Mastering as the "Last chance Texaco"?

[Jam]

Originally Posted by Jules

Say someone has been working for years on various tracks. All done at different times and various studios. The mastering session is the "last stop" for many peoples projects.

As someone who's going to find themselves in the situation that Jules describes soon, can I add the question can you help the songs to gel as a whole ?

If mixes are done at different times and in different places can mastering help the coherency of an album ?

Sorry to tag on but it seems related.

Jam

[lucey]

e) Yes, to almost all of the above

Any one MEs EQ ear helps to glue it all, especially disparate mixes, as does the tone stamp of their chain (if analog). Conversation is important for newer mixers, mostly talking to them about the mix ... and with experienced mixers, mostly listening to what they want. "Cure all" might be overstepping the expectations, but sometimes yes ... 'please cure a lot' is hoped/expected. Phone time can be big, then again great friedships are possible ... no charge to talk.

[Chris Bellman]

Jules;1132880]Say someone has been working for years on various tracks. All done at different times and various studios. The mastering session is the "last stop" for many peoples projects.

Do folks sometimes expect you mastering engineers to 'save' the project? Cure all that is wrong with it?

Mix some old live off the board tracks with studio tracks? Match up hissy cassette masters to studio stuff mixed to DAT?

As the 'last stop", what sort of stuff do mastering engineers have to go through?

Do you sometimes have to listen to people wanting to tell you how their project went, every step of the way?

Do you have to give 'counselling' to folks who had a tough time getting their music to the mastering stage?

How do you factoring in 'client talk time' into your service?

I imagine you could be on the phone with some clients for HOURS!










Jules,

I find that mastering has been a combination of everything that you are asking about. But creating a comfortable and confident session is foremost. Once that happens you can proceed with the project. Advice may play a part during the session if it is warranted but usually I try and stick to the job at hand. And that would be.....running through the songs to get an idea of what the LP is about. Then applying any eq and/or limiting for the desired direction. I will sometimes attempt various directions before deciding on one. As for phone time......I try and keep that to a minimum. After all ....time is $$.
I hope this helps.

Chris Bellman

[finetuner]

O, you mean like cut-off starts and endings, switching sample rates in the middle of a song, 5 second drop-outs, client walking in with a computer under his arm actually asking you to remix the darn stuff, client asking if you can put DDD on a restored cassette organ concert, been asked to skip track nr 13 in the pq code, or continue track numbering on cd2 starting at say nr. 15, recieving brand new mixes that appear to be mono, fully out of phase, or worse, partially out of phase or ... complete silence? and of cause the things you mentioned (yes, seen them all).

When confronted to one of those situations, a collegue of mine used to say to the customer something like; Magic is not our profession but we can perform some miracles if you're lucky...

Of cause the word lucky builds in a safety margin for realistic expectations. So you communicate with the client about possibilities and limitations involved. Doing that, i've never had a client walking away in disillusion.

Sure comes the moment you'll find yourself scratching the head mumbling, this is impossible.... But you just get going and make the best out of it, hopefully pushing that limit a little further even knowing that no one will ever know that track's original state.

Concerning long phone calls or off-topic conversations during sessions, it's like any other job i guess. Building and maintaining a lasting relationship involves some extra time. But when people don't do their homework and attend the session with the whole band quarreling or just because they all want to see what you're doing, then i won't stop the clock.

Peter.

[Jerry Tubb]

Originally Posted by Jules

Say someone has been working for years on various tracks. All done at different times and various studios. The mastering session is the "last stop" for many peoples projects.

Hi Jules, I've done a number of these over the years, collections of songs that an artist has recorded over a long period of time... 5, 10, even 15 years. Did one last year, I think the client decided to call it a retrospective rather than an anthology : - )

Do folks sometimes expect you mastering engineers to 'save' the project? Cure all that is wrong with it?

Most people realize that it's not possible to get perfect consistency from such a project, and just want you to do the best you can.

Mix some old live off the board tracks with studio tracks? Match up hissy cassette masters to studio stuff mixed to DAT?

One project I remember many different formats ranging from 1/2" 30ips, 1/4" both half trk and quarter trk, PCM VHS and Beta, DAT, and bad sounding cassettes that were copies of copies, etc... not exactly an ideal situation. But we blocked out a few days and got it done.

As the 'last stop", what sort of stuff do mastering engineers have to go through?

Had to bake some of the analog tapes, find a working Beta deck, decide if cassettes had used NR, corrected their speeds, some radical EQ work to get things in a similar ballpark. Choose between different copies and takes.

Do you sometimes have to listen to people wanting to tell you how their project went, every step of the way?

Yes on this particular project, the attending client wanted to tell me the story behind each & every song & recording. Why some of the cassettes were the only existing recording of a particular song, etc.

Do you have to give 'counselling' to folks who had a tough time getting their music to the mastering stage?

Sometimes, but it's just part of the gig. The studio manager gets the pleasure of handling a lot of that.

How do you factoring in 'client talk time' into your service?

If it's an attended session, we're on the clock... talk away. If unattended, I try to limit the phone time to about 15-20 minutes, after that it usually becomes counter-productive. Sometimes those few minutes turn into an hour or two, even after multiple tries at ending the conversation. E-mail can work wonders here. If it's a big project with a decent budget, or you're building a long term relationship, a few hours on the phone is no biggie.

mtcw - JT

[masteringhouse]

Originally Posted by Jerry Tubb

Most people realize that it's not possible to get perfect consistency from such a project, and just want you to do the best you can.

Agreed Jerry.

There are situations where you might have a set of songs that sound great but have to coexist with songs of a significantly lesser quality (compilations can be like this too). It wouldn't make sense to compromise the quality of the better sounding songs for the sake of consistency.