Chapter Nineteen - Posted on 2017-06-12 by Chelsea George

Chapter 19 explained Mastering and that mastering is the art of sweetening the mix and preparing the mix down for duplication. Mastering is all about subtlety, finesse, and perfection. Mastering is the art by which we sweeten the final product and prepare it for the world. The difference between mixing and mastering is that during the mix process we are examining the relationships between instruments, effects, vocals, soft synths, etc. Using an arsenal of tools to get the balance we are looking for. The mastering engineer has limited tools to accomplish this goal. The mastering engineer uses frequencies. I learned in chapter 19 about relative loudness and that it is a term that refers to how loud a song is compared to other songs. I also learned about peak metering and that it is the type of metering I see on my tracks in Pro Tools. I learned that peak metering measures the volume in real time. When the amplitude level goes over a certain point, the clip indicator goes on.

In the studio Renegade talked about the loudness war and that during the 1980s the average RMS level for a song was -18 dBFS to -12dBFS. He said that loudness is achieved during the mastering process by running audio through compression and limiting effectively reducing the dynamic range of a song, this increasing the overall volume of the song. He explained that the problem with songs that have no dynamic range is that they are exhausting the listen to, the ears get tired. Renegade talked about signal processing and that it is looking for things that bring out the brilliance of the frequencies of the project. Renegade explained song order and that it is the job of the mastering engineer or producer to decide how the collection of songs will be presented.