|
  |
|
|
Music mastering explained
By Barry Gardner of SafeandSound Mastering
All the audio you hear on the radio has been mastered in a mastering studio.Before this the music has been recorded and mixed but these 2 processes seem to have been much more widely popularized. Mastering commences after mixing and is a crucial stage where the music can be listened to in a very highly linear environment. The mastering engineer will use high fidelity loudspeakers and amplification in an acoustically treated room. The goal of mastering is to make sonic enhancements, find any sonic problems and ensure the music is correctly encoded onto a pre master format. The pre master format could be a CD-R pre master disk, a DDP (Disk description protocol) file format or a set of audio files. This is the final aspect of audio production before the music is sent out for duplication at a plant or distributed on the internet. Mastering studios use various types of audio equipment to enhance the sound of a mix, these equipment types can be both analog or digital. The most common tools used in mastering studios are equalizers, compressors, limiters and stereo adjustment tools. Without very fine grade monitoring it is very easy for an inexperienced engineer to make a piece of music sound worse rather than better. So the mastering engineer usually has had many years of working in the audio industry. This equips the engineer with the ability to make accurate judgments on the sounds he or she can hear. The acoustics of the music mastering studio are also very important they must be close to flat in frequency response so that the music heard is not unduly boosted or cut in incorrect frequency ranges.There are a variety of materials that are used to make the acoustics of the monitoring room more linear. These can be absorptive or reflective and are often used together to ensure that the room response is even across the audio spectrum. One very common inclusion is known as bass trapping, these are considered one of the most complex treatments to install but are critical. This is because many mix downs in untreated rooms have bass problems such as uneven notes or too much or too little bass overall.With these accurate conditions the engineer can apply their experience and end up with a better sounding end result. This is a valuable process for musicians, bands, producers and record labels around the world. In addition a mastering engineer will listen very carefully to ensure that the music does not have any technical faults such as clicks, edits or extraneous studio noises in the audio files. These sonic defects can be removed before the listening public hears them on their portable music playing devices and radios. Mastering also ensures that the music will sound good on the wide variety of playback systems there are in the world. These can range from mobile phones and laptops to large PA systems at stadiums and nightclubs. Mastering is commonly misunderstood by musicians who are just starting out, it is often mistaken for mixing. Mastering works only with the 2 tracks stereo mix and not the multi track recordings. So if there are very obvious instrumental imbalances they must first be addressed during the mix where the most flexible control is available.
Barry Gardner is the sole mastering engineer at SafeandSound Mastering, a low cost and high quality online mastering studio.
|
Analogue mastering equipment
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
music mastering
Website for online mastering at low rates
www.masteringmastering.co.uk/musicmastering.html
|
|
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
The copyright for this content entitled "Music mastering explained" has been specified by the contributor as:
All Rights Reserved
This content may not be copied, distributed or adapted by anyone under any circumstances.
|
 |
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
