Mastering Window Seat

5 Nov 2006

When I told non-musician friends of mine last week that I was heading to New York for the Window Seat mastering session they gave me a puzzled look and responded, "Mastering what's that?". Mastering is definitely one of the less understood parts of the recording process. So here are my two cents on the mastering process...

Ok so you've just walked out of the studio with your final mix on a CD-R, damn you are excited. You run to the first CD player you can get your hands on and throw in your CD. The first track comes on but wait that's odd its not really that loud. It sure as hell isn't as loud as that Michael Bolton CD you were just rocking out to. What's going on...

So this is the first thing and probably most obvious thing that mastering solves. It makes your records LOUD. Technology has increased this loudness limit over the years and one way to tell this is to put on a CD from the 80's. Then play a CD that was released in the last year. You'll hear a fairly big jump in volume.

The remaining things that mastering does are far more subtle but still very important. When I was in the mastering session with Greg Calbi at Sterling Sound, Greg was kind enough to A/B the non-mastered tracks with the mastered tracks. Greg increased the volume on the non-mastered tracks so that both tracks were equal in volume. There was a huge difference. The vocal in the mastered tracks had far more presence and the mastered tracks had more depth all around. It was as if each instrument was easier to find in the mix post mastering. The mastered tracks were also wider, which is a hard thing to imagine, but it was as if the music filled a bigger stereo field post mastering. All of these augmentations to the music were achieved through; a lot of outboard gear, swapping cables between ouboard gear (I'm not kidding) and most importantly Greg Calbi's amazing ears.

The last big decision that was made in the mastering session was settling on the sequence of the album. This is really important and I believe can heavily influence how the album is perceived by listeners. All sorts of things factor into this decision such as song tempo, song mood, and song key. The sequence we settled on for Window Seat is as follows:

1. When I Wake Up
2. Everything Counts (depeche mode cover)
3. Lost and Gained
4. Don't Look Back
5. Envy
6. Should I
7. Someday
8. A World Spinning

So that's mastering in a nutshell, there are books written on this topic so I accentuate nutshell. Below are a few links to check out for further info and your listening pleasure.

• 4 tracks from Window Seat on MySpace.
• Mastering on wikipedia.
• More about Greg Calbi and Sterling Sound.

Category: Studio Journal

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