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Musings: Producers | Style | Mastering | Credits
What it really means is that after you get your final mixes, you hand them (and your money) over to some out-of-studio mastering house, where someone who you must blindly trust puts their interpretation of how your stuff should sound into your music. And while they're at it, they edit and sequence your songs to run cleanly on a CD. Now some people do have a knack for making albums sound a lot more like what people in certain markets want to hear -- people like Bernie Grundman, who had 40 of the year's top 100 Billboard songs go through him about three years ago. And then there are some people who just want you to believe they're Bernie Grundman. Don't go blindly for mastering. Remember, your sound is going to change in mastering, so if you like what you've got, think twice. Another thing mastering can do is make your stuff really loud. That's important to a lot of people, but not to everybody. Sometimes dynamic headroom is more important. Sometimes I will tell you, "This is going to need mastering." Sometimes I can make a master that should be left alone, and I'd tell you that, too. You can do whatever you want. But remember, it's not set in stone that everything goes to mastering. By the way, I do mastering for hire, and also editing, and sometimes I even master my own products. |
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Continue the tour: Credits
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"Mastering" has become the most bloated,
abused term in the production chain.