Mastering engineer
Encyclopedia
A mastering engineer is one skilled in the practice of taking audio
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...

 (typically musical content) that has been previously mixed in either the analog
Analog recording
Analog recording is a technique used for the recording of analog signals which among many possibilities include audio frequency, analog audio and analog video information for later playback.Analog recording methods store signals as a continual wave in or on the media...

 or digital domain
Digital Domain
Digital Domain is a visual effects and animation company founded by film director James Cameron, Stan Winston and Scott Ross. It is based in Venice, Los Angeles, California...

 as mono, stereo
STEREO
STEREO is a solar observation mission. Two nearly identical spacecraft were launched into orbits that cause them to respectively pull farther ahead of and fall gradually behind the Earth...

, or multichannel format
Format
Format may refer to:* File format, layout for electronic files* Text formatting, typesetting of text elements* Format , a command-line utility in many computer operating systems* Format , a computer command to prepare hard disks...

s and preparing it for use in distribution
Distribution (business)
Product distribution is one of the four elements of the marketing mix. An organization or set of organizations involved in the process of making a product or service available for use or consumption by a consumer or business user.The other three parts of the marketing mix are product, pricing,...

, whether by physical media such as a CD, vinyl record, or as some method of streaming audio.

Education and Experience

The mastering engineer is responsible for a final edit of a product and preparation for manufacturing copies. An audio mastering
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...

 engineer (especially in music
Music
Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

) should have complete knowledge of audio engineering, and may hold an audio or acoustic engineering degree
Academic degree
An academic degree is a position and title within a college or university that is usually awarded in recognition of the recipient having either satisfactorily completed a prescribed course of study or having conducted a scholarly endeavour deemed worthy of his or her admission to the degree...

. Most audio engineers master music or speech audio material. The best mastering engineers might possess arrangement
Arrangement
The American Federation of Musicians defines arranging as "the art of preparing and adapting an already written composition for presentation in other than its original form. An arrangement may include reharmonization, paraphrasing, and/or development of a composition, so that it fully represents...

 and record
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...

 production skills, allowing them to 'trouble-shoot' mix
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...

 issues and improve the final sound
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...

. Generally, good mastering skills are based on experience which can be the result of many years of practice.

Equipment

Many mastering engineers use special audio signal chain equipment to process audio. The equipment used in mastering is almost entirely dedicated to this goal and is usually very expensive. Some advocates for digital software claim that plug-ins are capable of handling mastering processes without signal degradation. The quality of the results varies according to the algorithm these programs use to operate. Reversed engineering of the best programs can be applied to create audio software with defects in the math and thus a substandard audio digital rendition. For this reason many engineers feel that hardware and not software should be the last process before CD authoring.

Some mastering engineers rely not only on what they hear, but on what they see. Through the guidance of frequency spectrum analyzers
Real Time Analyzer
A Real Time Analyzer is a professional audio device that measures and displays the frequency spectrum of an audio signal; a spectrum analyzer that works in real time. An RTA can range from a small PDA-sized device to a rackmounted hardware unit to software running on a laptop...

, phase oscilloscope
Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope is a type of electronic test instrument that allows observation of constantly varying signal voltages, usually as a two-dimensional graph of one or more electrical potential differences using the vertical or 'Y' axis, plotted as a function of time,...

s and sensitive peak meters, the pre-mastering process can be taken to an unprecedented level of precision and maximum sonic delivery.

Aspects of their work

Most mastering engineer accolades are given for their ability to make a mix consistent with respect to subjective factors based on the perception of listeners, regardless of their playback system
System
System is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole....

s and the environment. This is a difficult task due to the varieties of systems now available and the effect it has on the apparent qualitative attributes of the recording
Recording
Recording is the process of capturing data or translating information to a recording format stored on some storage medium, which is often referred to as a record or, if an auditory medium, a recording....

. For instance, a recording that sound
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...

s great on one speaker
Loudspeaker
A loudspeaker is an electroacoustic transducer that produces sound in response to an electrical audio signal input. Non-electrical loudspeakers were developed as accessories to telephone systems, but electronic amplification by vacuum tube made loudspeakers more generally useful...

/amplifier
Amplifier
Generally, an amplifier or simply amp, is a device for increasing the power of a signal.In popular use, the term usually describes an electronic amplifier, in which the input "signal" is usually a voltage or a current. In audio applications, amplifiers drive the loudspeakers used in PA systems to...

 combination playing CD audio, may sound drastically different on a computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...

-based system playing back a low-bitrate
Bitrate
In telecommunications and computing, bit rate is the number of bits that are conveyed or processed per unit of time....

 MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...

. Some engineers maintain that the main mastering engineer's task is to improve upon playback systems translations while the position of others is to make a sonic impact.

Prolonged periods of listening to improperly mastered recordings usually leads to hearing fatigue that ultimately takes the pleasure out of the listening experience. A professional mastering engineer renders mixes that have a good harmonic balance. Harmonic balancing can be accomplished by correcting and removing the tonal imbalances that result from problem mixes, thus producing a more naturally pleasing and enjoyable sound to the listening ears, and is another aspect to a mastering engineer's job. This is why mastering is considered an art as well as an "audio engineering" discipline.

Reference Links

  • Audio mastering
    Audio mastering
    Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...

  • Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album
    Grammy Award for Best Surround Sound Album
    The Grammy Award for "Best Surround Sound Album" was first awarded in 2005, as the first category in a new "Surround Sound" field.-Nominees::*An Evening With Dave Grusin...

  • PMCD
    PMCD
    PMCD is a specially formatted, recordable Compact Disc designed to be sent to a CD pressing plant for replication. The PreMaster CD format, developed in the early 1990s by the CD-ROM division of Sony, in cooperation with of Tokyo and Sonic Solutions, contained a hidden “PreMaster Cue Sheet” that...

  • Real Time Analyzer
    Real Time Analyzer
    A Real Time Analyzer is a professional audio device that measures and displays the frequency spectrum of an audio signal; a spectrum analyzer that works in real time. An RTA can range from a small PDA-sized device to a rackmounted hardware unit to software running on a laptop...

  • Loudness war
    Loudness war
    The loudness war or loudness race is a pejorative term for the apparent competition to digitally master and release recordings with increasing loudness.The phenomenon was first reported with respect to mastering practices for 7" singles...

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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