SH Spotlight Recording and Mastering Questions---Answered here. Any more?

I've been in so many studio situation where they listen at extreme loud levels for long periods of time and then think they can do a delicate mix. Ear fatigue can alter things immensely. If you can't hear right come back for another session.

Your work can live for a long time and if you're not happy with it you will be an unhappy camper every time you hear it. I know people want to get things done right away but in the long run nobody will care much if you took an extra day or two to get things right.

If you have a cold, things can be even worse.

 

Btw, I received my copy in the mail yesterday. I agree, that SH mastered compilation is sonically delicious.

 

How does that impact deadlines? Or, have you been doing this long enough to know how to factor this into your scheduling?

 

I guess at the end of the day... it's gotta be done right.

 

More like an audiophile loss? Think of all the MCA/Universal releases that could have been better.

 

Fair point.

 

A good example of MCA's mastering disaster are the Ultimate MasterDiscs series.... bright, bright, bright.

 

Steve did you ever lose your composure and go banannas on them back?

 

Steve, what differences might there be when mastering various genres of music? How might your process change if mastering, say, Rage Against the Machine for one assignment and Nat King Cole the next?

 

Not to speak for Mr. Hoffman, but I think he has made it clear that he looks for a prominent feature of the music, usually the vocal, and makes it sound as lifelike as possible no matter what the genre of music is. If he can't get a focus on, say, the vocal, he goes for the guitar or drums, and everything else falls in place.

 

Re tapes made at a recording session can they be baked more than once? I was reading the thread about Elvis's Way Down in the Jungle Room and the subject of having to bake a session reel to allow for playback and remixing came up.

 

You can bake a tape as many times as needed. When you do, you have a window in which to make your transfer of it.

 

Excellent. Thanks.

 

Just curious. How did anyone ever figure out " baking a tape" ?

 

Ampex was the primary manufacturer of the bad tape. No one knew it was going to break down in such a short time. Problem is, Ampex was a popular brand in the 70s. Maybe it was cheaper?

 

A question about splicing. Decades ago, I got pretty good, though still amateurish, at splicing RtR tapes and cassette tapes after that. It didn't matter how much care was taken or how little tape was sacrificed in the process, the slicing was always apparent as a fraction of the song is subject to a discrete gap. What was the trick at the studio to deal with this? I imagined it would involve some precise fading or EQ tricks?

 

Do any major labels (or minor ones who take pride in sound) record orchestra or chamber Performances in analog anyomre? Also jazz seems to always be digitally recorded.
Maybe I'm under-informed in this topic. I look at the new releases/recordings every month in my Stereophile and for 15 years I don't recall any classics or jazz as being analog. The pop/ rock seems to still be largely analog though.

 

I have a few question related to room acoustics.
I have observed that cinema theatres have a very dead acoustics. Surfaces and chairs are mainly sound absorbing, and reberveration is virtually unexistent. I thus assume that all reberveration we are supposed to hear is built into the sound track. Is it the same in recorded music (on a record or a CD)? Are listeners supposed to listen their records in a dead room? Or are records mixed/mastered with less reverberation, counting on the realistic acoustic conditions of the average listener? And same question on DVDs which are supposed to be heard at home and not in a theatre, are they mastered differently?
And a second question. I imagine that the mastering engineer perform its tweeks in a room whose acoustic characteristics will have a strong influence on the mastering decisions. I suppose that the ideal situation for the listener would be being in a room with similar acoustics than that of the mastering. Are mastering done on rooms trying to simulate the listening conditions? Are they different depending on the final user? (I mean, film soundtrack vs music record etc).
Many thanks

 

I always believed that physically cutting the tape in angle would provide the fades in/out for doing the job, but I never tested myself. Now I see I was wrong.

That's why I like this forum so much. I never stop learning