Recording Studio

It was once the case that professional mastering was a costly yet important exercise at the end of the audio production process. It remains true that it is a wise procedure to adopt. However, these days you can still afford a high caliber of mastering by opting for online mastering which tends to get you a very experienced engineer with truly professional equipment at a much more budget friendly rate. With the online mastering model you can remain in complete control by receiving mastering preview files for each of your music tracks. This allows you to assess the mastering before committing to the final masters. It is suggested that you research your online mastering studio with some care, looking at factors such as engineer experience, monitoring arrangements (i.e. presence of reference quality professional loudspeakers), acoustic treatments and of course compare audio samples.

As the sole mastering engineer for SafeandSound Mastering Barry's take on mastering as a process is that the most important goal is good musical translation across the largest number of reproduction systems possible. In essence the music should sound as good as it can given the mix down on small and large scale sound systems. An essential mastering tool for identifying how music will sound on a big system is large and accurate monitors. Such reference speakers allow the mastering engineer to get a sense of scale. Another important factor is the element of taste input from the client. A good master has an aperture for taste and this is important for any mastering engineer to take into account. The mastering engineer should be in possession of the best possible tools both analog and digital and have the knowledge when to apply each as is appropriate. Commonly these tools will be equalization (tone), compression, (dynamic control), limiting and stereo field adjustment tools. Increasing the perceived level of music is another common goal in mastering though as a mastering engineer he suggests considering the merits and trade offs that occur with extreme level increases. "It has a tendency to reduce punch, detail and depth in a recording, not usually desirable affects. I seek to minimize these effects whatever the desired perceived levels, however I recommend a balanced approach with moderate level increases which retains the vast majority of the clarity, detail, punch and quality of a great mix". Historical evidence suggests people remember quality, not perceived level.

Finally quality control is also very important, often recording and mix sessions are time pressured and even the best mix engineer or musician can miss a stray click, vocal pop or bad edit when under pressure. Mastering identifies these little mistakes and makes sure they never get heard by the listening public. The very last stage of mastering is ensuring that the music is committed to a final medium such as CD-R pre master, DDP (disk description protocol) or encoded digital audio files. Some of these formats can have important sub code data inserted by the mastering engineer, such as ISRC code (unique track identifiers for radio play royalty collection), UPC/EAN barcodes and CD-Text for artist and track names.

Barry Gardner is the sole mastering engineer at SafeandSound mastering and the website address to visit is : SafeandSound online mastering

here is a great piece from Paul Wright from Cosmic Mastering:-

I was recently asked by Joel from Univibe Audio to write a piece about audio mastering and why its so important in todays competitive music industry.

Ive been the Mastering Engineer at Cosmic Online Mastering for several years having mastered thousands of independent releases and recordings from independent record labels and artists alike. Ive also had the honour to master a few major single and album releases for well known producers and labels. Although being the last link in the chain and entrusted to master someones creation is always an honour whoever its for.

Even though Ive had over 15 years experience in the music production/mastering industry Ill never stop learning. And my advice to any budding engineer or producer is to utilise the best tool that youll ever find and thats simply  your ears! Dont get too bogged down in the technology. 

Ill attempt to give you a general overview of professional mastering and why its so important for todays music in a cut throat music industry. 

If youve ever done any recording youll probably have wondered at sometime how do I get my mixes to sound like commercial records? 
I would also imagine that some of you dont realise that mastering without doubt plays a vital role in achieving a commercially acceptable sound.

Back in the day when studios recorded to tape it was possible to end up with a fat and fairly loud sounding mix mostly due to tape saturation. I used to saturate the tape when I worked freelance for an analogue studio and although mastering was still a pre-requisite it was probably a little less important than it is today. 

There are many advantages that digital recordings have over analogue and one of them is an increased level of detail in general. However digital recordings sometimes lack warmth and fatness given from analogue. This is where mastering plays a massive part in achieving a warm and fat but detailed sounding master. 

Of course any premastered mix needs to be as vibrant, dynamic and as alive as possible as this is the starting point for a good master. The better the mix  the better the master! 
However with professional mastering theres a vast improvement in the finished product with virtually any mix.   

Modern commercial records are generally pretty LOUD. The idea is that the record companies release stands out from all the other songs on the jukebox/radio. 

Whilst there has been much debate regarding the loudness wars, and its something I generally dont condone, its something that like it or not, is here to stay for the foreseeable future. 
There are bad sounding major releases out there nowadays which are in my opinion generally down to poor mastering. 

Sound Quality issues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Californication_%28album%29


With every mastering project I undertake my aim is to bring out the best in every song, taking into account the style of the song whilst being as LOUD as possible. 
It is perfectly possible for a good professional mastering engineer to make songs LOUD but also open up the space within the song and improving impact. 
Most clients are amazed at how fat, open, LOUD and punchy their mixes are after mastering. 

This is what tends to sort out a good mastering engineer from a mediocre one. Its easy to make something LOUD but its challenging to make it LOUD, punchy, open and dynamic all at the same time!

If you want your music to sound as good as possible you should always use a good professional mastering engineer. All major labels have their studio mixes mastered by professional mastering engineers and theyre not wrong to do so. As well as the advantage of having a third party listen to your mixes with fresh ears they have a plethora of tools to bring out the best in every mix. Not to mention the fully acoustically designed and treated mastering studio and high resolution monitors/speakers. 

I hope that gives you a useful overview of mastering. If you have any questions or comments or if you're interested in any of the services Cosmic Online Mastering offer please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Paul Wright
Cosmic Online Mastering
www.cosmiconlinemastering.co.uk
paul@cosmiconlinemastering.co.uk

Probably the most common question we are asked here is, how many songs should we record in a day.

There are no hard and fast rules that dictate how many songs you can or should record in any session, but generally recording 1 song per day is a great way to ensure that the songs, arrangement, performances and recording is up to a standard that will really do you justice as a band.

It is tempting to squeeze as much material into 1 studio session, but 1 song performed, recorded and mixed really well is much more valuable than 3 songs that have performance or arrangement issues, these problems with a recording make the whole studio session a waste of time and a false economy.

So, when thinking about what to do in the studio next time, try to bear in mind giving the material it deserves, allow each band member enough time to really get into a track, to express their ideas, thoughts and tastes. Allow the band to gel and create great music in a great studio and leave the studio with a track that you are 100% proud of.

If you are proud of your work it is SO much easier to promote it, sell it, play it and share it with everybody out there in the big wide world, the smallest error or fault in any recording will constantly annoy and irritate you, and will eventaully stop you from promoting your music or playing it to anybody.

Now, as I said at the start of this post, there are no rules and some material needs a much longer studio session than other material, so just try to be realistic and allow enough time for your material.

Remember, we are always here to help you plan and prepare for a recording session. If you know what you want to achieve in the studio we will give you honest and frank advice on how much studio time you should be spending on it, our advice is not based on getting the studio booked as much as possible it is solely based upon making sure your music says what it needs to say, so if you would like to go over any details regarding your next recording session, just drop us a line!

Thanks for reading!

Univibe Audio, Recording Studio Birmingham