How does the "Masteree" (mastering engineer) know how a performance SHOULD sound?

How does the "Masteree" know how a performance SHOULD sound?

I was reading elsewhere a while back where an obviously stoopid person was complaining about current re-masters and how "all they did was turn up the treble".

Chuckling to myself over what a chucklehead he was, I dismissed his statement immediately.

But it's come back to haunt me. I know nothing about what it takes to 'remaster' an album (or CD).

How does a person know what it should sound like? There are so many possible variables, it staggers the mind.

And, assuming you get all those variables tacked down to a gnat's ass, what about good old problems with the original? Like a capstan motor running a bit too slow, so the pitch is off, that kind of thing.

 

Re: How does the "Masteree" know how a performance SHOULD sound?

Such a simple question and yet that's what it's all about. I'd love to hear from the Lizard King......

 

Well, I would go here first:

http://www.netassoc.net/dougspage/Interviews.htm

And start with #3.

 

I can't open the link Angel.

 

Go to Steve's homepage and click on "INTERVIEW ARCHIVE" at the top right of the screen.

 

The mix itself should tell the mastering engineer how the song should sound. Most songs are mixed over many hours and sometimes even days. A good mix engineer will usually take a mix to the point where all that is needed in the mastering stage is very small tweeks. Most of the time, unless I've screwed up somewhere, when I look at the eq settings it seems kind of silly. There's a boost of 1/2 dB here, a cut of 1/4 dB there and maybe a light touch of 1/2dB of compression. It doesn't sound like much but it makes a huge difference when you have a great mastering engineer.

There are some salvage cases out there. There's a great interview with Steve where he talks about doing the Mamas and the Papas disc. In that case Steve felt like he had to do some intensive fixng to get the tracks listenable.

Other than that, unless it is requested or bloody obvious the track sucks, the mastering engineer shouldn't play, as Steve calls it, Mastering God.

 

There it is. The answer to my question.

The art is in finding that germ and allowing it to be heard. Who gives a **** if it DOES involve boosting the treble a bit?

Would you fault Van Gogh for using the color blue?