Taking out the veil to the mix

The term mastering and mastering, it is still one of the great unknowns for many people associated with the arts of music and recording. Given the growing increase in the computer industry and sustainable development of software dedicated to these purposes, is that we will look at this little known art of Mastering.

Mastering as a concept, is to maximize one or more pieces of music, given that the final support is planned that work hard to stop (Cassette, Audio CD, Mulimedia, DVD, etc). I have heard more than one occasion, a phrase that explains my judgment greatly and in simple words what it means mastering "Mastering is like getting a sort of veil to the mix." Very true, because as we started working we see how it will "clarify" it. As many variants, or forms the end, I will attempt to explain the best possible audio CD mastering. As many know, the two previous steps to mastering are: * Recording. Printing to a specific format of the execution of an instrument, voice, or sound. * Mix. The combination of all previous runs under an established concept, and in a specific format. To master, we must first have a "mixed" in some format. These formats can be, Cassette tape 1/8, Reel to Reel Tape 1/4, Vinyl, CD Audio and CD currently the most widely used data, apart from naturally supports more advanced and expensive. The equipment required are basically, player, equalizer, compressor, limiter, and maximizing the recorder end. Several of these components can be replaced by a computer with relevant software and your CD. Currently there is a lot of software dedicated to these purposes, both for PC or Mac, such as Cool Edit, Wavelab, and others, the most prestigious Sonic Solutions and Pro Tools. Also, there are also many companies engaged in the development of plug-ins such as Waves, Focusrite, Steinberg, Apogee, McDSP, Sony Oxford, TC Electronic and others. Before we get into specifications and uses of each component, is well worth mentioning that, once we have our client with their mixtures, cone us ready to work, it is very important to have a conversation with music producer. Here, we define where we are headed, and what they want as an end product. Normally these variants are already pre set in the mix and it's up to hear what they did, to see where they go. There is a risk that the problem of monitors or speakers that were used to make the mixture, which may have given an erroneous reference the final result. And I insist, must be very careful not to impose our personal tastes to the concept they have, as a mastering can be changed and completely manipulate the perception of the work. The conversation can last for days, taking into account that we are talking about subjective concepts such as "weight, bright, opaque, crystalline, wet, tight," and so on. For this I recommend asking in advance let me know a song or CD, which they deem it sounds fantastic and approaches where possible, the style of music mastering. After listening carefully to know immediately what we mean and where we go, but not always the end of the story. Many times has come up with a song they thought it sounded great, but we realize that very little about sound quality. And this is where our experience and based on taste, propose alternative ways. * Articles written for our Forum .