Drosophila Posted November 24, 2008 Share Posted November 24, 2008 Dark Soho - Sun Spot Oh man was I annoyed when they soon after released the re-mastered version http://www.discogs.com/release/54898 and I had the shitty one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Help me out - what is the difference between the mastering and the production? Production is the writing, recording, editing and mixing of a song. Mastering as it's being talked about here is a fine-tuned (usually) process of applying EQ, dynamic processing and volume changes to put the finishing touches on a song or album. If a whole album is being mastered at once, one important goal is to attempt to make the songs sound consistent in quality from track to track. It's the icing on the cake. It's usually, but not always, done by someone other than the artist/producer. It's a good idea to have someone else do it, especially when one person is doing all the writing and production, because another pair of ears can catch problems you might not catch yourself. More precisely, I just described "pre-mastering". Actual mastering is the ordering of tracks in the sequence they will appear on the album and creating a "master", from which the actual manufacturing will be done. What would tell me that the sound is poorly mastered or produced? That's not always easy to tell. Generally speaking, if you hear something that doesn't sound good: if it seems to be an overall problem, it's probable it is a product of bad mastering; if it seems more specific, like only certain sounds in the song, it's probable it's a product of bad production. What is a "compressed" sound? How do you know if it compressed? Compression reduces the dynamic range - the range between the loudest and quietest parts of the signal. Moderately applied, it tames the peaks so an instrument sounds even; excessively applied, it squashes the sound so there is very little difference between loud and quiet. If you hear a song that is constantly at the same volume level whether it's at the pounding all-out peak or at the more mellow interludes/bridges, that is excessive compression/limiting. If you have some sort of level meter on whatever system you listen to your music on, and it hardly moves at all during the song, that is excessive compression/limiting. Excessive compression/limiting is used to make a sound or song as loud as possible. It has it's uses, but not in mastering. For instance, in the mixing of rock or other music with live drums, it's a known trick to split the drum mix in two, compressing the hell out of one of them and mixing it in at a low level. This retains dynamics in the uncompressed mix, but allows for a fuller sound due to the heavily compressed drum mix. Pop on the radio and listen for a song from Metallica's new "Death Magnetic" album. That album is already notorious for being horribly compressed and distorted. I hear the versions of the song on Rock Band (or Guitar Hero...I don't know or care which) are different masters, and sound much better. A lot of full on and darkpsy tends to be over-compressed in mastering. Why would pop music be better mastered? Is it hard to master something well - do psy producers lack the technology or skill to master their music at the level of pop music? All music (comercially-released music) is mastered, not just pop music. Being a good mastering engineer takes talent and skill - I think I'm decent at mixing, but I blow at mastering, and I know it. Which is why I take my own music to a professional ME (for album releases anyway). I don't think there's really such a thing as "underground" pop music - pop music is released by major labels, and major labels have the money to pay for expensive mastering. Expensive can equal good, but not always, especially in these days of the Loudness Wars. Engineers make a name for themselves over time, and even if they once did good-sounding work, if an engineer gets in the habit of mastering louder and louder records on the label's insistence, they can get into the habit of doing so, and thus charge a lot of money for their reputation in the industry but still produce shitty-sounding masters. Is pop music considered better "produced" than psy music? I always thought that psytrance was way ahead of pop trance or pop music because of all the sound panning and other tricks that are lacking in pop music... Good production isn't about tricks, it's about how the whole effect comes across. You will often hear people talk about pop music being more produced, usually meaning it has more processing applied to it, but that doesn't necessarily equate to better production. However, since pop music is usually produced by engineers with a lot of experience, it can often in some ways sound better than music produced by people with less experience. Outside of the electronic arena, producers and engineers often work on a fairly wide variety of music, which can give them a perspective on sound production that a person who only works on psytrance may not achieve. So in that respect, pop music can be "better" produced than psy, but then again it's all about opinion, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healium Posted November 25, 2008 Share Posted November 25, 2008 Wow, thank you for all that info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormion Posted November 28, 2008 Share Posted November 28, 2008 Sorry, but I have to add Sundrops in that list. I have never bitched before about the loudness war, but here is something different. Unlike most of modern psytrance releases today Sundrop's track are filled with highs. The release is sooooo loud that listening to it with my heaphones in high volume almost made me deaf! Agneton's album for example (which also has a lot of highs) sounds much better balanced. Please don't make the new Filteria like this. I prefer the old school, noisey sound of Sky Input much more that this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goa-Head Posted December 5, 2008 Share Posted December 5, 2008 Transwave (again him!) Phototropic album - track 6, Voyager: is it me or is it without bass ? If yes was that the sound intention? Sounds totally flat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest antic Posted December 6, 2008 Share Posted December 6, 2008 Transwave (again him!) Phototropic album - track 6, Voyager: is it me or is it without bass ? If yes was that the sound intention? Sounds totally flat. Hehe, yeah - Dado is notorious for not caring about equal mastering / volume / eq-ing on his albums: Transwave, Deedrah, Synthetic - all those releases have problems with that. He's a great musician, though :drama: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
healium Posted December 6, 2008 Share Posted December 6, 2008 Perhaps my favorite track ever - Hux Flux - "Degauss" from the Electric Kool-Aid comp by Kavator records seems like maybe half the volume of the other tracks on that comp.. I have to turn the volume all the way up in the car or on home stereo when I listen, and not even worth listening to on my i-Pod w/headphones.. I'm not sure if it was just my copy or if the others are like that too... A shame as this is maybe the most wicked psytrance track I've ever heard - it blows me away every time I listen to it - epic, melodic, super-psychedelic, out of this world track - everyone should hear this track... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anoebis Posted December 7, 2008 Share Posted December 7, 2008 Perhaps my favorite track ever - Hux Flux - "Degauss" from the Electric Kool-Aid comp by Kavator records seems like maybe half the volume of the other tracks on that comp.. I have to turn the volume all the way up in the car or on home stereo when I listen, and not even worth listening to on my i-Pod w/headphones.. I'm not sure if it was just my copy or if the others are like that too... A shame as this is maybe the most wicked psytrance track I've ever heard - it blows me away every time I listen to it - epic, melodic, super-psychedelic, out of this world track - everyone should hear this track... +1 it's the same on my copy, I even made a copy for myself with that track MUCH louder Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Goa Bill Posted December 9, 2008 Share Posted December 9, 2008 Perhaps my favorite track ever - Hux Flux - "Degauss" from the Electric Kool-Aid comp by Kavator records seems like maybe half the volume of the other tracks on that comp.. So true! I mastered the track a bit myself as well. Really dig this track back in the day :posford: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.