The Mastering Show

You can’t master on headphones, right ? Well, let’s see…

This year’s Dynamic Range Day Award-winner broke all the streaming records in it’s first week, debuted at Number 1 in the Billboard chart and… it was mastered on headphones.

In this episode we talk to Glenn Schick, the engineer who mastered KOD by J Cole about his decision to become a “mobile” mastering engineer, including:

• How (and why) he closed his analogue mastering studio to go mobile
• Why he thinks it actually helps him to get better results…
• And makes his job easier
• The type of headphones he uses, and why
• His mastering process for KOD, and
• The decision to master with more dynamics

Links

Dynamic Range Day Award Winner 2018
Glenn Schick Mastering
JH Audio
Chord Electronics
Perception
Audeze
Other Dynamic Range Day winners:
TMS #11 – Matt Colton
TMS #32 – Bob Ludwig

Our guest in this episode is Katie Tavini, who shares the inspiring story of how she got into mastering. It’s something we’re asked all the time, and Katie is a great example of one way to start in the industry, in a time when internships and junior positions are becoming less and less accessible. She also talks about the great network of engineers she’s discovered through Red Bull’s Normal Not Novelty initiative.

Other topics include:

• Why Katie got into mastering
• Do you need expensive gear to master effectively ?
• Katie’s favourite piece of gear
• Does understanding classical music help with mastering ?
• The challenges of being a female engineer
• The pros and cons of attended sessions

Links

Katie’s site
Katie in AudioMedia: Supporting other members of the pro audio community
Normal Not Novelty
Women’s Audio Mission
SoundGirls.org
TMS #37 – Does Gear Matter ?

It’s a question we get asked regularly, and our answer may surprise you. To answer the question, we put together a “shopping list” for the ultimate DAW, and then discuss which of the applications is the best fit, and why.

Topics include:

• Which DAW sounds best ?
• What does that mean ?
• Do all digital EQs sound the same ?
• What’s a DDP file ?
• Pro mastering applications
• Workflow versus features

Links

Wavelab
Reaper
Sonoris DDP Creator
HOFA CD-Burn.DDP.Master
TMS #28 – Remastering & Restoration
Sample rate converter comparisons
Good example: iZotope 64 bit
Bad example: JUCE 2.0.13
Ian Shepherd/Meterplugs Perception Plugin

Another chance for us to catch up with some of the questions you’ve been asking us. In this episode we talk about:

• Bass – where does it start, where does it begin ?
• How to use an analyser to assess EQ balance
• When NOT to use an analyser to balance EQ and
• What to do instead
• Adding saturation in mastering – should you do this, and if so, how ?
• The most difficult projects we’ve each worked on
• How to extend an abrupt fade-out

Links

Voxengo Span

Multiband compression – the mastering engineer’s secret weapon ?

Kazrog KClip

LVC Audio ClipShifter

Toneboosters Reelbus

Ian’s Home Mastering EQ Course

Eventide EQuivocate

Many of you will already know Jonathan from iZotope’s excellent educational videos on mastering – he’s also an experienced producer and recording engineer, head engineer at M-Works mastering, a lecturer at Berklee and has written a book on mastering. In this interview we talk about many different aspects of his career, including:
* The delights (and perils) of analogue tape
* Re-mastering David Bowie
* Digital mastering tools – and the risk of over-using them
* Humans versus machines in mastering (again) and
* Getting the best of both worlds

Links

M-Works Mastering

How to load a pancake on a reel

Loudness war myths – do some genres NEED to be crushed ?

Ozone master assistant

You Are Not So Smart podcast – Connections

iZotope Spire

 

LUFS… WTF ?!?

(And why aiming for -14 isn’t the right answer for online loudness)

We talk about loudness all the time on this show, but how do you actually measure it ? How big is a “loudness unit”, and why are there three different kinds ? What does LUFS stand for, anyway ? How do you loudness match two files using LUFS measurements, and what free software can you use to get started ?

In this show we answer all these questions and more – plus Ian explains the simple technique he uses to optimise loudness for all the online streaming platforms, and why it isn’t about aiming for -14 LUFS.

If you find the show helpful, please share it with your friends, and leave us a rating and review : http://www.themasteringshow.com/review

Notes

The modern remaster of Stairway to Heaven starts @ -24 LUFS (short-term) and reaches as high as -8 LUFS by the end. The integrated loudness is -14 LUFS

Whereas Back In Black starts @ -12 LUFS (short-term) and reaches -6 LUFS within the first chorus. The integrated loudness is -9 LUFS

These measurements both apply to recent re-mastered versions – the original releases will have been at lower levels. But even so, when I set the playback level of ‘Stairway to Heaven’ by ear, ‘Back In Black’ needs to be turned down by 2dB to sound right. Whereas if we were setting loudness by integrated LUFS value, we’d have to turn ‘Back in Black’ down by 5 dB to get it to -14 LUFS ! This would sound much too quiet in comparison to “Stairway to Heaven”, in musical terms.

Matching the short-term loudness at the loudest point however, suggests… 2 dB.

QED !

Links

TMS #31 – What IS loudness ?

TMS #6 – Loudness: What, Why and How

Measure integrated loudness for free on Mac: r128x-gui (Scroll down to the “Binaries” section to download)

SWS extension for Reaper, including loudness measurement

iZotope RX (Use Window > Waveform Statistics)

How loud ? The simple solution to optimizing playback volume online – and everywhere else

Klanghelm VUMT VU Meter plugin

Can robots really master our music ? Kenny Gioia set up poll on Facebook to see, asking people to choose between six different masters of the same song – three by humans (including Sterling Sound and Steven Slate) and three by machines (LANDR, Aria and iZoTope Ozone).

The great thing is, the test was blind, and loudness matched – so no-one knew which master they were listening to, and loudness didn’t influence the way the masters sounded.

And the results of the poll were fascinating. In this show Kenny reveals which master was which, and we discuss the results – including:

• Why this is not a scientific test
• Ian’s blind comments on the masters, including his instincts about which was which
• Why the poll results are probably skewed
• When automated makes sense
• What the robots still can’t do – and maybe never will

Links

Kenny’s Groove 3 Gurus
Download the files
See the poll
Ian’s LANDR test
Graham’s shootout – Ian v. LANDR v. a limiter
Ian’s Perception Plugin
Startup Podcast – Driverless cars

This is huge. There’s a problem with loudness normalization, and TIDAL asked Eelco Grimm to find a solution for them. What he found in his research was unexpected and exciting.

Eelco has been involved with loudness measurement and the LUFS standard from the very beginning, and in this show we also talk a little about his story and how it involves:

• Technology versus emotion in music
• The origins of loudness research
• Eelco’s TIDAL research findings (which you should know about, even if you’re not interested in normalization !)
• His advice to TIDAL and
• How they reacted
• The future of normalization

STOP PRESS

Since recording the show we’ve heard that TIDAL have implemented all the changes we discuss in the show by default, in all new installs of their iOS and Android apps, with desktop to follow. For more information, click here.

Links

Eelco Grimm
Grimm Audio
Eelco’s loudness research for TIDAL
Loudness units – LUFS
How loud, online ?