Mistakes on the master - How do the big studios cover their ass?!

[Darius van H]

This must happen. A mistake in the CD text, a glitch in the audio or a change that was not done.

I'd like to know what kind of steps studios like Sterling take to cover themselves. At these places the masters are made and checked not by the main guys but by production engineers. So if somedody writes Beyonse instead of Beyonce in the CD text and 200,000 copies get pressed up, you could be looking at serious implications.

Basically i'm asking: do the biggies have some kind of legal thing that shifts responsibility back to the label / artist?

I was thinking, once the master is made, one could bounce out wav files from it and email that (along with the PQ list including CD text) to the client, basically saying "we've done our best to check it but the last responsibilty falls to you".

The reason i ask all this is i find the idea of passing the duties of master making to an assistant rather a scary proposition!

[Online-Mastering]

Hi Darius,

we do it with every master exactly as you proposed. Delivery to client who HAS to check and give his final OK. We have this in our 'General Terms and Conditions'.

Arne

[Cellotron]

It's called a reference approval. In order to completely cya the client MUST approve the FINAL reference version - and the master must be verified to be identical to the reference approved. Any shortcut other than this can lead to even a small potential for a problem - so if the client wants to proceed without approving a final reference then a signed waiver would be in order.

Best regards,
Steve Berson

[Darius van H]

Ok, so how would you generate this reference approval (I know how I'd do it, just interested in the methods of others)?

[finetuner]

I know many try to cover this issue in their terms and conditions.

However, i wonder if any studio will take legal steps against a client involving a mistake made by the (mastering) engineer.
Sounds like a recipe to lose that client forever if you ask me...

What i'm saying is that in practice you'd try to come to an arrangement and take at least part of your own responsibility.

Of cause pointing to client's responsibility in your terms, may make the settlement less painful. Should it ever happen.

[Darius van H]

Originally Posted by finetuner

I know many try to cover this issue in their terms and conditions.

However, i wonder if any studio will take legal steps against a client involving a mistake made by the (mastering) engineer.
Sounds like a recipe to lose that client forever if you ask me...

Pieter, if a mastering studio made a mistake with the master, why would they take legal action against the client?............surely it would be the other way around!

[tonmeister]

often it's a bit murky who the client actually is.
Is it the bill payer, the label, manager, producer, or band?
Unless someone actually signs something, it can be unclear who is responsible for approval.
as per the other recent thread Customer not paying after approving masters
one band member disputes that the CD was approved after the other one said OK
seems too easy to have a "he said, she said" situation

[Rappinghood]

Originally Posted by finetuner

I know many try to cover this issue in their terms and conditions.

However, i wonder if any studio will take legal steps against a client involving a mistake made by the (mastering) engineer.
Sounds like a recipe to lose that client forever if you ask me...

What i'm saying is that in practice you'd try to come to an arrangement and take at least part of your own responsibility.

Of cause pointing to client's responsibility in your terms, may make the settlement less painful. Should it ever happen.

I can only recall 2 times anything has ever come up - both times a mistake had been made at my studio, and the CD had gone either into production or was already on the shelves. Both times the guy at the record company had not listened to his reference CD (which has an advisory note about how it has to be approved before production etc etc).

So, as harsh as it may sound, it's not remotely the fault of the mastering studio. The original mistake was (and we readily admitted it and corrected it on a new master), but anything that happens with the disc after it leaves the studio is not our responsibility. The most awkward thing is if it happens with a regular client, with whom the studio has a good relationship. It means having to be a lot more diplomatic about the whole thing, with a view to maintaining a good working relationship.

[Jules]

So in the late 80's I was managed by a big management company in London, I was also producing one of their acts. So I get a message on my answering machine from the management co.. I got the feeling something bad had happened...

So I call up and say "I get the feeling I am in some sort of trouble...!!"

They said "Yeah, you are, we just got the 12 inch (extended single edit version) test pressing back and you cut the same verse in twice!"

Oops!

Had to be re done... My fault..But I wasn't charged for making the error...

Embarrassing...

[Thomas W. Bethe]

I have a good friend who is a mastering engineer and he has 2500 CDs in his garage because he made a mistake on the master CD and flipped two songs so the song order on the back of the CD does not agree with the song order on the CD. His boss made him pay for the 2500 CDs (only the CDs not the jewel box or printing) and he has them sitting in his garage. He learned a lot from that.

I have a project in house that has been going on for about three months and I am still waiting for them to do the final approval so I can send them the master CD. No problems it is just a lot of other things that are going on. When they literally sign off on the project they are certifying that they have listened to it, and have checked the timings and the order of the songs and at that point I am basically free and clear of any problems since the onus is on them.

One thing that I have learned over the years is to get EVERYTHING in writing from the start of the project. That way there are no surprises later on.

[finetuner]

Originally Posted by Darius van H

Pieter, if a mastering studio made a mistake with the master, why would they take legal action against the client?............surely it would be the other way around!

I didn't express myself correctly.
What i meant was how far the studio would go into defending itself, in case the client is taking legal steps (worst case scenario).

[24-96 Mastering]

It gets more complicated with formats that the client is not able to proof.

I paid a re-pressing of an SACD recently where I f**ked something up on the master. That was especially annoying since I took out insurance to cover that case ... but it turns out my insurance guy messed up and that case was not covered (had it checked by my lawyer).

Very, very annoying. And insurance that would cover such a case is apparently very, very expensive. So I'm wondering if there is any solution to the problem. Can anyone authoring SACD (or other formats that can't really be proofed by the client) post on how they deal with the inherent risk?