Book is out, and landing page is ready so...

Audio Mastering: Essential Practices is now on the shelves of the internet near you.  I sincerely hope some find it interesting and informative.  I've attempted to give some perspective on what mastering is (at least as I see it).  In my mind it isn't mysterious, or magical, but it IS a discipline that requires practice and understanding.  This is my contribution to help point people in the direction towards all the above.

If you are willing, I would be pleased to have reviews posted on Amazon and elsewhere and happy to receive feedback.

Here's a short introduction

But really what IS loud

For years now my brethren in the mastering profession have been jumping up and down in defense of music and in self-defense, trying to raise flags about what is happening to music during the so-called Loudness War.

Indeed, the way that the RMS level have been creeping higher and higher as the dsp tools we have are better and better at hiding the distortions of limiting and compression, has caused immeasurable harm to the presentation of recorded music. It permeates all genres and affects pretty much ALL artists. It's frightening to think that we adapt to it, assimilate the new sound and begin to become numb to the effects.

There are developments on the horizon for creating a level playing field in the presentation and playback of music to the consumer that hold some hope that we might return to what Mastering folks might call 'sanity'....

but....and....however...

I think that the story that has been told thus far about the loudness war, how it is motivated by the fear of A&R , PD's in radio and other decision makers might reject an artist, only tells one part of the story. I think there is something significant that is escaping everyone's attention. Perhaps it is being 'masked' the the gross issues of RMS volume, but beneath the surface I think part of what is happening is that the craft of producing recorded sound is suffering. I think the art of making a good, well balanced recording is eroding and I think that the real ART of making a truly loud record is being lost.

A couple of years ago I gave a presentation to my fellow faculty at Berklee entitled 'What IS Loud?'. I sought to deconstruct the idea of loud. Focused on frequency distribution, the art of arrangement in music, the art of dynamic control in mixing and it really looks like making a truly loud recording involves time, skill and even, yes, nuance.

I hope to slowly unfold this topic....especially if we end up with the new BS1770 standards for playback reference, I think it will become clear what loud and GOOD mean again.

Post NAMM

I feel as if I should be coming away from the NAMM convention with some sort of ground breaking news, or fresh insights, but while I did have a sense of an invigorated and optimistic music making community, nothing seemed like it was a sign of a coming revolution.

The demos I did together with iZotope were great fun and I really enjoy partnering with them, They are innovative, forward thinking and committed to building quality tools for the modern music makers...

In my last post I mentioned the Roland chip, and I certainly see steps in the direction of real-time interactivity in the new music making tools being developed. It's appearing via physical interfaces and i the software and firmware embedded in the devices. There were no new 'mix-engineer-body-suits-and 3D-surround-glasses' however. Maybe next year.

I feel compelled to buy the new Dangerous 'Liaison' when it arrives. I feel compelled to since it incorporates features that I have been wanting for some time. How can you say no when someone gives you something you asked for?

I will also buy the itrumpet app for apple mobile products when it arrives in a couple of days. I really enjoyed the developer and his work.

OTherwise I bring back a renewed sense of optimism, a slight hint of a tan, and connections, some renewed, some new.....

Report from NAMM

Survived day 1....well, really better than survived. The show is busy busy busy and there is a general sense of busy-ness and business taking place.

There is a LOT of innovation put on display here. Some of it leveraging existing technologies including software emulations of chaotic (read analog) signal processing, some of it new. Witness the continued evolution of instrument controllers, for instance ROland has a new VLSI chip that puts a layer of software in between a hardware controller and a virtual instrument that creates more 'authentic' performance by taking the input from a controller and adding instructions that are characteristic of the (virtual) instrument being played.

THere are guitars with sound holes at the top of the resonating chamber rather than the center, mini church organs, a 'black box' single rack space 24 channel recorder daisy chainable for up to 96 channels and much more.

The DAW continues to proliferate AND mature. Peak showed a prototype multichannel version designed with stem mixing and surround in mind. iZotope unveiled a new product developed with artist BT that makes the creation of the 'stutter' edit, characteristic of BT's work, easy for users to implement in their own work.....

While there was a lot of 'stuff' all round, I think the pervasive idea I notice on the floor in conversation and in products is collaboration. Using ProTools 9 as a prime example where users of the mainstay of audio production can now choose their hardware interface freely....so inevitably, MANY more companies are using ProTools compatibility in the messaging, front and center....and there is a lot of collaboration being discussed around business development, artistic projects and generally people coming together under the banner of music making that in other times might have chosen to work in isolation.

There were several Asian companies offering a HUGE variety of recording gear branded with names such as 'Just Right Sound' whose booths were empty. In one case there was a sign that read 'US distribution sought'. It's hard to know if these companies are selling high quality gear or not, but I suspect we'll see a greater influx of such products in the near future. It's very much in keeping with what I witness when I go to the music market in Seoul.

The Audio Mastering talk I gave in the 'H.O.T. Zone' was a blast. I had about 150 people in the room and for an hour we managed to overcome the horrible convention acoustics and had an interesting and dare I say meaningful conversation all about audio mastering. It was more fun that I dared imagine it would be.

On to the iZotope booth tomorrow to see if I can make anything out of a talk in the middle of the convention floor....

What IS loud?

Today's seminar with faculty at Berklee college was excellent. Lively discussions about what the value of dynamics is, where dynamic range comes from, and why records might sound loud....or why they might not. We also discussed whether records SHOULD be loud and more.