Mastering Audio 1

What is Mastering? “Making the master” - the definitive version from which all other copies will be made. The last step before duplication and distribution 2

End Goals of Mastering Creating a cohesive unit out of many tracks (album mastering) Order of tracks Spacing and transition between tracks Consistent loudness across tracks Consistent sonics between tracks Sonic Maximization Making it as sound as loud and as good as possible for the given delivery medium Meeting delivery specifications 3

Reasons to NOT master your own material Fresh set of experienced ears Mastering engineer knows his monitors and environment Mastering rooms are calibrated Mastering engineer is familiar with other material from same genre Mastering engineer offers an unbiased perspective You should never master in the same room where the project was mixed 4

Tools of the trade Equalizers Compressors Brickwall Limiters Dither Multiband compressors M/S processors MONITORING SYSTEM ROOM 5

Loudness LKFS/LUFS – an RMS measurement over set periods of time Momentary – instantaneous – simliar to VU meter short-term – longer period of time than momentary Integral – long term – over the course of an entire song, album, or program In the future, most platforms will find this level and force the program to match a set level to make loudness consistent from one song to the next LRA – Loudness Range measured in LU (equivalent of dB Distance from softest to loudest LKFS, with top 5% and lowest 10% excluded

Metering At the very least, you will need meters capable of showing LKFS and LRA readings. True Peak readings (to avoid inter-sample peaks) would also be advisable

Brickwall Limiters Set ceiling for maximum peak level, bring threshold down to boost level Very useful tools, but easily abused Can only exist in the digital realm If including dither, should be very last thing in the chain 8

Know your medium Mastering for one medium does not necessarily work for others; know the end goals and delivery requirements for each format CD High-Resolution Lossy compression Streaming Itunes YouTube HD Television Soundcloud 9

Mastering for CD Peak at -1.0 dBFS Track indexes ISRC codes Table of contents CD Text – titles, etc. Unicode or ASCII? DDP files 10

Mastering for Lossy Algorithms Don't deal with highs very well Don't deal with hyper-compression very well Feed highest quality possible for conversion Use VBR encoding when possible Higher kbps = less compression = better sound 11

Broadcast/HDTV Loudness measurements: ATSC A/85 and EBU R128 ITU BS.1770 RMS can be used, but one must make sure it is correctly calibrated (sine wave at full- scale) Dolby AC3 and Dialnorm It’s the law! 12

Dither Used when going from higher bit-depth to lower one Flat or noise-shaped POW-r consortium Make sure it's only applied once Check your DAW's settings! 13

Equalization A little bit goes a long way Different types of EQ Small boosts or cuts in more places rather than large changes at a few frequencies Different types of EQ Analog or digital Passive vs. active designs Phase-linear designs Can only be digital 14

Compression Attack and Release settings are key Small ratios with lower thresholds Aiming for only a few dB of reduction 15

Prepping for mastering Bring Highest Res you can Don't over-compress or EQ your mix Leave headroom Have alternate mixes available Vocals up or down; bass up or down; etc. Stems are good too 16