bitflipper


BTW, I've been waiting for someone to post a review of Ethan's book, be it to rave or ravish. Is it because it's too thick and nobody's finished it yet?

Well, I'm only about 25% of the way through it, so here's a snapshot opinion.  It's immensely readable and at it's most entertaining when debunking audiophile mythology (no surprise there).  Anyone who's read a half-dozen books about audio, mixing, etc. will probably get very little out of the book that they hadn't read previously.  He states up front that it's not a beginners book ... more for intermediate students.  But I don't agree.  I think this would be the perfect book for someone just starting to learn about audio.  He does seem to have the intent of covering all the bases, even when that coverage isn't particularly deep.
 
He steers clear of any heavy mathematics, and 95% of the material is easily approachable.  He occassionally throws in some discussion that require a bit more than casual knowledge of electrical engineering, but never so much that one can't skim past those sections and quickly get back on solid ground.

Danny Danzi

I'm sure Ethan has lots more to say about this in the book but based on hearing the one sentence you shared David while knowing Ethan's intelligence, I'd think (and hope) he also included a bit of what I've said here somewhere in there. :)
 

Not really.  It was just a very short paragraph.  That doesn't mean he won't return to the subject later on (in the 3/4 of the book I haven't yet read).

mmmm...popularical incorrectness....good one!!!

I don't mind listening to a pretty wide range of genres. Hip Hop is cool with me. I worked in a juvenile prison a few years back teaching computer music to boys locked up for various offences. They got me onto it and I like it now. The production values are different. Bigger kicks, sub bass lines, sparseness, vocals equed and sitting on top in a different way to normal etc. Complex arrangements. very tight reverbs etc..

What I find interesting is how the same basic groove can be interpreted so many ways and so many options in terms of what is going on around it. With this mastering job I am finding their mixes are a bit grainy like and the reference material was also a bit that way too. At first I felt that their mixes could be mastered into similar to the ref material.

I found out that they gave me a CD with mp3 files on it and my car reads those. I thought I was listening to 44.1 16 bit resolution. But 128 KBits/ sec instead. I asked them for some more actual CD's of their fave artists. They gave me some but the sound I am hearing now is pristine and complex and detailed and percussive. This is a case of the ref being presented badly and creating a wrong impression! They are saying they want their final masters to sound like the CD's.

So I am thinking no way their mixes are like that. The client is about to go away overseas for three weeks. They want me to master and make it sound like that and I just know now that remixes might be in order. Trying to master it that way may be impossible. Rule No 1 of mastering. Only master a fantastic mix!

I am going to re listen to the mixes again carefully and evaluate it from there. I might be able to secure the job of remixing the tracks and mastering it as well. There are advantages sometimes when you master your own mix. You can really tailor the mix for the desired mastered sound in the end. If you want to hear detail, percussive, transient, sparse, slick etc I think one needs to get that happening right back at the mix stage.

Speaking of good reference materials to analyze and emulate, readers might really like this site / article.  It was referred to in a book I am reading and love it:
 
http://www.digido.com/honor-roll-of-dynamic-recordings.html

bitflipper

I am about to master a hip hop album and the client has given me a CD with 20 great ref tracks on it which I start listening to in the car.

Respect to you, Jeff. This is why I could never be a true pro. The thought of having a duty to listen to hip hop, presumably multiple times, is just too distasteful. Sorry for my musical narrow-mindedness and popularical incorrectness, but I'd sooner listen to Yoko Ono's greatest hits.

LoL.  I'm going through that now working with a Rapper from my church.  Luckily, he's doing the Gospel Rap thing.  When he came in for the first session, I sat down in front of him and said, "You do realize..., that I AM an old white guy?"  He got a laugh out of that and just said that it would be easy and we just started working on his tracks.  We start mixing tomorrow.