The Definition of Mastering

How lazy can people be?! Google "Mastering" You'll find anything and everything about that - but if you'renot lazy and 95% of people are you'll find the right information just for looking... looking and reading with the right references is for years used by many! Sorry for this ease but it's on my throat for a while... people are lazy and are now even more lazy that they were before... looking is also a good exercise for your mind! I'm not bashing this kind of threats which are somehow useful but... you know that tomorrow or then you'll have a new post asking "what's mastering?", or "do you like my mix?" - how about that mastering work?! and so on... sorry for this words... buy!
 
Another good definition would be :

Hearing what is actually in a file or mix and then adjusting it (if need be) to enhance and correct.

This plus quality control.

Sounds easy but the difficulty is obtaining the quality of monitoring and a room that is accurate
and the judgement is based on many years professional audio work.
 
definition of mastering is: practice, rest your ears, practice, rest your ears, practice, rest your ears, practice, rest your ears, practice practice, rest your ears, practice, rest your ears, practice.... and eventualy maybe you have the golden ears, and technique to do it wright.
 
hotbeatstore said:
definition of mastering is: practice, rest your ears, practice, rest your ears, practice, rest your ears, practice, rest your ears, practice practice, rest your ears, practice, rest your ears, practice.... and eventualy maybe you have the golden ears, and technique to do it wright.
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That's not a definition, nor is it very descriptive of how one would learn to do it.
 
Another beginner brought to my attention a vid on youtube claiming not everything requires mastering or use of devices such as limiters. I of course said that's impossible since mastering is the only way to gain consistency. Is there any truth to what he was saying? Because I doubt it.
 
well..... what the mastering phase consists of can vary a great deal. I haven't used any compression on any of the classical recording I've done. I generally use a smidge of compression in both mixing and mastering for Jazz, but not really much in the way of limiting unless I'm doing sort of a Brad Mehldau style thing.

Hip Hop or Rock - no there's going to be hard limiting, unless the mix is already printed with heavy compression/square wave peaking.
 
And there it is. Don't get it twisted, listeners will not take you seriously if the sound quality of your music is bad. However,this is a good thing if you don't care what people think and you're the only one the listens to your music. Just go to Guitar Center and ask the clerk for mastering software. Use the presets and you good to go. You're music still won't be mastered, but it's because the only one listening to your music is you anyway. Keep making music for yourself, it's good for business.

As for the rest of us that enjoy having friends to share our music with, the mastering stage is essential if you want to see any real results from your recordings. The money that you spend will be returned to you, if you're performing and selling your music at your shows; amoung other marketing tactics. Those of you that are already performing know exactly what I'm talking about. Hopefully you have something else working for you if you're not a performer. Thanks for the clarification bro.

---------- Post added at 04:10 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:09 PM ----------

I like Izotope Ozone. Haven't used T-Rack : )
 
Another thing about mastering i'd like to add: I learned a long time ago that proper mastering takes years of experience. So don't let the hood studio next door master your project for $100, they will just throw it through a processor and call it mastered. Find a pro studio, with a mastering engineer, (and only a mastering engineer, not the guy wearing 20 different hats)
 
MarkAdam.net said:
Another thing about mastering i'd like to add: I learned a long time ago that proper mastering takes years of experience. So don't let the hood studio next door master your project for $100, they will just throw it through a processor and call it mastered. Find a pro studio, with a mastering engineer, (and only a mastering engineer, not the guy wearing 20 different hats)
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The idea that mastering requires more experience than other things bothers me. I know it's called "mastering" and therefore it sounds like a master does it. But honestly that statement above applies to pretty much every aspect of music production - mixing, tracking, editing, production, performance, arrangement, whateva.
 
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