering using software and a little bit of forum help like this one from people who can pretty much walk you through some of the steps? With all the technology that is available, seems like you ought to be able to master a decent CD in a home studio or Independant Studio like mines...hehehe!

Midiman!!!
Reply With Quote
  #8 (permalink)  
Old 06-11-2007, 01:19 PM
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 436
Rep Power: 11
Charlie_M is on a distinguished road
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

Well... as a beginner to recording I only have a simple question:

What would this guy say is the main objective of mastering?

I've read in books that the objectives are to achieve a certain sonic continuity to a record (i.e., decide the order of songs, adjust overall levels, adjust eq on the mixed stereo pair for "sonic continuity" of tracks that may have been recorded under different conditions and may have different kinds of production and his different kinds of sounds, etc...). But it would be nice to hear what a person who does that for a living has to say about what his obectives are when he sits down to master, and is it more or less the same objective each time or does the actual goal change depending on the band, genre, etc... ?

Charlie
Reply With Quote
  #9 (permalink)  
Old 06-11-2007, 03:56 PM
Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2007
Posts: 48
Rep Power: 3
bubba is on a distinguished road
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

Hi Brandon:
This is another mastering question. I know some guys that swear by the HAR-Bal EQ System. What does our engineer think of it and does it get widespread use by mastering engineers? I believe in the premise behind the system. I don't know if I trust the technology. Is the technology for real?

Peace: bubba
Reply With Quote
  #10 (permalink)  
Old 06-15-2007, 04:56 PM
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Nov 2006
Posts: 436
Rep Power: 11
Charlie_M is on a distinguished road
Default Re: What Do You Want To Know About Mastering

I Might be too late here but how about an open ended qustion like: What are your thouhts about plugins vs outboard gear for mastering? Are there specific elements that are more important to have outboard than others?

That may give you a long answer but it might be an informative exchange. Hope I'm not too late with that.
Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
audio, beginner, home, mixing, recording, rock, studio

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are Off



Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How are you mastering? kyleevans Mastering 45 03-10-2009 03:58 PM
Mastering articles? sp4585 Solve Technical Issues 1 04-01-2007 12:15 PM
Do I need mastering software? lilcbcoach Solve Technical Issues 3 02-24-2007 06:02 AM
CD Mastering Software fndrbndr Solve Technical Issues 9 02-19-2007 04:38 PM
Looking for a mastering house Andrew07 Audio Engineering 1 11-28-2006 06:34 PM


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 01:30 PM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2009, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Search Engine Friendly URLs by vBSEO 3.1.0
Inactive Reminders By Mished.co.uk

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91