PUNEET SAMTANI
10
Questions
to ask yourself before delivering the Master.
Mastering is about getting a second perspective.
Once we have mixed our song, we have very little
perspective left. Pointing out the flaws becomes
even more difficult because of ear fatigue which
develops over time. At this point ideally, a specialized
mastering engineer should be roped in. 5. Are the fades and spacing between the tracks right?
Over the years the mediums to deliver the masters
have changed but in principal the job of the mastering
engineer primarily remains to make sure the mix
translates across all mediums of playback. (hi-fi, car
audio, laptops, mobile phones, radio, headphones etc.) All the tracks in the Album/EP should be at similar
level. So at no point during playback one must feel the
need to turn the volume up or down.
At times we have to master our own Songs/EP/
Album due to various budget and time constraints.
We need to make sure that these tracks sound great
even outside the studio.
There are always jitters when we hand over the
masters for distribution. Before we do, I often find
myself testing the tracks on different speakers and
asking myself these 10 questions.
1. Are the Frequencies evenly spread?
If not, then one must apply an Equalizer and
subtly balance the frequencies without making the
instruments sound alien.
2. Is the Compression just right?
If you are simply looking for cohesiveness you could
go with a bus compressor, If the mix is not balanced
and if one of the instruments is too low or it's popping
out, the multiband is a good option. The dynamics
of a song should never be compromised within this
process.
3. Is the Stereo Imaging great? Are there any phase
issues?
A good mix should never experience any phase issues
and should have good stereo imaging. In case the mix
does have issues of these sorts, it can be treated to
an extent with the help of phase meters and stereo
expanders.
The use of this will have to be rather subtle so that it
does not change the tonal balance drastically.
4. Check for Clicks, Glitches Pops and Noise
These unwanted noises can and should be treated
with the help of the equalizer and variously
specialized plugins.
36
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
The Fades of the tracks should be adjusted and there
should be uniformed spacing between tracks in case
an Audio CD has to be made.
6. Are the Levels between tracks similar?
7. Is the Limiting right?
This is one of the most important steps to mastering.
You make the mix louder in this process. A limiter
creates more perceived loudness. You must again be
careful about not losing out on dynamics at this point.
8. Have I added dithering?
Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise used
to randomize quantization error. Normally we all
record our music in at higher sample and bit rates.
96khz/32bit 48khz/24Bit are two common specs used.
The higher the bit rate the better the mix sounds, but
inevitably the bit rate needs to be reduced so that we
can share our music with the world. The Audio CD by
default is 44.1Khz 16Bit.
Dithering should always be applied once and at the
time of down conversion.
9. Is the Loudness level enough?
Music today is consumed mainly via streaming
websites. Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube etc. They all
have their own loudness standards and algorithms to
take the measurement. They all use LUFS or LKFS as
their basic unit measurement. iTunes/Apple uses a
target level of -16LUFS, YouTube
-13LUFS, Spotify
-11LUFS
The loudness of your track should be somewhere
between -16LUFS and -11LUFS based on your desired
dynamic range for the best possible outcome.
10. Have I embedded the correct Track Name, ISRC Code
and Meta Data?
This needs to be cross-checked a couple of times as
the information is critical. In the era of file sharing,
this becomes a very important factor when one
needs to trace the song back to the composer/author
and help him generate royalty and safeguard his
copyrights.