Module 11 - Mastering

Audio Masterclass Music Production and Sound Engineering Course
Module 11: Mastering
Module 11
Mastering
In this module you will learn about the treatment of mixed stereo tracks to make them suitable for
vinyl, CD and online distribution, and also to optimize subjective loudness.
Learning outcomes
To understand the technical requirements of mastering.
To understand the artistic requirements of mastering.
To have an overview of mastering for vinyl, CD and downloadable media.
Assessment
Formative assessment is achieved through the short-answer check questions at the end of this
module.
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Module Contents
Learning outcomes 1
Assessment 1
Mastering 3
Pre-mastering 3
Fault removal 4
Mastering for vinyl 7
Noise 7
Acceleration 8
Mistracking 8
Duration 9
Relative stylus-to-groove speed 10
The vinyl mastering engineer 10
Mastering for CD 11
Mastering for download 13
Artistic aspects of mastering 14
Further examination of subjective loudness 16
Clipping 16
Multi-band compression 17
Appendix 1 - The professionals view 18
Appendix 2 - How much mastering does acoustic music need? 21
Check questions 25
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Mastering
Mastering is the process that comes after mixing and
turns the mix into the sound that will be heard on
the finished vinyl, downloadable or CD product. No
alterations are made to the sound after mastering,
other than those caused by the technical deficiencies
of the medium. After mastering, the sound is fully
and completely the way the listener will eventually
hear it.
Mastering is necessary for several reasons:
To compensate, as far as possible, for any

deficiencies of the medium
To optimize the sound quality and level
To match different tracks in terms of EQ and
level so that they fit together well. on an
album, particularly from one track to the next
To set the gaps between tracks, and/or apply
crossfades
Neumann VMS70 vinyl cutting lathe
To prepare the tracks for the medium onto
which they will be manufactured or downloaded
There is also the important stage of pre-mastering,
which prepares tracks for efficient transfer in the
mastering studio, which will prevent errors and save
money.
Pre-mastering
Lets look at the situation where a record label has
commissioned a recording of a full album. The band
and producer have worked in the studio for several
weeks and have completed a number of mixed stereo
tracks.
In all probability these tracks will reside on a hard

disk drive, possibly distributed over more than one.
Alternatively they could be on DVD-ROM or CD-ROM
discs. It is not wise at this stage to store tracks on
audio CDs as CD-Audio is more prone to errors than
CD-ROM and DVD-ROM.
The tracks that are ear-marked for the album are

not however the only material on these hard disks or
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DVD-ROMs. There will also be other material...
Songs that didnt work out.

Mixes other than the final approved mixes.
Possibly temporary work-in-progress mixes.
Possibly the original multitrack recordings.
Benchmark tracks used as reference points in
the mixing process.
In fact there could be a lot of material besides the

finished album tracks. And also...
Not all of the finished tracks will make it into the album.
It is common to record more songs than necessary,
then weed out the weaker ones.
So before going into the mastering studio it is

important to collect all of the tracks that will actually
go into the album. Collect them together, in order, and
without any unwanted material.
Doing this will prevent errors, delays and will also

save money.
Fault removal
It is quite possible at this stage that some of the mixes
contain faults. Although due care and attention at the
mixing stage will have prevented most of the problems
that can potentially happen, it wouldnt be unknown
for the occasional click to be present. Clicks occur for
a number of reasons and must be entirely eliminated.
A recording with even one click is unacceptable.
There are two ways in which a click in a mixed stereo

track can be removed.
The track will be loaded into a digital audio workstation

and inspected to find the click. The click can be roughly
located simply by listening. Then the zoom tool can be
used to magnify the waveform until the click can be
seen - it will appear as a jagged spike in comparison
to the surrounding waveform.
All good workstation software will have a pencil tool

or equivalent. This can be used to draw over the
click, so that the waveform is smooth. Nine times out
of ten this will work fine.
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But sometimes it doesnt work. Either the click is

hidden in the waveform and cannot be precisely
located, or the draw operation fails to eliminate the
click completely.
In this case it is necessary to identify a region of a few

tens of milliseconds surrounding the click, delete it
and bring the two regions thus created together.
This operation will create a click that is even worse due

to the discontinuity in the waveform. It can however
can be cured using a short crossfade.
This is a technique that will work, but often requires

patience and quite a lot of experiment to find the right
section to delete, the right duration to delete and the
right crossfade parameters.
It has to be done though.
Another fault - which isnt as common as it used to be

in the days of analog tape but still occurs from time
to time - is that as the instruments die away at the
end of the track, the noise background is audible. This
might happen if a noisy effects unit had been used, or
less attention than appropriate had be paid to fading
miked tracks.
The way to deal with this is to artfully apply a fade at

the end of the track, so it fades a little more quickly
than it did originally. Often, this will work fine.
Sometimes however it will now make the ending a

little too abrupt. Remember that we are talking about
small but important details here.
The answer is to select a neutral-sounding reverb of

around one to two seconds or so, and fade up the
send to the reverb just before the end of the track.
The reverb tail will cover the previously abrupt ending.
Once again experimentation will be necessary.
At the end of the pre-mastering stage you will have

a collection of tracks that have no faults, are in the
correct order of the album and there is no material that
isnt wanted. DVD-ROM would be a suitable format. It
is good practice to make a backup copy. Both copies
should be auditioned in full, with concentrated listening,
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before taking them to the mastering studio.
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Mastering for vinyl

It is well worth going back and considering vinyl
mastering. Not only is vinyl very popular in dance
and hip hop music; the art of mastering is founded in
vinyl and any modern mastering engineer would be
working with reference to this tradition.
The vinyl medium has a number of significant

limitations:
Noise due to surface irregularities, scratches,

and rumble from the turntable.
The inertia of the stylus limits the extent to
which it can accelerate.
The stylus may mistrack (meaning to lose
contact with the groove walls).
The duration per side is limited.
The relative speed between stylus and groove
is high at the outer edge of the disc, low in the
center. This means that the sound quality is
better at the start of a side than at the end.
Noise Neumann VMS66 vinyl cutting lathe
The problem of noise makes it important for the

mastering engineer to keep the level of the music well
above the level of the noise products of the medium.
This implies compression. Much popular music is
compressed heavily so that its dynamic range extends
only from very loud down to quite loud. There are few
or no quiet sections.
Classical music of course is full of quiet sections. Even

so, there is a good example in the original Enigma
label recording of a Beethoven symphony where
there was one peak that was 6 dB higher in level than
anything else in the whole piece. The section around
the peak was copied with some careful fader riding
to ensure that the peak was brought down by 6 dB,
almost unnoticeably. The section was then edited back
into the master.
The result was that on the finished disc, the levels

of the quiet sections were 6 dB higher than they
otherwise would have been. In other words, the signal
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to noise ratio had been improved by 6 dB, which in

classical music is certainly worthwhile.
Acceleration
The stylus of a vinyl record player is a chunk of diamond
which, although very small, has a certain mass. Mass,
as we know from Newtons laws of motion, likes to
stay in a constant state of stillness, or motion at a
constant velocity. It takes a force to cause it to change
velocity.
So where does the force come from to make the stylus

change velocity, as it must to follow accurately the
undulations of the groove? The answer is from the
walls of the groove. The walls of the groove provide
the force that accelerates the stylus. There are two
problems:
If the groove attempts to accelerate the stylus

very quickly, the vinyl material of which it is
composed may be damaged
Although the groove can accelerate the stylus
in an upward direction (actually +/- 45 degrees
for the two walls of the groove of a stereo
record), only gravity can bring it back down
again. If the stylus loses contact with the
groove, mistracking occurs causing distortion,
and the groove will probably be damaged when
the stylus lands.
Control of acceleration is provided by an acceleration

limiter, which obviously affects the audio signal, in the
cutting lathe.
Mistracking
As well as mistracking caused for the above reason,
mistracking can occur if the groove becomes too
shallow. We need to consider the nature of the
groove:
In an old-fashioned mono record, the groove simply

moves from side-to-side to encode the signal. Stereo
records use a V-shaped groove in which one wall
carries the left signal, the other wall carries the right.
They are modulated independently.
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Neumann VMS82 vinyl cutting lathe
If the input signal happens to be mono, or not to have

a great deal of stereo content, then the result will be a
groove that does indeed only move from side to side.
The vertical component will be zero. In the worst case
however if the signal is out of phase (i.e. the original
signal was identical in both channels - mono - then
one channel was inverted), then the groove will not
move from side to side at all, only up and down. In the
extreme, the depth of the groove could be reduced to
zero. When there is no groove, the stylus has nothing
to track and will slide into the adjacent groove. This
will happen repeatedly. Often such a locked groove is
the result of a scratch, but it has happened in the past
that records have been released where the groove did
indeed become dangerously shallow and not all record
players were able to track properly.
Although pure out of phase signals should be rare,

the thing to look out for is high bass levels panned
Scully vinyl cutting lathe
left or right, since these are the next worst offenders.
The mastering engineers brute force cure is to mix
low frequencies together, so that the bass content of
the audio is mono, while higher frequencies are still
stereo.
There is a further advantage in monoing the bass. In

popular music, it is often thought desirable that the
bass is at a high level. If the bass is panned center,
and plays through two speakers, then obviously it will
be 6 dB higher than if it were panned hard left or
right. This applies to CD too.
Duration
The duration of the side is limited by the level of the
audio. The higher the level, the wider the spacing
between grooves, and therefore the shorter the
duration. It has been said that in order to achieve
the maximum quality of which vinyl is capable, the
duration of one side should be no more than 18
minutes. Conversely, the maximum duration of one
side can be as much, on rare occasions, as 40 minutes,
but the level has to be lowered significantly and the
signal-to-noise ratio will suffer.
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Relative stylus-to-groove speed

Although the stylus-to-groove speed at the outer
edge of a 12 inch (30 cm) record is adequate (just
under 20 inches (50 cm) per second), as the stylus
gets closer to the inside edge, the relative speed gets
slower and slower, even though the record turns at
the same angular velocity. At the inside, the speed
is almost down to a third of what it was originally,
and the undulations of the groove have to be more
condensed. The result is a noticeably inferior sound
quality.
The vinyl mastering engineer

The role of the vinyl mastering engineer is to
optimize the signal to take account of all of the above
deficiencies of the medium. At the same time, the
mastering engineer will endeavor to improve the
overall sound, and match different tracks so that they
sound as though they are part of the same album. The
sum total of all of this is sometimes a very complex Vinylium vinyl cutting head
process and an intermediate production master is
made which incorporates all of the corrective and
creative mastering processes. The record can then be
cut directly from this. In the CD era it is unfortunate
that many classic recordings from the age of vinyl
have been transferred to CD using the production
master optimized for vinyl, rather than going back to
the original stereo mix.
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Mastering for CD
Some of the issues in mastering for CD are very similar
to vinyl, and are these:
The tracks on an album should have a

subjectively compatible sound in terms of level
and EQ.
In classical music, it may be useful to lower
occasional peaks in the recording, so that the
average level can be louder and more suitable
for listening in the domestic environment.
If it is considered desirable to achieve loud
bass, then low frequencies should be in
mono so that they will be reproduced by both
loudspeakers.
The principal difference between CD and vinyl

mastering is that CD doesnt have any technical
limitations. Anything you can record can be transferred
to CD with no problem.
There are some issues to consider however...
The bit depth of the CD master must be 16 bits

and the sampling rate 44.1 kHz.
The recording must at some point have a peak
level within 2 dB of full scale (higher therefore
than -2 dBFS). The CD factory may reject the
master if it does not fulfill this condition.
The maximum duration is 74 minutes. Some
factories will manufacture discs up to 80
minutes. However there may be more rejects,
and some players may not play the discs
properly
In the process of PQ coding, the first track
must be preceded by a gap of two seconds.
The mastering software may do this
automatically.
The most practical way to create a CD master is to

use software designed for this purpose and burn a
CD-Audio disc onto a high-quality blank medium.
Mastering studios may alternatively use the Exabyte
DDP format, or the Sony 1630 format.
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If a CD-Audio disc is to be the master, then it must

be in Red Book format. The Red Book is the original
specification that defines the CD. A Red Book CD is a
100% thoroughbred CD. It is possible to make CDs
that look and feel like audio CDs, and will play in an
ordinary CD player. But if they are not 100% Red
Book compatible, they cannot be used as a master for
manufacturing.
CDs can contain additional information besides the

music. One is the International Standard Recording
Code (ISRC). This identifies each individual track to
the copyright owner. The original intention of ISRC
was, among other uses, to automatically identify music
played on the radio and generate the information
necessary for payment without physical human
intervention. Unfortunately, the use of ISRC did not
become sufficiently universal for this to happen.
Nevertheless, it is worth including ISRC codes just to
be complete and on the safe side. Further information
on ISRC is available from the International Federation
of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
More important is the barcode. This is a numeric

representation of the barcode that is printed on the
CD packaging, which is essential for a commercial
release.
It may be surprising, but a standard CD does not

contain the artists name or track titles among its
data. It is possible to make a CD in CD-Text format
that can include this data.
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Mastering for download

Mastering for download involves conversion to MP3 or
AAC format, preferably both as both are widely used.
Both of these formats are lossy, meaning that the

end product does not sound exactly like the original
recording.
In the CD format, an original recording made in 16-

bit/44.1 kHz resolution will sound exactly the same on
CD as on the original. An original recording made in
a higher resolution will sound almost identical on CD
within the tiniest of margins.
However an AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) file will

sound slightly different and an MP3 file significantly
different to the original. The losses in coding therefore
must be taken into account.
In both AAC and MP3 the quality of the end product

is related to the bit rate. Typically conversions are
made at 128 kilobits per second. This means that the
1,411,200 bits per second of stereo CD-quality audio
are reduced to around just 128,000 bits per second.
It is possible to gain significant benefits by coding at

256 kilobits per second, but this takes twice as much
bandwidth and storage space. Coding at less than
128 kilobits per second is not recommended for music
applications.
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Artistic aspects of mastering

Mastering has three main purposes in the compilation
of an album...
Optimize the level of each track so that there is

no wasted headroom on the CD.
Make all tracks comparable in terms of EQ
balance and subjective loudness, particularly
adjacent tracks.
To set the durations of the gaps between the
tracks, and/or create crossfades.
There is one further function that applies to individual

tracks, whether or not they form part of a CD
compilation - no matter how good the mix engineer
is, there is almost always room for improvement
by subtly and sympathetically tweaking the EQ and
dynamic range of the final stereo mix.
But among the many and varied legitimate arts of

mastering there is also a voodoo art - maximization SPL mastering console
of subjective loudness.
It is possible to normalize a track so that it peaks

at 0 dBFS. This is perfectly acceptable. It is however
common to use further techniques to make the track
louder still.
It is possible through the techniques of mastering

to increase the subjective level of a track, without
increasing its peak level. This has resulted in a loudness
war where every recording that is released needs
to be subjectively as loud as the next recording, or
preferably louder since raw loudness grabs attention.
However, you can only go so far with this before sound

quality suffers. Unfortunately, the results of overdoing
subjective loudness maximization are all around for
us to hear, on just about every CD you can buy. Its
an arms race leading to mutually assured destruction,
of artistic sensibility at any rate.
The processes of mastering are as have been stated,

and they would apply whether mastering was done
sensitively and artistically, or for maximum subjective
loudness. To recap on these...
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First EQ. There is likely to be some scope for

the improvement of the EQ balance of a mix
before dynamic range control. If the dynamic
range is compressed without EQ, then the
compressor will be making its gain changes
based on information that in part is spurious.
Next, compression. The demands of the buyers
listening environment dictate that the dynamic
range must be controlled. To understand this
in a simple way, try listening to a classical
music CD in a car - you wont be able to hear
the quiet parts. The dynamic range might
already have been adequately controlled in the
recording and mix. On the other hand, there
may be work remaining to do.
Thirdly, EQ again. If the first EQ was for
corrective purposes, this can be for creative
Fairman tube master equalizer
purposes. There are massive benefits in two
stages of EQ. But you dont have to if you dont
want to.
Finally, limiting. It is very likely that the very
few highest levels are occurring infrequently.
This means that the rest of the mix is
quieter than it needs to be, in effect wasting
headroom. Lopping 2-3 dB off the highest
peaks is likely to be inaudible and benefits
the rest of the track. Once again, there is no
compulsion here.
All of the above can be done with as much artistry and

sensitivity that you can muster. Anyone interested in
absolute maximum subjective loudness can go one
stage further and allow the highest peaks to clip very
slightly. The extra slight distortion this creates in
itself creates a feeling of loudness, and of course the
levels that are lower than peak are raised too. Audio
Masterclass never recommends this, but just because
it is not recommended doesnt mean that people dont
do it. And its a free world, musically speaking.
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Further examination of
subjective loudness
Two recordings each may peak at 0 dBFS, yet one
might sound very much louder, subjectively, than the
other. This is because the human ear does not interpret
loudness according to peaks, but by the average level
of the signal.
There are a number of techniques for increasing

subjective loudness:
Compression
Clipping
Multi-band compression
Compression
Elysia mastering compressor
Compressing a signal always makes it seem louder
because the quiet sections are raised in level while
(usually) the peaks remain the same. In days gone
by, this was considered sufficient. Now, however, we
demand even higher subjective levels.
Clipping
Clipping is generally something considered to be a
fault. When the red lights come on, you bring down
the gain or level to prevent clipping. But it is a fact
established by the BBC that the ear can tolerate brief
periods of clipping quite happily. This is the basis of
the analog PPM meter (Peak Program Meter), the
needle of which has a rise time of 4 milliseconds. This
period was set because few people can detect periods
of clipping shorter than this.
This leads to the question of how noticeable a longer

period of clipping would be. What about 8 ms? What
about 20 ms? The longer the duration of clipping,
the more noticeable it will be. There is therefore a
degree of subjectivity in this. The engineer can raise
levels into clipping and the sound will change from
undistorted, to unnoticeably distorted, to perceptibly
distorted to grossly distorted. Somewhere in this range
there will be an optimum where the subjective level is
maximized but the distortion is still at an acceptable
level.
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Still on the topic of clipping, it is essential to compress

first, and then clip. Otherwise very few peaks will be
clipped, and hardly any additional subjective level will
be achieved. Compressing first can produce a signal
that is close to 0 dBFS almost all of the time. Clipping
will then improve the subjective level of the whole of
the signal.
It is also worth saying that different pieces of equipment

produce different sound qualities when clipping occurs.
Often it simply sounds bad and cannot be used. In
analog tape, the rounding of peaks can be very
pleasant. Other equipment will fall in-between these
two ends of the spectrum of clipping subjectivity.
Audio Masterclass does not recommend clipping.

However clipping and so-called soft clipping are
commonly used.
Multi-band compression
The multi-band compressor takes the signal and splits
it up into as many as five separate bands of frequencies. Metropolis mastering studio (photo courtesy
Each band is then compressed separately. Sometimes PMC Speakers)
the bands are compressed and then limited. This
maximizes the level separately in each band, so that
when the signals are mixed back together again the
result is a signal which is as high as it practically can
be in every band of frequencies. This does tend to
change the balance of EQ of the signal, but it is a
necessary price to be paid if ultimate loudness is
desired.
It has to be said that there are now units on sale which

claim to be mastering processors. They even come
with presets for quick results. Mastering presets are
to be avoided. Mastering is an extremely subjective
procedure and very fine consideration must be given
to every process involved. When done well, subjective
loudness can be maximized with very little detriment
to the overall sound quality. When done via a preset,
the result will be a signal that could have been louder,
and could have sounded better.
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Appendix 1 - The professionals

view
Here is a comment from a professional mastering
engineer on whether mastering can be done by the
mix engineer, or whether it should be done by a
specialist mastering engineer...
Few topics will inflame both seasoned professional

and novice alike, as the question of whether to master
at home or not.
Earlier in my career I worked for a major record

company, Elektra/Nonesuch, for many years and was
privileged to work on many projects, which, when we,
producer and engineer, were done automatically went
to a mastering engineer in preparation for pressing.
In fact, an important step in my job involved the

preparing of tape masters for delivery to the mastering
facility, whether in house or independent.
We meticulously aligned and maintained our tape

recorders before all recording and mixing sessions and
generated a set of frequency tones, at standardized
levels, placed at the head of the final master.
This was to aid the mastering engineer in setting his

machines to match the characteristics of ours, and
only after he had done this would the process of
mastering begin.
I dont mean to drop names, but I have to mention

that the mastering engineer of choice for Elektra, and
especially Nonesuch, at that time was Bob Ludwig,
who worked for Sterling Sound in NY.
While a major portion of Bobs job involved the cutting

of lacquer masters, mysterious and wondrous at best
and a tedious procedure at its worst, the part I loved
watching, or rather listening to, most was what Bob
could pull from a finished mix and make sound even
better.
Because of his having been an excellent musician

and being blessed with a superb set of ears, he
often pointed out slight flaws and areas of possible
improvement no matter what the type of music. He
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was as familiar with the needs of classical recordings

as he was with folk and pop..... and we did some of all
of it at Elektra/Nonesuch.
My point is that Bob provided an all important second

set of ears and perspective, not to mention the
excellent acoustics and playback equipment necessary
in every successful mastering environment which, by
the way, most home facilities do not have.
Now except for the mechanical parts mentioned

above, the mastering process has not changed and in
fact what the mastering engineer had to know about
the cutting lathe and grades of lacquer, he now has to
understand about the, ever changing, digital media we
depend on today, including the necessary computer
based editing stations.
Realistically speaking, many of my present day clients

can not afford the services of Bob Ludwig, Bob Katz,
Bernie Grundman or Doug Sax...... and so I am forced
to cautiously enter into the great hall myself.
Fortunately, being somewhat of an audiophile, I do

have a fairly high quality second reference system
outside of the studio where I will go back and forth
to test different settings in order to come up with a
decent final master.
Now, most of the music that I record is classical where

a major portion of the responsibility for musical balance
rests on the musicians themselves. The dynamics of
this music is indicated in the music as written by the
composer and is subject to some interpretation by the
musicians, but by and large adhered to as written.
The requirements for mastering in classical and other

acoustic music are quite different than for pop or rock
& roll. For these types, the emphasis is on preserving
the natural extremes in dynamics and so very little
altering, save for balance and EQ is done.... maybe a
little spatial enhancement as well.
You can now see that, whereas it is not impossible to

master at home, the special talents and experience of
a good mastering engineer can not be minimized nor
taken for granted.
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What is more unlikely, or impossible, is that most of

those attempting mastering at home could possibly
have accumulated the experience needed to do a
really good job,..... I know because Ive tried it.
Ben Taylor
OmniClassic Recording
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Appendix 2 - How much

mastering does acoustic music
need?
Here is a question posed to Audio Masterclass by an
amateur recording enthusiast...
How much signal processing should be done on

an all acoustical session when mastering? Should
compression be applied?
And the response...
In the old days of recording, pre-CD, mastering was a

necessity. The finished stereo mix was on analog tape
and it had to be transferred to vinyl for release.
Vinyl has certain technical limitations and requirements,

so active mastering was an essential stage. And of
course also, then as now, individual tracks of an album
will have different levels and EQ balances, which need
compensation.
These days however, the digits that comprise your

stereo mix can be transferred directly to CD with no
adjustment or alteration (other than, of course, level
and EQ balance adjustment as before).
So there isnt any need for a mastering stage in the

sense of improving the mix.
But we seem to feel the need for mastering. After all,

everyone else is doing it, are they not?
But what exactly is mastering? Surely the process of

mixing will bring the track to the very best it can be -
so why an extra stage?
Lets go back a little in the recording process...
In any recording there will come a point where the

producer says, Thats it! and the track is finished.
There is nothing more to add, no more overdubs or
tweaks. Done.
At that point the track is ready to mix.
So the mix engineer will balance the levels, EQs and

dynamics of all of the individual instruments and
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voices, applying great care and musicality. Over the

course of anything from a couple of hours to a day,
the mix will take shape.
Often a mix engineer will listen to the mix next day

with fresh ears and apply further fine tuning.
At that point the mix is finished. It is as good as it can

be. So why should it need further mastering, other
than moderate adjustments to level and EQ balance
to fit with the other tracks on the album?
One answer would be to make it louder. Clearly the mix

engineer has this in his or her power. But it may be
that although the engineer has achieved a wonderful
balance and optimum loudness, the A&R manager of
the record label wants it louder still. That happens.
But theres another way of looking at this, which

involves further defining the terms mixing and
mastering.
Mixing is the process of blending the individual

tracks of the mix, with individual processing of those
tracks.
Mastering refers to any process, such as EQ or

compression, applied to the stereo mix as a whole.
So if there is no processing in your master inserts you

are simply mixing. If there is some processing in the
master inputs, you are mastering as well.
Also, if you dont use master inserts, but you come

back to your stereo mix some time later and process
it, then that too is mastering.
And now back to the question. Audio Masterclasss

advice on mastering is...
Dont!
Mastering is a powerful tool that can completely ruin

a track. If you are not capable of achieving a really
good mix yourself, then it is hardly likely that your
mastering abilities are going to improve it in any way.
But an experienced mastering engineer can often
salvage a less-than-perfect mix. As long as it has not
been mastered previously.
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But we know that people do want to master themselves.

And yes, sometimes it is appropriate.
You SHOULD consider mastering your tracks if you

plan on CD release.
You SHOULD NOT master your tracks if your music is

intended for TV - mastering makes the track harder to
manipulate later on, and therefore less versatile and
less usable. Youre throwing potential money away.
Also, you SHOULD NOT master your tracks if there

is a possibility that they could be mastered by an
experienced mastering engineer. You could of course
make mastered and unmastered versions of your mix.
That would be a safe thing to do.
But the acoustic instruments referred to in the

question. If you are going to master, what should you
do?
Firstly, you have to have in mind the sound you want to

achieve. Find a CD of similar music that sounds good
to you. That will be your benchmark and a standard
to achieve.
It is likely that you will want to EQ the stereo mix.

Of course you may also have EQed the individual
channels. But often although this can result in a well-
blended mix, the overall frequency balance isnt quite
right. You could adjust the individual channels, but it
is easier to EQ the mix.
EQing the mix therefore is likely. Compare your

balance with the reference CD.
Compression is less likely and less desirable in this

case. If you are working with acoustic instruments,
then you know what they should sound like - exactly
as they sound when you are standing in the room with
them. They were not compressed then, and there is
no reason why the mix should be compressed either.
Unless of course you want to achieve a processed

sound. But this would be something you had in mind
right from the start. You shouldnt apply compression
just because you think it is the thing to do.
Mastering consists of other processes besides EQ
Page 23
and compression. EQ and compression can be mild.

But then there is limiting, soft clipping, hard clipping
and multi-band compression. All of these are used by
professional mastering engineers.
These are all DANGEROUS processes. In inexperienced

hands a track can easily turn from perfectly listenable
to an atrocious mess.
In fact, even pro mastering engineers sometimes

create an atrocious mess - but thats because they
did what the A&R manager told them to and made the
track obscenely loud!
But dangerous though these processes are, there is

no reason why you should not experiment and learn.
But always keep a clean, unmastered, version of the
mix.
The best compromise with acoustic instruments

though would be to EQ, perhaps compress a little, but
go no further than that.
Page 24
Check questions
After the mastering process, are changes ever made to the sound quality for artistic reasons?
State five functions of mastering, as given in the text.
After a series of album recording session is compete, what other audio material is produced,
apart from the tracks that will eventually be released?
With reference to the above, why should the album tracks be stored separately from the other
material?
Describe briefly two ways in which a click can be removed from a mixed stereo track.
Vinyl
State five limitations of vinyl.
Why does a vinyl cutting lathe have an acceleration limiter?
Why should out-of-phase signals be avoided in vinyl cutting?
What is the advantage of making the bass mono, other than possible mistracking?
What is a production master?
CD
What is the bit depth of CD?
What is the sampling rate of CD?
Describe the relevance of -2 dBFS, according to the text.
What is the standard maximum duration of a CD?
State three formats in which a CD master can be supplied to a factory.
What is a Red Book CD?
State briefly what additional information a CD may contain besides the music.
State the advantage of the CD-Text format.
Download
Briefly describe the meaning of lossy.
Which is the better format subjectively, AAC or MP3?
State the typical bit rate of an AAC or MP3 file.
Artistic aspects of mastering

State the three artistic aspects of mastering, according to the text.
Briefly describe the meaning of subjective loudness.
The text describes four stages of mastering - EQ, compression, EQ again then limiting. Why is
the first EQ stage necessary?
Page 25
With reference to the above, why is the compression stage necessary?

With reference to the above, why is the second EQ stage necessary?
With reference to the above, why is the limiting stage necessary?
What is the problem with increasing the subjective loudness too much?
Why is it possible to get away with a certain amount of clipping?
According to the text, does Audio Masterclass recommend clipping as a means of achieving
subjective loudness?
What is multi-band compression?
What is the problem of multi-band compression?
Page 26

Module 11 - Mastering

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Module 11 - Mastering

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Audio Masterclass Music Production and Sound Engineering Course

Module 11: Mastering

To understand the artistic requirements of mastering.

To have an overview of mastering for vinyl, CD and downloadable media.

Mastering is necessary for several reasons:

To compensate, as far as possible, for any

In all probability these tracks will reside on a hard

The tracks that are ear-marked for the album are

DVD-ROMs. There will also be other material...

Songs that didnt work out.

In fact there could be a lot of material besides the

So before going into the mastering studio it is

Doing this will prevent errors, delays and will also

There are two ways in which a click in a mixed stereo

The track will be loaded into a digital audio workstation

All good workstation software will have a pencil tool

But sometimes it doesnt work. Either the click is

In this case it is necessary to identify a region of a few

This operation will create a click that is even worse due

This is a technique that will work, but often requires

It has to be done though.

Another fault - which isnt as common as it used to be

The way to deal with this is to artfully apply a fade at

Sometimes however it will now make the ending a

The answer is to select a neutral-sounding reverb of

At the end of the pre-mastering stage you will have

before taking them to the mastering studio.

Mastering for vinyl

The vinyl medium has a number of significant

Noise due to surface irregularities, scratches,

Noise Neumann VMS66 vinyl cutting lathe

The problem of noise makes it important for the

Classical music of course is full of quiet sections. Even

The result was that on the finished disc, the levels

to noise ratio had been improved by 6 dB, which in

So where does the force come from to make the stylus

If the groove attempts to accelerate the stylus

Control of acceleration is provided by an acceleration

In an old-fashioned mono record, the groove simply

Neumann VMS82 vinyl cutting lathe

If the input signal happens to be mono, or not to have

Although pure out of phase signals should be rare,

There is a further advantage in monoing the bass. In

Relative stylus-to-groove speed

The vinyl mastering engineer

The tracks on an album should have a

The principal difference between CD and vinyl

There are some issues to consider however...

The bit depth of the CD master must be 16 bits

The most practical way to create a CD master is to

If a CD-Audio disc is to be the master, then it must

CDs can contain additional information besides the

More important is the barcode. This is a numeric

It may be surprising, but a standard CD does not

Mastering for download

Both of these formats are lossy, meaning that the

In the CD format, an original recording made in 16-

However an AAC (Advanced Audio Codec) file will

In both AAC and MP3 the quality of the end product

It is possible to gain significant benefits by coding at

Artistic aspects of mastering

Optimize the level of each track so that there is

There is one further function that applies to individual

But among the many and varied legitimate arts of