Mastering… That’s a horse of a different color. Well, to start off this blog post series on mastering… yes, I used a Wizard of Oz quote. I’ve been on all sides of the mastering spectrum. That is I’ve been the musician sending tracks to a mastering house, I’ve been the producer/engineer sending tracks to a mastering house, and I’ve been a mastering engineer sending and receiving files. With that said, I’ve certainly felt as if I was on a magical pony ride to nowhere or that I’ve paid a price for nothing with mastering houses before. Now I realize that those feelings really came from me being largely uneducated about what questions I should have asked and what I was looking for in the mastering process. This month I will look at 3 important questions to ask when mastering.
- Linear phase Vs. Non-Linear phase processing.
- Breath or BASH!
- Room tuning & playback systems.