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F.A.Q.
For information on preparation for mastering, including a discussion of compression and mix levels, please go to "A guide for the mix engineer" HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO MASTER MY ALBUM? (see masterer's log for more detail) If the mixes are recorded well, an average 12 track album takes about 5 1/2 to 7 hours to master. So, the more variety between mixes, the longer the mastering session will likely be because more tweaking (eq, compression, equalization, volume adjustments) will be done differently for each track for the sake of the album as a whole. A radical example would be if you had a digeredoo or an 808 kick as the bottom end of track 7 of a mostly guitar and vocal album. Because of the obvious intention to have a heavy bottom on this track, we would not try to remove all the bottom end to balance it but we would evaluate how much should be present so that the album flows nicely from track 6 to 7 and 7 to 8 and if the album is in random play with itself, track 1 against track 7 will still be comfortable to listen to. The other factor to consider is what medium the mix is recorded to. If mixed onto 1/4 or 1/2" tape or DAT, the music has to be recorded to the hard drive in real time. The times mentioned in paragraph one are based on a supplied audio CD or Data CD because the load time is significantly less. I.e., by the time one loads in a DAT for an album that is 50 minutes in length, after set-up and transfer time, the engineer has spent about an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes. If the material is on several DATs, add another 30 minutes for rewind, loading and searching. If the DAT is not clearly marked with IDs and time code, or the producer isn't sure which take should be used, add another hour! Tape transfers work out to almost double the album length. First there are the tones to check, head cleaning before starting and often during the transfer. Also, most albums come in on 2 to 4 reels because the final takes haven't been edited together onto one reel. When we were mastering and remastering the Wendy O Williams/Plasmatics catalogue, we were given a 1/4 tape of a previously unreleased album that was recorded at Electric Lady Studio. Needless to say, we were excited to be able to work on a recording of historical merit but that tape needed a lot of winding and rewinding and some major head cleaning in order to get the tape playing properly. That 40 minute album took at least an hour and half to transfer properly. Older tapes can also be delivered in damaged condition because of faulty formulation, age or poor storage conditions. Those tapes may need to be transferred by a specialist as they require unusual techniques and knowledge to transfer properly. So here is the formula to figure out approximately how long it will take to master your album: * 1 hour load and prep for mastering * 1 hour to master the "template" track * 20 to 30 minutes for each subsequent track * 15 minutes to sequence and check the spacing between tracks And lastly, any of the following services will likely add more time to the mastering session: * mixes are not recorded well (untuned basement studio mixed by inexperienced engineer vs pro set-up) * edits * "forensic" problems such as excessive noise, click removal, internal track rebalancing (the guitar solo on song 4 is too loud), etc. * mixes were recorded/mixed in 2 or more studios * multiple versions of mixes, i.e., the radio edit, the TV mix (show mix), etc. * fades are left for the mastering engineer A single almost always takes an hour to master. If you have multiple versions with the same mix (i.e., the radio edit, the TV mix (show mix), a Capella) add about 7 minutes per extra mix. DO YOU CHARGE A FLAT RATE OR BY HOUR? At Silverbirch, we charge by the hour although we realize some studios do offer flat rates. We think that an hourly is fairest way to bill. For instance, if your album only takes 5 hours to master and the flat rate is based on a 8 hour average, the clients with the easier jobs pay more. Studios that charge by the song are also offering a version of a flat rate which can result in the same lack of fairness to the clients with the easier jobs. Studios that offer flat rates usually offer them only for unattended session. They often have an hourly for attended as the interplay between client(s) adds some time to the session. For unattended session, our mastering engineer usually can master a 12 song album in 5 to 6 hours. In order to be fair, he works diligently (and honestly!) with a stop watch. A well-mixed album, without too many wildly musical variations done at an unattended mastering session, is usually finished in 15 to 20% less time than an attended session. Conversely, some albums are quite complex to master or they have 17 tracks in which case a flat rate could work to your advantage. To be really honest, if you have a very long and complex album to master and found two studios that were on the same level, including engineering skill/resume, room accuracy/comfort and gear selection, why not chose the one with the flat rate! We only present this as a hypothetical because if you take into consideration the above criterion, Silverbirch is by far the least expensive major label quality mastering studio in Canada (and probably the USA) and so flat rate vs hourly will not normally be a consideration. Compared to the very few good mastering places in Canada that offer flat rates, even a rare 10 hour session at Silverbirch comes in at less than their flat rate. Also a reminder that there is no use in comparing our rates to a mixing studio whose mixing engineer will master your album with plug-ins. You have to compare apples to apples and that means knowing how to evaluate a mastering studio. 99.9% of the albums released by major labels, indie labels with national distribution and savvy indie artists are mastered by full-time mastering engineers in a studio designed for mastering and equipped with the appropriate gear. Check the credits of your favourite albums. You will rarely see the same credit for mixing and mastering, and for a very good reason! And lastly, when evaluating a studio that offers flat rates, remember to find out what that really means and check out the "fine print". For instance, if you have a 20 track album with 8 cross-fades between tracks, edits to do, 3 versions of each song (radio/album/show), 6 distinct styles, and your mixes were done at 4 different studios, we would be skeptical of a flat rate because an album like that could take 15 hours to master! WHAT ABOUT TOUCH-UPS? Typically, touch-ups are needed if after repeated listening on multiple outside speaker systems, an unwanted general pattern emerges or a similar negative observation about 1 or more tracks is noticed. For example, the entire album is just a little too bright or too bass heavy. Global problems are very rare at Silverbirch. More common touch-ups would be that 1 or 2 tracks might need to be equalized/compressed differently or have the volume raised or lowered or maybe a space between a song(s) need to be adjusted and lastly, someone may decide that the order of songs need to be changed. At Silverbirch, we generally charge for touch-up sessions. The exception would be a technical error (a click, pop or distortion not in the original mix), even when not noticed by the client during the studio monitoring of that track. However, it should be noted that distortion, especially momentary incidents, can sometimes be subjective as to whether acceptable or not. This is especially true with much of today's pop music and in particular, punk/pop and alternative music. Sometimes overall level requests, or during the process of matching of reference tracks, distortion can be induced. And just to complicate matters, sometimes the mix has incidents of very slight distortion which then get enhanced in the mastering. There are many examples of distortion of all flavours in loud commercial CDs so ultimately the mastering engineer has to be the judge of what will be fixed for n/c or not. In other words, there is a loose "standard" where certain types of tracks do not have to be "pristine" in these genres and therefore is up to the client who is attending to establish the standard for their music by listening carefully. There could be other reasons for not charging but they would be on a case by case basis. In other words, if the engineer felt in any way responsible for the necessity for a touch-up, we might not charge for the work or give a discount. This is rare because the producer/artist makes the final decision on the sound of each master and so almost all touch-ups are as the result of reconsidering a decision that was made at the original session. Mostly touching up albums are limited to about 10 to 15 % of the work done here and 90% of those are done because the client liked it a certain way at the mastering session and changed their mind later. By the way, many albums mastered for major labels are touched-up and in some cases, remastered at least once. That is probably because so many people at the label have input and because the budgets are higher than for indie albums. BRINGING IN AUDIO FILES FOR MASTERING: (click here for tips re transferring files for mixing) We would like to master your audio at the same bit and sample rate as your mix session. So, for example, if you mixed at 24 bit, 96k, then we would like to have the files at that rate. Of course you can't make an audio CD of your mixes with this resolution so you will have to make a "Data" disc. A firewire drive with the material is also generally OK. You can also drop the files on our FTP site. Even when bringing in 16 bit, 44.1 k files, there are less chance of errors if you write to a data disc. We accept all the usual audio file types, SD2 split mono (multiple mono), AIFF, .WAV, Broadcast Wave and CD audio but bringing in 32 bit files will add time to your session! 32 bit files are propriety to Cubase and Sound Forge (and others) and will not load in as many workstations as the standard 24 bit file. If you've being working in a 32 bit Cubase session, exporting a 32 bit file as a 24 bit file will not cause a loss of resolution unless your peaks go above zero. We can convert your 32 bit files to 24 bit for mastering but it adds time to the session. Also, don't use any compression schemes and don't even think about bringing mp3 files! Use good quality, brand name CD-Rs and DVD discs. Saving a few cents doesn't come close to cost of studio time should there be any problems with the disc. With data discs, make sure the "verification" function is used. By the way, we prefer audio encoded to a data disc, even 16 bit. This is because some of the audio capture programs can cut off a tiny bit of the end of a track, thus causing a slight drop-off of sound. If this happens to a track with a usable fade, it then has to be smoothed out or refaded, again, a waste of studio time. We also invite you send or bring in your media in advance of the session (at least a day or two, or more, preferably) so that we can make sure the files load. This is a no-charge service to make sure you don't have any problems with loading when you come for your session. If you don't do that, your are responsible for any time losses that we incur in trying to load your session. If your media won't load, your engineer will have to redo the back-ups so they work in our computer. Please leave enough time in case this happens. If you include a track sheet (or preferably email it to Andy Krehm), we can load and prep the session in advance. We do charge for this but it saves doing it on the day of the session so we can get right into the audio processing stage. Always bring or send in copies of your mixes as we cannot be held responsible for storing or returning your discs. If you forget to take them at the end of a session and want them sent back, we will be happy to do so but if no request is received, we cannot store them indefinitely. The same goes for unattended sessions. If you wish your discs returned, please ask for them back. WHEN I PUT A CD IN A COMPUTER WHY DO SOME CDS DISPLAY THE NAME OF THE ALBUM AND THE SONG TITLES AND OTHERS DON'T? If you boot up iTunes and see a display of the artist, album name and song titles it's because someone has entered the information into the CDDB (Gracenote) database. Please see www.gracenote.com for more information. This can also be done through iTunes and other programs. The disc has to be inserted into the drive and your computer has to be connected to the internet in order to do this. This should not be confused with a software function called CD Text. CD Text can be enabled in the master writing program by the mastering engineer. This doesn't take long to do and we do it as part of the mastering job. CD text is read by some CD players and most new car stereos as well as large carousel CD players (holds 50 or 60 discs). In addition, DVD players that play CDs usually have a menu that reads the text and also Real Player and Winamp on the PC. Window Media Player is a different story. Up until recently, one could enter the CD data into the WMP database through the Microsoft Website. Unfortunately they appear to have this closed off to the independent artists so we are not able to do this at the moment. For a fee of $15., Silverbirch will provide album data to the Gracenote database for your new master so that an audio disc booted up in iTunes will display all the pertinent information. Contact us for more information. And lastly, Be sure to register your CD information with the other two primary companies that manage metadata databases for the industry: All Music Guide and Muze. Both companies have different procedures for accepting metadata from directly from artists so contact them directly. HOW LOUD SHOULD YOU MAKE MY ALBUM? This topic is one of the first items that is discussed before any mastering work is started. Many mastering clients have noticed that some CDs are louder than others but have not given it much thought. Others will demand that their CD be as loud, or louder, as the latest major label release in their genre. Still others understand the implications of the process and ask us to make their album as loud as possible, but not at the expense of dynamic range. Obviously, the latter approach makes the most musical sense but that does not always happen! Our approach to mastering is to present and explain the positives and negatives of what can be done with your mixes. In other words, many mixes are compressed and equalized in such a way that allow us to raise the volume without doing serious damage to the sound. On the other hand, some are not so easy! Occasionally its just one song on an album that defies all attempts to raise the level a hot as the others. In that case, if one wants the album aggressively loud, that song will have to suffer in order to not to bring down the overall level of the album. After we point out the pros and cons, if the client wishes take a approach that we do not think is best for the mix, we respect their wishes. In other words, even if we think that your mix, or mixes, will suffer sonically when pushed to the level of the latest/greatest, we will do so as best we can to bring it up to the level that you wish! If we need to explain the process of making an audio file louder, our favourite analogy is an old movie, with its whispers and screams. While watching such a movie, you try to set the TV's volume level to a point where you can hear the whispers but are not deafened by the screams, in other words, the average level of the program. If you are in a quiet environment, this will work pretty well until some outside noise intrudes into your space, thus covering the quiet passages, or until the commercial kicks in. The commercial seems to be louder than the movie. Actually, it may not be any louder than the movie's peak point (the screams) but because the audio has been dynamically limited, it has almost no low points and therefore on average, sounds louder. In other words, through compression and limiting, the distance between the quiet and loud points have been reduced and the whole program has been altered so that what little peaks are left are at, or close to, digital zero. Compression and limiting techniques are commonly used in mixing and mastering. In mixing, overdoing it will make the mastering either difficult or impossible (see A Guide For The Mix Engineer). The mastering room is where most of the stereo compression/limiting techniques should be employed. There are exceptions of course, but generally, the mixer will usually stick to compressing individual tracks with possibly some light compression on the stereo buss, but only if it is understood how this will affect the mastering. Using mastering plug-ins is not advised unless you understand how they are going to affect our work. In the early days the purpose of mastering was to fit a studio mix onto the medium of the day. For instance, if in the process of making a record, the bass or bottom end was too heavy, or in stereo, it would not fit on the vinyl medium and the needle would jump out of the groove. The solutions was to equalize, make mono and perhaps compress the bottom end. Later, compression was used as a tool to enhance elements of the mix or master, i.e., giving the drums and/or bass more impact or "punch". This is referred to a "musical" use of compression as opposed to using compress strictly for getting more level out of a mix. Eventually, as music began to be listened to in noisy environments, i.e., the car, it became necessary to reduce the dynamic range in order to hear all the elements of the music. For instance, when playing old jazz vocal recordings in a car, it was impossible to hear the bass without turning up the volume. Unfortunately, the vocals would then become too loud. So the mix balances that worked so well in a quiet home listening environment with a good stereo system didn't work in the car. So these days, even most jazz recordings use some compression and limiting in order to make the music listenable in more environments. With pop music, various types and levels compression and limiting are a given! The reason for the next jump in compression and limiting to raise the apparent levels of CDs came with the invention of multi-disc CD player and continues today with the iPod. Many record companies, producers and artists did not want their album to sound quieter than the average and some wanted theirs to be louder than the average. This desire for one-upping the next guy has resulted in the biggest leap of volume over time. After all, if you want to be louder than the latest/greatest, then you set the bar for the next one..and the next one, etc.! As we are mastering the initial track of the day, we are able to demonstrate various compression/limiting techniques by comparing the master-in-progress to various major label CDs that the client and engineer are familiar with. Keep in mind that not all mixes will be able to be raised to the same level as your favourite CD, at least not without introducing some distortion! However, with the multitude of compressors and limiters we have on hand, we can usually get results that will satisfy those who want the volume of their CD to be aggressive! Over the years, we have learned to be sensitive to both the music and the clients and this applies to the absolute volume of your disc. For instance, a jazz album is approached with a more subtle approach than a "heavy" album. The tools that we have today at Silverbirch give us just about every option we need to get your level just right. For more info about the approach we take to volume maximizing, see the latter part of the topic "Making Your CD Loud", under the heading "Mastering Services". You will have to scroll down to near the bottom as the first part is the same as this link. In conclusion, it seems pertinent to point out that the absolute volume level of the average CD mastered circa 2000 to 2004 and then 2005 to 2008 is significantly louder than in former years although we are hopeful that most producers are probably going to settle for the current level! We have also noticed that a few new release are noticeably lower, which is a good thing, because if the practice becomes more common, it will relieve the pressure on labels, artists and producers to engage in the volume wars, i.e., volume via compression and limiting over musicality. At a recent session, in an attempt to establish where he should attempt to go with the volume level of CD about to be mastered, our mastering engineer asked how the client how they coped with the various levels of songs when listening to their iPod. The answer was "I keep my finger near the volume control". We couldn't have said it better ourselves! However, our philosophy here is to offer options and education, but only if wanted. In other words some clients are not aware of these issues and others are. We DO NOT preach to those who know what they are looking for! Our job is to find our what our clients want and do the job accordingly. We understand that that the client is making the final call and we will ALWAYS do our "level" best to get you where you want to go! Here's some interesting links for further information/education: * Here's a video which is a good tutorial on the process that is necessary in order to achieve modern CD volume levels. The dialogue is a little on the "preachy" side but no matter what direction you wish to go re the volume level, this video illustrates the before and after results very well! * Bob Ludwig, Gateway Mastering talks about the "volume wars" in an article called "Guns 'N Roses: Dynamics and quality win the Loudness Wars". " Guns 'N Roses: Dynamics and quality win the Loudness Wars". He also touches briefly on other client concerns such as volume of CDs and radio play as well as iPod and CD carousel comparisons. Another concern mentioned is the impact of CD volume at A&R and Radio Promoter meetings/panels./p> * Greg Calbi, Sterling Sound, same topic * Metallica "Death Magnetic" is one the the loudest albums of recent release. However, the sound has been universally panned by audio professionals and even the fans and mainstream press are becoming aware of the problems mastering engineers have been talking about for years! Here's one of many articles that are interesting. And here's another! And here's the response from the album's mastering engineer, Ted Jensen of Sterling Sound. Most people who have an idea about mixing and mastering think the mastering engineer smashed this on but according to Ted, the mixes arrived that way. Receiving mixes that are over-compressed and/or limited are an increasing problem for us at Silverbirch which is why our mastering engineer wrote this article with guidelines for the mix engineer. HOW DO I WANT MY ALBUM MASTERED or What Do I Hope To Achieve From The Mastering Process? If you haven't had an album mastered before, this may seem like an strange question. You may think the answer is "very well, thank you" but the fact is there is more than one way to master an album, just the same as there is more than one way to mix a song. In the "old days", the days of mega budgets, it was not uncommon for record companies to pay for two or three different mastering engineers to master an entire album and just pick the version they liked better. These days, with more budgetary constraints, they are more likely to ask two or three mastering engineers to master one song for free and then, based on the one that they like the best, give that engineer the album to do. All the mastering engineers involved in this sort of "shoot-out" are well-known and have major credits but we mention this to demonstrate that mastering can come in different flavours. Some mastering engineers are good at certain styles and others welcome a wide variety of material and take pride in doing a great job with as many idioms that come in the door (the latter would describe the philosophy at Silverbirch!). There are also some mastering engineers who are compelled to put their own stamp on a master and others who do what's best for the music. We think its also a wise idea to also do what is best for the music and the client! Occasionally we have an client in for mastering who has meticulously shaped their mix and does not want it altered radically or pumped up to the current average volume level if the process will change anything whatsoever. The opposite of this is a well-known producer who has sent a number of albums here to master but has never been to our studio nor given us any guidelines about what to do. After mastering about 12 albums for him, he called and was very complimentary about our work. He then proceeded to ask many questions about how our methodology and what equipment we used. The conversation closed with "..I've got to get over to see your studio..." but we haven't seen him yet! Most people come to us because they have heard albums mastered at Silverbirch or were recommended to us by a previous client and the majority want to see where we can take their music. The point of this is to get you thinking about how you would like to have your album mastered before you come in. HOW DO I COMPARE AND/OR EVALUATE MASTERING STUDIOS? If you don't know much about studios and gear, this could be difficult but it is possible! There are several criterion available and remember, it is not absolutely necessary for a mastering studio that is turning out good masters to meet all the criterion but if they do, that is where you have the best odds of getting a really professional job done. 1. THE MASTERING ENGINEER: The mastering engineer is the most important asset of a mastering studio. You can have the greatest room, speakers and gear but not get consistently good results unless the engineer has experience...and lots of it! How can you figure this out? Developing the skill of mastering takes years so most "senior" mastering engineers have been doing their job for at it at least 10 to 15 years. Most full-time mastering engineers (ME's) master 250 to 300 albums a year plus 100s of singles and EP's. That means a 10 to 15 year veteran has at least 3,000 albums to his/her credit. Some of ME's that have been at it for 30 years have 8,000 to 10,000 albums to their credit! The latter may not be any better than someone who has mastered only 3,000 albums but for the best mastering experience, one should probably avoid someone who has been mastering for less than 3 or 4 years. Awards are another way to get some indication of how well the ME has been accepted by the music community. Sometimes the awards are country-specific so you might not recognize them. For instance, Andy Krehm, our mastering engineer, has mastered close to 50 Juno Award nominated/winning albums but no Grammys. All that means is he is successful in Canada and doesn't master for as many US acts. However, we have seen a big increase in the number of US and international clients over the last couple of years and Andy has his first #1 BillBoard Credit for mastering Jeff Healey's album, "Mess Of Blues". Credits are essential when choosing a mastering engineer. You may not recognize all the names of the artists on a website but you should recognize some of them! ME's that do more independent work than major label work will have less recognizable credits but they will have a few that you know. Credits are also country oriented. For instance, if you are located in Europe, you will not recognize many names on our site but if you live Canada, you will recognize quite a few! Multiple credits are very important! Look to see how many artists or record labels have mastered multiple albums with your engineer of choice. If you browse our partial credit list, you will see that a good number of artists/band have mastered (and/or manufactured) multiple titles here (click here for partial list). What you won't see directly is that a good number of award-winning mixers, producers and labels work here (or recommend that their artists/bands work here) on many of their projects. For instance, Ken Lewis, a NY based mixer producer refers most of his work here (over 100 singles/Eps/albums) as does Alec Fraser, Toronto, (over 200 albums), Michael Lent, Edmonton (over 100 albums), Barry Haggarty, Peterborough (over 200 albums), Ron Lopata (100s of singles/Eps/albums, and Electro-Fi Records (approx. 50 titles in the catalog), etc, etc. There are many, many more who have sent smaller numbers but they all add up to some very satisfied customers! Also check out the credits of producers and mixers that work at the studio you are considering. It is not uncommon for producer/mixers with Gold, Platinum, Grammy and Juno credits to recommend or use Silverbirch for their work (click here for more info). Of course recommendations from your fellow artists, producers, mixers, etc., are also very important. Over 95% of our mastering clients come here for that reason. You will find "testimonials" on most websites. Check them our and see what people have to say about the work and the engineers (here's ours). Having a musical background can be helpful in assisting the ME with the audio work AND relating to the musicians who often come to the session. Our mastering engineer, Andy Krehm, had over 25 years of first-call studio and theatre guitar playing experience, as well as extensive experience arranging and producing, before starting his mastering career on a full-time basis. And lastly, be very cautious about letting a mix engineer master your music. A good mix engineer who also masters will be mixing for the majority of the year (if they are busy and in demand) and therefore will have little time to master, probably only 2 or 3 albums per month. These folks don't get a chance to experience and work through the multitude of problems that the full-time ME's have learned to solve. They also do not have a purpose-built mastering studio nor the specialized gear that full-time mastering engineers have. Then there is the generally accepted industry-wide philosophy that a mix engineer shouldn't master their own mixes. This is because most mix engineers get used to and sometime too attached to elements of their mix and therefore are unable to "change hats" easily enough to master an album to its full potential. Since mixing is their passion, the gear they collect and the room they work in are chosen to facilitate recording and mixing. As you will see from the info in the next section, the gear and studio of a dedicated mastering engineer is often very different, and for very good reasons! Check the credits on your favourite albums. With the exception of classical music, you will find 99.5% of the albums have mixing credits and mastering credits and the names will be almost always be different. There is the odd successfull exception but it takes a very unusual and talented mixing engineer who also has the studio, gear, experience and the ability to look at their own mixes as a mastering engineer would! So if hiring a good mix engineer to master is not usually the best idea, hiring an average, mediocre or poor one to master your album should not even be considered! 2. THE STUDIO DESIGN: High-end mastering studios are generally designed by professionals so look for the studio to credit their designer. If you want to be very thorough, do a google search on the designer. We hired Terry Medwedyk of Group One Acoustics who is generally considered to be one of the top two designers in Canada. This is not to say that a studio owner couldn't design his own room and buy the various parts from acoustic suppliers, but once again, a room designed for mastering by a professional is going to greatly reduce to odds of work done that does not translate well to the outside world. Remember that the engineer turns the knobs according to what he/she hears. A good sounding and accurate room that is comfortably appointed will provide the best mastering experience. It is important to emphasize that without an accurate room and a full-range, uncoloured monitoring system along with top of the line mastering-oriented gear, even the best ears will not be able to make instantaneous judgements as to what needs to be done, or not done, to your audio. Can an engineer with experience and good gear master in an untuned room with mix level speakers? Yes, but that scenario requires a lot of learning about how the work will translate to the outside world. This is done by checking the masters in as many outside systems as possible, since the room is not "true". For an engineer that works ever day as a mastering specialist, that scenario is not an option. To best serve their clients, a mastering engineer has to be able to make informed decisions on the spot knowing that our decisions will make a master that will translate well to the most number of speaker systems. If a client is attending the session, they also have to have a sense that they are listening to their music in a well-balanced environment so that they can make contributions to the mastering work. The actual "look" of the studio can tip you off as to whether this is a dedicated mastering studio or a mixing/ general purpose room. Here we don't mean the finishing is modern, rustic or whatever. What we mean is do you see a free standing full-range speaker system that overlooks a mastering desk and not a mixing desk? Click here to see what a typical high-end recording mixing control room looks like. Click here to see a picture of Silverbirch's mastering room. Generally speaking, a mixing room will have a mixing board and the speakers will be sitting on the meter bridge. This is OK for mixing but generally considered a poor design for mastering. A mastering desk has a smaller footprint and the mass is actually calculated so the bottom end is not affected. The angle and the mass of the desk is calculated so that the early reflections from the speakers are minimized and the bottom is open so the the bass can travel without too many barriers. When the audio signal arrives at the ears of the engineer at a slightly different time (due to too many reflections), the signal is no longer clear and is "smeared". Can mastering work be done in this environment? Occasionally a very clever, experienced engineer can make a non-mastering set-up work but why bother taking a chance mastering in a mixing studio when you can master your album at a reasonably priced dedicated mastering suite such as Silverbirch? To summarize, you want to see furniture (console) that doesn't have too large a footprint, is open underneath so it's transparent to bass, and doesn't have any large, reflective surfaces that send early reflections to the listening position. Most rooms need something to control the sub information and that is done with bass trapping, either external or built-in to the structure. Big, huge control center desks like SSL or Neve consols, look impressive but really have no place in a mastering studio if you care about the sound. Any racks and video monitors should be small and low. Symmetry, of course, is essential. There will never be guitars and keyboards scattered about in a mastering room! The other thing is that usually one sees free-standing monitors that aren't too small and aren't too close to a wall. Mixing sometimes happens in the close field or from soffited speakers, but mastering tends more often to be a mid to far-field free-standing affair. Mastering rooms are not overly dead. The early reflections are controlled, and the decay time is not too long. And lastly, there shouldn't be noisy equipment and computers and hard drives with fans whirring away. Mastering is the time where you want to catch any detail that may have been missed up to that point and this requires an extremely quiet room. Pro mastering rooms have a machine room where all the noisy gear is kept. 3. THE MONITORING SYSTEM: As stated above, you would generally look for free-standing speakers, not speakers on a shelf or meter bridge. These could be either be all in one 3 way speakers or 2 way satellites and a sub(s). Occasionally you will see a mastering studio with soffit mounted speakers (in the wall) but this is more common to large mixing rooms. Mastering speaker systems are clear and transparent. They are not usually "coloured" and are designed to expose the flaws in the music so that the engineer can hear properly and focus on fixing or minimizing problems, if any. The size of the speakers or speaker system will be appropriate to the size of the room. Names you expect to see in a mastering studio are B&W, Lipinski, Quested, Duntech, Dunlavy, ATC, etc. Names you don't normally see are Genelec, Adam, Mackie, Yamaha, JBL, KRK, etc. The latter are generally used for mixing, not mastering. You also need a speaker switcher or mastering console. and room converter. Look for names such as Dangerous, Crookwood, SPL, Maselec. Switchers such as Mackie and Presonus are usually not considered to be of mastering quality. One needs to convert the digital audio signal coming from the computer into the analog world in order to hear it accurately through the speakers and controller. Mastering level room converter brands (Digital to Analog Converters) are usually Lavry Gold, Prism, Weiss, Cranesong HEDD, and on a slightly lower level, Lavry Blue, Black and Benchmark, etc., and not usually Apogee, Lucid, Pro Tools, MOTU, etc. 4. MASTERING FEES: To summarize, these are the main elements that a succesful mastering facility always has: 1. Full-time, dedicated mastering engineer with experience and credits 2. Studio professionally designed and built for mastering 3. Transparent Monitoring System 4. Dedicated high quality mastering specfic gear. 5. It is helpful but not completely necessary to have a waiting area, office staff, assistant and/or technical support guy. So how much should mastering services cost you? You have seen wildly varying prices that range from $100. to $5,000. per album! You've seen houly rates from $20. to $400. so how to make any sense out of this? Like any business, once your investment and ongoing expenses are accounted for, the price can be any thing you like or anything the market will bear! The cost of building and acoustically equipping a room is based on square footage which, when hiring a pro designer and builder, usually averages between $200. and $400. per square foot. Simple math tells you that a smaller room is less expensive than a bigger room. Essentail equipment for a mastering room ranges from approximately $100,000. to $200,000. The differences in costs for a sole proprieter versus a corporately owned multi-room mastering facilty are astronomical. The sole proprietor/mastering engineer has a big advantage as he can decide how much profit he/she wants to make when setting the rates. The location is also a big element in costs. The cost of owning, leasing or renting the premises is about as high as it gets in New York City but for a studio in the country, the cost are usually far, far less! The pedigree of a studio can play a big part in the rates. Most people who have been in the recording/mixing business for a few years have heard of Ted Jensen of Sterling Sound in NYC and Bob Ludwig in Portland, Maine. There are a few others of similar repute and they are the ones that are able to demand the upper mastering rates. Why? These engineers were in the right spot at the right time when they developed their careers, working in New York or LA when mastering became a big part of releasing a record. In that time period, they worked almost exclusively for major labels. Succesful independent artists were rare and there were no home studios to work from. Needless to say, the whole industry has changed dramatically since then! When you work exclusively for major labels, you get great mixes to master (most of the time!) and therefore get better results most of the time and as a side benefit, amass some great credits. If Ted Jensen changed his identity and opened up a new studio in Sudbury, Ontario, it would take him years to develop the same level of clientele and make the same money as he does now, if it were even possible! More than likely, he would never ever get there again, in spite of his formidable skills! Wrong place, wrong country to be winning Gammys (no offence to Sudbury or Canada!). However, good Canadian mastering engineers do master lots of Juno Award nominated/winning albums here! Once of the unfortunate misunderstanding of the inexperienced artist/mixer/producer is picking a mastering studio and not a specific mastering engineer! Sterling has Ted Jensen and several other "senior" engineers. They also have "after hours" mastering engineers who will work at lower rates. Will all of these engineers do an equally good job on your master? No, they will not! Some work better in certain styles and some may not be as consistenly as good as the other. There are plenty of comments posted on the internet about unknown indie bands who paid big dollars for their mastering but felt they did not receive the level of work that is usually given to a major label artist. No self respecting engineer should ever do less than their best work no matter who's mixes they are working on but human nature being what it is, it can happen. So are these top mastering studios/engineers the only ones who do (mostly) great work? Not at all! There are dozens of "mid-level" priced mastering studios all over the world who also do an excellent job. Again, if you carefully examine the above criterion for the mastering studio, you can begin to see why the rates can be so different yet the work of equal quality. Since the two reasons we are posting this information is general education and to introduce you to our services, let's analyze Silverbirch's mastering studio set-up. We meet all the 5 listed requirements of a top level mastering studio so why are our independent artist rates so relatively inexpensive? 1) We have a smaller mastering room. It was less expensive to build than a big room. 2) We are located in the Arcadia Artist Co-operative which is a non-profit building and therefore the cost of the square footage is far less than many other spaces. 3) Our mastering engineer has a huge independent client base who have worked with him for years. He started with a very modest room and little gear and now that he is in a professional, well-equipped facility, he has only nominally raised his rates over the years and therefore has kept most of his regulars. 4) The other part of our business is CD manufacturing/duplicating and other related services. This means we have an office staff to answer phones and keep the business side of things going without being a drain on the mastering income. Imagine how even one non-engineer's salary in a studio office can affect the bottom line! 5) We have a recording/mixing engineer on staff who uses the mastering room in the evenings for his clients. Not coincidentally, he is also our studio tech guy. Normally a small, sole proprietor owned mastering room does not have a secretary or full-time technical support but we do because of the multi-tasking of our employees, again, without a significant drain on the mastering income and therefore this gives us the option to keep our rates relatively low. What are our rates? In general, $75. per hour and five to six hours is usually enough time to master an average ten to twelve song album. So add the media charge and you will end up with a professionally mastered album in the range of $450. to $550. More info on rates, click here. How does the work compare to places charging double to quadruple the price? We'll let one of our more well-known mixer/producer client do the talking: "Andy Krehm has become my go to mastering guy for the last two years now. Andy's work is exceptional and on par with the best NYC Mastering houses. His rates are excellent and every single client I've sent to him has loved his work. Andy and I will be making records together for many years to come. Ken Lewis Producer/Mixer, New Jersey, USA, Mar. 20 2008 (Ken's credits include 6 Grammy's, 48 Gold and Platinum albums and singles, 27 #1 albums and singles, and 14 more Grammy nominations, mixer/producer/musician for artists such as Kanye West, John Legend, Beastie Boys, Usher, Lenny Kravitz, Mariah Carey, etc.) For more testimonials, click here. TO BE CONTINUED! 5. THE STUDIO GEAR: 6. ANALYSIS OF WEBSITES: HOW TO BURN A BIT ACCURATE CD OR HOW TO WRITE 16 BIT, 44.1K AUDIO FILES TO A CD: Our "out of town" and "unattended" mastering business is increasing every year. We are now mastering for clients all over the world. It's really a simple process. You send us the files, usually by uploading them on our FTP site, and we download and master the material. If one has specific concerns, you can call or email us so that we are aware of problems, or anything you are concerned about, before starting. Similarly, all the track info can be provided. You can also let us know the if you have specific ideas about how you hope the CD will sound when finished. You can even load a couple of tracks from your favourite CD to our site for reference purposes. If doing so, please make an effort to send us the 16 bit, 44.1k audio (Wave or AIFF). If not possible, we will accept mp3 but since we are interested in what type of sonic signature your like, mp3s are often a poor indicator. We then upload the "test" masters to our FTP site so that they can be proofed before we write the actual "CD-R Replication Master" and send it to you. However, there appears to be one major glitch in the system!!! We have discovered that our clients sometimes not writing a bit accurate CD from the files they download. This seems like such a simple thing to do but I have been testing CDs (for copy integrity) for years and heard some of the most amazing aberrations of audio ever written to a disc! For instance, loud mixes loaded into Nero with the "normalize" preference enabled (this creates a distorted mess can sometimes end up below full scale digital!). A more subtle problem would be putting our already dithered 16 bit, 44.1k files into Toast but not checking to make sure that the "Dithering" pref. is turned off. If it is on this results in a second dose of dither which makes the file sound slightly different, usually a little brighter! Our test masters are in 16 bit, 44.1k .wav file format and therefore NEED NOTHING ADDED in the CD writing program when preparing the sequence to burn. The following is a program by program guide on how to burn a bit accurate copy. Since your burned disc is just to check the test masters, we are not concerned about any advanced functions, such as CD-TEXT, IRSC codes, etc. Secondarily, our mastered audio files have space added to the in the front and back of them so it is advisable to load them in with no space before adjusting for your personal taste. The majority of writing programs have a 2 second default which when combined with the natural space in our files, will give you close to a 3.5 sec gap between tracks. Most people will find too long, at least on average, which is why we recommend starting with no space. After you have listened to the "natural" space in our audio, you can add in whatever space you want. We can also make the spaces tighter, if required. During the proofing process, we will ask if you have ideas for spacing, on a track by track basis, and adjust to suit before writing your master. WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER: AVOID WMP unless you have above average computer skills! It does import audio and write CDs but the standard default file format is .wma which sounds like a 128 kbps mp3 file. In other words, low-fi! If you write a CD with this format, it will appear to be a normal audio disc but will sound exactly as it is, degraded audio. The versions of WMP are numerous as is the defaults that people use. While IT IS POSSIBLE to write wave files to CD using this program, if you are not sure how to configure it, it is best avoided! iTUNES: First, go to the Preferences menu, under 'Edit' in Windows, and the 'Apple' on a mac. Choose the 'Advanced' tab, and then select the 'Burning' tab. Select 'Audio CD' (not mp3!) as the disc format. Choose None for Gap between songs, and absolutely make sure 'Use Sound Check' is NOT selected. Back in the main program, create a new playlist from the file menu and name it after the album. Select that playlist and drag-and-drop the wav files into this paylist. If a track order was provided, our mastered files will have the track number in them, so select 'Name' as the sorting column in the playlist. Once you are ready, click 'Burn Disc' from the buttons at the bottom of the iTunes screen. NERO (8): Open Nero Express from the 'Nero' section in the 'All Programs' in the 'Start' Menu. Choose 'Music' from the left hand list when it opens, and 'Audio CD' from the subsequent right hand list. Use 'Add' to add all of your songs and arrange them in the proper order. Make sure that 'Normalize all audio files' in NOT selected, but that 'No pause between tracks' IS selected. Click next and burn away. By the way, if you have the "Deluxe" versions, you also have the "Express" version which you should use unless you want to apply these ideas to the full-featured program. TOAST: In the Left Hand Menu, click on "Audio". Under "Preferences", go to "Audio And Video" and make sure the "enable dither" box is NOT checked (second from the bottom). In the same screen, you can also use the "Default Pause For New Tracks" display to change it from "00.00.02.00" to "00.00.00.00". If you have not set the "Default Pause For New Tracks" display you will notice on the main screen, after loading in the audio, that the pause column will show 2 sec". Double click on the number and change it to 0 so it reads "0 sec". Now there are no spaces between tracks. Remember that you can't change the first Pause of "2 sec". If you forget, Toast will ask if it can correct the error so that the disc will write. JAM: Under "Preferences", go to "Advanced Options" and make sure the "enable dither" box is not checked. On the main screen, after loading in the audio, you will notice that the pause column will show a 2 second default "00.00.02.00". Double click on the 2 and change it to zero so it reads "00.00.00.00". Now there are no spaces between tracks. Remember that you can't change the first Pause of "00.00.02.00" . If you forget, Jam will ask if it can correct the error so that the disc will write. WAVEBURNER: Under "Preferences", go to "Bounce" and select "No Dither" from the drop down menu. Before dropping in any audio, Go to "Disc" and select "Disc Options". Look at "Default Pause Length". It will probably display "00.00.02.00" or 2 seconds. Change to "00.00.00.00". If you've loaded all your audio and forgotten, you can double click on each wave form in the wave form display and fill in the "Gap To Previous Region" field. If you've already loaded in a lot of tracks, it faster to close down and start a fresh session with the "Default Pause Length" set to "00.00.00.00". NOTE: If you are using a program not mentioned here and want to check the correct procedure, please contact Andy Krehm and we will do our best to send you the info and update our list. If anyone has any suggestions for other popular writing problems to add to our list, please let us know. WHY DO YOU RECOMMEND THAT SILVERBIRCH WRITES THE REPLICATION MASTER? HOW A SILVERBIRCH CD-R MASTER IS WRITTEN: This is how we ensure that a master is exactly the same as the source and will not be rejected at the plant (causing delays in the manufacturing). This is procedure we follow and if a client insists on writing their own, this is the procedure we recommend. 1) Client FTP approval re the sound, the spacing (if desired) and lastly, email approval of CD-TEXT (text exported from the CD writing program). Here's more info re CD-TEXT. 2) Dither the 24 bit files with POW-r dither and burn on Toiyo Yuden CD-Rs using a Plextor Drive (by consensus, the combo used by the majority of professional mastering engineers for writing masters). 3) After writing, check the subcodes of disc (via a computer program, several can do this) to make sure the CD-TEXT got written properly. Also check to see how "&" signs, etc, or "accents" translate as they often don't. Also text copied and pasted from other programs will also transfer over data from original program that can cause glitches in the CD-TEXT. A sub-code check will reveal all of this. Sometimes the text has to be changed and a new master created. 4) Do a quick check of the spaces between tracks on the CD player. Make sure the "count-downs" between tracks work properly and any hidden tracks are displayed as they should. Also we are checking to make sure there are no clicks or pops in the gap and that any cross-fades created, play throught properly. 5) Do a test for C1, C2 and CU errors. This is done on a Plextor Drive with a program called Plextools. No CU errors are acceptable but a certain percentage of C1s and a very small number C2s are technically OK. However if we see ANY C2s, we write a new master! There are other programs that do this but Plextools is the most cost effective. Once in a while, a master has to be rewritten if it does not pass all of these tests. BTW, this doesn't mean the disc won't play properly but it usually means the plant will reject it and ask for a new one. 6) Write the subcode info on cover for the master including all the info that the plant needs to replicate. This reflects the professionalism that goes into each master that is written at Silverbirch and ensures that the plant knows exactly how the disc should be replicated. Notes like "CD-TEXT" and if written, "ISRC"s are enabled ensure that these functions are transfered to the glass master. Other helpful notes such as "audio in the Pre-Gap of track 3" is intended and song is called "blankety blank" will reassure the plant that there was no error made and that the copyright forms have covered the audio content. When these notes are NOT included, the good plants will stop the job and call the broker to get clarification of whether the audio should have been an i.d.-ed or the copyright status of the song in the pre-gap (which is of course not listed on the graphics!). By the time they call us, we call you, you check and answer us, anywhere from a day to several can be lost! 7) Take the master disc to our tower burner (also Plextor burners) and burn as many reference discs as the client needs. These have the same printed ink-jetted labels and covers as the masters but are marked as "reference copies". The refs are perfect copies of the master and if they check out OK, the master will be OK. We have intentionally kept the cost very low for the refs ($5. ea., no studio time) in order to discourage clients from writing extra ones. We KNOW ours are perfect copies and do worry that the copies are not going to be made correctly (see HOW TO...). 8) After printing labels, we seal the master disc with tape (removable) to remind the client NOT to open it. If we are replicating, we keep the master and pass it on to the CD Dept. after approval of the ref. We DO NOT recommend bypassing the reference copy as there are a few scenarios that can result in an error to being made. We are completely responsible for replacing any bad discs or discs with errors caused by us in the assembly of the sequence that was contrary to instructions (and that includes any courier costs!). However, we cannot not be responsible for any errors on production runs caused by an error in the master where the client has not OKed the reference copy in writing (email is fine). 9) After approval, archive project. There are many reasons why this is a good idea and at $25., is a real bargain if it is needed at any time in the future. As mentioned before, most artists, newbie mastering engineers and even experienced recording/mixing engineers do not, will not or cannot put this kind of time and effort into creating the master disc not to mention that it is a fact that most people that write CDs don't know what preferences to enable or disable when burning CDs (hence the following link). Just the simple act of not turning off dither when when writing from our 16 bit files FTP-ed proofing files will cause a bit more brightness to be added to the sound than the real files actually have. We've seen people write discs in Nero with "normalize" inadvertently left on and that can become a real mess. Or sometimes they burn a disc in iTunes and forget to de-select the mp3 box and get a production run of mp3 files! In our role as manufacturing broker for thousands jobs that are not mastered here, we often field calls from the plant with questions re the master (b/c no info was put on cover re a "hidden" track, etc.) or outright requests for a new master due to failure of the media. Sometimes they notice an i.d. that is not in the right place and sometimes they don't. These things are not the responsibility of the plant and are due to negligence in the creation of the master and/or lack of detailed proofing by the client. The plants that Silverbirch uses for replication all have excellent glass mastering departments but often times clients do not replicate with us and our masters are sent to plants that are not so diligent and that is really where following our disc writing procedures really cut the errors down to zero! We highly recommend that you go the extra financial mile ($55. CND for an full length CD which includes a master, ref. and archive) plus shipping of your choice and have us create the final master/ref. and send it to you, no matter where you are in the world! WHAT DO YOU RECOMMEND FOR SPACING BETWEEN TRACKS? In a professionally mastered album, the timing between songs are done on a custom basis, usually guided by the way one song ends and the next one starts as well as taking into account the style of music. When we go through this process with clients attending the mastering session, it is interesting to observe the differing opinions that people have. In other words, this is an artistic endeavour and except for technically placing the start I.D., there are no rules here. Some clients are not at all concerned about this process whereas others are very interested in being part of the process. On the other hand, our mastering engineer is perfectly happy and comfortable doing it himself without approval, if you like. However, once you get the master and then have an idea for spacing one or more tracks or don't like something that was done, it is relatively expensive to redo because of the necessity to adjust the space(es), redo the master and pay for a second courier. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD BRING TO THE SESSION? Yes! We use "reference CDs" when starting a new session so bring in a couple of good sounding recently released CDs, no older than 2/5 years, that are roughly in the production and playing style of your band and represent approximately what you'd like your master to sound like when done. We're talking instrumentation, sound and style (genre), not content or quality of singing/playing. Refs are NOT used for every song, just the one that is chosen to be mastered first and that is likely a more dense, up-tempo song. In other words, don't bring a ref. for each song! Please bring the manufactured CDs, not mp3s or burned CDs. Before we master the first song, we load in a few reference tracks so that we can flip between those and your master-in-progress. This serves a few purposes. For one, unless you have worked in our room before, you will not be familiar with how your music sounds in it. Hopefully you are familiar with the refs you bring in and that will give you a better idea of how something familiar sounds in our room. Of course you are familiar with your mix but probably not as a mastered file and you may not have done quick comparision checks with other commercial releases. By doing this, you will hear very clearly the similarities and differences, both in volume and tone, as we compare the first master-in-progress to the refs. This gives you the opportunity to decide whether to skew the mix more towards the refs or to make a conscious decision not to! This gives you choices and, in our experience, the majority of clients are sooner or later going to listening to their master in sequence with other release via iPod or multi-spin player so using ref. tracks on the first master of the day helps avoid surprises later! And lastly, our mastering engineer is very interested in hearing your refs. as it will likely trigger a discussion of what you like about the CDs you have brought in. There are often positives and negatives about any production and some of the positives elements may be able to be brought out in your master, if the mix permits it. Of course in rare cases, the client may have absolutely no interest in how the finished production compares to any other CDs in which case, this discussion will sort that out right away and by doing so will give the mastering engineer the information he needs to master your album. We are interested in making a master you are happy with and not imposing our personal preferences! Even if you are not attending the session, you can still provide references, either via FTP along with your mixes or if dropping or sending the material, include the CDs and we will return them with the master. |
