Volume automation can be a great technique for adding some life and dynamic contrast when mastering a track. Here’s an example, using the superb track A New Chapter by video game composer Marcus Hedges, comparing the before and after. Volume Automation When Mastering A big thank you to Marcus for Read more…
Give your mastering engineer headroom and dynamics to help them give you the best sounding masters they can. This image is from a track of a Latin album I was to start mastering last week but, having checked through the tracks which were limited by around 6dB at a guess Read more…
What does a brick have to do with mastering? Yesterday, I had a quick chat on Twitter with Andy Wilson, mixing & mastering engineer at Masterdisk in NYC, about how I’d asked for new mixes for a Latin album I was to be mastering today as the original mixes were Read more…
A null test is a simple check to see if one track is a perfect digital copy of the original. This requires lining up, sample accurate, the original and copy on two separate tracks and reversing the polarity of one track. On playback, with both tracks mixed together and at Read more…
There is a dream that many people share for an end to the mental loudness war that still continues after many years. One man who champions the idea of putting dynamic range back into music is mastering engineer Ian Shepherd (@ianshepherd) and he has come up with an excellent idea Read more…
Have you read Ian Shepherd‘s blog posting entitled How Spotify might defuse the Loudness Wars. A post where he beautifully presented his case but got his facts wrong. What did he do about it? Anyone who follows Ian will know the quality of his content and respect him so it Read more…
The much discussed Loudness War rages on with artists, producers, record companies, et al, fearing that their musical creations will not succeed unless they are louder, or as loud, as the competition. Several attempts, and tools, have been made to educate us about the current situation – Bob Katz and Read more…
Guns N’ Roses‘ latest album comes to us via mastering engineer supremo Bob Ludwig with a request from Axl & Co. that they didn’t want it smashed. Really? After Turn Me Up‘s certification debacle of Elbow‘s “The Seldom Seen Kid” – fantastic album but doesn’t really hold up to being Read more…