Calling all amateur/professional mastering engineers!

[JamesPhilipKing]

I'm currently doing research for an essay about factors that have shaped the role of a mastering engineer, if you have an opinion about any of these questions or experience in the field it would be great to hear from you!

- How has the role of a mastering engineer changed in the last 15 years?

- Is anyone planning to forge a career purely as a mastering engineer?

- Have the expectations of bands changed towards the mastering process?

- Do we still need professional mastering engineers?

- How has the internet/advances in technology affected mastering?

- What is going to happen to this area of the music industry in the next 10 years?

Thanks for reading! Please post a reply!

 

[TheMusicProducer]

1: It's suddenly about getting shit loud. It has pros and cons when you really think about it though...When we say, Ted Jensen loud (not saying Death Magnetic and all) but like his Nickelback records...It is loud, and fucking full. Listening to it at the same db of an older cd, the new one sounds fatter. The downside, is kids around us, trying to pushh for shit to Match this big records and for the posthardcore kids, the sturgis loudness...and killing quality and any trace of dynamics along the way.

2: No, having the option of servicing mixing and mastering will be my thing

3: Nowadays, bands aren't looking for a great mastered CD, or their own great shine to a track...their looking to sound like other people.

4: Yes of course we do! I think Sturgis, Crummett, Mizell and others with such reputation is starting to lose the "need" of a ted jensen master (lets face it, its what 70% of mainstreamers want when they think mastering). Now im straying towards the mix ends but it is a good example. Sturgis : "Let's Get It - Digital Spaces" New age of music? I can see shit like that on the radio.

5: this ones self explanatory...forums like this (for learning and information <3 )...and easier to access vsts and hardware even.

6: No idea, only time will tell. I'd stay we'd still have mastering engineers around.

Hope this helps!

Regards

Tim

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

- How has the role of a mastering engineer changed in the last 15 years?

Haven't been in the game that long, but since a lot of releases are recorded and/or mixed by the artists themselves on humble budgets and home setups, I feel mastering has been creeping up on mixing's turf. Eg. "we can't quite afford professional mixing on our album, but at least we can get it professionally mastered."

- Is anyone planning to forge a career purely as a mastering engineer?

No. I started in mixing, and mastering has slowly become my main income. I still plan on doing mixing as well, as I enjoy it equally as much.

- Have the expectations of bands changed towards the mastering process?

I've generally found the bands' expectations to be very realistic. Sometimes I have to reach for miracles, and sometimes the mix really doesn't need a lot at all, which the bands have always understood.

- Do we still need professional mastering engineers?

Yes. Judging from the amount of people who offer the service and genuinely seem to have no idea of the craft whatsoever ("Professional mixing and mastering offered - why would I need software that supports the Redbook standard?"), there's still a huge need for people who are willing to put in some real effort instead of just suddenly deciding they know their shit.

- How has the internet/advances in technology affected mastering?

Delivery, delivery, delivery. I'm a nearly fanatic spokesman for the DDP format. In theory, the client can upload me the mixed songs in the morning, and 24 hours later the master is available for the label/band to download. No more CD's missing in the mail, expensive shipping and so on. Of course in practice my average turn-around time is longer than that, since I want to communicate with the client during the process to make sure everyone's happy.

- What is going to happen to this area of the music industry in the next 10 years?

I can only hope the "I need to be a pro, too!" trend will fade away, bringing the competition back to a level where it's easier to get the rent paid. Perhaps that's a bit too optimistic, though.

 

[tonymiro]

- How has the role of a mastering engineer changed in the last 15 years?
In lots of ways. Major one is the increased expectation that our main roles are setting the feel/tone of a track via processing to make it sound like Band 'X' and an increased expectation/demand that we drive up the perceived volume. Clients seem less aware of our role wrt objectivity and quality control. In addition the market has changed -it's contracted less because of the increase in the number who do 'bedroom mastering' and more as there is an increasing numbre of smi-pro and pro mixing engineers who 'master' in addition to mixing.


- Is anyone planning to forge a career purely as a mastering engineer?
I started as an ME some years ago. Personally I think it's harder now mainly as many people now beleive that they can mix and master their own material.
We still get cv's from people who want to learn how to master though so clearly people are still interested in it as a career.

- Have the expectations of bands changed towards the mastering process?
Very subjective.

- Do we still need professional mastering engineers?
My wife and bank manager they say, 'Yes!'

- How has the internet/advances in technology affected mastering?
Yes - we do an increasing % of our work via the internet as unattended sessions. Also we see more and more clients who require our service to deliver a digital download version only for internet re/distribution and so do not want a PMCD or DDP.

- What is going to happen to this area of the music industry in the next 10 years?
There will continue to be a contraction in the number of professional studios who only master. This has been going on for at least the last 8 years but I think it will continue. There will also be an increased focus on digital download only provision and so a related contraction in the volume of CDs available to buy and the number of CD duplicators and replicators. The major labels will continue to focus more and more on re-releasing old catalogue and sign and release less and less new material.

 

[tonymiro]

Very true. If you look on the Net it's quite shocking that many of those who claim to be able to master to redbook PMCD don't have the hardware and software to produce and QA their product.

 

[JamesPhilipKing]

Thank you so much for these responses, this is going to be a fantastic addition to my research folder!

Would anyone else care to share their experiences?

 

[JamesPhilipKing]

tonymiro - Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions, a point you made that I found particularly interesting was that major labels will focus more on re-releasing old material:
Does this mean that you will receive more work where they will require you to bring an old mix up to the expectations of a modern audience? Do these type of releases require professional mastering even more so than recent recordings?

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

1: It's suddenly about getting shit loud. It has pros and cons when you really think about it though...When we say, Ted Jensen loud (not saying Death Magnetic and all) but like his Nickelback records...It is loud, and fucking full. Listening to it at the same db of an older cd, the new one sounds fatter. The downside, is kids around us, trying to pushh for shit to Match this big records and for the posthardcore kids, the sturgis loudness...and killing quality and any trace of dynamics along the way.

Wait... weren't you born 15 years ago?

 

[TheMusicProducer]

haha that is true but I do do my research and know what things used to be

 

[ahjteam]

I am not a mastering engineer, I prefer to record and mix more, but I have mastered ~15 demo cd a few years back and after I realized I hated it, I outsourced all mastering jobs just to get extra pair of ears, and from my limited experience I would say:

- How has the role of a mastering engineer changed in the last 15 years?

The first time I mastered a demo, I took Slayer's Reign In Blood as reference CD, but on todays standards that album is almost 5 dB RMS quieter than most of the mainstream stuff. But considering that if I engage the iTunes' soundcheck, which is similar to Replay Gain technology, pushing the volume doesn't make the records any better.

- Is anyone planning to forge a career purely as a mastering engineer?

If I have a choice, I'd rather not to.

- Have the expectations of bands changed towards the mastering process?

I personally really hope that the albums would rather return to levels that have more headroom. But bands still want to sound as loud or louder than the band next door. I think I'll try to send my debut album for mastering and say that I want the CD to be as quiet as Metallica's Black Album and Guns N Roses' Chinese Democracy, both are -15dB RMS.

- Do we still need professional mastering engineers?

Well, bedroom recording and mixing has become pretty common, but mastering has not so much, so if the band is planning to do a physical release, I'd say definitely yes.

- How has the internet/advances in technology affected mastering?

Digital delivery and some digital limiters have become really good at pumping the few extra dB's, mainly Slate FG-X and Izotope Ozone. The mastering quality converters from companies like Lynx, Apogee, RME and many others became really good around late 1990's, so not much change there since then. But surround sound has become into the game with DVD and Blu-Ray, but more on the movie score music.

- What is going to happen to this area of the music industry in the next 10 years?

The death of CD at least from major labels

 

[JamesPhilipKing]

Thanks ajhteam!

One last bump, deadline for the essay is the 6th January so if anyone else could respond before I actually write it over the next week that would be great!