recording engineer and mix engineer , whether that ’ s yourself or somebody else , or you ’ ve hired somebody or not , there ’ s still a process that you ’ re going through , and mastering is an essential part of that process . Having an automated version that has control over your presentation , without your control , to me is possibly dangerous . Because , again , “ rock preset number four ” because you liked the sound of that or choose some service and you want it to be this , generally , what they ’ re doing is comparing two things in either a similar genre , or a similar dynamic range . [ The algorithm ] is looking for things that are similar and then making adjustments that work with your music . As a side example , Chet Baker , as a trumpet player , was unbelievable . Vibe , feel , heart , soul … he was always a little bit flat ; he played flat , he sang flat , but it worked with his music . And somebody would take that today , and would Auto-Tune him , and he wouldn ’ t be the same guy ; wouldn ’ t be the same artist because he was put through something that put him into a box that was adjusted to make sure it felt like it was in this position . When we take away the human expression , the danger with these kinds of things to me is , again , art is human expression . And how humans relate to it is hearing the humanity in it . If you take the humanity away , you take away the thing that makes it interesting to us for the most part , and then we don ’ t engage in it . It becomes background music or becomes something that covers up silence or the air conditioner .
Ghose : Like any mastering service , they ’ re just that … a service . If an artist uses them and is happy with the results , then that ’ s great ! I have no issues with that . If an artist is achieving their musical and career goals , there ’ s no reason to change . Other mastering engineers and I provide a service that goes beyond that . Mastering is about the emotional aspect of music . The technical portion , while important , is the easy part . As of now , I don ’ t think the automated services have figured out human emotion . If I ’ m being honest , I haven ’ t heard an automated master that I couldn ’ t improve upon . But whether that ’ s worth the extra cost is up to every individual artist . I empathize with those that have limited budgets , and think automated services are worth trying if that ’ s what you can afford .
Hutten : First of all , LANDR won ’ t tell you if your mix was exported with a soloed track ( this has happened to a mix I have received ). So LANDR won ’ t email you back stating , “ Hey man , I noticed that at 2:10 there are only vocals there , was that intentional ? Just checking .” Also , LANDR won ’ t sequence your tracks properly and master the dynamics of a record in terms of how it flows in feeling . It will just compare it to other tracks of the same genre . Just knowing how to properly fade and transition songs is an artform on its own . Knowing how to blend and move from one song that has a tape hiss to another that doesn ’ t , things like that LANDR can ’ t do yet . Those automated services are great to submit for approvals or even syncing agents to get a pass on a song before spending too much money on it . But these services are mostly just AI bus processing , and that ’ s not really 100 % mastering . It ’ s not that different from slapping an iZotope pre-set on your master track , in my opinion .
PS : I ’ m curious to get your thoughts on “ remastered ” albums . Seems that any album of any note , when it ’ s time for the 20 th anniversary , the inevitable “ remastered ” version gets released by the record label . In general , is this a money grab or is there actual value , artistically and sonically , in most of these remastered reissues ? What is the difference you typically hear between the original and the remastered version ?
MR : It depends , again , as everything does , what ’ s the intent ? Sometimes it ’ s a cash grab , sometimes the labels look at things where they own the content , and say , “ Let ’ s see if we can get some more money out of it . We call it new , then great , and maybe people will buy it .” The other is , maybe technology didn ’ t allow something at a certain point to have a feel or vibe , or times change and things can be done differently . One could argue , Giles Martin doing The Beatles ’ catalog and re-mixing that kind of stuff : is it a cash grab ? You put The Beatles on it and “ new ” and 20 or 50 million people around the world are probably going to buy it and listen to it because they want to hear something different out of it . Is it better ? That ’ s in the eye ear of the beholder . If you like
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it , then yes . And if you don ’ t , then no . If the intent is just to cash in on it , then that doesn ’ t even necessarily mean it ’ s a bad thing .
Ghose : I have limited remastering experience , so I don ’ t have much to add from an engineer ’ s perspective . But as a consumer , if a remaster can get closer to the artist ’ s original vision , I ’ m all for it . For instance , I love the remaster of Radiohead ’ s OK Computer . I don ’ t know their reasoning behind remastering , but they took a record that I knew well and loved and injected new life into it . It gave me a completely new musical experience . In this case , remastering was worthwhile for me .
Hutten : I think sometimes it makes sense to remaster an album since the medium in which it ’ s being heard changes in a 20-year span . We ’ re soon reaching the age when there probably won ’ t be that much of a point to remaster something from 2010 in 2030 because the media is likely to still be the same ( streaming ). But from , say , 1980 to 2000 the media used for listening to music really changed . In 1980 you ’ d be listening on vinyl , so that album at the time was mastered to be reproduced in that medium . The 2000 one likely takes on an approach for listening on CD and , if later , on streaming . This means it could be louder , punchier , and have more bass . But yeah , sometimes remasters can be cash grabs too . Sometimes they sound almost exactly the same . And sometimes they do a 2000 remaster and then a 2020 remaster and you ’ re wondering why . One is ‘ loudness wars ’ era and the other one isn ’ t ?
Manus Hopkins is the Assistant Editor of Professional Sound .
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