Colin OOOD

You have a volume knob, no? Turn it down. Bob Katz has a good take on it in his Mastering Audio book; the aim of the mastering engineer is to make the music sound as good as possible on as wide a range of replay equipment as possible. We can see that the optimum playback experience on a 50K Opus rig has different requirements from that for an MP3 player with shitty earbuds being listened to on a crowded train. The first scenario needs very little compression, as the available dynamic range is simply immense, and the rig has more than enough headroom to accurately reproduce the loudest peaks when the volume is such that the quietest passages are nice and loud; unless you have hot-swap eardrums, the second scenario requires relatively heavy compression to ensure that either quieter sections don't get lost in the background noise, or the louder sections don't make your ears bleed when you've got it turned up loud enough to hear the quiet bits. It's the mastering engineer's job, then, to hit the top of the bell-curve of listenability; to provide as good a sound as possible on as many replay systems as possible. This will inevitably involve compromises - there will always be some replay systems unable to make the most of any particular master, and there will always be some replay systems for which the music has been over-squashed - but this is unavoidable when there is only the budget for one distribution format and therefore one mastering per track. The mastering engineer has to be aware that the track will be played on big festival systems and iPods alike... and since tracks are played more often on personal music systems than on 50K Opus rigs, the mastering is inevitably skewed in the direction of more squash. Plus no-one wants their track to be quieter than others when they're being played out. Sometimes when DJing it's not possible to raise the volume of a track past a certain point (for instance if you've been warned twice already by the soundman for clipping the mixer ) so if your peak level is fixed, each track needs a similar RMS to sound the same level, which also skews mastering in the direction of matching the louder tracks out there. $0.02

x2

Started with Steinberg Pro 24 on the Atari ST, then used a Chase Bit master keyboard with built-in hardware sequencer for a while. Then Voyetra Sequencer Plus Gold on a 286 PC, then Cubase on the Atari, then Cubase v1.0 for Windows 3; at various points in-between I also used the step sequencers on the SH-101 and Sequential Six-Trak synths, and a Yamaha RX17 drum machine, if they count! I got Cubase for my PC in 1992; I've been using it as my main writing platform ever since. Since 1999 or so I've also used Acid and Audiomulch for the occasional project, and regularly use Reason and Ableton Live.

Supergroover and Antic have it IMO. Vinyl isn't my speciality but if you compare the waveforms of a few ripped old-school 12"s with some recent CDs you'll see there's much more compression on the CDs - the dynamic range of the old-school tracks is larger than the dynamic range of the more recent tunes. That's just the different mastering styles though; if you're talking about the actual dynamic range achievable with each medium the situation is reversed. A quick Google search tells me that the dynamic range of vinyl ranges from 50dB up to 80dB depending on vinyl formulation and quality, whilst that of CD starts at 96dB, with the perceived dynamic range increasing with proper dithering and oversampling. Whether or not the full dynamic range of CD is taken advantage of is a different matter altogether, as is whether the amount of mastering I get to do actually qualifies as 'making a living' at it

Great looking studio Franklin, looks like a comfortable and friendly place to do music. BTW, if you haven't already (I only see the outputs hooked up ), you should explore using the NM1 as an FX unit, the ringmod and vocoder especially are a nice surprise if you're used to software.

Bad hair day.

Currently mastering "Jikkentekki with 11 - Super Power Mustard". ooo, the temptation. Nice track, hope I've done it justice...

I can tell you now with 100% certainty that if we'd had the technology back then, our tracks would have sounded as clean and clear and punchy etc. as they do now. And I'm equally sure that every artist who was producing goa back then would say the same. No-one has a 50K soundsystem in their studios; good production shines. Make your mind up ffs.

Er... wtf? Just because the systems weren't there doesn't mean they weren't needed! Badly-produced music needs a good system to stand any chance of coming across well; a well-produced track will sound better than a badly-produced one on all kinds of sound systems.

My big toe hurds.

Toastet? Is that anything like 4tet?

2:14 is a very pretty lady... beautiful smile.

You forgot to mention the 'gesture show'. You have any idea how long it takes to get that shit perfect between the four of us in the band? So many little sounds to choreograph.

I couldn't believe this actually existed until he added us on Myspaz today.

Well the last few times I tried it, it wouldn't power up. But I tried it just now and it works! Go figure. It's not hooked up to anything at the moment though and my rack is kind of awkward to get to the back of but from memory, it has crackly voices and is generally unreliable. Biggest hoover sounds though.

1994 here too... I was 23.

I have a broken Matrix 6R

If you think I'm wierd, you should meet the rest of the band...

Kjhuul!

I care less about it than I do about the fact you spelled 'cares' with a 'k'...

I'm serious. Might well be possible around September/October. Pavel will have to find his own way there though, unfortunately.

It's you or me, JT... SuperSoakers at dawn, at the foot of Mt. Fuji. I want Pavel as my second.

Nord Modular vocoder FTW :wank:

I do everything at 44.1KHz.

I like it a lot. Very different - inventive, groovy and really psychedelic, and the production is excellent. There are a lot of different landscapes in the album and the whole thing is a real trip. It sounds like a lot of thought has gone into every element, and it sounds like the two of you had a lot of fun making it! I do a lot of driving for work and this CD is on heavy rotation in my car. As a result of listening to it my tongue is now covered with thick black hair and I am incapable of speaking* words which end in "-ing", but these are small prices to pay for such a good album. *I can still type them though.