Although music mastering is only one small component of a hit record, it can’t be overlooked.
In fact, it sometimes can be the most important part of post audio production.
This is because there’s often a thin line between success and failure.
All that’s standing in your way from massive success may only be one little flaw making a big impact on your music.
And this is what mastering is about.Â
A good analogy is that mastering is like an Olympic sports trainer whose job it is to get the athlete (or your record) into peak performance.
Failing to get the right coach could cost the athlete the gold medal because he or she is off by just a fraction of a second.
Mastering is the same way in that its job is to optimize your music to give it the edge to cross the finish line first.
Good music mastering is the difference between having a record that falls flat of its potential… or getting a “Hit†sound that lives on for many years to come.
Additionally, just like a there differences in quality between coaches, not all mastering engineers are in the same league.
Some have a track-record for creating the “Hit†sound, while others are still learning.
A good mastering engineer gets the music playing up to its potential by bringing-out the best sounds, reducing the bad ones, and giving it the overall feel you’re going for.
Moreover, he or she knows how to listen and communicate with the artist. Because if the engineer does not, then he or she is never going to accomplish a final result everybody is happy with.
The mastering engineer’s job is to help you accomplish your final vision… because he or she knows the most efficient way to get there.
Without the mastering engineer, you’d never reach your full potential. Because you would not know what changes you should make or how to make them.
About the Author:
Lorenz Vauck is an Audio Mastering Engineer, Musician, and Internet Entrepreneur from Dresden, Saxony, Germany. He is the Managing Director and Chief Mastering Engineer of XARC Mastering, one of the world’s first online audio mastering studios established in 2003.
Every song requires something different inside the mastering studio. It all depends on the quality of the recording and what the artist’s final vision is.
Some tracks require more time spent trying to reduce or eliminate errors… and others may need lots of adjustment to make the songs come together.
Simply put, whatever sounds best for the album and each particular song is what’s used.
With that said, each music genre often has similar adjustments made to it.
Let’s talk about some of these so you can get an idea of what’s done to your genre of music:
First, let´s take a look at hip hop. With hip hop, the artist often wants to achieve a big and fat bass/bottom with clear and “Peaking out†vocals and a sparkling highend.
Also “extreme†loudness, at least nowadays, is often what the artist is looking for in order to compete with other releases (see posts on the loudness wars here and here).
This is compared to the other end of the spectrum with classical music.
Compression is sparingly used. Maintaining the dynamic range is very important for the listeners.
Essentially, the live performance feel is what is trying to be captured. Ideally, there is very little sound processing to keep everything as natural as possible.
The main adjustments are editing and noise removal. Bringing all the instruments together in the right way is also very important with careful equalizing.
Classical is related to jazz mastering.
With jazz, you are also trying capture the live performance sound. However, compression is often used, especially on the vocals and slightly on the overall mix to increase the loudness, while keeping the dynamics in tact.
So, what about other types of music?
With rock, for instance, the sound ranges from very dynamic to heavily compressed and from “dark†to a very “bright†sound with a lot or a small amount of bass. Whatever the artist preferes. And the same basically goes for any genre – because there is never a “One approach fits all†rule for a good mastering engineer.
The bottom line is… every song varies in what should be applied.
About the Author:
Lorenz Vauck is an Audio Mastering Engineer, Musician, and Internet Entrepreneur from Dresden, Saxony, Germany. He is the Managing Director and Chief Mastering Engineer of XARC Mastering, one of the world’s first online audio mastering studios established in 2003.