I've finally completed a set of mixes for all but one track of my latest collection of songs, and over the past month I've been mastering. So, what is this mysterious “mastering” thing, and why have I not been bothered about it before?
Essentially, mastering is the final stages that occur before committing a recording to the CD / vinyl / whatever. This was important in the old days of vinyl, as the amount of absolute volume available (especially in bass frequencies) was proportional to the size of grooves (so, for example, you could represent bass better on a 12” single than on a 7” single or a 12” 33.3rpm album.
In the modern age, mastering is still quite important. We need to ensure that all songs on an album flow nicely, and none are out of place. For example, you want the hard-hitting rock number to have appear dynamic and exciting - if it has been mixed at half the apparent volume as the preceeding laid back ballad, it will sound a bit weird. It is also important to ensure that all tracks are tonally balanced (i.e. if one track is mixed to be quite bright, then a “normal” track may sound a little dull by comparison).
There are many tools that mastering engineers use to do their job. The most important is a good set of ears, so I've been doing most of my mastering in the mornings. The next most important tool is a good monitoring environment. I don't really have an ideal environment here, so I've been using my regular studio / monitors. The monitors are fairly flat, but the room itself is not ideal (parallel walls, doors, windows etc). I'm fairly used to the sound of the room (having done all of my mixing in there for the past couple of years), and have also performed some extended listening of reference material (including “The Space Between Us” by Craig Armstrong, “The Raven” by Rebecca Pidgeon, “All You Can Eat” by kd lang, “Together Alone” by the Crowded House, “God Shuffled His Feet” by Crash Test Dummies, “The Flat Earth” by Thomas Dolby, “The Koln Concert” by Keith Jarrett, and er “Justified” by Justin Timberlake). It has been important to also check the mixes on other systems, so I'm going around with a CD listening in various other environments (the hifi upstairs, computer “multimedia” speakers, the Car, on an iPod etc), and making some copious notes. There is a bit of tonal balancing left to do, but I think I'm on the right track.
There is a Dark Side to mastering, however (as made clear by listening to the Justin Timberlake album). The trend over the past 10 years has been to increase the subjective loudness at whatever cost. In the past, this has meant using some subtle compression (or multiband compression - my new friend, once I got the hang of her). But the recent trend has been to use some extreme settings, and then run the whole thing through a limited dialled up to the max. The resultant effect is that the tonal balance of the music is invariably spoiled, and the top end is often distorted (creating an edgy, aggressive sound) - however the overall mix ends up sounding louder, which may be important when it is being played back to back with songs by other artists. This sounds great on the radio, or MTV, or the clothes shop, or wherever else this music is piped, but it means that when you listen to it on a decent hifi, it sounds harsh and wearing. I've not gone to this extreme, as I figure that most people listening to my music know how to use a volume control.
The final tool in my armoury has been Bob Katz, or rather his excellently written book “Mastering Audio”, which has taught me a thing or seventeen. He tends to emphasize certain things as being absolute vital necessities (like a custom build listening room with nothing else in it, external word clocks, and a dedicated mastering Digital Audio Workstation), but I take this with a pinch of salt for my purposes. When he is talking about general principles of EQ, compression, dithering, listening etc. this is the most relevant text I've read on the subject by far. Recommended reading.
So, its that time of year again, when we trudge round shops doing Christmas Shopping. Everywhere there is fake snow, people selling 3 Santa hats for a pound, tiny plastic reindeers which poo chocolate raisins, and “Mistletoe and Wine” playing in every shop you walk into (or, am I getting confused with October?) Anyway, the well documented fact that Christmas starts earlier each year is not my point - this is in fact a symptom of the wobble in the rotation of the earth or something - er - you're making me lose my train of thought. Where was I? Ah yes, the basis of Christmas.
Christmas is based upon a fairly short passage of the Bible, known as the first twelve verses of the second chapter of the book of Matthew. Its shortness is often underestimated, given that it is the basis for all of the stuff mentioned above (with the possible exception of the chocolate reindeer poo), and ultimately responsible for Christopher Biggins and his ilk being employed in pantomimes for three months every year. This seemingly innocuous short passage is the basis of much of our society, our way of life, and for those that subscribe to such things, religion.
So, I got to thinking, what would happen if we picked a different passage randomly from the Bible, and used that as our boilerplate for society? What sort of world would we live in then? So I opened my King James Version at random, got out my map pin, and plunged it into the heart of Leviticus chapter 26, in which a rather bad tempered Old Testament God warns you about what he'll do if you are naughty. This isn't any mild punishment, such as Santa not bringing you a stocking - oh no; at one stage he says you'll be so hungry that you will eat your own children - and you'll still be hungry!.
So if the western world was entirely founded on this one passage, this vision of punishment and torment, what would we be doing for Christmas? I think we'd probably do pretty much the same sort of thing, only all of the shops would be playing this instead, which is Leviticus:26 set to music.
Oh, and before any Christians leave me any hate mail about blasphemy and whatnot, the lyrics are taken directly from the Good Book, so are therefore the Word of God. I therefore absolve myself of all responsibility.
Happy holidays!
Back in 1997, I wrote a little bossanova number which I never got around to setting to words. It didn't really seem to fit with the “Nobody knows this is somewhere” stuff, and I was too lazy to sort it out for “Eucalyptus Kiss”, but the damn thing just wouldn't leave my head. So I felt that I'd better get around to committing it to, er, a stream of 1s and 0s on a hard disk.
Earlier in the year, I wrote some words (partially inspired by some enormous sunflowers that Tosha had grown just outside the house - these were around 11-12' high, which we thought might be a record, but in fact the record holder was over 30' high). I'd always imagined that the main melody would be played by a pair of trumpets (in the Mariachi style), and back in 2001 I had asked Peter Robinson if he wouldn't mind supplying the necessary.
Cut forward to November of this year, and we finally got around to doing it. I'd written down the trumpet score for Pete, and we recorded all the parts in one evening. Some judicious editing and overdubbing later, I'm rather fond of the finished piece. Especially the samba section!
I spent an enjoyable sunday morning variously in bed, in the bath, and on a sun-bathed sofa reading “31 Songs” by Nick Hornby. If you enjoyed High Fidelity, you'll enjoy this - lots of passionate writing (supposedly about 31 songs that he likes very much, but in fact essays about all sorts of things).
One of the songs is “Glorybound” by The Bible - he refers to the version which has the same opening as Ricki Don't Lose That Number (and comments on the very slinky guitar solo at the beginning). Unfortunately, this version wasapparently “lost” - neither Boo Hewerdine or Neil MacColl knew where it was - it has since been found again, and appears on the “31 songs” CD.
Way back in 1986, I was present at the recording of this song at Spaceward Studios in Stretham (I was teaboy du jour). The band (and producer Owen Morris, later to produce Oasis's first album) had been up all night recording it (night times were cheaper), and were completing the final mix. I recall that they spent 10 minutes thinking that something was odd with the mix, before they realised that they had inadvertantly muted the hi-hat track.
As they were performing the final mix, and I was marginally closer to the (very big B&W) monitor speakers, I claim that I heard this marvellous song before anyone else in the entire world, including the band / engineers who recorded it. So there!
Earlier in the year, my friends Bee & Anna produced a new baby girl. I almost used the phrase “bouncing baby”, but I'm not certain that they've tried her out for bounciness yet. She looked quite small and fragile last time I saw her, and had you attempted to bounce her, she would have probably broken.
Her name is Charlotte Nicole Amelie, and in recognition of her existence, I wrote three pieces of music for her. Charlotte is an upbeat banjo number, Nicole is a reflective piano piece, and Amelie is a percussive soundscape. Rather excitingly, all pieces were written and recorded within a 24 hour period, which means I am officially still able to work quickly when I want to. Which makes a change from spending an entire afternoon tweaking the EQ on a hihat.
I was going to put a small picture of aforementioned small person up on the web site, but Bee hasn't found the time to send me one. I suspect he may have been too busy mopping up baby sick.