Welcome to Phantom City Studio Orlando Recording Studios
Mastering
Fact:
Many recording studios do not specialize in mastering, in effect they do not posses the proper
mastering environment, mastering gear, or monitoring signal path, which also creates a need
for a proper mastering studio or mastering engineer.
What is Mastering?
Mastering is widely misunderstood and sometimes mistaken for mixing.
So, what is mastering? It's the audio step that comes just before manufacturing a CD.
Some people would even say it's a crucial step.
Once you have finished recording and mixing your songs, the tracks are shaped, sculpted, scooped,
equalized, compressed, and finessed into sonic splendor through the audio process known as
mastering. Mastering is what gives depth, punch, clarity and volume to your tracks.
Mastering is the crucial, critical, and final creative step in the process of making an audio recording.
When your work is in the hands of a mastering engineer, that is when all the ultimate sonic judgments
are made, all necessary aural enhancements are applied, and the definitive content of your project
becomes a coherent and sophisticated artistic creation. A mastering engineer can literally separate the
hits from the rest of the market.
What Do You Get?
In almost every mastering session, the following actions are performed:
Optimizing average and peak volume levels for proper relative loudness
Signal processing - compression & EQ
Arranging tracks in final sequence
Timing of the space between tracks
Establish a sonic "field" for all tracks
Place track markers at head of all tracks
Remove unwanted noise like clicks, pops, hiss
Clean-up start and ending of each track (including fades)
Insert Master Track Log – the PQ codes required for replication
How Long Does it Take?
Although there is no limit to the time or money that can be spent on mastering, many people in the
business state that a good rule of thumb would be an average of 8-12 hours for most albums, or in the
neighborhood of one hour for each song. This assumes that the CD was well recorded and no
additional processing requirements are specified. Additional time will be allocated depending on the
condition of the original recording, a client's specifications and any unusual or custom needs.
"Loud vs. Proud."
Contrary to popular belief, mastering is only a little about making a hotter sound. While it's true that the
gain, or volume level, is boosted during mastering, it may be that raw decibels are the least critical
aspect of the process. What's important is the way mastering makes songs sound. Because in the end,
mastering is less about "loud" and more about "proud."
Mastering is the fine-tuning and final equalization of the music for broadcast quality status. It puts all
the frequencies in the correct ranges so that the bass isn't too loud, the highs don't hurt and the levels
are constant with other CDs on the market. Mastering is the final stage of preparing mixes for
production and replication. It's the last step in the process of making a release.
Demo Mastering:
Mastering demo's is becoming a standard practice in the hyper-competitive music market.
It's easy to see why record label A&R departments are overwhelmed by demos from aspiring artists.
Mastering of demos can be an important step in giving an artist an extra edge over the competition.
What is the Red Book standard? Do I need to use it? Why?
Even in the age of digital downloads, the CD is still surprisingly popular. Some would say that you
haven't 'arrived' until you have produced a CD, manufactured by injection molding, bearing a barcode,
shrink-wrapped and in the shops.
To have a CD manufactured from your music, you need a master in a suitable format. There are a
variety of formats that CD pressing plants will accept, but the easiest one to work with in the recording
studio is in fact...
A Red Book Quality CD!
Yes, the master for a CD is itself a Red Book Quality CD.
There are however some important rules that we must play by...
There are many round objects, shiny and 12 cm in diameter, that are not CD's. A CD-ROM is not a CD.
Also, any disc that deviates from the official CD standard is not a CD and is therefore unsuitable as a
master for manufacturing.
And the standard to which a CD-Audio disc should conform is laid down in what is called the 'Red Book'.
The Red Book dates back to the early 1980's when the CD format was first standardized. It specifies
every feature a disc must possess to be able to call itself a CD-Audio disc.
Initially, CD's could only be made by complex and expensive manufacturing processes. But in the
1990's it became possible to burn one's own CD-Audio discs.
CD-Audio discs burned in a CD writer are not identical to manufactured CD's. But as long as they don't
flout any of the Red Book standards, then they are indeed CD's.
So if you would like to receive a CD that is suitable as a master for manufacturing, you must make sure
that your CD is Red Book standard, otherwise you will produce a CD-Not-Quite, rather than the
required CD-Audio disc.
Thank you for choosing Phantom City Studio Orlando Recording Studio Florida
Mastering
Fact:
Many recording studios do not specialize in mastering, in effect they do not posses the proper
mastering environment, mastering gear, or monitoring signal path, which also creates a need
for a proper mastering studio or mastering engineer.
What is Mastering?
Mastering is widely misunderstood and sometimes mistaken for mixing.
So, what is mastering? It's the audio step that comes just before manufacturing a CD.
Some people would even say it's a crucial step.
Once you have finished recording and mixing your songs, the tracks are shaped, sculpted, scooped,
equalized, compressed, and finessed into sonic splendor through the audio process known as
mastering. Mastering is what gives depth, punch, clarity and volume to your tracks.
Mastering is the crucial, critical, and final creative step in the process of making an audio recording.
When your work is in the hands of a mastering engineer, that is when all the ultimate sonic judgments
are made, all necessary aural enhancements are applied, and the definitive content of your project
becomes a coherent and sophisticated artistic creation. A mastering engineer can literally separate the
hits from the rest of the market.
What Do You Get?
In almost every mastering session, the following actions are performed:
Optimizing average and peak volume levels for proper relative loudness
Signal processing - compression & EQ
Arranging tracks in final sequence
Timing of the space between tracks
Establish a sonic "field" for all tracks
Place track markers at head of all tracks
Remove unwanted noise like clicks, pops, hiss
Clean-up start and ending of each track (including fades)
Insert Master Track Log – the PQ codes required for replication
How Long Does it Take?
Although there is no limit to the time or money that can be spent on mastering, many people in the
business state that a good rule of thumb would be an average of 8-12 hours for most albums, or in the
neighborhood of one hour for each song. This assumes that the CD was well recorded and no
additional processing requirements are specified. Additional time will be allocated depending on the
condition of the original recording, a client's specifications and any unusual or custom needs.
"Loud vs. Proud."
Contrary to popular belief, mastering is only a little about making a hotter sound. While it's true that the
gain, or volume level, is boosted during mastering, it may be that raw decibels are the least critical
aspect of the process. What's important is the way mastering makes songs sound. Because in the end,
mastering is less about "loud" and more about "proud."
Mastering is the fine-tuning and final equalization of the music for broadcast quality status. It puts all
the frequencies in the correct ranges so that the bass isn't too loud, the highs don't hurt and the levels
are constant with other CDs on the market. Mastering is the final stage of preparing mixes for
production and replication. It's the last step in the process of making a release.
Demo Mastering:
Mastering demo's is becoming a standard practice in the hyper-competitive music market.
It's easy to see why record label A&R departments are overwhelmed by demos from aspiring artists.
Mastering of demos can be an important step in giving an artist an extra edge over the competition.
What is the Red Book standard? Do I need to use it? Why?
Even in the age of digital downloads, the CD is still surprisingly popular. Some would say that you
haven't 'arrived' until you have produced a CD, manufactured by injection molding, bearing a barcode,
shrink-wrapped and in the shops.
To have a CD manufactured from your music, you need a master in a suitable format. There are a
variety of formats that CD pressing plants will accept, but the easiest one to work with in the recording
studio is in fact...
A Red Book Quality CD!
Yes, the master for a CD is itself a Red Book Quality CD.
There are however some important rules that we must play by...
There are many round objects, shiny and 12 cm in diameter, that are not CD's. A CD-ROM is not a CD.
Also, any disc that deviates from the official CD standard is not a CD and is therefore unsuitable as a
master for manufacturing.
And the standard to which a CD-Audio disc should conform is laid down in what is called the 'Red Book'.
The Red Book dates back to the early 1980's when the CD format was first standardized. It specifies
every feature a disc must possess to be able to call itself a CD-Audio disc.
Initially, CD's could only be made by complex and expensive manufacturing processes. But in the
1990's it became possible to burn one's own CD-Audio discs.
CD-Audio discs burned in a CD writer are not identical to manufactured CD's. But as long as they don't
flout any of the Red Book standards, then they are indeed CD's.
So if you would like to receive a CD that is suitable as a master for manufacturing, you must make sure
that your CD is Red Book standard, otherwise you will produce a CD-Not-Quite, rather than the
required CD-Audio disc.
Thank you for choosing Phantom City Studio Orlando Recording Studio Florida
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Thank you for choosing Phantom City Studio Orlando Recording Studio Florida.
