Mastering – Everything You Wanted To Know…..

This post is about mastering your audio.  In case you don’t know what that’s about…Trevor, below, is going to explain it to you.   Coyote Love Entertainment sends all our professional audio productions to separate mastering facilities.  Trevor’s studio is one of many that you can send your mixes to if you want them to POP.

Greetings to Trevor Sadler of Mastermind Productions.

Trevor you’re a mastering engineer who was recommended to me by someone years ago with impeccable ears.  In 2009 you mastered the debut CD of my “Coyote Love” project, and you’ve just worked on our cover of “Blame It.” I have to agree that your work is great.

Haha – thank you so much. I appreciate the kind words, and your experience is how I get most of my work – people are either recommended by others they trust or have heard my work on a project they love.

For those who don’t know…What is a Mastering Engineer?  What do you do?

There are three general stages of creating a recording: the actual recording/overdub process, the mix process, and the mastering process. That purpose of the mastering process is threefold: 1) to make the mix of each song sound as good as possible through sonic manipulation and enhancement, 2) to make the mixes sonically consistent from song to song on the project, 3) to make sure the songs have good sonic translation on various playback systems so they sound as good as possible, no matter where they are played.

How many years have you been a mastering engineer?

I started mastering in 1994…. so 19 years.

How many years before that were you working with audio?

I started being around studios around 1989.. so 5 years. I went to the Music Industry Arts program at Fanshawe College, in London, Ontario. It’s one of the most highly regarded audio programs anywhere – a lot of good engineers and producers have come from there.

What is the scope of clients you work with?

Unlimited!!!!  Over the years it’s been the most indie of indie projects all the way up to some pretty serious label stuff, and everything in between, in all genres of music, and even some non-music types of things (such as restoring 911 response audio, or wiretap audio for the police).

Why are recordings mastered?

I’d say to the two main reasons are to double check the quality of the mix in a different listening environment, and with a different engineer that brings a fresh set of ears to the project, and also to do subtle enhancements to the mix to not only make it sound better, but make sure it translates as well as possible on different playback mediums once it’s out in the real world.

Why do people send music out to be mastered instead of doing those things at the same studio where the music was recorded?

Two main reasons: a fresh set of ears (from the mastering engineer) and a studio that is specifically set up for the purpose of mastering. I would say of the two, the fresh set of ears from an experienced mastering engineer is the more important.

What sorts of devices do you use in the quest for great sound?

I personally use both analog and digital processing, and I encourage clients to send me as high resolution mixes as possible for me to work from. I routinely work from analog tape or DSD or 24bit/96k digital, and then process with different analog and digital devices. Just like with anything in audio, there is no one magic “secret weapon”, but different gear will have strengths and weaknesses and be appropriate for different tasks. As an example, if I want to warm up a recording, or add some really pretty sounding top end, I’ll go to an analog eq. If I wanted to zone in on a very specific problem frequency, I’d use a digital eq.

So much today is done digitally.  Almost all the stuff we’ve sent you was recorded at a fairly low bit-rate, compared to what is available today.  What is your most powerful weapon of choice when warming up digital recordings?  Or is it a combination of things?

This is where analog processing can be your friend… a lot of times I’ll bounce stuff off tape, or use a tube compressor.. things like that, that help shave the “edge” off of low-res digital.

Trevor Sadler, Mastering Engineer

Do you have favorite source material to get?  What format, and, if digital, what Bit and Sample rates do you like best?  Or do you care at all?

I would have to say I’m not too particular on format, although if I had to pick one it would be DSD. More importantly, I prefer good, solid mixes that the artist and engineer and producer are happy with. A mix can come in super high resolution, but if it’s a bad mix that won’t help it!!

What has changed the most about the job description of a mastering engineer between, say, 1963 and 2013?

Originally (back in the days of vinyl) recordings were mastered so that they would sound good playing back off the record. Vinyl has some serious limitations, for instance, in terms of how much low frequency or high frequency it can handle. The mastering engineer would make sure the final mix would translate to the vinyl. As mastering evolved, mastering engineers were given more creative freedom to polish the mix and make improvements on the sound. These days, with digital recordings, very little has to be done from a mastering standpoint to prepare for the delivery medium, but mastering is still used as that final step to polish and perfect the mix.

Do you master for vinyl?  Is there a different approach to mastering for vinyl?

I do master for vinyl, and that is the one medium you MUST master for (in theory, you don’t HAVE to master for the digital medium — it’s just a good idea so your music sounds as good as it can). Again, with vinyl, if you don’t watch your low frequency content you could actually cut a skip into the record… or too much high frequency and cause serious distortion on playback. There are a lot more “rules” for vinyl mastering.

Does Classical Music/Orchestral Music get mastered too?

Some of it does, and some of it isn’t… it really depends on what the producer or artist wants to do. Even when classical/chamber music is mastered, it’s a very minimalist process.  The approach of classical recording is a much more “purist” process – where you are just capturing what is there, and nothing more. You are not expected to “enhance” anything.

There are a number of mastering plugins and mastering plugin “suites” from basic to quite high-end.  A lot of people are opting to use those and consider their music mastered.  What is the advantage of sending your music through a mastering studio like Mastermind Productions, rather than just running your mix through a plugin that claims to do the same job?

Again, the single biggest thing is not the gear, but then engineer you are hiring – that will have the biggest influence, but of course the gear plays a big role as well.   There are some plugins that are very good, and I do use a few myself… but I’m using them in a studio with an amazing monitoring environment (so I can hear what I’m doing down to the last detail) and alongside some awesome analog and digital outboard gear.  I have tried myself to master a song with only plugins, and I can’t do it. I can’t make myself happy and I can’t get the sound I’m looking for.

A respectable mastering plugin suite (of plugins) can be bought for $500-$1500 or found illegally for free on the Internet etc.   What is the ballpark cost of the chain of equipment one’s audio goes through at your facility, including monitors, cables, the works?

If you include the monitoring chain, and you really have to because even though that’s not part of the processing chain, it’s what allows you to make “informed” decisions on what and how to process, I’d say $50,000.

How much does it cost, on average, to build a listening environment like yours?

I’d say if you wanted to duplicate my room, with all the gear and the acoustic treatment, close to $100,000. I think if you wanted to make a basic, no frills mastering room you’re still going to spend $25k, and certainly, people have spent a lot more than $100k!!!

I’m starting to get the picture.  With all that experience, expensive equipment, and custom listening environment.  How does homespun indie producer like myself, who already spends alltheir lunch money on the recording process, even afford a guy like you?

The good news is, quality mastering is more affordable these days than you might think, regardless of your budget…. although I think for a full project you’re still going to have to spend at least $500 or so…. that’s really not that much when you consider the impact it can have on the finished project.  The important thing to do is look around at different mastering engineers and studios and find someone you like to work with… either through references from other producer/engineers, or from another project you like the sound of.

Does the client have any say in the approach you take to mastering a song or group of songs/CD etc?

ABSOLUTELY!  When you hire a mastering engineer you are for sure hiring their expertise, but in the end, it’s still your project. If you don’t like the way something sounds, tell the mastering engineer and he’ll change it, or come up with something different.

Well now that we know that pro mastering does indeed costs money, but that you can still have it done on a budget with conscientious guys like you willing to help out…maybe our readers will think twice before taking their blood sweat and tears and sending them through a mere mastering pluggin.

I hope so!!!!!

For someone in a pinch who is compelled to use a pluggin or suite of plugins…is there a pluggin or sweet that you think yields decent results?  Or theoretically should yield decent results?

There really isn’t. And again, it’s not the plugins are all bad…. but that’s just one part of the equation. The other part is having the monitoring environment to judge the mix, and the final part is how do you “erase” the mix you’ve been living with out of your memory so you can approach it with a fresh set of ears? It’s these things that will make a big difference.

Trevor in his specialized mastering studio: Mastermind Productions

Personal favorite recording(s) you have mastered in the past?

All of the work I have done for the Felix Culpa – an absolutely extraordinary band that I just adore.

After that…. I’m not sure. There’s a TON of cool stuff I’ve had the pleasure of working on… I could make a pretty long list!

Which of your pieces of equipment has the most

sentimental value and why?

My Avalon 2077 Mastering EQ… you’d have to rip it out of my cold, dead hands!

Lastly, I’m kind of a big hippie so I have to ask…What sign are you?

lol!!!  I’m a Pieces sun sign, with a Virgo ascendent.  I guess that means I’m creative…. but also detail oriented!  Probably a good mix for someone like me I suppose!!!!

To learn more about Trevor Sadler and Mastermind Productions go to http://www.mastermindproductions.net/

Peace through music,

Hank Coyote Wagner

The Devil Wants My NS10s

The devil wants my NS10’s.

Perhaps that was a bit dramatic.  But I’ll tell the story and you decide.

Yamaha NS10’s, for those who don’t already know, are a ubiquitous addition to just about any music studio that professes to record and mix listenable music.  Conveniently they have white woofers, as opposed to the standard black or grey, which make them (or the lack thereof) very obvious in a studio.  While they aren’t the only speakers you want to mix with, they are pretty darned helpful.  For some reason, it is very hard to get a great rich sounding mix without, at least, referencing the mix on a pair of NS10’s or something very much like them.  Why?  Because they sound HORRIBLE.  From a listener’s point of view, they sound like complete ass, but from an engineer’s point of view, they can be key in balancing a mix.

If they were the speakers on your home stereo (which this model allegedly started out as) you’d need to crank up the “loudness” and add extra bass a lot before your favorite songs sounded cool at all.   “Flat” is the term used to describe them, or in this case, completely devoid of color.  And early NS10’s had these desperately brittle sounding tweeters that just zinged the treble out at you like a laser in your eyeball, forcing you to tame those extreme highs (they later calmed that down a tad with the tweeters in later models).

Yamaha NS10s. Famous, Ubiquitous, useful, and now the target of Satan.

The theory, and I’m going to go so far as to say, the reality is that when you mix through a set of speakers that are completely devoid of color, or anything pleasant, especially in the bassier frequencies, you will have to work very, very hard to tweak that mix until it sounds clear, full and balanced on those speakers, particularly if you mix at a fairly low volume.  What happens next is glorious.  You finally turn on a pair of really nice speakers that make anything and everything sound great, turn up the volume to party level and WHABAM your shit sounds really, really, really good.  There’s more science and tech to it than that, I suppose, and a there’s a list of other speakers one should try a mix out on before its done, of course, but that’s the heart of it for me.   They sound “flat” so you work harder to get fullness, which pays off for the listener.

But the devil wants mine.

Okay.  Long story short, I was a dumbass and blew one of the tweeters.  Switched them over so a source that was devastatingly loud and one of the tweeters just gasped it’s last breath then and there.  Okay, it was a rookie mistake made by a guy who knows better.  Not really the devil’s fault.  Or was it?

Up until this point in my continuing education, I didn’t know there were three different NS10 tweeters you can get.  So I made a deal with a guy I know and bought one for $80, new/old stock.  Great deal.  But then I found it was a later model (the less disgusting sounding tweeters) than the one’s I have in mine.  So I needed another new/old stock tweeter that matched new tweeter.  Okay, fine.  EBay it is.

Enter the devil.

I wait for weeks till I find one just right, and order it.  The part comes fairly quickly, is unused, and I am happy, so I give good feedback.  Only I’m busy, so I don’t try it out right away.  Much later, I get around to doing the upgrade on both speakers and low and behold…the new/old stock tweeter I ordered from eBay is DOA.  SHITE!  I tell the guy and he says, “Send it back and I’ll refund you.”  That was the last I ever heard of him.  I send multiple emails, but like a dumbass I let the time to officially complain to eBay lapse long enough that they were like “sorry dude” (in so many words).  I even went online to get this guys information and address and phone numbers (in Seattle).  But no luck.  No phone numbers work.  Dick!  That was $120!

So I search for weeks and finally order another $120 matching tweeter.  And this is where it gets really hilarious because the post office lost it.  And not only did they loose it; they fucked me in the best way they could come up with.  Sadly my neighborhood post office has a rep for doing shit like this and I’m on pins and needles every time I find someone has send something to me via US Mail.  Three different drivers, during the holiday delivery season, claimed they made attempts to deliver it.   I was home every one of those days, during those times, no notices left etc.  So, if course, I’m like complaining at the post office…“Where’s my package?” and “Please tell them to take it off the truck and I’ll pick it up.”  And they are like “Oh yes sir.”  But since THE DEVIL was ruling all of them, and he wants my NS10’s, not one person from the manager down seems to know what happened.  The lady who “delivered” it apparently scanned her fucking little scanner and said she delivered it to me.  So now, despite complaining to every agency you could possibly complain to, and writing official letters and asking for investigations…. as you can guess…I am fucked.

Does the devil want my NS10’s?  Obviously.  Why does the Devil want my NS10’s?  Good question.  Your guess is as good as mine.

What do I do now?  For now I’m mixing on a pair of very expensive KRK monitors that sound GREAT!  And because they sound too good, my mixes all missing that special oomph that they deserve, and the devil is happy.  Oh so happy.

Sorry Devil.  You may have impoverished me, and left me crying out to the blogosphere in despair but one way or another I’m mixing on some NS10’s, and your ass is going down worse than that time you took your fiddle to Georgia!

Peace,

Hank Coyote

Cover Songs, When and Why?

Choosing to release a cover song to raise public interest in an up-and-coming band isn’t anything new.  Doing it correctly is, however, new to me.  I’m Hank Coyote Wagner; a producer, engineer (by default), songwriter, singer, bandleader, and now, as a result of changes in the music industry, an entertainment company executive as well.

So far, covers have been useful at getting and keeping gigs for my original live act, Coyote Love.  When we do play covers, we play songs that we love and are sure that people can identify with, (if they like anything approaching the same songs that we do).  “These are our influences!” is what our covers say.  And with some good covers up your sleeve, you can roll a bit with an audience that might otherwise not be feeling what you’re putting out that night.  “Useful and fun,” is pretty much how I’d sum up covers up until this point.

But now, with Coyote Love Entertainment, LLC in effect, and with the publishing side of the company set up as well (Shanodeese Music), the mechanism is being built that can make this music dream a viable business venture instead of a money pit.  From this point on, covers have the potential to serve as Pied Pipers on the internet, to drive potential new fans to our YouTube site, website, Facebook page and everything else we got.  Basically it brings people to the store, where we hope to peak their interest in other “products.”  And while it adds a bit of work to set up properly, licensing cover songs for release as one’s own single can be a crucial step in breaking a band.

With our cover of “Blame It (On The Alcohol)” (released by Jamie Foxx on his 2008 album “Intuition”), I am seeking to do just that; use our version of an internationally famous song to bring listeners our way so that they will check out what else we have going on at Coyote Love.  We have a slew of new original releases about to come out in 2013 and we want new people to hear it.  That takes some Public Relations.  PR is the twin sister to the dreaded “advertising,” which, to hippies like me, is a scary territory where souls are lost.  But times have changed.  However much an artist doesn’t want to deal with advertising and PR (despite craving the rewards), they are what you need, in copious amounts, if no one has heard of you or what you do.

Jamie Foxx’s 2008 Album, Intuition sold oodles of copies and was #1 on the Top US R&B/Hip Hop Albums Charts for 6 weeks.

So “Blame It” is our billboard, our single, our video, and our moment on the dance floor where you scream “YO CHECK THIS OUT!” and then bust that crazy backflip move you’ve been practicing.  Which will either totally energize the party, and create respect and adulation, or land you on your back as head-shaking friends hold your hand and tell you not to move until the ambulance comes.

From a producer’s standpoint, our version deconstructs the highly processed and urbanized original release, and sets it about 35 years in the past, somewhere in a 70’s New York sex lounge, with copious whah-whah guitar, drippingly funky bass, and singing unaffected by “autotune”.  In case you aren’t familiar with the genre, or just live under a rock, autotune is the digital vocal tuning effect so popularized by Cher in the late 90s and made ubiquitous in rap music from 2008 onward by rappers like Li’l Wayne, T-Pain and, well, eventually everybody until Jamie Foxx got hold of it for this track.  If you saw the movie “Wall-E” it is used on the voice of “Eve” the robot.  I write this at the end of 2012 and I’ll be fucked if autotune isn’t still rampant in popular and urban music.  It’s actually a freaking awesome production tool, as are others like Melodyne.  Fixing otherwise perfect takes where 3 minutes of singing is bad ass, but one note’s just “oops” and there is no other take like it…this is where these effects shine.  “No one will ever know” is what is usually whispered when we push that magic button and save the take.  But when cranked up, the effect de-humanizes and digitizes a voice, allowing the pitch to be controlled by computer-based scales.  Fun, but now more overdone than men in spandex in the 80’s.

Eve from the Movie Wall-e, Cher, and jamie Foxx all were all instrumental in popularizing the sound of the Autotune effect in American entertainment culture.

The goal is to capture the great songwriting, and danceability of the original, but to sound as analog as possible.  I can’t afford to record to tape, but I do my best to keep the real sound of instruments and spaces in my recordings and, naturally, use all the best analog emulation plugins and equipment that I can get my paws on.

The insanely catchy original is the brain child of producer Christopher “Deep” Henderson.”  We all know Jamie Foxx as the guy it’s “by”, but he was more like the most famous guy in the room.  The track was also was written by Nate Walker, James T. Brown, John Conte Jr., David Ballard and Brandon Melanchon and THREE other people as well (that I know of).  If you aren’t already laughing, the song has more publishers than the Bible.  Dealing with the rights for both audio and video release definitely took some consultation from our attorney, Barry Heyman.   Proving that we have done this legitimately will probably fill a folder or two in my filing cabinet as well.

Hopefully, when released on video and as a single, the song will do its job and gain us new listeners, eager to hear what else we can do.

I’ll let you know how it all pans out.  And in the near future you can listen for yourself.

Hank Coyote

Welcome to Productions of Impact with Coyote

Hi folks,

Hank (Coyote) here.  I’m starting this new blog to share information and stories with producers, listeners, artists, and anyone who is interested about the process behind the production of the live and recorded arts. 

I want to take people on a journey from “conception to reception” as we peek in to this sometimes scary place where art and business meet.

Stay tuned and I’ll post my first topic real soon.

With Love,

Hank Coyote Wagner

 

 

 

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