Recording - April 2010 - 16

Jim Wilson is a staff engineer at Airshow Mastering in Boulder, CO. This Grammy-winning company, with facilities in Boulder, CO, and Takoma Park, MD, covers a wide range of genres from audiophile jazz and folk/acoustic to rock and indie releases, with engineers who combine great ears and fine gear with a real willingness to educate their customers. We’ve had the pleasure of chatting with Airshow’s David Glasser and Dominick Maita in previous issues; this time we got to sit down with Jim Wilson, Airshow’s “rock guy”, who’s worked with everyone from Bob Mould to Richard Thompson. In a very enlightening hour, Jim talked about everything from matters old school (working with tape and vinyl) to new school (high-resolution audio formats and distribution) to timeless (the process of making mastering magic). There was way too much in our chat for one article, and some of the techniques he mentions invite further explanation, so look for more from Jim in the future. For this issue, we focus on one simple question: what does the mastering engineer bring to the table that you can’t do yourself? What does the mastering engineer do? Jim Wilson: At the song level, the mastering engineer makes each song sound the best it can, presenting the music in the best possible way. At the album level, the mastering engineer brings all the songs together as a coherent and musical whole, rather than just a playlist of songs. And then there’s the whole idea of a fresh pair of ears A person who’s gone through the entire project from tracking to mixing and has never had anyone else listening to what he’s been doing benefits from someoneRECORDING APRIL 2010 with objectivity taking a listen to his material and perhaps pointing out where things could be improved. The end result is to get the product to sound its best on whatever medium we are working with. Back in the day that was vinyl records—mastering back then was very similar to making a woodcut, it was a completely different job! [laughs] Nowadays it’s less about making a woodcut than about working with data that’s at high resolution, be it an analogue recording (which in my opinion is still futureproof) or high-res digital that’s well beyond 16 bits and 44.1 kHz, and making a reduction down to the level of a CD or whatever format people want to distribute electronically. If you’re dealing with a new client who’s never worked with a mastering engineer before, who’s set aside a bit of money to bring you onboard, and he’s on the other end of the phone line asking, “I’m doing this because I’ve heard good things about the mastering process from folks who have done it,

Recording - April 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - April 2010

Recording - April 2010
Fade In
Contents
Talkback
2010 NAMM Show Report
Show Me The Quality: Jim Wilson of Airshow Mastering
Neumann TLM 102
The Road Less Travelled: James Cruz of Zeitgeist Sound
Roland Fantom-G
Shure KSM313
Recording’s Guitar Column
Daking Audio Mic Pre One
A-Designs EM-PEQ
DAW Details
It’s Your Money—Know Your Rights. Chapter 2: Filing A Copyright Claim
Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Readers’ Tapes
Advertiser Index
Fade Out
Recording - April 2010 - Recording - April 2010
Recording - April 2010 - Cover2
Recording - April 2010 - 1
Recording - April 2010 - Fade In
Recording - April 2010 - 3
Recording - April 2010 - Contents
Recording - April 2010 - 5
Recording - April 2010 - Talkback
Recording - April 2010 - 7
Recording - April 2010 - 2010 NAMM Show Report
Recording - April 2010 - 9
Recording - April 2010 - 10
Recording - April 2010 - 11
Recording - April 2010 - 12
Recording - April 2010 - 13
Recording - April 2010 - 14
Recording - April 2010 - 15
Recording - April 2010 - Show Me The Quality: Jim Wilson of Airshow Mastering
Recording - April 2010 - 17
Recording - April 2010 - 18
Recording - April 2010 - 19
Recording - April 2010 - Neumann TLM 102
Recording - April 2010 - 21
Recording - April 2010 - 22
Recording - April 2010 - 23
Recording - April 2010 - The Road Less Travelled: James Cruz of Zeitgeist Sound
Recording - April 2010 - 25
Recording - April 2010 - Roland Fantom-G
Recording - April 2010 - 27
Recording - April 2010 - 28
Recording - April 2010 - 29
Recording - April 2010 - Shure KSM313
Recording - April 2010 - 31
Recording - April 2010 - Recording’s Guitar Column
Recording - April 2010 - 33
Recording - April 2010 - Daking Audio Mic Pre One
Recording - April 2010 - 35
Recording - April 2010 - A-Designs EM-PEQ
Recording - April 2010 - 37
Recording - April 2010 - DAW Details
Recording - April 2010 - 39
Recording - April 2010 - 40
Recording - April 2010 - 41
Recording - April 2010 - 42
Recording - April 2010 - 43
Recording - April 2010 - 44
Recording - April 2010 - 45
Recording - April 2010 - It’s Your Money—Know Your Rights. Chapter 2: Filing A Copyright Claim
Recording - April 2010 - 47
Recording - April 2010 - 48
Recording - April 2010 - 49
Recording - April 2010 - 50
Recording - April 2010 - 51
Recording - April 2010 - Recording’s Showcase of Sounds
Recording - April 2010 - 53
Recording - April 2010 - 54
Recording - April 2010 - 55
Recording - April 2010 - Readers’ Tapes
Recording - April 2010 - Advertiser Index
Recording - April 2010 - 58
Recording - April 2010 - 59
Recording - April 2010 - 60
Recording - April 2010 - 61
Recording - April 2010 - 62
Recording - April 2010 - 63
Recording - April 2010 - Fade Out
Recording - April 2010 - Cover3
Recording - April 2010 - Cover4
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