( L-R ) Lacquer Channel Cutting Engineer Kevin Park ; Senior Mastering Engineer Noah Mintz ; Senior Mastering Engineer Phil Demetro & Studio Manager / Mastering Engineer Maeghan Ritchat .
PS : On that note , are there any other current technologies or trends in audio mastering or audio production in general that are significantly impacting your profession ?
NM : Plug-ins are changing mastering for better and for worse . Plug-ins are getting better . The UAD plugs sound very close to the analog gear they are emulating . They are still missing something . I don ’ t think they can emulate the sound of the actual power of analog equipment . Every studio has different power . The same piece of gear can sound different in different rooms ; all UAD Pultecs sound the same in all studios .
PS : Overall , do you find music creators today more or less in tune with the importance of professional mastering when it comes to a formal release than they generally were , say , five years ago ? What do you think contributes to that ?
NM : I think mastering is much more misunderstood than it ever was . It used to be a “ black art ” in which people didn ’ t know what we would do ; they would just send in mixes and it would come back sounding better . Now , there is so much information out there that everyone knows something about mastering but much of it is false information . People ’ s expectations from mastering can be way beyond what mastering can or should do . Good mastering is evident unto itself of its value .
PS : As you said , vinyl is still a popular commodity for music releases while digital downloads and streaming are now the dominant method of consumption , meaning creators often want different masters specific to these platforms . Maybe it ’ s not so cut-and-dry , but is this something that ultimately benefits the professional mastering industry ?
NM : Vinyl records can sound great . The problem is that rarely do people master separately for vinyl . We do it as standard but we cut records here so we know that a vinyl master must be treated differently . Any mastering studio or engineer worth their salt knows this , but with so many recording and mix engineers also calling themselves mastering engineers , they tend to provide the same master for vinyl that they do for digital . I know this because we cut about 20 albums a week , mostly from outside studios , and more than half of them are the same master as the digital version . We work with it of course , but it ’ s a shame that the artist is not aware that with a little extra work at the mastering stage , they can have a much bettersounding vinyl record .
The popularity of vinyl signifies that consumers want something physical that sounds different than streaming . It ’ s not always bettersounding but it certainly has the potential to be . There ’ s just something about an analog signal that people connect with , granted that they are actually playing it back analog . That ’ s not always the case .
PS : Has the popularity of streaming services and overall digital consumption affected your workflow or overall operations in any other ways ?
NM : The crazy thing about streaming is that all the free services are at a lower bit-rate than the first generation iPod , which was 128 kbs , which everyone in the music industry ubiquitously agreed was not high enough quality for music . No one complains about the quality of free streaming because it ’ s free . I think quality is enough of an issue to get people to pay for streaming to get a higher bit-rate like 320 kbs . We just haven ’ t valued the quality of audio like
we have video . No one would go back to VHS , even if the movies were free .
There are standards for streaming and while we ’ re mastering , we always have that in mind . We have software that we can use in real-time to audition how it will sound on the various streaming platforms . It doesn ’ t often affect our mastering decisions but it can . If it sounds bad on Spotify , we need to change something in the mastering to make sure it doesn ’ t . We ’ re always thinking about how the audience will be listening , be it streaming , vinyl , radio , or even cassette which , for better or worse , is making a comeback .
PS : On a related note , what would you say is the biggest change to your or Lacquer Channel ’ s regular operations between now and , say , three years ago ?
NM : Answering that honestly , I would say it ’ s financial security . Even a few years ago , people were doing albums . Now we get more EPs than albums . There ’ s less money for artists so there ’ s less money for studios . We ’ re really busy – busier than we ’ ve ever been , but our billing is flat because people are doing fewer songs , demanding more , and paying less . I and everyone here at Lacquer Channel – there are 10 of us – are so lucky to be able to do what we love . I love mastering – so much so that I don ’ t give a shit that I won ’ t be able to retire anytime in the next 6,000 years . I ’ ll figure that out when the time comes . For now , I ’ m just happy I get to work on amazing music everyday . Only the businessman in me wishes we all got paid more . The musician and audio engineer in me is excited to get up every morning to hear what new music I get to work on . It ’ s cliché , but it ’ s like Christmas every morning when I unzip those . wav files .
40 PROFESSIONAL SOUND