Syklone It’s so hard to be taken seriously behind the board, especially while you’re trying to learn. It’s already so hard to prove yourself AND overcome a gender bias. Very discouraging.
@@glissandogirl I don't know about mastering specifically, but I know a good few women that are doing great in sound engineering in Scandinavia at least. In my opinion, it's not so much a conscious gender bias, but more the fact that most people working these kinds of roles historically are men, and for reasons I won't go into men and women tend to not communicate so well these days. So it's rather that women who can't break the barrier, and become "one of the guys" (or vice versa), form a small minority where improvement and progress is not as streamlined as in the boys club. But like I said, I've seen women make it, so it's definitely possible. I think that, in the end, the most successful people in any discipline are the ones who are passionately committed to what they're doing, regardless of their gender. They will make it anyway.
I feel the same about analog, it was some of the imperfections of analog gear that gave it that field of depth for the ears and has an almost liquid sound to it especially if played back on some high end tube gear. I also loved those Tannoy Gold monitors in the back ground, that era of monitors seemed to make mixing pretty easy on the ears especially the concentric drivers that seem to put off that studio tan effect for an extra hour or two. You know if you were to soffit mount the Tannoy's with a 1/4" layer of dense foam between them and the external soffit cabinet they will go into, then surround that second cabinet with sand you get down about another 5 Hz extra in the lower range just by cleaning up the coupling effects and internal cabinet anomalies. (F Alton Everest r.i.p. goes into detail how to mount soffit speakers properly in his books) Sand is very heavy though. Thank you for the video!
wheres the questions? I would ask, What do you like about the EMI? Why did you choose the inward connections eq? what other eq's do you like? Whats the eq on the emi like, if there is one? Did the EMI require much work to get it going? What plug ins do you rate? What does the EMI do to the sound? Why did you choose the monitors that you have? What other monitors do you have? What other speakers do you listen to music on away from the studio? Tell us about the acoustic treatment in the room? did you get it right first time, did you have to tweak it? Who put it together? Where did you buy the EMI ? How easy is it to assemble a record lathe after you purchased it? Do you have any other technical help? Whats your fave Studer? is it varispeed? Where do you get your stuff serviced? Who are your fave service engineers? Whats the most work you ever spent on a project? Whats the least work? Did you ever give up on a project? Do you come under pressure to finish a project? Is it a good thing or too much some times? who has put too much pressure on you? Is a record lathe easy to maintain? How much was the emi desk? whats the history of it? Whats the history of the record lathe? Do you ever get modifactions done to equipment or talk to plug-in developers?
I don't think that interview would appeal to as many people. Those questions are okay for people who are interested in learning more about the specifics of mastering but I think it was perfectly ample and interesting to hear about her job generally, relationship with clients, workflow and artistic input.
This is the best and most concise explanation of mastering I have ever heard in 20 years researching the discipline and having heard and read what most of all the "top" mastering engineers in the world have had to say.
Every mastering tutorial / interview: "I listen to the music and then do what's required to make that particular track sound good"... and yes, I did watch this whole one as well, in spite of knowing what it would be :D
Great insight but I'll have to stick to my Zoom R24 as £6.0000 plus for a prism is out of my depth (LOL) Some good advice could be applied at my lower level of mastering.Thanks for posting .
That desk looks just like the old TG12410's Tone Control and Filter modules.(much like the TG12412) that board reeks of classic sound. probably came out of Abbey Road studios.
Great to see top notch professional women in mastering; hope the numbers increase. Thank you for the broad scope of insight into your mastering process. Sincerely, Useg Diaz-Granados www.oversightentertainment.se
@@skypekai That's right it's the 'fresh ears' that's explained in the video that's important and her approach to mastering. Gender isn't an influence on the mastering.
:) it's going to be here for a while. lots of music is being listened to while doing other things, not a large percentage of ppl actually 'audition' songs/albums... and music awards are being won according to the preferences of those listeners. so think about where and on what devices people are generally listening to music and the loudness wars make a bit more sense. one thing we can dream about is the adoption of a system that could provide a few master versions, each optimized for a set of listening devices... the only niche i know of that's currently prepping and distributing music specifically tailored for the intended users are the 'dj pools'. they take a popular track, remaster it, quantize it (so the beat grids can precisely lock onto it), may add an intro and outro for mixing purposes and offer a few versions w/ emphasis on vocals, rhythm, etc. (their current focus is on 'stems' where a track is offered in 4 channels, vocals, drums, bass, and melody/instruments. some softwares are getting pretty decent on doing it on the fly but it's still nowhere close to a clean separation yet). @@TheDUDATION
Give one of these talented producers access to this gear, and I'm positive they'll have good recordings. You'd be surprised what 500k in audio gear can do.
Really informative, great to get an insight into such a broad range of topics, from the structure of a project team and the role of the mastering engineer, the current state of the art, and the ins-and-outs of the audio manipulation. Plus that desk is beautiful!
This is not a beginner's mastering how-to, but if you have ever tried your hand at mastering, there is so much gold here. Much to be learned in 26 minutes.
The job of a mastering engineer today: - "How do I make this louder than Nicki Minaj's latest song?" - "Should I use Sausage Fattener or an iZotope Ozone limiter? Hmm decisions decisions" - "MONEY MONEY MONEY GIVE ME MONEY RIGHT NOW
Very inspiring but WTF are these repeated opera samples--why on Earth did you not any specific questions about mastering Bjork or Aphex Twin??? That's what brought me here!
I've noticed some questions from commenters below about SADiE. Some people have trouble picking up her accent. Amongst other types of software She mentions MAGIX Sequoia a few times and also SADiE.
Not much demystification happening here, it's more of a philosophical job description. So still the least well understood step in the music production chain and not set to change anytime soon. Why can't some of these industry figures be a little more honest about what it is they do? For starters, like any other art form, it's highly subjective...beyond certain parameters many things are entirely down to taste. On top of that Parnell is being handed mixes which sound awesome to begin with and with all that high end gear only an idiot could make things sound worse. For a woman who goes to great pains in explaining it's not about ego, she certainly mentions it a lot. And the goat horns on the wall, I suppose they have some acoustic benefit?
People mention a lot about it is all about subjectiveness n taste but guess what even in that world there is objectiveness to have certain works quality most don't have n hide behind that phrase n remain mediocre.
+No Say I hate that everything sounds so flat and pumped at the same time. I'd like to do it the other way, enough dynamics so the instruments can breathe, but also use some of these pumpy things when I make tracks.
CosmicD Yes, I can't listen to a lot of new music for that very reason. I find it tiring after a few minutes and end up switching it off. I don't understand this "has to be loud thing," I have a volume knob. Without dynamics it just sounds like something I've done in the garage.
as I understand it, it's more todo with that they have to pres anything out a saw wave that they can possibly can and the analogy i'd like to make it comes out like canned meat in stead of fresh meat :). The voluntary ducking and side chaining going on is sometimes a nice effect but not when it's done on all tracks and way too intense. Blame eric pryds :p
I have been trying to master using only plugins in the box and still struggling to achieve acceptable master audio but after watching this l am more convinced that analogue gear limiter, compressor and equalizer do more what the box does in terms of final sound
www.curioza.comWelcome to AAMS, the introduction towards Automatic Audio Mastering!As a musician or engineer working on music, you need the best sound possible when releasing material to the public. To audio master a mix towards a professional commercial quality recording and to create a sound for all audio speaker systems is a difficult and time consuming task.This is where AAMS steps in and takes control!AAMS is windows freeware for Audio Mastering. Featuring 100 Band Equalizer, 8 Multiband Compression, Balancing and Loudness settings for internal DSP Processing with all audio corrections automaticly done purely inside the AAMS Program. Also AAMS installs a Reference Database of 200+ Musical styles. Creating your own personal sound! Making the mastering process easy and less time consuming, having a good overall commercial sound quality, to process your Mix to a commercial great sounding Master.Now you can listen to what you expect!
I do not think so ...do your Mastering people that created the SW n algorithm....went to the university n have 30+ years if Mastering n work related?....did you do it based on at least 50 Mastering guys w that experience?....
some could say that if the mixdown needed to be mastered is that bad and needs that heavy of a mastering, the sound engineer previously doing the recording wasnt that good, but big time studios dont look at things that way, the real problem is times and technology have changed , and theres less of a need for mastering- remastering , in the sense that quality was that laxed, it needed to be mastered multiple times , such as they did 30- 40 years ago, just to achive sonic fidelity, and near cd quality. however, this is all just my opinion, and everyone has theirs
this is weird but i feel like looking in the mirror when i see her, its the obsessive thinking about something as hard to grasp as audio. but boy did she think hard and long about her way of listening!
Parnell was probaby the best choice for Björk's Biophilia. Björk since long wanted to record an album that sounds better on mp3 than on vinyl or sacd. If anyone was to succeed, it probably was Parnell, right? I wonder if they were successful with that.
I've been mastering for a long time, (Although have been out of practice now for a few years). She is very candid and I can tell knows her stuff. This is art and science. There is no generic formula for good mastering. A big part of it is working with and connecting with people like any other service industry.
Excellent interview with a "master" Masterer. Am impressed that nothing was mentioned of compression., aside from ONE mention of using a limiter (Waves L2?). Gain staging, modest EQ and LISTENING- the recommended tools for Mastering.
David Papple I find EQ makes the biggest improvement on the projects that come my way. Most stuff is already compressed a lot during mixing so any compression I add is for enhancing detail and bringing out depth rather than squashing.
wow what a weird Mixing desk,, if thats what it is, would like to no more about that,, noticed it has an oscillator on it like a synth, uumm spun me out,, looks like it has buttons and switches that you'd find in a lancaster bomber cockpit,, yeah if anyone can enlighten me with make or model would be much appreiciated :-D
Thanks, cor yeah ive always loved abbey road would love to visit some time,, let alone mix 1 of me tracks there,, cor the Dream,, im gonna check some of the EMI equipment Thanks :-D
I believe only in good mix. Mastering can not change much things except overall frequencies and loudness, softness. I personally do very little on mastering for my music, sometimes nothing. Most important is mixing, the way you level things, the way you put sounds on stereo picture, quality of recordings, and vision.
So many stages. Softwares and speakers etc. How can you truly know what neutral is when you keep chopping and changing? Surely a mastering engineer needs to truly understand neutral and pure before they start to add/boost/cut my hard earned and perfectly mixed production!
A real Mastering engineer is your Boss and expert on your mixes and productions,...they know and have best ears than you do...remembert that ,,if you do not know that then you have ways to go in this business
@@mollyoko I see there is some miscommunication and misunderstanding from your side...let me rephrase......Real Mastering Engineers = doing Mastering for 25 years+ doing only Mastering....and have school/university education w/some exceptions....etc..you are not telling me anything new already said if you understand the profession....which I imagine you do from your reply
@@mollyoko very simple a real Mastering engineering ( only Mastering for 25+ years) has more experience than you do n will tell you all the wrong things n mistakes you made in you mix n production. So like you said you will respect him .... So Your Boss ... on the contrary, you need to gain more experience in the industry to understand what I meant that's straight to your point you missed and now you either do nor understand it or ignore...that simple ....don't bother replying
