CD Mastering: Frequently Asked Questions

What is CD Mastering?

You've been into the studio, recorded your tracks and mixed them down to stereo, and left the studio with a studio master, usually on CD-R, or maybe a DAT tape or WAV files on disc, containing the master mixes of your tracks. Now you want to make your own CD album from your tracks. CD Mastering is the technical and artistic process of transferring and compiling your studio material to create a CD Master in a format that is ready for Glass Mastering - which is the first stage in CD manufacturing. So, in a nutshell, CD Mastering is the interface between the recording process and the CD manufacturing process.

CD Mastering is a technical process because the transfer has to take account of such technical aspects as analogue to digital conversion (if the material is from an analogue source), sample rates, pre-emphasis, signal level, PQ encoding, ISRC codes, not to mention the choice of format and creation of the final CD Master.

On the other hand, mastering is an artistic process because a surprising number of things can be done to improve the sound of the tracks. Also things like the relative level of the tracks and the gaps between them can have a dramatic impact on the way that an album flows for the listener. The bottom line is that Mastering is the last chance you get to make creative decisions about your material before it is committed to polycarbonate for posterity!

Can I be there during the Mastering session?

Absolutely! We encourage our customers to attend the Mastering session so that they can participate in the creative process.

What can creative Mastering do for my material?

During the Mastering process we can help you get the best out of your material by:

• Improving the sound - These days, so much material is recorded in home and budget studios where the monitoring and acoustics can be dubious, leading to certain frequencies being under or over-emphasised in the mix. Mastering can compensate for these deficiencies using EQ processing.
• Bringing life to a flat and uninteresting mix. Using a combination of EQ and dynamics processing a dull mix can be made exciting again.
• Bringing out certain elements that might have been buried in the mix; or, conversely, pushing back certain elements that may be too prominent in the mix.
• Achieving the maximum loudness on the CD using powerful 3-band digital dynamic processing techniques.
• Editing together sections from different mixes; or taking a section, like an intro, and treating it so that it fits better with the rest of the track.
• Adjusting the relative levels of the tracks so that no tracks stick out as being too loud or too quiet.
• Crossfading tracks so they segue from one into the other - great for '70s-style concept albums!
• Hiding surprise tracks or bonus tracks with creative PQ encoding.

I thought Mastering was something that happened during mixing?

No - see above for the correct definition of Mastering. Unfortunately, this confusion has been created by magazine articles and reviews that misuse the word "Mastering" to mean recording a stereo mixdown; they say things like, "the Tascasonic XP2500DAT machine is great mastering deck", when what they mean is that it is a good machine for recording your stereo mixes during mixing.

Does it matter if my tracks are on different CD-Rs, or even on different formats?

No - during the mastering session the tracks are loaded onto the digital editor and then arranged into the correct order. So it doesn't matter if you have them on different CD-Rs, or even on a mixture of different formats. We can transfer from all common formats, i.e. CD, CD-R, WAV or AIFF file, DAT, MiniDisc, Cassette, ¼" reel to reel.

My mate's got "Pro Cool Edit Forge" on his PC - why can't he do the Mastering?

The answer is, Yes he can - if he knows what he's doing and has the necessary software and equipment to provide a Red Book format CD-R, then we can use that as the CD Master. But bear in mind that the CDs that are made will be exactly as the CD-R that you give us - there won't be any opportunity to improve the sound. One of the benefits of using a professional Mastering studio is that it is always useful to get an objective evaluation of the sound of your material from a third party who hasn't been involved in the recording. Ask yourself, who is going to do the best job - your mate, or a Mastering engineer who listens to all sorts of different music and has professional equipment and a neutral monitoring environment? Remember, we do this every day!