Shouldn't there be another word for Mastering, if you are self mastering.....

[Martin Kantola]

Masterbation?

Martin

[Virtalahde]

Originally Posted by Martin Kantola

Masterbation?

Nothing wrong with trying out a few things yourself.

[wildpark]

another words i use are

- light mastering
- fastfood mastering
- assistant mastering
- easy mastering

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by Doughboy

curious on your opinion of this.....I've been writing and recording for 35 years now, and thru trial and tons of error, I think I do a decent job of improving the quality of my songs by "self mastering". Howtellever, I still refer to my songs as being "self mastered" when the subject comes up.

Mastering....(OOOKAAAAY...SELF MASTERING).....is my favorite part though....I just love it....playing with the sound......but....I am humbled by the knowledge and ears of a true Mastering Engineer.

There's nothing wrong with the term "self-mastering". But I've seen very few mix engineers able to pull it off as well as a talented, experienced, independent mastering engineer bringing in a fresh ear to the project as well. But some come very close. I had a client come in who had self-mastered a single and wanted to see if I could do better. He did very very well. I was able to produce a cleaner, more open sound (less congested) on the loudest passages with a bit more space and depth. But considering that I was mastering outside the box and he had mastered totally digitally inside Pro Tools, the differences were quite small----once a 1 dB loudness difference between my master and his were adjusted out, the apparent tonal differences were minor and I have to say he did a great job of remaining objective about his own mix. Nevertheless, I'd say this was the exception.

Most mix engineers are still mixing in their heads when they head for "mastering".

[J.S.Vega III]

Finalising (or finalizing)?

[Doughboy]

Okay...now we're getting somewhere..I like alot of these names.....except the Masterbation one.....not that I really have anything against the name, but should someone ask me what I will be doing all after noon, and I answer them with that.....it could just be one of those uncomfortable silent moments........., I hadn't even thought of calling it Finalizing....hmmmmm!

My personal take on the whole thing is, that I am a songwriter attempting to get my song to sound as good as possible. Not an engineer attempting to get the best possible "sound" that the song could have. But....since I'm not makin' much money at it.....enjoying it is the next best thing.

It took me a long time....but....I can definately make a song sound better. I just can't do as good as a pro, but....it's better.

[tribeofenki]

AutoMaster SelfMaster OnanMaster One Man Mastering... this good ??

[surflounge]

As my mastering engineer told me loudly:
"don't touch it, don't even do any fades. What are you paying me for?"

Then I realized that bringing my mixes to the mastering engineer was a highlight of the process. Plus, I can tell clients that they aren't paying me for mastering. They are paying me for tracking. It shakes more money out of their pockets (sometimes I have to turn them upside down and shake hard), but it defines my job. They know more dough is required for mastering.

[bgrotto]

Whudabout:

"AMATEURING"?

[jayfrigo]

Mix bus processing.

[macc]

Schmastering?

Blastering?

Plastering?

And in some cases.... Disastering.

[Peter Oxford]

"Shouldn't there be another word for Mastering, if you are self mastering....."






Self-mastery is a recognised word to be found in the Oxford English Dictionary.

As are the words Masterate, Masterdom, Mastership and unfortunately..... Masterless!

Mastering of course, greatly benefits from a large room stripped of everything irrelevant.

Moreover most ‘Artists’ and ‘Producers’ become emotionally attached to particular aspects of their ‘Creations’ and are thus rarely the best individuals to make an objective appraisal of the subject matter.

Combine a highly subjective viewpoint with less than ideal Reference Monitors, DAC’s, Compressors and EQ’s and it’s a clear recipe for a below achievable potential result at best, and an unmitigated disaster at worst. For this, there is clear evidence.

However, sometimes when a composition and mix has a great many components, and those have been highly automated over a long period of time and absolutely optimised to their full potential in a strictly controlled environment, the active participation of the connoisseur involved is matchless.

There have been certain big stars over the years with deeply competitive natures and the willingness of a Record Company to indulge them. Add the availability of absolutely top flight equipment, an experienced engineering staff and almost limitless budgets, and I have known some tremendously good results.

All this is very well and good, on the small number of occasion’s it happens to occur. But remarkable an achievement as this might be, it entirely discounts a whole raft of technical disciplines, that strongly under pin and mightily facilitate the Professional Mastering Engineer. Would they for instance, interface optimally with the Pressing Plant?

And so it’s no way to run an efficient business, and some of it has been more about ego than anything else.

I actually believe Commercial Recording Studios and Mastering Rooms should be efficiently run.

Turn a good profit, and have very little to do with highly romanticised ideals.

Much as I sympathise with such a misty view.

It’s a clear road to ruin.





P

[Bob Olhsson]

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

Mix bus processing.

Exactly. And there's nothing wrong with it provided you match the levels up and make sure that you aren't just hyping yourself with more volume.

[bob katz]

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

Mix bus processing.

Bix mus Prepostering (hic). Happy New Year...

[NorseHorse]

Yes, but what about those of us that craft live albums on a regular basis?

I primarily do live classical recordings and I regularly have to work on creating a final CD with proper fades, gain automation, adjusting times between tracks, minor EQ adjustments, gentle compression, etc. That's mastering, right? But I feel like there needs to be a second step with another set of ears and monitors to truly call it a "mastered" recording, so I don't call it mastering. What should I be calling it?

[Audiop]

Originally Posted by NorseHorse

Yes, but what about those of us that craft live albums on a regular basis?

What should I be calling it?

Producing a record?


/Peter

[drmmrboy]

One of my favs:

"Fly by night mastering"

[jinksdingo]

I use Finalizing for one-off CD/DVD or Rendering for MP3s.

Mastering is an exact Science. There is an Art to it.

From a master duplicates are pressed

If you are optimizing a collection of program material into a cohesive integration from which duplicates will be produced you are indeed Mastering.

Whether your efforts are applauded or not is moot.

Even if your efforts are shoddily amateurish it is still by definition mastering if duplicates are made from such.

Now we have a clue to the degradation of quality production of late indie releases.

[Sounds.is]

Louderning

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by jayfrigo

Mix bus processing.

A lot of the sarcastic/derisive responses in this thread made me smile/giggle a little bit, but this is the most plain and straight term proposed. I'm giving it a +1.

- c

[wheatus]

I used to.... but free internet porn makes Sonoma run slow as f&^@.

brendan b brown
wheatus.com

[24-96 Mastering]

Originally Posted by wheatus

I used to.... but free internet porn makes Sonoma run slow as f&^@.

brendan b brown
wheatus.com

LOL

[kjg]

I agree with jayfrigo and Silver Sonya.
There already is a better term for this and that is mix bus processing.

[Mantik]

I dont think that "self-mastering" fits very well, because its the audio-track which is mastered, not the man who made the mix. its sounds like someone is putting himself a fresh haircut and is dressing himself up very well ("darling, give me 5 minutes for selfmastering until we go")

i also think that "mix bus processing" does not fit very well too, because this is a very very famous term used for describing bus-processing while mixing and pre-bouncing.

so - mastering is mastering.

what about "insource mastering" or something like this? - i am not a native english speaker..

[kjg]

Originally Posted by Mantik

i also think that "mix bus processing" does not fit very well too, because this is a very very famous term used for describing bus-processing while mixing and pre-bouncing.

whether you do this processing pre or post bouncing only depends on your computer/hardware resources and workflow. it doesn't really change what you are doing though. same room, same speakers and same engineer putting a few plugs/inserts on the 2bus. that's mix bus processing if you ask me.

I do see what you mean. just haven't heard any better term so far and mix buss processing is pretty much what it comes down to - it is in effect equivalent. I also like the term quasi-mastering. "playing" mastering engineer with your own mix

regards,
kjg

[johnlink]

Originally Posted by jinksdingo

From a master duplicates are pressed

If you are optimizing a collection of program material into a cohesive integration from which duplicates will be produced you are indeed Mastering.

Based on the first statement above (which I believe is correct, by definition), in the second statement we could replace "are optimizing a collection of program material into a cohesive integration" by "prepare the master". Thus if you prepare the master from which duplicates will be produced you are indeed mastering.

[NorseHorse]

I "prepare the master" all the time. But the projects aren't large enouch to warrant a second studio or engineer.

Unmastered masters?

[Doughboy]

Well...."Mix Buss Proscessing" definately LOSES. That's about second to the guy that said it should be called "Masterbation". but.....I like Quasi Mastering. I think I'm still gonna go with "Finalizing". Hmmmmm.....maybe I'll just stick with calling it "Mastering". If anyone else wants to add the prefix "Piss poor" then so be it.

[Bob Olhsson]

A huge part of mastering is one's impression upon hearing the mix for the very first time.