My Client wants no rolloff

[lucey]

Originally Posted by Bang

as a mastering engineer I couldn't disagree with this more. The mastering engineer shouldn't be translating any vision.. thats what MIXERS are for. The mastering engineer takes the mixer and producer's visions and makes any final necessary decisions to make the ultimate final product that will SOUND GOOD. To say they are translating a vision makes the process sound less transparent then it should be. And the beauty of good mastering is its transparency.

If you are hiring a mastering engineer, you are hiring them because you LIKE THEIR WORK. So if you like their work, you trust them to do their thing. By hassling them about something like a hi pass rolloff, you are NOT letting them do their thing. So the whole process is pointless.

Mastering Engineer as auteur? That's old school IMO. Excepting the physical chain, which is my sound, if I want to put my spin on a record I'll make my own music. Completing the vision of the artist is job one.

And really, there is no "transparency". It's always moving forward or backward, never sideways, never transparent.

[Dave Rose]

Give them two versions, one with and one without, then see which they prefer!

[Bang]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

I couldn't disagree with this more

This post is all about ego, in my opinion.

The only ego is the artist who is trying to tell the mastering engineer how to do his job. What other profession is this exceptable? Either you like what they are doing and you let them do it, or you hire someone else. Why disrupt their professional ear, taste, and workflow?

I recently was at a friend's house and his living room had beautiful faux texture painted walls. So I hired the painter who did his walls to paint mine. I showed him an example of what I wanted. When he started painting, I didn't get in his way, I didn't moan about certain issues, I let him paint! And it turned out great! I chose him because I liked his work, and trusted him to do the job.

If a client has a preference of how loud the project should be, or how bright or not bright, these are issues to be discussed. But when he starts telling you how to hi pass or not hi pass, this sounds pretty nuts to me.

This is not ego, this is professionalism.

[mixerguy]

Originally Posted by Bang

The only ego is the artist who is trying to tell the mastering engineer how to do his job. What other profession is this exceptable? Either you like what they are doing and you let them do it, or you hire someone else. Why disrupt their professional ear, taste, and workflow?

I recently was at a friend's house and his living room had beautiful faux texture painted walls. So I hired the painter who did his walls to paint mine. I showed him an example of what I wanted. When he started painting, I didn't get in his way, I didn't moan about certain issues, I let him paint! And it turned out great! I chose him because I liked his work, and trusted him to do the job.

If a client has a preference of how loud the project should be, or how bright or not bright, these are issues to be discussed. But when he starts telling you how to hi pass or not hi pass, this sounds pretty nuts to me.

This is not ego, this is professionalism.

Does the record producer (the person who may well have hired the mastering engineer) get to have an opinion, or a vote? Can they say what they want?

[Bang]

Originally Posted by mixerguy

Does the record producer (the person who may well have hired the mastering engineer) get to have an opinion, or a vote? Can they say what they want?

you can have a vote on certain aspects without telling him how to do his job... like I said there is a difference between "I want it as loud as record x and no brighter then record y" and "eq it like this..."