Posting Samples of your work on your mastering site - Necessary?

[MASSIVE Master]

4. after you're done, make your "before" sound worse with a tinny EQ, by adding noise, by narrowing the stereo image and if you really want to get into it, slow/pitch it down by 0.3% or so.

I actually found a place once that had some nice, lush, wide "after" samples - And the "before" samples were mono.

[Sunbreak Music]

Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master

I actually found a place once that had some nice, lush, wide "after" samples - And the "before" samples were mono.

K-stereo?

[Silver Sonya]

I'm against it.

- c

[24-96 Mastering]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

I'm against it.

Best post ever! Maximum message, minimum words.

[lucey]

What is there to be "against"?

And are you against advertising in general, because that's all it is. Aimed at a certain target, it's a conversation starter, nothing more.

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by lucey

What is there to be "against"?

And are you against advertising in general, because that's all it is. Aimed at a certain target, it's a conversation starter, nothing more.

Brian, you know you have my utmost professional respect; I just think I might differ from you a little bit here.

To me, aesthetically, it seems a bit tacky --- this is a personal "feel" thing for me --- and I also think it encourages a somewhat reductive notion of the work that we do.

There are two basic phenomena that I generally resist: (A) anything that makes mastering seem more glamorous or mystical or "magical" than it is, or (B) anything that reduces or over-simplifies mastering. You would think A and B would be roughly antithetical to each other, but it's remarkable how often they are combined.

I totally respect an opposite or alternate point of view, it's just not for me. Y'know? This is just my take on the matter.

I should have been clearer: I'm against it for me.

(Parenthetically, I also find it remarkable that clients consent to having their work exhibited in this kind of before-and-after way. Seems a bit unflattering to me, but perhaps people take it as an any-press-is-good-press mindset?)

- c

[lucey]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

Sould have been clearer: I'm against it for me.

Fair enough. A couple of points in response to your broad and somewhat meandering (no offense) implications in that last post ...

On exposure of a mix:
A mix is a mix. It's usually different and always less than the processed final product as it sits in the eventual record, even if untouched, which is rare. The mixes I put up 2-3 years ago were from people happy to offer them up as they were so pleased with the mastering as a whole there was no shame in exposing some small part of what went into it. They were now identified with the result of the whole process, the master (premaster) ... not their step in it, and certainly never ashamed of the mixes as "unflattering", or they would have remixed them. There is not some group of great mixers, and then everyone else should feel bad to be exposed by what mastering did for their work. It's a team effort. Many people feel like they did all they could, and in fact, that's all there is to it! On another level, some people are identified with the live act of music more than any recording, no matter how great they think the recording is, so again ... a mix is a mix.

On processing:
It's not a popular notion with some, but mastering is very much about processing, and has been for decades. It's the part where I make a living, I know that much. If a mix needs a little we do a little, but the assumption is that some additional processing will probably take place at mastering. It's not an insult to the craft of mastering records as whole units to admit the fact that each record is ALSO a collection of singles that all need to be maxed out while they still flow into the greater whole, and are presented on tested and labeled media, etc. There is no separation, no contest, and no insult to mastering, to speak of singles and records and technicals all in the same breath. A record is a more complex thing than a single, for sure ... but it's no 'better' or no less a mastering job than a single or a dance remix. Mastering is not all about processing for sure, but the experience of interacting with a ME as it pertains to their processing is why people come back or not. Mastering is not just a social thing, and not based on some generic leveling processes, but happens because of the talent in the engineers hands and the interaction with that talent from the talent in the artists or producer ears, add it up and you get a result. I don't downplay that at all, and you shouldn't either. If it was not a talent and relationship based activity, all being important in some balance, HAR BAL would suffice.

On the word "magic":
I don't know what your use of magic has to do with a discussion about mastering records or processing singles, but since you brought it up in this context let me please clarify my use of that word ... the magic is in the music (TM!). It's not in the engineering, or even in the artists. Music is about inspiration, and inspiration is from another place ... artists channel inspiration, engineers present the result of that channeling and some arranging flatteringly and toward a sonic and often commercial vision of some sort, the audience world has a resonance with it to some degree or another, and off you go. So just to clarify that word in my use, I'm the gardener not the magic!




And finally ... the practical way I work is to do a single first, and then build the record around that approved template ... so singles are a launchpad ... for the communication, that makes the relationship, that makes the record as a whole ... singles are not something to downplay or something that takes away from what mastering "is", they are a building block to bigger things.

[Silver Sonya]

Everything in your post is totally legit. No arguments.

Btw, totally forgot you have the word "magic" in the name of your studio. My use of the word "magic" was not referring to you or to anything you said. Total coincidence. Put it aside. And you're right, it was a meandering point.

Meandering: that's my steez, man!



- c

[JCM]

Originally Posted by MASSIVE Master

I actually found a place once that had some nice, lush, wide "after" samples - And the "before" samples were mono.

I think I may have stumble upon it recently. To top it off , it is a "free" service.