Why Master?

Mastering is the final step of your project.  It’s primary role is to ensure that your project sounds good on all types of playback systems.  To do this several things have to happen. Firstly, overall eq might be needed to pull the mix together, bring out certain aspects of the mix or even up the overall frequency range where some frequencies are more dominant than others.  Depending on how well balanced your mix is there may only need to be slight adjustments made, sometimes none at all. Generally the  super top end can be enhanced to make cymbals sparkle a bit more, or high mids can be lifted to bring out guitars in a mix. The general rule is that less is more. We only enhance what is there if it needs it.  Every track is looked at individually on its own merits regarding how much extra eq to use. Over eq’ing can be as detrimental to a track than not enough. This is where the mastering engineer can work in harmony with the producer or band, sometimes creatively enhancing certain frequencies to create a certain feel or sound. Using eq creatively can make certain tracks, whereas some types of music, especially classical, need to stay true to the original sounds, thus over eq’ing is not recommended. Secondly we might need to add some overall compression to the mix. Nowadays this is often done at the mix stage, to bind the song together, though we recommend using a very gentle compression if you are to do this.  Usually we prefer that you leave overall compression to the mastering engineer for two reasons.  One because once it is on the mix, we cannot undo it if it is affecting the track in any way.  And two because the more you compress a mix, the less dynamics you have which makes it harder for the mastering engineer to give the mix a sense of life, breadth and space. Generally mastering compressors will be superior and set up purely for mastering stereo tracks than most mix compressors. It is advisable to leave master compression to the mastering engineer. At no point should you add normalisation to a mix.  This is an automatic process that finds the loudest peaks and brings the rest of the music up to that level. It can easily ruin a mix and is not advisable at all.  Leave any limiting duties to the mastering engineer.  Thirdly mastering can enhance the stereo field of a track, giving it more width and space, useful for bringing out stereo guitars or drums. Extra reverb can be added in places if and where it is needed. Finally a master limiter will be added to the mix to bring the overall level of the mix up to professional levels.

There are several “all in one” mastering programmes out there on the market at the moment.  By all means experiment with them, but be aware what they are doing to your mix.  Many of them have limited controls in areas such as multiband compression, and unless you know exactly how the programme is affecting your material we would suggest avoiding them.

LOUDNESS v DYNAMICS                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     The “loudness war” that a lot of people in the industry are decrying, refers to the practise of increasing the overall level of cds to match or better a competitor.  Since the early 90’s cd levels have jumped by an astounding rate.  As cds have a maximum amplitude that cannot be increased (0dbfs), the only way to increase level is to reduce the dynamics and distort or clip the waveform.  This results in distorted music with no dynamics, that is sometimes very difficult to listen for long periods. A common misconception is that louder cds sound better.  Well they don’t. The human ear is an extremely delicate and accurate organ, that can differentiate the slightest change in dynamics.  And it is this light and shade in the dynamics that makes music pleasing to listen to.  Your ear uses the change in dynamics to recover from the loud parts of a song. If the quiet parts are as loud as the loudest parts then your ear will fatigue very quickly. The main reason for the loudness wars (apart from cds sounding louder on the radio) is to ensure cds can be heard through the increasing amounts of extraneous noise in society today.  Driving in your car, noisy pubs, listening to your mp3 player on the train or a busy street.  We don’t just listen to music through our hifi’s anymore, but through computer speakers, mp3 players, car cd players etc.  But surely the answer is to just turn up the volume control on your system? That way you don’t hear all the inherent distortion and loss of audio detail that over limiting brings.  A lot of industry professionals are now raising the subject in the hope that future cds will retain some of the dynamics and sound quality we associate with classic albums by the Beatles and Pink Floyd.  There are no standard levels for engineers to work to and as a result they are often forced by record companies to make cds louder.  Bob Katz, an eminent and well respected mastering engineer, has decided enough is enough and has come up with a standardisation for music spl levels, similar to that used in the film industry. It is called the K-system and it allows for up to 20db of dynamic range to be put back into cds. We adhere to the K-system as much as possible, although it can be difficult explaining to clients why their cd “sounds” quieter than their contemporaries.  We are at the beginning of a process of re-educating people about the benefits of increased dynamic range in music and it will be a long struggle. The most well known example of over compression and distortion is the cd “Californication” by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.  The Guardian called it and example of “excessive compression and distortion” in the process of digital remastering. Stylus magazine said it suffered from digital clipping so much so that “even non audiophile consumers complained about it”, leading to an online petition that garnered 1000 signatures. Certainly as long as record companies keep turning a blind eye(should that be ear?) to the problem, and citing “Californication” as a commercial success by selling in excess of 15 million copies, then it will be a difficult problem to overcome. We embrace dynamics in music.  We hope for an end to the loudness war. Loudness is killing music.

What others have to say about it:                                                                                          http://www.digido.com/misc-content/honor-roll.html                                                                           http://www.performermag.com/loudness.php                                                                                     http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/weekly_article/imperfect-sound-forever.htm