I have a question on Mastering

[Kinh]

Hi, Im kind of new at this sort of thing so you'll have to excuse my ignorance but I was wondering if you pros could answer a question.
What is the objective when mastering? Is it to replicate exactly how you hear the sound in the studio at 24bits during the process of transfering it to 16. Or is it to simply to enhance the sound after its recorded and then transfer it to 16 while somehow retaining those enhancements.
One would assume it would be the later however how can this be accomplished when losing so much data when converting to cd?

[DigiTechSupt]

Typically mastering is meant to even out the levels between songs, so they're equal from song to song (you're not turning up or down the volume level on your stereo for each song), bring the levels up to a 'pro' level, fix any minor issues with EQ, compression, etc. that may have come out during the mixing process, giving the the songs an overall consistency.

There's a lot more (or a lot less, depending) that can be done, but those should be edge cases and not what mastering is normally used for.

[jazzdrumr]

Also, mastering is the point where the mixes are optimized for the various delivery mediums, i.e. Vinyl, CD, cassette (in the day), Mp3 etc. The MIX you'd put on a CD could never be the same as an LP. The needle would fly of the record.

[DrFord]

+1 jazz drummer.

Although nowadays (more often than not) mastering is about making music louder.
In a recent experience with Bob Ohlsson part of his mastering process was to add a bit of distortion to my bottom end to make it pop more, and also he removed squeaks from the accoustic guitar with specteral filtering...

CRAZY!


Mastering can be many things, as well as printing the final CD (redbook audio) that goes to the printer.

HTH

[mdanielson007]

Most home studio peeps and pros alike think they can do a good master at home.. I'd highly recommend against this. Try to keep compression to a minimum, try not to use limiters at all if you can help it. The mastering engineer is going to want plenty of headroom (-8dbU) in order to augment the good tones, without clipping. Try Threshold Sound in Los Angeles, or Digital Domain in Orlando for excellent Mastering engineers. Many people know very little about aliasing and imaging that can occur if you don't have the right dither applied to your conversion from 24 bit to 16 bit, I'd suggest reading the Mastering Engineer's Handbook if you plan on attempting this on your own.

I've sent a few things off to be mastered, and the one time it was too compressed, I was told that the turd I sent them couldn't be mastered as there wasn't enough headroom, and I'd limited the transients, causing my reverb tails to dissappear. The nice thing about mixing in pro tools, is that when you lower your faders in the mix, your noisefloor also drops. Unlike on a large format console.. so, keep it low enough to retain your transients.

A good mastering engineer will usually sidechain all of the low end elements so they sit perfectly in MONO, and this will allow for reproduction to vinyl to have a happy mono channel for wildly varying low end to sit properly and remain fat, without the acetate cutter ripping into the adjacent groove.

I'd suggest letting the mastering engineer do all the dithering and conversions, as usually they apply the right finesse to make 16 bit have the harmonic quality and proper aliasing to sound as good as 24 bit. Also, they know how to create gapless cd conversions that will utilize all of the CD blocks so there won't be any pop or crackle in between tracks.

I've also found that after beating my brains out during mixdown, I need fresh ears on my project. Our ears get fatigued easily, and repetitive listenings can make us subconsciously tune out things that we have gotten used to hearing during the mixdown. This spells tragedy if you're trying to master your own project. You also would need several sound sources to reference your mastered 'takes' and as good as some digital can sound, there's no replacement for tube-driven compressors and analog EQs.

[TheLEM]

great info given by everyone! ALSO: Mastering Suites are tuned and very different from a mixing room or control room. You don't really want to master in the same room where you mix; if your control room or mixing environment is causing you to add or remove to much of a frequency(s); you're going to add to the problem, not correct it. The best suites I've been to were Sterling Sound In NYC...Mastered and album with Greg Calbi and one with George Marino, both MASTERS at what they do...wanna hear Georges work? Play any Hendrix album!