What IS Mastering?
***This is LONG!***
Grab a snack, get your favorite beverage (caffeinated preferably!), put the dog out, shut the curtains and close the door!
NOW DIG IN!
Ok, so you found us. Wonderful! NOW WHAT?, you ask. Well , let us first take a look at where you are at. You have just finished up at the studio, you have probably been there for a while (weeks, months, maybe even a year or two), and you have been meticulous in every detail of the recording, from every guitar lick, bass lick, keyboard part, and drum take...even scrutinizing the vocalist to the point despair! All are in place, not a note out of tune, nor a lick over or underplayed. This is the best representation of your artistic vision.
But wait, we are not done yet.
The same focus you put in the recording, you have also put in the mixing of your songs…every delay, every reverb, not too wet, not too dry... and the panning of the instruments, you can close your eyes and practically see the band in all their respective positions in your mind's eye. Hopefully, you at least took your engineer and producer out to dinner.
God knows you made them sweat.
And all for this final goal. Fast forward to now (you're still with me right?). You take home a reference copy of your mix, pop it into your stereo, your boom box, car stereo, headphone stereo/iPOD, even your friends high dollar audiophile system, but you notice a few things that are unnerving. First, all the songs are at different volumes from each other. Second, all the songs have differing EQs and tonality…some are bass heavy, while others sound thin and bright. Third, the overall volume of your whole mix is low, weak, and anemic sounding compared to even the faintest of your commercially/store bought CDs.
WHAT IS WRONG HERE!?......
Well, the good news is that NOTHING is wrong.
It's just that your CD is not FINISHED yet.
It hasn't been MASTERED yet.
So now back to the original question…
WHAT IS MASTERING?
That is a two part answer…the short summary and the elaborately detailed explanation.
The short summary is this:
Mastering is the process of turning a collection, or group of songs into a concise and flowing project that has a complete sense of continuity from beginning to end, in volume, tambour(EQ), distance between songs, an overall pleasing tonality, and most importantly, the ability to be played on a variety of playback systems with similar, as well as accurate sound reproduction of your original recording session. That is referred to as being able to "translate" to a variety of systems.
The elaborate explanation is more involved.
This details the ''how it's done'' part, with a breakdown of the different
tools, components, and methods used in order to achieve the whole desired
result summarized in the above paragraph. Please note, that the explanations
given here, albeit detailed, are given in layman practical terms for the
single purpose of understanding the ''concept'' of each step. For those
who desire to know about Hz., DBs, compression ratios, EQ feathering,
and so forth and so on, are advised to look at the Mastering
Resources link for the listing of excellent books on the
scientific end of the topic.
So, with that in place here's the steps taken to master your work:
***1) Listening...and making notes of changes to be made.
*** 2) EQing (individual songs, and then the whole final mix)
*** 3) Normalizing, compression ,limiting (controlling and altering volume and dynamic range)
*** 4) Gating or expansion (if needed to eliminate noise)
*** 5) Final re EQing (if necessary) of the whole project as well as adjusting the stereo spectrum and making necessary adjustments. Also checking for phase correlation.
*** 6) Creating fade ins and outs for songs, doing cross fades between songs, adding correct distance between songs and so forth. (all done exactly to the specifications of the artist or producer)
*** 7) Final assembly…pq codes, subtexts , etc.
etc. as well as following the protocol of presenting the replication/duplication
plant with the proper format needed to create mass produced consumer/retail
ready CDs.
That is the general template for what is done.
Now let's take a look at each step and it's subsequent steps
involved.
Continued on: