Audio Mastering
Overview of the Mastering Process
For every good mastering engineer, meticulousness and attention to detail is the norm, not the exception.
What is Mastering?
• Mastering is the last creative step in the audio production process, the bridge between mixing and replication – your last chance to enhance sound or repair problems in an acoustically – designed room – an audio microscope.
What is a Mastering Engineer?
• A Mastering Engineer requires the same ear training as a recording and mixing engineer, except that the mastering engineer becomes expert in the techniques for improving completed mixes, while the mixing engineer specializes in methods for improving the mix by altering the sound of individual instruments within it.
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What is the Mastering Process?
• Mixing is the art of blending individually recorded sounds through a console or on a DAW, controlling the level, and pan of each sound to create a final “mix” of your musical selection. Mixes may either be recorded to tape or stored on the hard drive of a DAW. • Master assembly means editing a collection of individual song mixes into a complete “Master” that flows from start to finish in the desired order and with the desired amount of space between selections. A final master may be assembled by transferring between two digital recorders, or by physically editing mixes on analog tape. • Premastering/mastering is the link between the production process and the manufacturing facility where copies will be made. Overall program level is set, as well as song-to-song or “relative” levels. EQ and/or compression may also be used to make the material sound as good as possible when it is played in the listening environment of the customers who buy the end product. Once optimized, the resulting program is transferred to an appropriate “Production Master” for the plant that will make the actual copies.
CDs From Conception to Manufacturing
2
Editing and Premastering
• After the initial
For every good mastering engineer, meticulousness and attention to detail is the norm, not the exception.
What is Mastering?
• Mastering is the last creative step in the audio production process, the bridge between mixing and replication – your last chance to enhance sound or repair problems in an acoustically – designed room – an audio microscope.
What is a Mastering Engineer?
• A Mastering Engineer requires the same ear training as a recording and mixing engineer, except that the mastering engineer becomes expert in the techniques for improving completed mixes, while the mixing engineer specializes in methods for improving the mix by altering the sound of individual instruments within it.
1
What is the Mastering Process?
• Mixing is the art of blending individually recorded sounds through a console or on a DAW, controlling the level, and pan of each sound to create a final “mix” of your musical selection. Mixes may either be recorded to tape or stored on the hard drive of a DAW. • Master assembly means editing a collection of individual song mixes into a complete “Master” that flows from start to finish in the desired order and with the desired amount of space between selections. A final master may be assembled by transferring between two digital recorders, or by physically editing mixes on analog tape. • Premastering/mastering is the link between the production process and the manufacturing facility where copies will be made. Overall program level is set, as well as song-to-song or “relative” levels. EQ and/or compression may also be used to make the material sound as good as possible when it is played in the listening environment of the customers who buy the end product. Once optimized, the resulting program is transferred to an appropriate “Production Master” for the plant that will make the actual copies.
CDs From Conception to Manufacturing
2
Editing and Premastering
• After the initial