For me, the mastering process is all about making an album, or set of songs, sound cohesive as it plays. How does this tool help in that regard? Wouldn't you just end up with a bunch of "mastered" outputs that don't play well together? Enlighten me ...

eric_peterson
For me, the mastering process is all about making an album, or set of songs, sound cohesive as it plays. How does this tool help in that regard? Wouldn't you just end up with a bunch of "mastered" outputs that don't play well together? Enlighten me ...

I guess you haven't been listening to the "career advice" from "industry experts" that "the album is dead" and "it's a singles world." Of course, upon hearing that a zillion times over and over again I decided my next project should be an album  If everyone's making only singles, well then, I have a built-in way to stand out!
 
Seriously, though, you are talking about one essential component of mastering that these days, seems as relevant to most people as mastering for vinyl. Hopefully the art of a well-sequenced and beautifully recorded/mastered album will become prominent once more, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
That said, there is still art in a beautifully mastered single.

Anderton

eric_peterson
For me, the mastering process is all about making an album, or set of songs, sound cohesive as it plays. How does this tool help in that regard? Wouldn't you just end up with a bunch of "mastered" outputs that don't play well together? Enlighten me ...

I guess you haven't been listening to the "career advice" from "industry experts" that "the album is dead" and 'it's a singles world." Of course, upon hearing that a zillion times over and over again I decided my next project should be an album  If everyone's making only singles, well then, I have a built-in way to stand out!
 
Seriously, though, you are talking about one essential component of mastering that these days, seems as relevant to most people as mastering for vinyl. Hopefully the art of a well-sequenced and beautifully recorded/mastered album will become prominent once more, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
That said, there is still art in a beautifully mastered single.

What percent of the people who listen to that single will hear the uncompressed version? I don't own thousands of CDs because I love singles.

I have the ears of a hobbyist, and I listened through un-calibrated headphones.  But, two of the Masters sounded right to me and nearly identical while the other three, also very similar to each other, sounded too compressed or limited, just too harsh.
 
It'll be fun to find out what's what.

I love these kinds of things!!  They can be very revelatory.
 
Which one sounds the "best"?  Far be from me to say, but I prefer #4, because, as others noted, it fits the mood of the song better.  To me the others grabbed you by the throat, but #4 is more like a gentle caress, which I think is what this song needs.  But that's just me.

Tibear
The problem is not with the mastering, it is with the song itself. It is so boring that I could not listen all the versions.

I'm sure the song-writer who has lovingly created this song will be pleased with your assessment. I hope that if someone ever calls your music boring you won't be offended and take it to heart. Perhaps it's just a sad reflection of the music industry in general. We're all entitled to our opinions and don't have to like everything...but I'm sure that there are more respectful ways of giving such feedback. 

I pick #3 as it had the best balance of clarity without loosing that intimacy. But to be honest, that distorted pad sound at the beginning and the overbearing snare kinda ruins the song.

I like the original and 4 the best. The others seem introduce varying levels of harshness that for me at least, cancel out laid-back beauty of the song...like a drive effect has been added somewhere.

Anderton
I guess you haven't been listening to the "career advice" from "industry experts" that "the album is dead" and "it's a singles world." Of course, upon hearing that a zillion times over and over again I decided my next project should be an album  If everyone's making only singles, well then, I have a built-in way to stand out!
 
Seriously, though, you are talking about one essential component of mastering that these days, seems as relevant to most people as mastering for vinyl. Hopefully the art of a well-sequenced and beautifully recorded/mastered album will become prominent once more, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
That said, there is still art in a beautifully mastered single.

Yes, I've heard that the album is considered dead by some, singles rule, albums drool ... My 14 YO twins are always saying, "Why would I buy the entire album if I only like 2 songs?", to which I reply, "So the artist can keep a roof over their head, eat, and make more music!"

Surely there some artists out there with an attention span longer than 3 or 4 min, no? For me, an album that is enjoyable end to end is ultimate. (Yes, I know what a playlist is ...)

I guess I just haven't been assimilated yet, but it's inevitable, soon I'll be part of the collective listening to low bit rate MP3s, messing with my phone instead of enjoying the view or talking to "real" people sitting next to me. My attention span will decrease to the point that I'm unemployable and everything will need to provide instant gratification or I'll be bored in seconds ... ;-)

I liked 6 overall as the best "Mastered" sound. Was wider than the others so I would guess it was done at the mastering house as it almost sounded like m/s balancing/eq was used.
4 was easier to listen to but it was also a few db rms quieter so I factored that in.  Balance was decent.
1 was just a loud mess.
2 was cleaner but the vox was bad and the bass drum was too loud
3 was better balance I thought but still too loud overall
5 was the first one I'd guess was hand mastered, sounded wider, maybe some m/s was used, closer to 6 than the others.