The Mastering Show Podcast

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

As you know, we think normalization is a Good Thing. But many people disagree. And often that’s because it’s not perfect yet – not by a long shot. In this episode we explain some of the quirks, bugs and problems of normalization in action, and how they can cause unexpected results when you’re trying to optimise your music for listening online.

Along the way we discuss:

• Four really normal normalization mix-ups
• How NOT to test normalisation on Spotify
• Where to find YouTube’s actual normalization values
• Why broadcast levels won’t work on YouTube
• Whether we’re actually on the payroll for Big Normalization

Links

TMS #41 – The problem with loudness normalization – and TIDAL’s solution

YouTube’s Stats For Nerds – and where to find them

Don’t use LUFS targets !

Discover the Loudness Penalty for your music

MeterPlugs Dynameter Plugin

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

We all want great low end – deep, fat, solid and punchy. But it can be one of the hardest things to get right – especially knowing how much of it is needed. Too much bass can sound boomy, flabby, muddy or dull.

And as a result, it’s easy to be scared of bass. It’s easier to be cautious and avoid all those possible problems, right ? Well, maybe. Except if the low end isn’t working in your master, you risk the opposite problem – everything can sound weak, thin and harsh.

In this week’s episode we talk about ways to avoid all these problems, including:

• The one thing you shouldn’t do – and why
• The deceptively simple thing you should always do
• Will a sub-woofer help, or hinder ?
• How EQ for better bass can sometimes make things worse – because phase
• Dynamic EQ versus multiband compression
• How distortion might help
• Ah, duck it

Links

Home Mastering Masterclass
TMS #2 – The Three M’s of Mastering
TMS #8 – You need this
Acoustic treatment in a home studio
Home Mastering Compression

All the online streaming services play music back at roughly -14 LUFS, so that’s the level we should aim for when we’re mastering, right ? Wrong.

That may sound strange, given how much we’ve talked about online loudness over the years – but we’re serious. In this show we dive deeper into one of the points we discussed in the last show: why you shouldn’t be aiming for specific integrated LUFS values when mastering you music for online streaming. But, why it is still useful to know how your music will be affected.

Topics we cover include:

• A quick introduction to normalization
• How it works
• Why peak normalisation is useless for matching loudness
• Why mastering songs to a specific LUFS value doesn’t work
• So why are LUFS measurements of streaming services useful AT ALL ?
• When Spotify’s normalization fails
• The biggest problem with normalization right now

Links

TMS #31 – What IS loudness ?
TMS #44 – Loudness units 101
TMS #51 – What is the ‘Loudness Penalty’ ?
TMS #41 – Eelco Grimm & TIDAL’s normalization upgrade
How loud ? The simple solution to optimizing playback volume online – and everywhere else

“How loud will my music sound online ?” It’s the question everyone is asking these days, and the answer has always been “it depends”. Until now.

In this episode Ian Kerr from MeterPlugs talks about the new tool he has been developing with Ian Shepherd to answer this question. It’s a website called Loudness Penalty, and it’s free !

Along the way we also discuss

• Why -14 LUFS isn’t the right target for online loudness
• Why Ian Kerr decided to make plugins that won’t change your audio – but will make it sound better
• How coding 3D computer game graphics helped him develop LCast and Dynameter
• Why the Ians decided to make Loudness Penalty free
• How to use Loudness Penalty to find out what your music will sound like online
• Why different streaming services all manage loudness in different ways

Links

www.LoudnessPenalty.com
Ian S demonstrates Loudness Penalty
Bob Katz’s K-System
MeterPlugs Perception
MeterPlugs Dynameter
Users prefer musical balances between songs – the proof
How to decide how loud to master

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