The Mastering Show Podcast

There’s been lots of buzz and discussion about aliasing online recently, and lots of confusion, too.

Is it a flaw in the whole idea of digital audio ? Does it explain why analogue modelling plugins can never sound exactly like the real thing ? Or is it just inaudible mathematical theorising ?

In this episode we try to answer all these questions, plus Ian attempts to give an easy visual explanation of what aliasing is and how it relates to audio, with – er… questionable results.

Along the way discuss:

• What wagon wheels have to do with audio sampling
• And vinyl turntables
• And digital audio
• How (and why) to avoid aliasing
• Why high sample rates may help and
• Why all this is important when using plugins

Links

The wagon wheel effect
The wagon wheel effect – nerdy science version
What is aliasing and what causes it ?
Meterplugs Perception Plugin
Are high sample rates making your music sound worse ?

Usually on the show we’re talking about mastering music for CD, download and streaming, but there’s another important final destination for the audio we work on – broadcast.

And the difference with broadcast audio is – there are standards. Having said that, there often isn’t a dedicated mastering stage !

In this episode we dig into the whole fascinating topic with our guest Dallas Taylor from Defacto Sound, and host of the superb Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast. Dallas has a wealth of experience in sound design and mixing for broadcast on trailers and ads for shows like Game Of Thrones and games like Fallout, amongst many others.

In a wide-ranging conversation we talk about:

• Why sound design is like being a conductor
• American versus British mixing style in drama
• What are “emotional FX” ?
• The loudness wars in broadcast
• Dialnorm – what and why ?
• How to make dragons talk

Links

TMS #49 – Great Audio Podcasts

Defacto Sound

Game Of Thrones (Promo)
Anomaly (Film)
Tesla Ghost (Ad)

Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast

The Booj
The THX Deep Note
Mother Of Dragons(ounds)
The Voice of Siri

Everything gets streamed these days, and almost all streaming platforms use lossy data encoding: mp3, AAC, OGG etc (OMG!)

And these lossy codecs do a pretty remarkable result of preserving the quality, considering they strip out anywhere between 60-90% of the original data. But it’s not perfect – far from it ! In this show we talk about:

• How your audio can be damaged by lossy data encoding
• Why this happens
• How you can test for it yourself
• Why it’s worth doing
• How it can help you hear the artefacts for yourself
• Whether we should optimise our audio to avoid them and (most importantly!)
• The two simple steps you can take to minimise these problems and help your audio SURVIVE streaming

Links

Video – Is Billie Eilish too loud ?
TMS #36 – Data versus dynamic compression – and sponges
Spotify recommends -2 dB True Peak for loud uploads
TMS #25 – Stereo, mid-side and how to process them

You might argue that reading about audio is like dancing about architecture. Or something. But you’d be wrong! In these days of podcasts and YouTube it’s easy to forget how many great books there are about audio, and what a fantastic resource they are for getting inspiration, ideas and learning new topics and techniques. in this show we share some of our favourites, including:

• The book that took Ian several years to read, how to access it’s Secret Bonus Content, and why
• A book that tells you how to use a potato as a filter, amongst other things
• Books about a band that Ian says you NEED to read
• The only two books about mastering (that we know of)
• The books we haven’t read but know we should
• Invaluable writing about audio that isn’t in books
• Several things that aren’t books at all

Links

The Daily Adventures Of Mixerman – the Audiobook Dramatisation
The Making Of Sgt Pepper – A Music Production Masterclass
TMS #49 – Great Audio Podcasts
Arena: Brian Eno – Another Green World
Probably the best Brian Eno interview in the history of the known universe
What makes a great music producer tick ? Brian Eno Interviewed
TMS #19 – Sylvia Massy – Recording Unhinged
Queen in the recording studio – videos
Imogen Heap – The Making of Elipse vBlogs (In reverse order, not sure why – but they’re all there !)
Adam Buxton – fantastic interview with Brian Eno

This show is short & sweet – but essential listening if you’re interested in getting better results with online loudness – and balanced, musical dynamics for your masters.

In this episode Ian describes:

• How he increased playback loudness on Spotify by 3.3 dB for a song by reducing it’s overall loudness by 1.5 dB, and why it sounded better afterwards
• What to do if your song gets turned down more than you expect online
• Why you have to be careful with contrast on Spotify
• How reducing dynamics can make your music sound more dynamic
• Why musical decisions work better than technical ones

 

Links

Episode 44 – Loudness Units 101
Episode 51 – What is Loudness Penalty?
Episode 52 – Don’t aim for LUFS targets online
Episode 54 – When loudness normalization goes wrong
Dynamic Range Day
Loudness Penalty

It’s been a while since we had a Q&A episode, so – here it is ! In this show we discuss:

• Can a spectrum analyser make up for poor monitoring ?
• Is allowing peak levels up to -0.1 wrong ?
• Do speaker isolation pads work ?
• Handling client payment issues
• What to do when songs overlap (segued)
• Do dynamic masters sound worse on a PA ?

Configuring Voxengo Span – by Dan Worrall
Inter-sample peaks versus loudness (video)
Ethan Winer on speaker isolation
Bob Katz on speaker isolation (Facebook)

We’ve all heard it – “the music is in the mid-range”. But what does that mean, exactly ? And if it’s true, is there anything we can do about it in mastering ?

We’ve talked about bass and high frequencies, but in this show we dive into the muddy, murky mess that is (often) the mid-range, and talk about how crucial it is for a great-sounding master.

Including:

• How the mids help us hear bass
• Common problems with the mid-range, and what causes them
• How to open up cluttered mids in mastering
• Our least favourite mid-range frequencies
• Mids versus dynamics
• The importance of linear phase EQ for the mids

Links

TMS #55 – How bright is too bright ? Mastering top end
TMS #53 – Fear of bass
Leapwing Audio CenterOne
reFuse Software Lowender

Too Much 4k ?

 

…comes great responsibility. And mastering engineers need to accept that.

If you take on the challenge of mastering someone’s music, you also accept a huge amount of responsibility for that music, and In this episode we tackle the question – what are the responsibilities of a mastering engineer – and even the ethics ?

Including:

• Should a mastering engineer have a “signature sound” ?
• Why the “B” word is at the heart of mastering – in many different ways
• Something you should probably never do
• How to supply files – for CD, online and vinyl pressing
• Ensuring transfer integrity online
• The golden rule of mastering

Links

Popular distributors:
Bandcamp
Distrokid
CD Baby
Tunecore
AWAL

Related episodes
TMS #37 – Does gear matter ? And if so, how much ?
TMS #50 – Mastering on headphones ? (Glenn Schick interview)
TMS #45 – Jonathan Wyner
TMS #23 – Balance (or, how to master an album)

It’s a question we get all the time: what do you do when the mixes you receive are more… “challenged” than you might ideally like ? How much can you fix in mastering if you really need to, and how much should you do ? In this show we cover a range of strategies for dealing with some of the toughest challenges when you’re mastering tricky mixes, including:

• What is a crappy mix ?
• Should we even try to master one ?
• When not to master a crappy mix – and what you can learn
• Techniques for “digging in” – from subtle to aggressive
• A brand-new option for the very worst cases
• The Golden Rule

Links

Stereo width in mastering
TMS #25 – Stereo: width, depth and image – how to measure, monitor and master them
Centre that sub ! (A guide to mono-ing your low end) by Ian Stewart
iZotope RX
TMS #33 – BEFORE Mastering

Everyone wants that glorious, sweet, silky-smooth top end in their masters – but how do you get it ? How do you stop things sounding harsh, tinny and brittle ? And even if the high frequencies do sound gorgeous, how hard should you push them ? In this show we’re talking about treble, and our topics include:

• What is “Newton’s 3rd law” of EQ ?
• How do room acoustics affect how you hear high frequencies ?
• How can you “calibrate” your ears so you’re aiming for the right amount of top ?
• How do dynamics interact with high frequencies, and why does it matter ?
• What’s a “spiderman” plugin ?
• Which EQ plugin or hardware unit should you use for the best results ?

Links

TMS #08 – You need this (Why acoustic treatment matters)
Building a home mastering studio – acoustics
7 crucial EQ bands to help balance your mix
Reference tracks – Ian’s “showreel” playlist
12 of Ian’s favourite albums for sound
Gearshoot – compare mastering EQ & plugins for yourself
Home Mastering Masterclass