Mastering - What you really need to know!

Mastering is the last step in music or audio production before it goes to replication and CD packaging. It is also the last chance to correct or enhance the sonic quality of the recorded material. I think of it as a wonderful opportunity for another pair of highly trained "ears" to polish and bring your CD up to the highest standard possible. Plus getting it to the correct format for commercial CD manufacturing.

Having a mastering engineer listen to and adjust the optimal Frequency response and level, so your music CD stands up to other commercial releases is almost requirered. This is because many recordings are not being done in recording studios anymore. They are done at home recording studios. Or, they are partially done at a home studio and partially at a professional recording studio. Sometimes music projects are mixed at different facilities. Sometimes they are mixed at different times when ears are not as fresh as they should be. Any or all of these situations can cause inconsistencies that a mastering engineer will address and remedy before the CD goes to replication.

Everyone needs a competitive edge, so don't overlook or skip mastering!

Historical Background

Back when records were the consumers preferred (only) media for purchasing and listening to music, recordings were always brought into a mastering suite. Mastering engineers would adjust EQ and levels while playing the project into a record cutting lathe. The resulting first lacquer record was considered the "master". Then a reverse image of the master was made - known as the "father". Next a "mother" was made from the father (a reverse image or impression of the father), which can be played on a record player and is a copy of the master. If thousands of records are to be produced, then several "stampers" (which are again reverse images of the mother) are made from which the final records were stamped for mass production. If only a few 100 records are to be produced, then the "father" becomes the "stamper" and the rest of the process is abandoned.

As you can see from this explanation, mastering was the only way to get any musical production into the form of records so it could be sold commercially. Mastering engineers could literally make or break a recording. Many times a song would sound completely different after it was transferred to a record. (It always had some bit of degradation to it just because of the process!) So, mastering has been around for quite some time (since the early 1900s!), but I think it is even more crucial today.

Nowadays, a digital recording can go straight to CD and it will sound exactly as it was recorded. But that's not to say it was recorded properly - at the right levels, with the right frequency response with respect to the musical genre, etc., etc., etc..... So, why not have a professional confirm that your "baby" (with all the sweat and tears you went thru to produce it) will stand up sonically, to the other CDs that are out there? Use the expertise of a professional set of ears that only a mastering house can provide. You'll sound better for it.

A great Professional Recording Studio for mastering is:

RainbowRecordingStudio.com

Leave It To The Masters

That brings me to my next point. - LEAVE IT TO THE MASTERS! - That's because there is allot more to it then meets the eye (or ear in this case). For one, there is so much specialized equipment involved. It's one thing knowing how it works, it's another knowing how to make it work properly with great results. A few of the processes that could be used are: compressing, EQing, multi-band compression, expansion, leveling, titling (so songs and artists names show up on CD players), re-ordering songs, spacing songs, fade ins, fade outs, cross fading, placing song markers, and of course, burning a high quality master.

As far as equipment is concerned, the best approach, once it is in the digital domain, is to keep it in the digital domain. That means using the highest bit-rate, and the highest quality equipment to process at the highest bit-rate. Of course all of this equates to highly specialized, very spendey equipment. For an engineer it's like a craftsman having all the tools at hand even though you may not use them all. They then decide which ones to use for the best outcome. Adding enough low frequency to a rather lifeless cut, deciding which frequencies to use, how to control those frequencies with what processor and doing it in a way that compliments the style of music you're working with, are all calls that would best be made by a veteran - don't you think? It is that type of "qualitative" decision (not quantitative) that can really make the difference in a mastering session. And, there are so many decisions to be made.

With so many pieces of hardware and software out there these days that "finalize" a song by squashing the carp out of it (quantitative) and calling it good, no wonder skilled mastering engineers are in high demand! I say it again, LEAVE IT TO THE MASTERS! Use their golden ears, in this last stage, to make your music the best it can be.

Need help Mastering? Again, a great studio to check out is: RainbowRecordingStudio.com

Dos and Don'ts for Pre-Mastering

The project that you send in to have mastered is what I would call a "pre-master". Others might argue with that. But one thing for sure, the format you send it in and how it has been processed to get it into that format has huge effect on what a mastering engineer can do with it. Let's examine some of the Dos and Don'ts of pre-mastering.

Dos

A. Always give the best documentation you can. Label everything, and leave nothing to chance. Hand label the DAT, tape, or CD with a sharpie type pen (example - "Mix CD 1 of 2"). Obviously you can't always write everything on the medium your sending, so include a printed page describing everything you are sending. Include artist, album title, song titles, composers names, order your sending them, order you want them in, format and sample rate you are submitting (i.e. digital audio CD @ 44.1 kHz, or Wav file 24 bit @ 96 kHz, etc.), and an explanation of any improvements or changes you would like to make. It will get to a point where you'll need to talk to the engineer, but any documentation is good!

B. Send original unprocessed mixes with 4 - 5 seconds before and after each song.

C. Submit the highest quality you can that makes sense. Use a sample rate of 24 bits if you can. If you bump it up from 16 bits, just to put it on the pre-master, what's the point? Have you heard the Source/Quality Rule? The source recordings and masters should have a higher resolution then the final release medium [44.1 kHz DA (Digital Audio) CDs]. Makes sense doesn't it! Also, use the best quality medium. Mitsui and Taiyo Yuden CDs are the best, but Sony, Fiji or HHB are also good.

D. Make a safety copy of the pre-master(s) you are sending.

E. Keep peak levels around -3 dB, especially if the recording is done at 24 bits. Signal to noise is so low at the 24-bit word length, residual noise should be no problem.

F. Make note of any noises (ones you don't want) by giving the time from the start of the song. If noise is at the end, fadeouts can be reconstructed by adding ambience at the end.

G. If your songs are files, use CD-Rs or DVD-Rs and mark them as such (see A. above). Also, start your songs 1 - 2 seconds into the files not at "0". Be sure to "close" or finalize all CD-ROM sessions. Make sure your pre-master is readable on other CD-ROM readers, and that all the files are there!

H. If in doubt, also send a mix with the vocal up (1 dB to 1 dB) and one with the vocal down (same amount). Placing the vocal just right with a cookin' background can make a huge difference in the energy of the overall song.

DON'TS

A. Don't send a project with sloppy or miss marked media (see A. above).

B. Don't over compress, re-EQ, or normalize your project to a new pre-master. In other words, send the raw mixes and let the mastering engineer do everything else. There is no reason you can't send a rendering of how you'd like it to sound, but keep it separate (and label it so) from the source pre-master.

C. Don't send a pre-master with fades or cross fades. Again let the mastering process take care of that. Your fades will be more accurate, with better resolution. Send a separate example of how you'd like them, or talk to the engineer about timing and placement of fades and cross fades.

D. Don't send .mp3 unless you have to. (See the SourceQuality Rule above).

E. Don't re-copy to the order you want the songs in and then send that in as your pre-master. It is just another chance for errors to occur which will show up as glitches later. (Did I mention that all digital media has errors! - That's right!)

F. Don't use stick-on labels for your pre-master. They tend to throw off the balance of a spinning CD or DVD and create more errors. Label them by writing on them with a sharpie style pen.

G. Don't send your only mixed pre-master. Need I say more? Always back it up!

Well that's all I have for now. I hope this was helpful. I learned most of this the hard way - by experience.

Did I mention a great mastering house to check out is: RainbowRecordingStudio.com