Polishing the Final Product — Mastering
Divine Affliction: Perception Through A Feminine Lens Part 13
Divine Affliction: Perception Through a Feminine Lens Blog Series presents an expansive view behind the music production of album Divine Affliction. An expression of the feminine aesthetics in music. A sonic portrayal of the duality of divinity and affliction, a journey through the female experience. The album is a shorter album consisting of seven songs and would be defined as experimental electronica with raw, introspective, brooding, emotive music. This album presents an aural representation of the female processes and application to music production. The musical compositions are inspired by my own experience of the intersectionality of gender and music production along with the preliminary research uncovered in the 1st four theoretical blogs of this series. The previous blogs dissected my creative process, narrating my music-making processes and highlighting how I implement the song concepts into the musical composition, audio processing, and lyrics. Along with a blog discussing the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) ethos used for the production of the album and project. This blog demystifies the mastering process and polishing the final product ready for release. Observe the creative experience through the lens of a female producer.
Polishing the Final Product — Mastering
The whole album and associated content are created with a DIY ethos based on feminist philosophy of collaboration, intersectionality, representation, diversity, and inclusivity. Even though I use DIY production as a core aesthetic to my practice, I still use a professional mastering engineer, which is an industry-standard practice. My reasoning behind this is I want the sonic quality of the final product to be equal to successful artist’s works in the market and played on the radio. I also like to get an objective, neutral opinion about the final product, as I may be too precious due to being the composer, lyricist, artist, producer, arranger, recording engineer and mixing engineer on the album. Some may consider using a professional mastering engineer not part of the DIY ethos, though I consider my mastering engineer part of my creative community, therefore, I consider this collaboration. A description of mastering from The Audio Mastering Handbook describes, “Mastering is the process of turning a collection of songs into a record by making them sound like they belong together in tone, volume, and timing between songs” (Owanski, 2008, p. 3). To demystify the mastering process, the following discusses the role of the mastering engineer within the music production process. I consider this in relation to current practices and examine the current practice to the past history and changing environments of mastering within the audio industry. In order for an in-depth and concise observation, I will be discussing the topics of; vinyl mastering, the digital age of CD and beyond, analog vs. digital mastering, and the loudness wars.
The Role of the Mastering Engineer within the Production Process
The role of the Mastering Engineer in relation to current practices within the production process is a huge responsibility: it’s their job to make the project sound great and translates on all speaker systems, not to mention competitively for the radio and produce quality masters for distribution to the market. To understand the role of the mastering engineer I researched other mastering engineers’ views on their role within the production process. Bob Kats explains, “Mastering is the Intermediate step between taking the audio fresh from mix down from a studio and preparing it to be replicated or distributed” (Kats, 2008, p. 3). Most professional mastering engineers have spent over 10 years in the audio industry and spawned from great recording and mixing engineers who have worked hard, refined their skills, and calibrated their ears so to speak. Mastering Engineers spend 8 hours a day in the studio, with finely honed skills and speakers, working intricately making the sound better, complete and polished. Bob Owanski’s description of mastering is, “It’s an art form that, when done conscientiously in its highest form, mostly relies on an individual’s skill, experience with various genres of music, and good taste” (Owanski, 2008, p. 3). Bernie Grundman clarifies, “It’s the final creative step and the last chance to do any modifications that might take the song to the next level” (Owanski, 2008, p. 3).
Current Industry Practice for Mastering
Within the current standard industry practice the signal path that the mastering engineers follow to start with equalization (EQ) and multi-band compression, with possible mid-side (M-S) processing, to make the production sound as fat and rich as possible. The analog signal then passes through a digital limiter setting to the peak level of the production then into a DAW using Mastering software/plug-ins. The analog audio waveforms need to be converted into digital audio at this stage ready for media application through a high-quality analog to digital (A/D) converters. They then check for any noise reduction or possible edits, the mastering engineer then goes through and ensures that all song levels are even and loud enough for replication on the radio or for distribution (0.0dB-0.8dB) depending on taste. Mastering engineers use high-quality RMS/Peak meters to ensure the levels are of the true readings. Mastering Engineers also monitor in acoustically treated rooms on high-quality custom studio monitors that they know the sonic quality of, so the audio is well represented on any speaker or home theatre system. Depending on the sample rate and bit depth chosen to record in, the mastering engineer then decides the best application to down-sample the audio, called truncation. Sample rates for CD media application have a quality standard of 44.1Khz/16bit, whereas DVD, Blue-Ray and HD-DVD can use sample rates of 48KHz/24bit, 96KHz/24bit or 192Khz/24bit. At this point, it is up to the mastering engineer expertise to chose what algorithm of dither, which adds random noise to the bitstream that allows digital distortion and errors fall out of the audible bandwidth when going down in bit depth from 24 bit to 16 bit for CD application. “Adding a small amount of random noise to the A/D path improves the resolution of the conversion process below the least significant bit level and reduces harmonic distortion that greatly improves the signal’s performance” (Runstein, 2010, p. 209). The Mastering Engineer then creates the fades between the songs so the album or EP flows like a seamless journey, sequenced cohesively. The mastering engineer then has to add indexing to the audio files including; the production genre and CD title, VPC/EAN code, the IRSC code, which includes the country, record label, artist and song, and finally the P & Q codes which is the silence between tracks.
Until 1948, there was no distinction between audio engineers because everything was recorded directly on 10” vinyl, played at 78RPM. In 1948 the age of the ‘transfer’ engineers began when Ampex introduced its first commercial magnetic tape recorder. With most recordings then being done to magnetic tape, a transfer has to be made to a vinyl master for delivery to the pressing plant, hence the first incarnation of the mastering engineer was born (Owanski, 2008, p. 4).
Vinyl Mastering
The past history and changing environments of mastering in relation to current practice have changed significantly compared to the days of vinyl records. Vinyl went through a few advancements over the years from their beginnings in 1948, with the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) instituting an equalization (EQ) curve which increased playing time from the previous time of 10min per side to 25min per side, as the EQ curve increased high frequencies (HF) by 17dB at 15KHz and the low frequencies (LF) by 17dB at 50Hz, allowing more space available to cut a low-frequency material. This helped the mastering engineer by lowering noise and distortion. Variable pitch was also introduced allowing the mastering engineer to change the number of grooves per inch according to program material.
Transferring high-quality audio from a master tape to a vinyl record was as much a closely guarded art form as it was a technology: this is where the mastering production process starts. The signal chain the mastering/transfer engineer starts with the master lacquer, which is the record cut that is sent to the pressing plant for distribution. This record is never to be played; a reference disc is cut called the acetate, but can only be played a few times for reference, due to degrading. The master lacquer consists of a substrate of aluminum, cellulose nitrate, and other resins and pigments to keep it soft and protected.
The vinyl is cut by a lathe, which contains a precision turntable, and carriage that holds the cutter head, which contains the sapphire cutting stylus. The cutter head contains sets of drive coils that are powered by high wattage amplifiers. The cutting head translates the electrical signals that are applied in a mechanical motion at the recording stylus, which is heated for a quieter cut. The lathe also has a microscope to inspect the grooves and adjustments that determine the number of grooves done in the cut.
The mastering console is made specifically for cutting discs, therefore, has certain features not seen today. The main feature is a preview feature which is an additional monitor path that runs through a tape machine with an extended tape path, to delay the program material so mastering engineers can adjust the cutter head and prevent it from cutting through the lacquer to the aluminum substrate, destroying the lacquer and possibly the stylus. The mastering engineer checks the delayed program material for excessive bass, peaks or out of phase signals, as once you start cutting the disc it as a continuous process and you make any changes on the fly without stopping till the end of the side, therefore the delayed monitor path gives engineers time to make necessary changes. The mastering/transfer engineer would first listen to the program material and note any EQ settings, then would cut on the fly and run these through usually two EQ’s sequentially using one unit per song. All the low frequencies were set with a crossover EQ to stop excessive lateral movement of the cutting stylus. Then the master lacquer is sent to the pressing plant for several processes including making metal molds that then become a stamper that’s bolted to the record presser that stamp out the plastic records. The vinyl comes in a granulated form then is heated into a biscuit and colored with pigment. This is then is placed into the press that is heated to a perfect temperature to ensure quality audio, then trimmed and cooled.
The Digital Age of CD and Beyond
The digital age started in 1982 with the introduction of Compact Disc (CD’s). In 1995 the MPEG-1 audio layer 3 files were introduced as of their small file size for internet usage. This took the mastering engineer into new territory on how to get quality sound of this format of file. “By 1999 higher sample rates and bit depths of today were developed and 5.1 surround sound led mastering engineers to new digital territory and by 2002 nearly all mastering projects were edited and manipulated in a DAW” (Owanski, 2008, p. 5). This led mastering engineers to learn more about equalization, dynamics, and editing, not to mention the new environment of digital with word lengths, dither, file formats, and CD coding. The current standard formats of CD include normal audio file CD-R and the Disc Description Protocol (DDP file), which is delivered as data on CD-Rom or DVD-Rom. Cutting a CD is much an art form as cutting a record, though with recent advancements in the digital age replication is simpler. Mastering facilities run the material through various error checking measurements to ensure making a good cut to the master glass. This is the metalized glass master the CD stampers are made from. These are recycled so this first goes through a process of stripping the old photoresist off the surface and washed with de-ionized water ready for resurfacing with a new photoresist layer. The photoresist layer is exposed to a blue gas laser, which records the audio or a DDP Master tape or file. This then goes through metallic processing to make the negative and positive presses that contain the binary information used to play the disc. Stampers are made from the negative disc and secured into the molding machines to stamp the disc. The CDs are made from clear polycarbonate; with a thin metal layer bonded to the pit and land surface then a clear protective coating is applied. Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 in the following are a visual representation of the CD mastering process.
The parts production of mastering is when the various masters are made verified then sent to the replicator. Most CD replicators accept master files via the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). “Production in the days of vinyl was more extensive as many Masters had to be made as a pair, one for each side, had to be sent to a pressing plant in each country that the material was being released. The bulk of the Mastering was not in the studio like today but in the actual making of the Masters. Today production has dwindled to today where digital copies are a snap to make” (Owanski, 2008, p. 64). Depending on the project, the masters cuts vary from the CD Master, Cassette Master, Vinyl Master, The online master being the most important these days as online sales have topped physical sales in this new digital age, and these files being the newest format to master and the most difficult to get the best out of minimal bandwidth. Backup masters are also an important consideration when cutting master files. These files are then checks over for client reference for approval and master verification to ensure sonic integrity before getting sent to the replicators ready for distribution. Some Manufacturing facilities do all mastering and replication in-house others out-source to other contractors for certain steps of the process.
Analog vs. Digital Mastering
There has been a lot of discussion on analog hardware vs. digital software/plug-ins in relation to current practice in the Audio Industry. Some mastering engineers currently practice totally in the digital domain, especially if the production was first digital. While others use only analog gear or a mix of both. Following is a Youtube link to an interview with renown mastering engineer Mandy Parnell further discussing analog vs digital mastering. Mandy Parnell is a British audio mastering engineer, founder and senior mastering engineer at Black Saloon Studios in London, England. Parnell has worked on projects with a wide variety of artists including Aphex Twin, The XX, Feist, Sigur Ros, Bjork, The Knife, Frightened Rabbit, Brian Eno (Wikipedia, N.d).
The tools used for professional mastering whether of the analog or digital environment are of a very high professional sonic quality and repeatability, usually custom made if analog and have the least effect on the signal right down to studio monitors. The studios can be quite elaborate with separate power to each room and grounding set-up, some even build their own power supply and equalizers. Bernie Grundman explains; “We build our own equipment as in integrated system to avoid a lot of extra electronics and isolation devices, and custom wired in the console” (Owanski, 2008, p. 13). The mastering engineer or professional mastering studio’s choice of tools in their mastering chain defines their character sound dependent on electronic/valve/tube circuitry/technology. For example solid-state or vacuumed tube or done with algorithms and convolutions used in the digital environment. The following are images of regular mastering studios.
Greg Calibi spends most of his time in the analog domain and uses “A combination of analog light and dark, solid-state and tube EQ’s and compressors and limiters, including Avalon, Pultec and Manley equipment” (Owanski, 2008, p. 15). In comparison to another professional mastering engineer Glenn Meadows who uses high-quality digital processing of “a Z-System digital EQ, POW-R word length reduction, Weiss EQ and Compressor/limiters” (Owanski, 2008, p. 15). Both Greg Calibi and Glenn Meadows are renown professional mastering engineers, whether working in the analog or digital medium, sonic perfection is guaranteed dependent upon your chosen sound or medium. This being said the mastering engineer’s role is to know the characteristics of his tools to replicate the production to its highest level down to his level of experience. The bigger issue in the digital environment is that digital mastering plugins and online tutorials are accessible and affordable for any musician/producer/engineer to utilize in the home studio, but without the experience or expertise on actual practice of mastering or know-how on using their multitude of plug-in tools creates over-compressed low-quality audio reaching the market, which led to the loudness wars.
The Loudness Wars
The Loudness Wars have been another changing environment to the practice of mastering, which thankfully is nearly won. This has been a heated topic in the audio industry since the digital environment started with the RMS and Peak levels of material slowly creeping higher on peak meters with less headroom only to be louder on radio or television broadcast. Sadly this has to lead to a lot of music being released with no dynamics left in the material and the music sounding squashed. The following image displays a visual history of the Loudness Wars. Here is the link to the downloadable PDF for your own purpose https://media.npr.org/assets/music/news/2009/12/poster2.pdf.
Loudness normalization has been the revolution for the loudness wars, with the EBU Recommendation R128 (European Broadcasting Union) and the International Telecommunications Industry (ITU) creating the algorithm ITU- RBS.1770 to normalize LOUDNESS levels, not peak levels, “In addition to the average loudness of a program (‘Programme Loudness’) the EBU recommends that the measures ‘Loudness Range’ and ‘Maximum True Peak Level’ be used for the normalization of audio signals, and to comply with the technical limits of the complete signal chain as well as the aesthetic needs of each program/station depending on the genre(s) and the target audience” (European Broadcasting Union, 2011, p. 1). The EBU explains the ITU- RBS.1770 as:
“The purpose of that standard was to establish an agreed algorithm for the measurement of loudness and the true peak levels of programmes. It’s a “K-weighting” curve (a modified second-order high-pass filter), which forms the basis for matching an inherently subjective impression with an objective measurement. This curve is applied to all the channels (except the Low Frequency Effects (LFE) channel which is discarded from the measurement), the total mean square energy is then calculated (with different gain factors for the front and surround channels, see Fig. 3) and the result is displayed as “LKFS” (Loudness, K-Weighting, referenced to digital Full Scale). For relative measurements, Loudness Units (LU) is used, where 1 LU is equivalent to 1 dB” (European Broadcasting Union, 2011, p. 2).
This year the Audio Engineering Society (AES) followed after the convention in 2014 leading Apple to also create an algorithm for I tunes radio, now Apple music. Bob Kats explains:
“During several hours’ testing, Katz measured the output level of several stations and concluded that each song’s loudness averages -16.5 LUFS, within better than 2 dB, usually plus or minus 1.5 dB. The Apple release notes state that version 11.1.1 improves stability, which he interprets as having solved some loudness regulation issues which were present in the previous iTunes release. Katz’s discoveries show that current squashed and smashed pop releases are being attenuated more than 7 dB in order to make their loudness equal to that of more-conservatively mastered releases. In other words, true peak levels of current pop songs are as low as -7.8 dB below full scale. There is so much available peak headroom now in iTunes Radio that anyone who wants to master their songs with more conservative levels and prefers higher peak-to-loudness ratios will produce music with immediate loudness and sound quality advantages, compared to what’s being played out there now. The cream will soon rise to the top. The music will sound better, even a bit louder, and will attract more listeners. ITunes Radio is already so popular that it will end the loudness race by force. This development is a great opportunity for producers to explain and demonstrate to their clients how to make their songs sound better on iTunes Radio and everywhere else” (Kats, 2013).
Conclusion
The mastering engineers’ role in the production process has also gone through many changing environments from the past history of the transfer engineer and vinyl production to the current practice in the digital domain today, with word lengths, digital plug-ins, and the loudness wars. The role that hasn’t changed is the mastering engineer’s knowledge, experience and intricate attention to detail to process the production, ready for multiple distributions. To achieve this mastering should be left for the professional engineer or studio with the knowledge, objectivity, and experience in the industry to know where to take the production. Which will have a profound effect on the personality and sound of a project and possibly the success. Mastering engineer Dave Collins comments, “When a guy writes a book, he doesn’t edit the book himself. He sends it off to an editor, and the editor reads it with a fresh set of eyes, just like a mastering engineer hears it with a fresh set of ears” (Owanski, 2008, p. 7). To conclude this section I will finalize with an interview with mastering engineer Mandy Parnell further discussing the mastering audio process along with the role of the mastering engineer. In the following section, I reflect on my creative practice with the mastering process of Divine Affliction.
A Female Music Producer in Her Realm: Reflection on My Creative Practice of Music Production
The production of the Divine Affliction album and the greater project was created with a feminist DIY ethos based on collaboration, intersectionality, representation, diversity, and inclusivity. The rationale of this project is to address the gender inequalities and underrepresentation of female producers in the field of music production. While this project is based on feminist theory, it is not about working only with women. The rise of the female does not mean the demise of the male. Feminism is not against masculinity, its against patriarchy. I am not doing this project to preclude the involvement of cis white men, I am doing this project to incorporate the representation of non-cis white men. Divine Affliction is not the exclusion of males but the inclusion of other genders within this project. Proof os this is with collaboration with my mastering engineer, Michael Worthington from Soundworthy Music Mastering, a cis white male. Working in collaboration with others promotes the DIY ethos of this project of inclusivity. I have worked with Michael with my previous release and was extremely pleased with the final product and his mastering skills and expertise. He understands my sound; that I like the vocals back in the mix, with the masters bassy but not overcompressed. Like, don’t compromise the dynamics to make an overcompressed, pop-sounding plastic song cause that’s not me. It’s hard not to work with cis white males in the industry considering the gender statistics. Within the mastering sector, there are even fewer females. Though there is one female mastering engineer that I one day aspire to meet and work with, that is Mandy Parnell, who I have discussed throughout this blog to represent a female in this space and also hear this process from a feminine perspective, with production spoken with a feminine vernacular. I’m going to finalize this blog with the following Youtube clip of an interview with Mandy Parnell discussing the representation of women in the mastering sector of audio production.
The following blog discusses how to independently release and distribute your musical works. Stay tuned!!!
Read the previous blog: https://medium.com/orthentix/the-ethos-behind-the-production-of-divine-affliction-diy-culture-and-collaboration-c1dea222bc1b
Read the following blog: Coming up !!! The Biz Zone — How to Independently Release and Distribute your Musical Works
Encore
Divine Affliction, experimental electronica with raw, introspective, brooding, emotive music. A journey through the female experience. A musical expression of the divine feminine and the afflictions she faces…She finds strength in her vulnerability and turns her affliction into a virtue.
The Divine Affliction album will be released — December 2019! There will be a Divine Affliction Poetic Documentary published on Youtube — January 2020. The documentary is a lens into my intersection of gender and music production. Divine Affliction, a story of me, a female and a producer. The documentary hosts intimate footage at home with my daughter, performing live and expressing in my realm of creativity. With narration discussing the song concepts along with excerpts of songs from the album. Experience her story of music production through a feminine lens, a feminine perception of music production…Excited? I am. Stay Tuned via the following link to my Youtube channel!
Reference List
European Broadcasting Union. (2011). EBU Recommendation R128: Loudness normalization and permitted maximum levels of audio signals. Retrieved from https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/r/r128-2014.pdf
European Broadcasting Union. (2011). Loudness normalization and permitted maximum levels of audio signals. Retrieved from https://tech.ebu.ch/docs/r/r128-2014.pdf
Huber, D.M Runstein, R.E (2010). Modern Recording Techniques, 7th Edition. Burlington, MA, USA: Focal Press.
Katz, B. (2007). Mastering audio, The art and the science 2nd edition. Burlington, MA, USA: Focal Press.
Kats, B. (2013). The loudness war has been won [Press Release]. Retrieved from www.AnnouncementsForumsDigitalDomainDigitalDomain:CDMasteringMasteredforiTunesAudio.com
Owsinski, B. (2008). The mastering engineer’s handbook 2nd edition. Boston, MA, USA: Thompson Course Technology.
Prism Sound Recording. (Oct 28, 2014). Women in mastering [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVOUkZgTs4w
Prism Sound Recording. (Nov 2014). Mandy Parnell on mastering on analog vs digital [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5xVaFXF7z8
Sound On Sound magazine. (Feb 2016). Mandy Parnell: Mastering audio [Youtube]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aot-sWlIDjU
Wikipedia. (N.d). Mandy Parnell [Website]. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandy_Parnell
Wright Edelman, Mariane. (1959). Mariane Wright Edelman quote [Website]. Retrieved from https://quotes.thefamouspeople.com/marian-wright-edelman-2254.php
Image References
Figure 1. CPS Mastering. (N.d). CPS mastering studio [Image]. Retrieved from http://www.cpsmastering.com/
Figure 2. Owsinski, B. 2008. Vinyl lathe image. The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook 2nd Edition. Boston, MA, USA: Thompson Course Technology.
Figure 3. Owsinski, B. 2008. Vinyl mastering console. The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook 2nd Edition. Boston, MA, USA: Thompson Course Technology.
Figure 4. Owsinski, B. 2008. Delayed monitor path of vinyl production. The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook 2nd Edition. Boston, MA, USA: Thompson Course Technology).
Figures 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Huber, D.M Runstein & R.E. 2010. CD production images. Modern Recording Techniques, 7th Edition. Burlington, MA, USA: Focal Press.
Figure 11. Huber, D.M & Runstein, R.E. 2010. Regular mastering studio. Modern Recording Techniques, 7th Edition. Burlington, MA, USA: Focal Press.
Figure 12. Huber, D.M & Runstein, R.E. 2010. Regular mastering studio. Modern Recording Techniques, 7th Edition. Burlington, MA, USA: Focal Press.
Figure 13. A visual history of loudness. N.d. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2009/12/31/122114058/the-loudness-wars-why-music-sounds-worse
Figure 14. Orthentix. 2019. A female music producer in her realm. Copyright Orthentix 2019.
