We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Aristotle
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Mastering is still an afterthought for many musicians. It’s a critical part to the recording process yet most musicians think they can do it themselves or worse, skip it altogether. Inside Audio Mastering you’ll find lots of information about this mysterious process.
The concept of FREE.
It may not be glaringly obvious, but my real mission right now is to help musical artists launch their careers. I want to help musicians who don't have much experience or much money get a better handle on their sound. Since I'm not a manager or agent or record executive my role is to help you make higher quality sounding records. As I read the three sentences above I noticed one word that keeps popping up. That word is "help". Musicians, I want to help you. Really. That's it. So what am I getting at you ask? I want to talk to you about the concept of FREE.
Chris Anderson, Editor In Chief at WIRED magazine, came out with a book this week titled Free! Why $0.00 Is the Future of Business. But that's not what I'm writing about, yet it is what I'm writing about. Here's my point.
I have offered my services to many, many people for free. FREE! And only a handful of people are willing to take advantage of this offer. Why is that?
I know I'm no Pensado, Maserati, Lord-Alge (Chris or Tom), Marroquin or Tan. But unless you've worked with me and had a really bad experience why wouldn't you take advantage of a free offer? I have to admit that I've only offered this at my place of business - about 1,200 people - but there are A LOT of musicians there yet most do not reply to my ad. So I'm wondering, do most people see free as being synonymous with cheap? If I posted an ad for $75 mastering per song do you think I would get more replies?
What do you think?
Izotope Ozone 4 kicks arse!
In case you are not familiar with Izotope Ozone it's a mastering processing suite made by Izotope. As I just stated, it's made for mastering, but I use it all the time on an insert on channels when I'm mixing. This app is so sweet and for only $250, in my opinion, it's a steal. You can read all about it and download a fully functioning demo from Izotope.com.
Disk cutting tutorial
This is a very cool video from Mix magazine showing an engineer cutting an actual disk. The studio is Infrasonic Sound which offers this quick tutorial on the analog disk cutting process.
Check it out here.
T-Racks 3 Deluxe is the BOMB!
Yes, I did say "the BOMB". And yes I know it isn't 1993 anymore, but these plugins are A-MAZE-ING! Clearly, the only way to describe something so cool is to say "the BOMB".
I started using T-Racks 3 Deluxe on individual channels in mixes and they sound great, but they suck up some serious processing power. So I started using them on my output bus as sort of a pre-mastering tool and man, what a difference! I understand that the deluxe package is a standalone mastering suite, but you can use them anywhere so I chose to reduce my processing overhead by concentrating them to my output. I don't think I will use the package for mastering because I am very partial to Apple's Wave Burner. But this suite will certainly hold a permanent place on my output bus.
Waves Introduces Center Processor
from The Light Sound Journal
Waves Audio introduces Waves Center, an innovative new processor that separates phantom Center audio from side (L/R panned) content. Ideal for final mixes and mastering, Center lets users zero in on the phantom Center and bring out or bring down the vocals without affecting everything else. Perfect for post-production engineers and DJs as well, Center allows users to reposition, isolate and even eliminate elements of a mix.
20 TIPS ON…Home Mastering
This is an older article from Sound on Sound magazine that talks about the new trend of mastering at home. Even though it's from 1999 it contains some great tips. I especially love this one:
"The old adage 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' applies perfectly to mastering."
This is so true. Enjoy the article.
Now that so many musicians are completing the entire album-making process in their own studios, mastering is becoming an increasingly important skill. Paul White offers a few pointers to becoming a Master of mastering.