[linux-audio-user] Distortion -- bad speakers or cheap soundcard?

[R Parker]

Hi,

> So what you will probably find is that after
> adjusting your volumes by
> some method,

JAMin!

 your own recording won't be anywhere
> near as loud as the
> commercial CD's.

It will be unless the recorded tracks and mix suck.

  You can either worry about it or
> not, but fixing that
> is a big headache.

It really isn't difficult.

  You would be in competition with
> some real pros.

Well one of those "real pros" is me and in all
seriousness I believe your proposals are more myth
than fact. I base my position on personal experience.
Mastering has enjoyed a mystique that ultimately
implies that it is a difficult art. Snake oil!

I began studying audio mastering a year or two before
JAMin appeared. The first step was to design and
construct an acoustically tuned room and run Mac OS 9
with T-Racks. The process was to record and mix in the
control room and then master in the new room. Each
room has it's own brand of playback monitors.

In the beginning I was obsessed with details like
exact amplitude and comparing results between
different rooms and playback systems. These days I
record, mix and master in my control room.

A couple weeks back a talented engineer asked me to
master a couple of his songs--recorded in my studio
using Ardour. I was done with the job within 10
minutes. His mixes are always good so there is no
repair work to do. He appeared doubtful and asked, "is
it as loud as a commercial CD?" I replied, "I don't
know. Let's compare to something." We did an A to B of
our work with Peter Gabriel's Sledgehammer. 

Our master is louder than Sledgehammer and there is no
squared off wave phenomena from slamming the brickwall
limiter.

The objective of mastering is to achieve the maximum
amount of loudness for each song on an album and to
make the loudness of each song relative to the others.
Contrary to what I read, mastering is not an artform
or the last opportunity for creativity. It's a task.
Of course my position assumes the mixes are good which
depends upon the quality of recorded tracks,
performance, instrumentation, arrangement, etc. IOW
what happens before mastering is the qualifier to my
proposal that mastering is simple.

Anyway, I jumped all over David's proposal. The topic
is a pet peve of mine and I'm on a personal mission.

ron

> I hope this helps.
> 
> Regards,
> Dave.
> 
> 
> 





		
____________________________________________________
Start your day with Yahoo! - make it your home page 
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs