Mastering... Why does it have to be mastered separately?

[Rhys Llewellyn]

So I've been thinking about this for a while...

So the general rule is... record your songs for your album, mix them then send them off to be mastered.

As I understand it, mastering is a corrective, subtle process. It helps with cohesion and harmonic imbalances etc...

So, my question is...

Why doesn't the mastering engineer import the entire album on to one project of your chosen DAW and work with that instead?

If mastering "corrects" EQs, why can't the master engineer simply correct those imbalances in the mix?

Surely it'd make his job so much easier to be able to see and hear each naked track and fix anything he sees appropriate without affecting the entire track.

Why can't he just use his mastering tools on the output bus?

I understand why amateurs and semi-pros will want to send off their tracks to a mastering engineer if they simply don't have the knowledge and accurate monitoring.

Have I missed a vital aspect here?

 

[Pedro Teixeira]

I dont really understand what you're saying... But it sounds that what you're talking about is actually mixing and not mastering... thus defeating the purpose! Instead of send the ME the project for him to "mix it" , the mixing engineer should improve the mix.. otherwise just hand it to the mastering engineer to do both.

 

[Rhys Llewellyn]

I dont really understand what you're saying... But it sounds that what you're talking about is actually mixing and not mastering... thus defeating the purpose! Instead of send the ME the project for him to "mix it" , the mixing engineer should improve the mix.. otherwise just hand it to the mastering engineer to do both.

Well that's my point man.

Why does everyone (the pros) send their mixes off to be mastered elsewhere?

Why not just have the mastering engineer do it all?

 

[timislegend]

if you want to build a house... you can hire one person to build everything.


or you can hire specialists... i.e. carpenter, electrician, plumber, painter, roofer etc.


the one person option might do the trick ...but chances are the specialists will have the job done harder better faster stronger than the one person.


then again this analogy could be argued a million ways... just my two cents.

 

[BLUElightCory]

Well that's my point man.

Why does everyone (the pros) send their mixes off to be mastered elsewhere?

Why not just have the mastering engineer do it all?

Because mixing and mastering are two different jobs that entail two different mindsets.

 

[Torniojaws]

Mastering is also about overall song-to-song level matching, setting the pauses and indexes between tracks, registering the album with the copyright agencies, ordering the ISRC number, making sure the data is in correct Red Book format for the CD A mastering house also has EXTREMELY expensive monitoring and highly optimized acoustics, with much more effort (money) put into the listening system than even top-end recording studios.

 

[-Noodles-]

Mastering is also about overall song-to-song level matching, setting the pauses and indexes between tracks, registering the album with the copyright agencies, ordering the ISRC number, making sure the data is in correct Red Book format for the CD A mastering house also has EXTREMELY expensive monitoring and highly optimized acoustics, with much more effort (money) put into the listening system than even top-end recording studios.

This.

 

[StoneLord]

Mastering is also about overall song-to-song level matching, setting the pauses and indexes between tracks, registering the album with the copyright agencies, ordering the ISRC number, making sure the data is in correct Red Book format for the CD A mastering house also has EXTREMELY expensive monitoring and highly optimized acoustics, with much more effort (money) put into the listening system than even top-end recording studios.

This indeed.

 

[waltz mastering]

Mastering is also about overall song-to-song level matching, setting the pauses and indexes between tracks, registering the album with the copyright agencies, ordering the ISRC number, making sure the data is in correct Red Book format for the CD A mastering house also has EXTREMELY expensive monitoring and highly optimized acoustics, with much more effort (money) put into the listening system than even top-end recording studios.

Just to be clear the ME doesn't register the album with the copyright agencies or order the ISRC codes. That's done by the artist or label. They do embed the codes that are provided in the final master cd.

Mastering is the final creative step in the record-making process, resulting in an equalized, leveled, and sequenced master that translates and is assembled and prepared professionally for replication, broadcast, and distribution.

One advantage to having an album mastered is to get another set of ears on the project that can make unbiased objective decisions that will help straighten out the sonic balance between and within the individual tracks apart from and outside of the mix room which might have acoustic deficiencies.

What is Mastering?:
http://recording.org/content/381-Waltz-Mastering-Studio-What-Is-Mastering

 

[Harrison West]

Its good to have an outsiders perspective on the album (The ME) - Someone who hasn't sat through countless hours of the recording process and has personal biases of what "particular instruments with their competing frequencies" should sound like. It's usually better to have a fresh set of ears that can take a holistic approach to the album as a whole. Also, the producers and engineers have a lot of trust in the people that are mastering it. They know they will only sacrifice certain elements in order to make something sound better overall.

 

[John_C]

division of labour allows specialisation leading to greater skill level at each stage in the production process.

Booyah!

PS and what everyone else ^^^ said

 

[crillemannen]

A second opinion is always nice

 

[kev]

I think Tornio said it best, and that its a common theme all through business to outsource to people - "people doing what they do best". Like instead of hiring a canteen and teaching people how to cook if you own a huge office block, you stick in a mcdonalds and have the job done perfectly. Its only in the last decade that the digital age has well and truely taken off, and of course the psuedo mastering plugins that have become available make it easy to do yourself a quick rough job.

 

[Star Ark]

I've heard of mastering engineers mastering from "stems"

Also remastered albums can involve all the original tracks not just a stereo track.

 

[DanLights]

Also remastered albums can involve all the original tracks not just a stereo track.

Which leads me to think the "remastered" version of Megadeth's Risk is not just remastered, that album has a completely different mix than the original.