Samples of the same songs treated in two different mastering houses

[ISedlacek]

Here are interesting samples (short fractions of songs) illustrating how two mastering houses can quite differ in treating the same songs.

You can listen to the original mix and then to the result from mastering house A and mastering house B. How would you comment differences and approaches in mastering A and mastering B ? The client´s basic wish in both cases was a nice powerful sound with reasonable loudness (within the contemporary CD and radio standards.). Mastering B obviously gives a bit "louder" results, but it does not seem to be the main difference.

Song1 orginal
Song1 master A
Song1 master B


Song2 orginal
Song2 master A
Song2 master B


Song3 orginal
Song3 master A
Song3 master B

[heathen]

I only listened to the first track, house A I liked alot more as the mix sounded more balanced, the second had a lot more lows and low mids which seemed to cloud the bottom end and also mess with the balance of the mix. Also when raising the monitoring level master b seemed to lose alot more balance, where as A seemed alot more banced at any level and only enhanced the recording where as b actually sounded worse than the original to my ears. B actually seems to lose definition on alot of the instruments and the stereo image collapses as the reverb seems way less ambient. Too much bass and way to loud (probably) for radio. Master A would most likely sound better anywhere.

My conclusion is ME B was trying to do too much where as ME A new when enough was enough and got a better result, I may be wrong but I think ME B may have used some valve limiting which may have degraded the reverb, I would have gone for a clean opto comp instead. I think the best ME's know when not to do things as much as do them.

Nice mix. Both sound good but A sounds way better to me. But this is all subjective.

[analogjeff]

my favorite is the original with more level -- it's more open and the vocal has more emotion in its edges than either of the mastered versions -- of the mastered versions, A seems more pro in terms of a smoother sound, but some of the emotive spaciousness is lost to my ear... not uncommon in my experience, even with some top line mastering engineers...

i like the music!!

[Killahurts]

Originally Posted by heathen

My conclusion is ME B was trying to do too much where as ME A new when enough was enough and got a better result

That was my conclusion as well. I listened to the song 3 samples, just for a difference.

[DeeDrive]

Masterer A is clearly the better to me. Sounds well balanced, controlled, like a master recording should. The original tracks had a little too much sub bass going, and in the A masters this was under control.

The B masters sould too loud for the genre, and overly compressed. (Or perhaps poorly compressed.) Master A is plenty loud enough, and retained the right amount of dynamic range, I believe. The highs sound nice and clear in the A masters, but not overdone or overly bright. If I got a master back from the A mastering house, I would be happy. If I got a master back from the B mastering house, I'll be pretty disapointed.

[theremin]

i think i can hear some clipping on the guitar on master B also. if it is there in the other versions I can't tell, but the B mix brings some irritating noise up front that i can hear on the downsweeps of the guitar. version A just sweetened up the original mix and fattened it up a bit. the bass was too weak and the guitar was thin in the original, the ME improved those elements a good bit as well.

[ISedlacek]

Yes, these are my feelings too ... Master B is a bit "overkill". On the other hand, master A sound a tiny bit "sterile" and "congested" to me. The best thing would probably be to take the best from both - clarity of A and the "warmth" of B. In proper medical doses, of course :-)

I found this comparison interesting and quite educative ...

[RKrizman]

Just having listened to song A I don't think either mastering job improves the original. They both sound somewhat metallic and artificial to me, and both affect the basic groove of the song for the worse. By changing the perceived sizes of the various drums and bass it's very easy to change their groove relationship. I.e., if you make the kick too big with eq, without pulling down its volume, then the groove can start to "stagger".

A little limiting, a touch of brightness, out the door.

-R

[ISedlacek]

Originally Posted by RKrizman

Just having listened to song A I don't think either mastering job improves the original. They both sound somewhat metallic and artificial to me, and both affect the basic groove of the song for the worse. By changing the perceived sizes of the various drums and bass it's very easy to change their groove relationship. I.e., if you make the kick too big with eq, without pulling down its volume, then the groove can start to "stagger".

A little limiting, a touch of brightness, out the door.

-R

Well, yes. UNLESS the client has different ideas... if he wants a distortion, big drums, lot of bass or whatever, his wishes are sacred ...

[max cooper]

On "Song 2" Mastering A lost all the low end.

What happened there?

I hope I'm not being a jerk to say that results from both houses have unacceptable qualities, IMO.

Lots of harshness coming through.

[RKrizman]

Originally Posted by ISedlacek

Well, yes. UNLESS the client has different ideas... if he wants a distortion, big drums, lot of bass or whatever, his wishes are sacred ...

Well then go ask the client what he thinks. I thought you wanted our opinions.

You already told us the client wanted a "nice powerful sound with reasonable loudness".

-R

[matucha]

Generally I prefer the A.

I don't hear any loss of lows in 2A... on contrary it feels almost too much and it also adds to the not so great character of the vocal in this particular song... it feels heavy.

#3 has annoying highend that is not treated in neither of the two masters, as if mastering was about putting gain on the lows and the highs a bit and some loudness instead of correcting what is possible to correct with 2buss.

[robot gigante]

Originally Posted by ISedlacek

Well, yes. UNLESS the client has different ideas... if he wants a distortion, big drums, lot of bass or whatever, his wishes are sacred ...

And should be addressed in the mixing stage.

I listened to the first and second songs. I didn't like either mastering job much. They both screwed up the balances of the mixes and sounded harsh and overcompressed at times (or compressed wrong). If done right they should have made the balances of the original mixes clearer instead of changing them. I hope I don't sound like a jerk either. I think the mastering engineers in both cases could have referenced the original mix more and done some A-Bing to make sure that their changes were improvements.

[ISedlacek]

Originally Posted by robot gigante

And should be addressed in the mixing stage.

Amen ...

Yes, both masterings seem to have some glitches ... Now the right master is to be done in the mastering house C and I am off to work :-)))

Thanks a lot for your opinions. This kind of sharing is really great ...

[matucha]

Gyraf power with you... you'll need it, because the character of the mix is so boring it will need some. Maybe it is not in the competence of the mastering, but I'd try to put through a lot of things (tape, tube stuff... ... ......) just to make it sound softer and with some "opinion". I actually hate this kind of (no) sound.

For the rest of you. The mastering B (the louder one) was for a looooooong time the only "pro" mastering available in czech rep...

[waxx]

on my coloured hi fi speakers (no monitors here to listen now), the orignal of tune 1 is to dark and sometimes a bit messy concerning general volume. A sounds good, and did clear the points in the orignal. B did that also, but messed up the dynamic range and made it a bit boomy in the lower frequencies of the voice and and it lost the open sound.

[Dog_Chao_Chao]

I prefer the original in everyway. Better ambience, reverb sounds better and everything has a more natural flow and balance. Nice mix, better than the mastering IMHO!