Traditional Mastering or Separation Mastering?

Ok. So you know that CD mastering is the final step before replication. You know that the order of the songs can be changed easily. Maybe some highs, mids, lows, or compression is used. Or we'll leave it flat, limit it a little, and bring up the level.

You've checked out some mastering procedures and you know that your music deserves to be taken seriously. But what the heck are these surprising differences... particularly with Separation Mastering?
 
Mastering began primarily as a transfer step from tape to master lacquer - a required step toward pressing vinyl records.  As more sophisticated mastering techniques developed, compression, EQ, limiting, de-essing, filtering, editing all became commonplace, since artists and labels are competitive for bigger, better sounding records. 
 
Today, traditional mastering can achieve better sound when the music is played on a variety of systems - from boom boxes to 10,000 watt nightclub systems, high-end mastering will soothe the savage beast (or bring it out, depending on what the client wants!). 

Some surprising Traditional Mastering differences are:

• Reduced vocal sibilance allows over-all clarity to be added to the entire track, without creating harsh jabs of high frequencies.  Sibilance was avoided in the days of vinyl and cassette tapes because it easily distorted.
• Careful sculpting of low frequencies can make bass notes more even and help prevent speaker distortion
  
• Vocals can be made to come forward or dip back into the mix, depending on the processing
  
• Enhanced width of instruments, room ambiance, reverb, tightness or warmth of certain instruments can be achieved with Mid-Side processing, as well as some phase correction of lower frequencies
  
• More consistent song-to-song levels... but also
  
• When we catch a slightly out-of-sync instruments on song beginnings or phrase beginnings, we can make improvements with skilled editing. 
  
• We can extend the sustain to the end of the song - for instance if the reverb tail is too short, we can clone a portion of the tail and make a graduated edit that seamlessly extends the ending.  In 99.9% of cases, our refinements are non-destructive, and we don't have an ego around our ideas -- we have pride in supporting your ideas and goals. 

The really good Separation Mastering stuff:

• Separation Mastering offers more powerful, flexible editing and refining options (check here)
  
• Equalization and distinction of instruments is more noticeable and clear
  
• Level correction can enhance intros, song-to-song levels, sections that need dynamic adjustments
  
• Multiband compression can be used for de-essing, removing harshness, tightening bass response and more
  
• Flaws hidden by "masking" of poor acoustics in the recording studio can be corrected
  
• Copy-and-paste solutions, cross-fades, waveform redraws, greater vocal intelligibility and more
• Split tracks makes EQ-by-section effortless.  If the chorus needs more muscle, it's easy! Etc.....

Know your budget, though, because these changes can take time. If you come into the mastering session prepared, your project will sound it's best, and you'll feel confident about it when it hits the market!

Is it better to bring in a stereo mix or a multitrack recording? -Adam
 
We find Separations to be the best format in almost all cases.  2-track stereo (particularly analog tape!) still sounds great, particularly with large budget mixing engineers at the helm.
 
If the vocal is too loud on the stereo mix can this be changed in mastering stereo 2 channels?
 
In some cases the blend can be evened out. If you have a song that you know you're unhappy with the vocal blend, make Separations.  Even if you only separate the instruments from the vocals, it's a great way to go and you have an instrumental mix already done!
 
If the timing of kick and bass isn't tight, can this be corrected in a stereo 2 channel mix?
 
Yes in some cases.  However, it isn't an adjustment that is applied throughout the entire song (unless you've brought in Separations). In traditional stereo mastering, it's more at entrances to phrases or in certain areas of the song. It's an editing technique and can work well, but if there are timing problems all over the song, then it's time to go back to the studio and try Beat Detective, or make Separations and we'll see what we can do.
 
Is the mixdown of Cubase SX or Pro Tools better?
 
DAWs are getting better sounding all the time - it will be interesting to see how 64 bit PCs will sound.  Check the big debate and an interesting comparison CD here. For mixing, I recommend making loop-back files (recording the mix back in to the DAW vs. a bounce) or dedicated CD burner (Masterlink is my favorite because it's 24 bit and makes 24 bit CDR files). If you're making Separations, it's best to record your mixes and Separations back into your computer.  Stay at the sample rate of your system (44.1k, 48k, 88.2k, 96k) and always make 24 bit (vs. 16 bit) stereo files.  Even more sonic improvement happens when you have better power chords going into your gear!

Digital and analog both have their
advantages... and surprises.
Here's an interesting story sent to me by email:
 
"I once bought some memory for my sampler and noticed it was a different brand from my existing memory, not expecting any difference at all I loaded the new memory and proceeded to sample some drum sounds that I was very familiar with. Immediately I heard a difference in sound almost as if the frequency extremes had been stretched.
 
Unfortunately, because the supplier had sent the wrong type of memory, some of the available memory was disabled. I had to reorder the correct memory type. When I loaded the new correct memory into the sampler the sampler returned to its normal restricted frequency extremes sound, a kind of compressed sound that is typical of that model of sampler.
 
Up to this day no one can explain this and the manufacturer says it is physically impossible for memory to affect sound as it only stores digital 0s and 1s. I even did some research on the Internet to find out if any variable can affect the performance of memory e.g. heat, humidity, magnetism, cold etc...To this day it remains a mystery???" - Quin

This illustrates two songs that have been loaded into Sonic Solutions, the beginnings and endings cleaned up, and put in order for a CD single.
	*Load-in source *Edits and level corrections *Final CD output
*Load-in source The bigger this blue waveform (either upward or downward), the more signal level. The peaks reach the top of the "digital ceiling". *Edits and level corrections Each red line indicates an edit. In this case, we were taking down the volume of individual cymbal crashes. A nice result of this was that the vocal sounded louder because the cymbals weren't as distracting. *Final CD output After processing, notice the "fatter" waveform - this means the sound has more over-all level, and it is fuller, cleaner. Keep in mind, our goal isn't to make this wave "shape" - the goal is to make the music sound better over a variety of speaker systems, have appropriate level, and keep the dynamic impact of the music in tact.

Contact us if we may be of further assistance.

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