Mastering Myths:

We sat down with Allen Corneau, chief mastering engineer for Essential Sound Mastering, and one of Houston's finest, to unveil some of the oldest and the most common mastering myths.  

Myth 1: Mastering will fix your mix.

Some people think that the mastering stage is where they fix all the problems they couldn't fix in the mix, or worse, didn't take the extra time to get the best mix they could get.

Mastering can sometimes help some of those problems, but mastering should not be looked at as the "mixer-fixer".   Get your mixes sounding as best as they can be before you go into mastering, and you'll come out with a project you can be proud of.

Myth 2: "My mixing engineer says she/he can master my stuff, so there's no need for an expensive mastering studio."

Here are my 2 cents

1. An experienced mastering engineer will give you a fresh perspective on your material. The band, producer and engineer have been slaving away at this project for weeks, or months. It's good to have a fresh and experienced opinion on your project to keep you from working in a bubble.
2. A dedicated mastering studio will have a much better monitoring environment (speakers, room, A-D converters, etc.), which will allow you to hear what's truly going on with your mixes. If you can't hear the problems in the first place, you won't know to fix it!
3. The skill set for mastering is quite different than the skill set for mixing and tracking. I don't do tracking or mixing anymore, just mastering. It's my full time job, so I'm using mastering-specific skills almost every day.

When you try to master in the same studio you've mixed in, the problems in the monitoring environment will be compounded. Let's take low end for an example: Most mixing studios have small near-field speakers, which don't produce accurate bass. When you try to master on those same speakers, you'll be adding more low end than you need because you can't hear it coming out of those 8 inch monitors.

Myth 3: Mastering is just compression and equalization

The truth is EQ and compression are only two of the tools that a mastering engineer can use. Mastering is about listening to the material, deciding on a sonic goal, and then letting me decide whatever tools and techniques are needed to get as close the goal as possible. You don't build a house by banging on everything with a hammer and turning everything with a screwdriver! You use the right tool in the right way and at the right time to get the job done right.

Myth 4: Mastering means making each song sound good

Mastering an album is about making each song sound good of course, but at the same time making all the songs fit together as a whole, cohesive album.

I usually start by lining up all the songs in the order that they're going to appear, and then I listen to each song so I have a better idea about what's going on with the mixes.

Then after listening to a few references supplied by the client, we start discussing what they would like their project to sound like and what aspects of the references they're so attracted to. Once we get a common "vision" of what the client wants the album to sound like, I will use whatever tools and techniques are needed to accomplish that goal.

Myth 5: "My project isn't going to win a Grammy, so there's no reason to spend money on mastering."

Projects that are done in smaller studios and/or with less experienced engineers are actually the ones that can benefit the most from professional mastering!

Any major artist's CD that you go and buy from the store has been mastered. You can't expect your project to sound as good as theirs if you skimp on the mastering process. Mastering is a necessary step for the project to sound it's best, so it should always be factored into the budget from the get-go.

Remember that your recording, whether it's a 3-song demo or a 15-song album, is a permanent record of your art that will be out there forever! No matter who is going to hear it, it should be the best representation of your art possible.

Myth 6: Mastering will make it "Radio Ready"

I hear this one all the time. "Radio Ready" is not some mysterious radio-industry standard of RMS volume or anything like that. When people talk about "Radio Ready" what they really mean is that your CD sounds good and is comparable to the other music being put out today.

Myth 7: Louder is better.

Oh boy! This is a complicated subject. I'll try to cover the two biggest things that people are worried about: Average volume of CD's and Radio.

A lot of people are worried that if their CD is not as loud as "Mega-Band X", then it won't sound good. The problem is that there is a "Volume War" going on right now, where everyone is trying to be louder than everyone else. The fact is that CD's have a fixed upper ceiling for volume, and there is nothing above that. If you make your average volume louder, then you have less headroom for the things you want to be louder; like the punch of drums or big choruses. If your average volume is crammed up to the top of that ceiling and you've got a chorus that you want to get really big sounding, it won't have anywhere to go if there isn't enough headroom.

It seems like everyone has forgotten that we have something on our stereo called a "volume knob". A CD with less average volume and more headroom for dynamics will sound better than a CD that has a louder average volume with less headroom after you turn it up to match. It's ok, you can adjust the volume, it won't hurt you, I promise!

Radio: Every radio station has a lot of processing that is in place on their broadcast chain. Part of that processing is an "automatic gain control" system (AGC) so that the average volume of every song is the same when you hear it on the radio. If your music is a little quieter on the CD, than it will be brought up and if your music is louder it will be brought down. Now, factor in that the quieter CD will have more headroom for punchy dynamic stuff, so when it gets brought up by the AGC it will still sound punchier than the loud CD which has less headroom for dynamics and was brought down.

If you missed all that, here's the summary: A CD with more room for dynamic range will sound better and just as loud on the radio than a CD with a higher average volume and less dynamic range.

Now go out there and make some great sounding music!