My quest for knowledge in the production game has led me into many different studios. I've worked with a grip of studio engineers and musicians. Their tips and contributions, in order to achieve maximum audio dynamics, have had a lasting effect with my approach to recording. However, the last step of production called "mastering" or "post-production" is probably the most crucial aspect in the audio field... Let's review the three steps before we continue:

Pre-Production
(tracking samples, loops, & instruments on 4-track)

Mixing
(recording levels & sequencing)

Mastering
(final product)

I should note that Step #3 is a phase that should be left in the hands of experienced, well-trusted audio technicians.
Step #3 can make or break your recording.

It's like this folks....

A bowl of corn flakes with milk is a good basic meal to start off the morning. It simply satisfies your hunger, it's nothing really special, you move on and look forward to lunch later that day. Now...imagine the same bowl of corn flakes with milk...but, you add slices of banana, sprinkle a few red raspberries on it, and add a tablespoon of sugar. Does that sound like a better breakfast? Wouldn't you enjoy the taste even more? Same reasoning applies to post-production. Mastering IS the fruit & sugar on the cereal, it's the gravy on the mashed potatoes, and it's the nail in the coffin...sweeter sounding, better flavored product with the aid of:

Final mixes from the studio are transferred to computer hard drive. The music is processed, re-equalized, compressed, maximized, and transferred to compact disk...ready for mass production.

Because of the importance of this last procedure, the really good audio technicians can command anywhere from 50 to 120 bucks an hour. Word to all artists, if you want top quality pro sounds; don't hold back the cash on this last step! Don't just send final mixes for mastering to some Joe Audio Pro in Anywheresville U.S.A. either, do some research around your local area. Make an appointment and check out the person's experience and the quality of the mastering equipment. (sound card, memory space, & available plug-ins) It's your hard earned sweat, blood, & tears (and money dammit) that went into the track... be there when the mastering is taking place!

The time it takes to master a song depends on many factors. So...I'll make a blanket statement...an hour per track.

Hope I didn't scare y'all off with that blanket statement! My point is, so many variables can occur with "what needs to be done" in post-production, it's almost on a case-by-case type basis. Some tracks take only 15 minutes; other tracks can be a pain in the ass and take 2 hours to complete. The fact remains in post-production...the tighter the final mix, the less room for error in mastering. The tighter the pre-production (how well the producer initially recorded the tracks and what equipment was used in the recordings) the tighter the final mix. It all works together, each step requires different trains of thought and areas of expertise.

For all the folks reading along, I decided it would be beneficial to interview two audio technicians. Hopefully you will be able to grasp some of the technical jargon, and realize just how important post-production really is in this production game:

J-Row a.k.a. Jethro combines aspects of DJing, pre-production, a trained musical background playing guitar and keyboards, and an ear for mastering techniques to build and finalize each track. Because he is all of the above, yet the master of none, J-Row simply describes himself as "alcoholic idiot savant."

Tack: You take a rather unique approach in preparation for final mixing and mastering...can you give the readers a clue...without losing them in a web of technical terms?

Jethro: Experimentation is the key. I'll take a simple sound, twist it, sequence it, and see if it fits. I'm not planning shit out...like...I'm some Chopin working on a piano line. I'll take some kind'a sucking sound, some weird shit, and see if it works with what I already have...Experiment.

Tack: And the computer programs you use?

Jethro: Impulse Tracker, a DOS based program, Sound Forge and Acid. The Sound Forge program is my multi-purpose joint. I'll take a sound, mess with it in Sound Forge, and make it personal...make it MY piece of clay. That's the first element. I'll move that sound to Impluse Tracker. The Impulse Tracker program helps me draw it out...like the first draft of a term paper. Then I'll take it back to Sound Forge for extra clean up. I'll move the track to the Acid program for vocals to form a triangle. It's a non-linear approach 'cause I use all three programs to make a wall of sound. Each part ties into the other; I can go back and forth. I use Winamp as the translator between these programs, 'cause of the DOS based nature of Impulse Tracker.

Tack: How long does it take to make a track?

Jethro: The process of building a track can take months. It's like...I make this room, a really cool room, and I want to build a house and make it a really dope house. It's somewhat planned, the beat hits, you build around that 'till you make a solid fort. Point is, every step of the way, every phase of the track is getting reverbed, gated, and equalized. These important, tedious tasks all lead up to the final mix and master.

Jethro @ the Que bar in Iowa City Kicking it live as a member of the Bad Fathers

Tack: And the vocals?

Jethro: Vocal engineering is a bitch 'cause I'm using my triangle method, and I'm using all available plug-ins to make the vocals sound lovely. It takes hours of repeated listening to make it right.

Tack: How do you approach mastering when you're given a final mix from another studio?

Jethro: When I'm given a final mix, I'll start with various compression chambers 'cause I'm still learning. I've gott'en tips from other engineers and they all say the same thing, "use those compression chambers."

Tack: Can you explain, or give some background on what compression is?

Jethro: Compression basically lowers the peaks and raises the valleys. It makes the sounds more consistent from beginning to end. With computer compressors, you can tell it exactly what to do. Once I learn the complexities and capabilities of this tricky compression thing...it's over.

Tack: What comes after compression?

Jethro: I use stereo expansion. I believe that it's important to expand the sound and fill the speaker. However, if you over expand it...it's going to sound like shit. EQing (equalization) comes after stereo expansion. EQ the lows to much and it will muffle the bass, EQ the highs too much and it will bring out the hiss, EQing isn't learned overnight. Next, I use ultra maximization to boost the overall volume. But, before I take the last step, the maximization step, it's all about doing subtle things to make the track sound better than before. Then Blam! Maximize it. Done. End of story.

Tack: Wanna another beer?

Jethro: If you're getting up...yea, sure.

Kent Williams a.k.a. The Chaircrusher is a living legend in the electronic music scene in Iowa City. Techno, House, Hip-Hop and everything in between, if his hands or ears have been on the cut, it's a quality sounding beat. I had a little chit-chat with "the godfather of sound" concerning the delicate process of mastering.

Tack: Hey Kent...what's up? How ya' do'en?

Kent: Oh, I'm working right now, what cha' want?

Tack: I'm doing this article on mastering, got a few?

Kent: Yea...go ahead.

Tack: Let's say you're presented with a final mix from the studio on a DAT tape, you're now handed the job of mastering the track, what's your mental approach to the recording?

Kent: I want to enhance the recording and make the listener really hear the music. I grew up in the vinyl age, with terrible record players and bad speakers. I always had the sensation that I was listening to music through a barrier of imperfections--surface noise, tape hiss, scratchy records and distortion.

Tack: What has been the most important changes in audio reproduction since the vinyl age?

Kent: The advent of the CD, and more importantly, the advancement in overall recording techniques. The digital bits on the CD, come out the speakers, so the task of mastering becomes more focused on presenting the music as best you can.

Tack: Ok...so you get a joint on a DAT tape, now what?

Kent: When I get music from another studio, I first listen to it on my studio monitors, after that, on my home stereo, then in my car stereo. My goal is to really hear what the artist is trying to present-- what I'd hear if they were in the room with me, presenting the music with nothing between us. When I get an idea of what the music is-- as opposed to the recording-- I can then listen for things that get in the way of hearing the music. When I know what's getting in the way, I can work to get rid of it.

Tack: Cool...could you map out the steps?

Kent: I hope you write fast.

EQUALIZATION
Most of what I do in mastering is to some subtle changes to the spectral content with equalizers and compressors. A lot of recordings come to me with rumbly, boomy bass. To fix that I use a multiband compression plugin to reduce the dynamic range in the bass frequencies, and then do subtle cuts in those frequencies until the bass sits better in the mix.

A 'boxy' or 'nasal' quality indicates that the midrange frequencies are too prominent. Often a very gentle cut-- 1.5 or less -- will improve the sound radically. 'Harsh' or 'piercing' type sounds indicate high frequencies are too loud, and a 'dull' or 'muffled' sound comes from the high frequencies being too quiet.

An important thing to remember and realize is that an 'even' mix-- a mix where no frequency band dominates-- is going to work best in the widest variety of playing environments. If you're a producer and you really like bass, it's tempting to really jack up the bass in your mix. But, that ends up sounding awful on boombox speakers. It's better that the bass be present, but not overpowering. Keep in mind that listeners always have some control over tonal balance-- tone controls on a radio, all the way up to a 40 band graphic EQ on their stereo. If they want more bass-- an if the bass is present in the recording-- they can always tweak it up themselves.

COMPRESSION & LIMITING
Compression and limiting both do essentially the same thing: reduce the dynamic range
(dynamic range is the difference between the loudest and softest sounds in a recording)

CDs have a theoretical dynamic range of 96 decibels. No recording actually uses the entire dynamic range. A signal 96 dB down from full volume is inaudible except in a completely silent room. If you've ever tried to listen to classical music in a car, you know that the softest parts of the music can't be heard; so you have to constantly ride the volume control...compression is like an automatic volume control plug-in.

It's almost always good to compress a mix during mastering-- only rarely will I hear a recording that doesn't need a little bit. If I don't compress a mix at all, the private/home studio recordings will sound too quiet in comparison to commercial recordings.

Limiting differs from compression in one important way-- a compressor always takes some time to start clamping a signal, so you will get peaks that sneak through. A limiter does just one thing- prevent signals from exceeding a certain volume level. Especially in digital recordings, there is a concept of 'full loudness'-- once you get to a sample value of 32,767 you're done. By clamping the peaks in a recording, you can raise the volume of the track. And louder is better-- up to a point.

Basically, I want your independently released masterpiece to be as loud as that commercial CD that's in a listener's player-- otherwise it will sound weak by comparison. Plus, only loud signals take advantage of all the bits in the digital sample. A recording that peaks at -12dB is only using 14 bits of resolution.

When it comes to mastering, I usually compress lightly and use a limiter to bring down the peaks. The goal is to get the average loudness of the track at or near the 'major label' or 'commercial' loudness range....between -14 & -12 dB RMS.

EXOTICA
There are a number of other tools that I don't always use, but find valuable for some recordings-- a stereo image widener, an exciter, and bass enhancer.

The stereo image widener basically emphasizes stereo separation by taking a bit of the signal that's the same in both channels and raising the volume of what's different. Some recordings with a 'cramped' feeling seem to benefit from this. Too much stereo widening is bad though; you get a Karaoke effect, where signals (like vocals) start disappearing from the middle.

An exciter essentially introduces a little bit of high frequency distortion. It can really make a muffled recording sound brighter and clearer. Too much exciter can sound really harsh.

Bass enhancers work by doing more than just raising the volume on the bass-- they either synthesize some sub-bass from your track, or they add some overtones characteristic of deep bass, or both. Any of these can really wreck a track if you use too much of the effect, but they can be very useful when employed in moderation.

Tack: So what makes a well mastered CD or record?

Kent: One that is loud enough, has good overall tonal balance, and the CD doesn't contain any glitches, skips, and digital clips.

Tack: Could you explain to the readers of this article why mastering is so important?

Kent: Most people these days want to do every step from beginning to end. But, I really feel like that can be a mistake. A mastering engineer puts a fresh set of ears on your music, and often they can hear and correct problems a producer has ignored, due to the repeated times a producer has listened to the track. Whether it's me or a high priced mastering engineer, we can make your tracks sound better.

Tack: Kick some pre-mastering tips.

Kent: Before the mastering stage, a producer or track maker is in the driver's seat. However, please remember to give the mastering engineer some space to work with:

Don't compress your final mix. I can always add compression, but I can't take it out...ummm...well...I can sort of take out final mix compression, by a process known as expansion...but, that trick can have undesirable side effects.

Try to make everything you care about in the track audible. Having a good mix means that I don't have to try and bring up the volume on an instrument with EQ. In a nutshell...the less I have to do with EQ, the better.

Record and deliver a 24-bit recordings if possible. Converting down to 16 bits (CD's are 16 bits) is the LAST step in the mastering process.

Clearly label everything! A part of the mastering job I haven't mentioned is track sequencing and order. Unless it's totally clear on what songs you want where, you're not going to get what you want and need.

Tack: Thanks Kent! Now get back to work!

Kent: That's what you should be doing instead of drinking every night.

Tack: What can I say? I may kill brain cells on a daily basis...but, only the weak ones!

Kent: If you worked as hard on your music as you did with your drinking habits, you might go somewhere.

Tack: Word.

KICKING KNOWLEDGE SINCE 1997