Big-label mastering engineers don’t understand lossy formats, Article about Mastered for iTunes Options

[Kohlrabi]

Just found this article via twitter, circled among mastering "engineers" (in fact Heba Kadry reposted it, the girl who mastered the latest Mars Volta album, which reaches -12.79 dB on my RG scans, and is generally mastered in a horrible fashion).

This further backs my impression that most of them don't have a single clue of what they are doing. The section about the mastering practices of Rubin and Meller are especially eye-opening to me. Masterdisk "engineers" also apparently are now out to rape the Rush back catalogue. Further down they cite phase-reverse tests to prove AAC files are different from the original (wow, REALLY?).

The good thing is, I can use this article to decide which releases to avoid in the future. But I'm really at a loss what we can do beside that. I'm really fed up with mastering "engineers" destroying music releases.

This post has been edited by Kohlrabi: Mar 27 2012, 09:17

[stephan_g]

Don't know about that, but I was just browsing a thread over @ SH that lists about a gazillion* high-DR albums:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=243688

*) rough approximation

They do listen to the listeners -- for example, convening listening panels to compare potential singles. The problem is that they don't level match, so whatever is louder tends to get rated better. THAT is why we have the loudness
wars in the first place.

Not level matching essentially boils down to neglecting that people have something called a volume control. One would think that they'd noticed that at some point? Or did nobody ever take the time to think about things like these (which would be sad, but not unlikely)? Then again, even if they had, who likes to admit that they've been wrong...

This post has been edited by stephan_g: Apr 5 2012, 22:05

[markanini]

Not level matching essentially boils down to neglecting that people have something called a volume control. One would think that they'd noticed that at some point? Or did nobody ever take the time to think about things like these (which would be sad, but not unlikely)? Then again, even if they had, who likes to admit that they've been wrong...

Interesting point stephan_g, maybe someone should conduct volume-matched blind tests with this in mind. Even better if this could happen where the conclusions would reach lots of people say on the Mythbusters show. The material should be prepared by the same people that work for the big labels, only that in the mastering stage there's one moderate master and one loud master made. For example 9:30-11.20 in this Bob Katz video http://youtu.be/u9Fb3rWNWDA?t=9m30s

BTW I listenented to Noctourniquet and liked it, I'd even deem the production values as great overall but I'm hearing lots of pumping and some harshness in the loud parts. I'll go along with the harshness as an aesthetic choice but the pumping just sounds like crap. As an amateur producer I recognize it as a secondary effect of heavy hard limiting, you could achieve similar effects with a saturation effect without the pumping.
As for Rick Rubins false statements sadly it seem it takes a certain kind of assertive person beside talent to have the priveledge of working with major label bands like TMV RHCP, The Strokes etc.

This post has been edited by markanini: Apr 6 2012, 02:06