Desktop Mastering

Copyright © 2012 by Steve Turnidge

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, without written permission, except by a newspaper or magazine reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review.

Published in 2012 by Hal Leonard Books

An Imprint of Hal Leonard Corporation

7777 West Bluemound Road

Milwaukee, WI 53213

Trade Book Division Editorial Offices

33 Plymouth St., Montclair, NJ 07042

Book design by Rainbow Tiger Design

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Turnidge, Steve.

Desktop mastering / Steve Turnidge.

p. cm.

1. Mastering (Sound recordings) 2. Computer sound processing. I. Title.

ML74.3.T87 2012

781.3’4—dc23

ISBN 978-1-4584-0374-2

www.halleonardbooks.com

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1: A Conceptual Overview of Desktop Mastering

Shoulders of Giants—The Path to the Present

The External Mastering Chain

The Desktop Mastering Chain

Desktop Mastering Chain Functional Component Stages

First Stage: Low-End Frequency Control

Second Stage: Noise Reduction

Third Stage: Stereo Enhancement

Fourth Stage (optional): Reverb

Fifth Stage (occasional): De-essing

Sixth Stage: Multiband Compression, Expansion, and Equalization

Seventh Stage: Look-ahead Limiting, Quantization, Noise Shaping, and Dither

Eighth Stage: Visual Analysis

The Bundle of Functionality

Buggy Whips and Beyond

Chapter 2: The Listening Environment

Tuning the Ear

The Playback/Listening Chain

Noise Colors

The Flattening Procedure

Room EQ

Monitor Speaker Types

Listening Levels

Visual Feedback

The Computer Working Environment

Backups

Software Applications

Chapter 3: Digital Audio Concepts

Watches and Digital Audio

Sampling

Sample Rate

Spectral Images

Aliasing

What Else Can Go Wrong?

Bit Depth

The Flipbook

Time

Resolution

Choices

Chapter 4: Mixing for Mastering

Mixing Is Time Domain; Mastering Is Frequency Domain

The Sound Pyramid: Artistic Rules

Three Functional Rules

Should You Include Start and End Fades in Mixing?

Horror Stories

Multiple Versions

Name Your Files Logically

Do Things in the Right Order

File-Name Conventions

Preflight Checklist

Premaster Transport

YouSendIt

Dropbox

SoundCloud

Chapter 5: The Mastering Process

Receiving the Premaster

Prepare for Mastering

The Start Noise

Generate a Default Plug-in Chain for the Project

Chapter 6: The Desktop Mastering Chain

Get Them While They’re Young: The Waves LinEQ Lowband

DC Offset Explained

Back to Setting the LinEQ Low Band

Keep Them Quiet: Noise Reduction

How Noise Reduction Algorithms Work

Noise Reduction Threshold Setting

Tuning the Noiseprint

The Reversal Trick: Reverse Noise Reduction

Special Purposes Fixes

Add a Dimension: The Waves S1 Stereo Imager

Becoming Centered

Mid-side Processing

Solving Stereo Phase Issues

Shuffling

Leveraging the Chain

Get a Room: Reverb

Stop the Sibilance: The Waves Renaissance DeEsser

How to Find Sibilant Frequencies

Balance and Strengthen: The Waves C4 Multiband Parametric Processor

The C4 Frequency Ranges

Calibrating Ballistics, Vectors, and Dynamics

Make Everything MORE: The Waves L3 Ultramaximizer

Quantization, Dither, and Noise Shaping

Watch What You’re Doing: The Waves PAZ Analyzer

Postmastering Processes

Cleanup: Tops and Tails

Tops

Tails

Fading Out Repeating Sections

The Human Lens

Mastered File Management and Delivery

Chapter 7: Sequencing and Production Master CDs

Sequencing

Track Spacing and the Snap Game

ISRC Codes

A CD Architect 5.0 Cautionary Tale

Sequencing Workflow

Chapter 8: Real World Mastering Applications

Options and Opportunities

Capture and Master Your Favorite Records and Tapes

Music Programs in High Schools and Colleges

Teen Center Studios

Professional Compilation Albums

Tribute Albums and Burning Sky Records

Greatest Hits and Career Overview Box Sets

Genealogy Transcriptions

Forensics

Companion CDs for Books and Instruction Manuals

Other Record Label Work

Seattle Fireworks Audio

Fireworks Cutdowns

Your Client and Opportunity Bases Are Infinite

Chapter 9: Mastering as a Business

The Business Bundle of Functionality

Begin Where You Are

Learn to Fail Fast

Generate and Cultivate a Brand

The Business Card

The Business Card Binder

Use QR Codes (or their current equivalent)

Stay Informed

Starting a Business

Business Insurance

Mileage and Travel

Keep a Lab Notebook

Money

Invoicing

The Client Environment

Client Contact and Recruitment

Client Communications

Marketing Methods

The Four-Foot Forks

The Talent Tarot

Self-Employment

The Social Graph

Use Social Networks as Performance Spaces

Life Streaming

Status Messages

Be Everywhere at Once

Use Social Networks at Their Sharp End

Comments Are Currency

Planning Ahead and Goal Setting

Chapter 10: Fundamentals of Audio

The Ocean of Air

Propagation

The Waveform Explained

Units of Measurement: the Decibel (dB)

Everything Is Relative

Characteristics of a Wave

Chapter 11: An Introduction to Electricity and Electronics

Electricity

Electronic Components

Filters

Crossovers

Signal Processor Families

Amplitude Processors

Frequency Processors

Frequency and Amplitude Processors

Time-Based Processors

Major Components

The Amplifier

Chapter 12: Conclusion

Multidimensional Vision

Windup

Audio Taxonomy: A Glossary of Subtle Terms

UltraViolet Studios Discography

Acknowledgments

The Desktop Mastering Companion DVD-ROM

Preface

Mastering your music is like mastering your life. It’s amazing what happens when you clean up the noise, maximize your good work, and have your music sparkle and shine the way you really want it to.

Welcome to Desktop Mastering! This book describes the tools and methods I use every day to maintain a comfortable existence with desktop mastering at its core, including the broader issues of personal networking, marketing, and taking care of business. The tools I describe are not as important as the techniques, which are transferrable to any rendition of current technological offerings.

Some of the ideas presented here may initially strike you as unlikely. That is a good thing—it’s the first of three stages of acceptance that tend to go something like this:

1. You’re crazy, that’ll never work—give up now!

2. I know that exists, but I have no use for it.

3. Of course that’s how you do it! What took you so long?!

So, in my business and dealings, when I hear That will never work! from others, I smile to myself and understand that they have reached the first stage of acceptance.

In this book, you’ll learn the specific processes I’ve developed over the past decade to successfully and consistently master audio fully in the box (without external processing equipment). Desktop Mastering also covers all the basics you’ll need to know to understand what the mastering engineer needs from a mix, with specific advice regarding how to set up your listening environment and what is needed to provide an optimal premaster. Included in the companion DVD-ROM are real-world examples of premastered files and their mastered counterparts for you to practice on in your own studio.

You’ll find chapters that will introduce you to the fundamentals of digital and analog audio and electronics, which provides a great starting point and directions for further study.

Finally, there are sections on practical and pragmatic methods to apply what you’ve learned. Not only can you master your own music, but it might be time for you to start offering your mastering services to others as well, with the potential of having your own business doing what you love.

1

A Conceptual Overview of Desktop Mastering

There are three types of mastering—cosmetic, aesthetic, and restorative—just as in dentistry.

• Cosmetic dentistry is used to make shiny, brilliant teeth that stand out in a crowd and look great in smiles walking up the red carpet.

• Aesthetic dentistry is used to match the nearby teeth to make the set appear to be a whole—the work looking natural, as if it were meant to be that way.

• Restorative dentistry brings back into order the functionally incorrect—removing unpleasant and dysfunctional aspects, while adding what is necessary to restore the patient to full health.

In mastering, you have the opportunity to provide similar services to your clients.

• Electronica, hip-hop, rock, and pop can sparkle and shine, and rise above the crowd with cosmetic mastering.

• Jazz, classical, and location recording benefit from aesthetic presentation in a clear and unadorned way, accurately portraying the performances without distraction.

• Forensics and archival mastering restores damaged and noisy sources to intelligible carriers of information. Sometimes, the archival restoration is the first step, to be followed by a cosmetic or aesthetic stage for final presentation.

Shoulders of Giants—The Path to the Present

Historically, mastering has been a process of transformation, typically from one medium of information storage to another. Throughout most of mastering’s history, the goal behind it was to physically lathe vibration forms into the groove of a disc. This process required significant skill and craft, and the pool of accomplished mastering engineers was limited. A series of tools were at the mastering engineer’s disposal, specifically purpose-built to inscribe the most delicate of details onto the production master disc, which would be the template for thousands of commercially released duplications of it. Mastering then evolved with the introduction of the cassette tape, which had its own limitations to be finessed.

Finally, with the introduction of the compact disc, the age of digital mastering was upon us. The mastering engineers had a substantial learning curve to overcome—the finesse needed to eke out the finest details from vinyl (and the tricks required to do so) did not translate well at first to the CD.

RIAA Equalization

One of the tricks used to keep phonograph styli in the groove was a frequency equalization process called the RIAA Curve, which reduces low frequencies (that would toss the stylus around) and increases high frequencies (to capture the sound in finer detail). Phonograph preamplifiers have a complementary (equal and opposite) filter curve built in to boost the low frequencies and reduce high-frequency content, with the benefit of reduced hiss but the liability of higher rumble.

Some of the earliest transfers to CD retained the aspects of this earlier technology, resulting in a lack of low end and a brittle high end. Over a period of time, experience had its way, and the mastering industry found its niche—and the age of the CD eclipsed all the media that had come before.

The External Mastering Chain

The one consistent thread among mastering engineers up until the late 1980s (and beyond) was that they all used functional components chained together to do their job. The use, order, and settings of these components were the distinguishing factors among mastering engineers.

The mastering process has been transformed by technological and computational evolution. This shift is from out of the box (which is something of a misnomer, since there are many boxes used in external mastering chains), toward in the box, or desktop mastering—where the full processing functionality of the mastering chain is controlled and applied inside a desktop computer. The majority of mastering engineers at the time of this writing employ a hybrid system, typically running a number of processes with outboard gear while bringing the premastered audio into their digital environment. The desktop mastering chain has developed and evolved fully in the box for more than a decade, and is what I have to share with you.

There is at least one overlapping requirement regardless of where the processing lies: an appropriate and accurate reproduction chain is necessary to inform the choices at the heart of the mastering process. Being able to hear what you are doing and knowing what to do are at the core of mastering.

The Desktop Mastering Chain

The real focus of this book is the concept of the bundle of functionality, which, in desktop mastering, is a specific and functional chain of plug-in processors within a digital audio workstation environment. The functionality of the whole is a synergetic superset of each individual processor.

All mastering (and audio, for that matter) boils down to only two aspects—frequency and level. The primary function of any mastering chain is to balance frequencies and provide the desired level in each channel, whether it is a slamming highly compressed signal or a delicate, quiet passage.

The desktop mastering chain can be realized with any number of tools from different providers. You don’t have to use my specific chain. Finding what works for you in your situation is the fun part, and that is one of the reasons I’ll go into detail about my specific setup—it is what works for me. Taking a journey of discovery often leads to finding new ways of solving old problems, and distinguishing yourself as a provider of a unique service at the same time.

Desktop Mastering Chain Functional Component Stages

Setting up the desktop mastering chain, as in sculptural technique, begins with crude moves to bring the audio file into a generally balanced frequency spectrum, with levels optimized for the next stages in the chain.

First Stage: Low-End Frequency Control

The minimal functionality needed for this first stage is a highpass filter set at 20 Hz, a general level control, and some low-frequency equalization.

The prime function of this first stage is to minimize potentially uncontrolled energy in the low end. Low-frequency energy is often out of balance, and literally takes up the most room of any waveform. Taming it here allows the rest of the chain to have the most headroom possible for its processes.

Second Stage: Noise Reduction

The next stage is low-level noise reduction used to expand the dynamic range of the material (the difference between the loudest and the softest sounds in the file). Ideally the noise reduction stage has a frequency-setting component that allows shaping of the reduction threshold curve, the tuning of which is required for excellent overall results. This stage is like washing the windows—you may not realize how bad they were until they’re clean.

Third Stage: Stereo Enhancement

Now that the low frequencies are controlled and the noise floor has been dropped, it is time to provide subtle stereo enhancement. The processor in this stage provides overall stereo phase and channel balancing control, as well as a method to widen the soundstage. These actions are all taken before turning the level up (or taking gain), which happens a couple of stages down the road.

Gain staging is a critical concept: a properly gain-staged chain of processor levels are set so that any clipping that occurs on the first processor simultaneously clips the rest of the chain. This ensures the maximum headroom and dynamic range for the entire chain.

In contrast, if the output of one stage is set at a very quiet level, and the next stage has to have its input turned way up to compensate, what you are actually turning up is the noise present in both stages. The better way to set gain is to have outputs set as loudly as possible without clipping the next stage; that way, the input can be set very low and still provide sufficient and necessary volume without turning up unnecessary noise.

Fourth Stage (optional): Reverb

Very rarely, a track comes in that is dry as a bone, and it practically scrapes as it travels through the plug-in chain. In these cases, and at this stage of the chain, I’ll provide some very subtle and light reverb, just enough to restore the illusion