Q is for Quality

 

In this instalment, we explore what it means to master an album. For a recording to sound like a refined commercial release, it must go to a professional mastering engineer.

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A reputable mastering engineer will give a release a cohesive professional polish that sounds ‘finished.’ The mysterious pre-mastered mixes are a rarely heard by the general public, but a professional mix engineer knows how to prepare recordings for mastering. What the mastering engineer will do is average the sounds on the album out through a series of processors.

Mastering know-how

The quality heard in your final release will live or die from the mastering. However, the difference between a mastering engineer and someone with a PC and a few tools is vast.

Also, a very important factor in the final finish is how well the mix/ recording is conducted before it lands on a mastering engineer’s table. So let’s see what the engineer can take into account for the final touches of quality.

A mastering console allows processors to switch the signal path in and out easily and cleanly. And even in today’s world of digital recordings and releases, some analogue equipment can still go a long way.

First of all, songs should be compiled into a playlist as specified by the client, such as into Steinberg's Wavelab running on a PC. Then, the tracks are played out into the various analogue and digital processors, before being recorded to a digital workstation, like SADiE DAW.

A monitoring unit (and a Maselec control console is particularly helpful with this process) will allow the engineer to listen back to the recording, levels and the subsequent compression and equalising effects on the tracks.

The engineer will need to listen to all elements as they decide upon which paths the signals will take in the journey of balancing the sound out. Often the signals are set up for processing at any time throughout the procedure. From this set up, the engineer can hear the potential effects on each signal before deciding which one gives the best result.

Compressors, like what is offered through the Maselec control console, and equalisers, such as Crane Song Ibis equaliser (an analogue equaliser), can be easily inserted into this system so levels of the original recording can be changed, passed through filters, and there should also be the functionality to pass the signal through an output gain fader.

The gaps in between

Once all the songs are loaded into the digital audio workstation, the starts and ends can have some attention. The length of the gaps and fade outs will be addressed.

A gap would be a few seconds between each song; another subjective choice of the engineer’s and usually determined by the shapes of the fades, while the fading out is usually the last two to four bars at the end of the song. However, how long the tail available for the fading is usually determined in the mixing process. For absolute uniformity between the songs, it is better to leave a long enough tail for the engineer to play with.

Another trick played by the mixers is to leave a bit of noise on the end for fading in the final master. Editing each song too tight before it is passed on for mastering, does limit what the engineer can give to the end of the songs.

Thought processes

An engineer’s primary goal in mastering is to have a well rounded and balanced sounding final product. Where to start is often from the best track on the list – the first release for single. The single is often thought of as the representative track for the album, as from there, every other track can fit around it.

In the space of a day, if the final mix has not created a lot of work for the mastering procedure, the engineer can listen to each element of the recording process, such as the vocals, guitars, drums etc, and use the EQ for balancing any uneven sounds.

With some know-how on how to deal with a brassy vocal, a weak guitar recording or too much bass, for instance, they could run it through an equaliser so it all sounds even; or the elements could be compressed, either analogously or digitally, to the engineer’s taste.

Often, however, if the final mix is even, the mastering engineer won’t have to do a lot to it –just give it that professional quality we have become accustomed to whenever we buy a CD. The name of the game is to make the album sound like one package. There is a big picture when it comes to mastering, and whatever processors are needed to make it all sound as one - then they must be used.

Many engineers would recommend aiming for the average (tone, shape of waves, and volume-wise) when balancing an album. The final result will probably be played on all sorts of speakers, from car speakers with subwoofers to PC headphones, so it is often useful to bear that in mind and have a variety of speakers at your disposal when listening back. It is also worth noting that a single will also be played on radio.

Then it is a game of matching every song up into one package - even if it means going back to the first song and redoing the processes to make the perfect final master.

Mastering and coding

A well presented album – one that is well mixed with even sounds throughout – should only take about a day for the mastering process before your albums hops over for the manufacturing process. Often a bedroom produced album will sound rusty and create more work in the mastering process, if it hasn’t been made impossible.

The previous production result is key to the mastering process. So aim for consistency throughout with a good quality recording. You should then make life much easier for the mastering engineer and contribute to the end result’s quality.
 

Further reading

scenta's A - Z of making music
 

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