Recording - October 2016 - 60

By Paul J. Stamler

Part 22: A Glance At Mastering
Why only a glance? Doesn't the major topic of audio mastering
deserve a (much) longer look?
Yes, it does. Mastering is such a huge topic that it really needs a
whole book to do it justice-and that book already exists. In fact, at
least two have come to my notice: Bob Katz's Mastering Audio: The Art
and Science (now in its third edition) and Jonathan Wyner's Audio
Mastering: Essential Practices. Between them, these authors cover the
topic, er, masterfully.
I'm not going to address the question of whether you should have
your album professionally mastered, or do the job yourself. That's a
huge topic in its own right, deserving a long article-and the Editor tells
me that one's on the way.
Instead, I'm going to limit myself to discussing three subtopics in the larger field of mastering: planning the order of songs on an album; trimming
the beginning and end of each track (sometimes called topping and tailing
the track, after the British slang for what's done to vegetables before they're
dropped into boiling water); and the elephant in the room, audio levels.
I'll be assuming (mostly) that you're mastering for a CD release. Every
few months I read an article by music industry moguls predicting the
demise of the CD as a format, but I think they're due for a surprise. CDs
as a medium for music delivery are just too convenient and profitable to
vanish; they offer decent quality (including the potential for good dynamic
range and robustness against physical damage), they're easy to sell after
a gig, and they offer the chance for artists to present songs in a planned
sequence... and speaking of sequence...
Order please
About 30 years ago I read a review that rhapsodized about the sheer
pleasure of sitting down with a new album and surrendering to the
artist's idea-the album as a well-planned journey, with a beginning,
middle and end. A tour, if you will, of the artist's mind, with stops
(songs) at key points of interest.
Let's talk about the process of coming up with that sequence of songs-
the setlist, if you will, for the performance you offer the listener. To illustrate,
I'm going to talk about an album project I recently worked on, the reissue
of cowboy singer Bob Bovee's 1980s classic, The Roundup. Originally, of
course, this was an LP, and in that incarnation it was one of my favorites. I
didn't do the recording, nor did I create the sequence, but I think they're
both topnotch, and I was honored when Bob asked me to remaster it for
CD. You can order the album at www.boveeheil.com/recordings.htm.
(Disclaimer: I won't make any money if you do. Bob's already paid my bill
for the remastering work.)
Figuring out the order in which to present the songs depends on the
intended audience, and for most self-produced artists there are two major
audiences to be considered separately. First there's the Fan, which buys the
album after a gig, orders it on the internet, or picks it up in a record store.
(Remember record stores?) Second is the Gatekeeper, who will receive the
album as part of the artist's promotional efforts; that audience includes
radio DJs and Music Directors, as well as venue owners to whom the artist
sends the CD in the hope of getting a gig.
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RECORDING OCTOBER 2016

These folks listen to the album differently. The Fan will
probably listen all the way through; the sequence matters
to them. The Gatekeeper, on the other hand, will probably
listen to single cuts, getting an idea of the artist's appeal
from individual songs, and deciding whether to program
the album on the radio or hire the artist to perform.
Here's something you need to know about radio
broadcasting: aside from college and community
radio stations, most DJs don't get to pick what music
they play-that decision gets made by the Music
Director of the station (or group of stations), and it's
usually a seat-of-the-pants judgment. Often the decisionmaker (Music Director or, rarely, DJ) gets dozens
or hundreds of CDs for consideration every week,
and doesn't get the chance to listen in any depth. In
fact, very often they'll make their decision based on
a quick listen to the first track on the album.
So it behooves you, the artist, to make that first
track as appealing as possible; you might even put
the best track on the album first. Now, that goes
against the idea that an album should have an
overall plot-the best track on the album might be
one that you build up to slowly, as an emotional
peak point. But if you're working on appealing to
the Gatekeepers, who decide on airplay and possible gigs, that first track has to grab them by the
hair and make them listen.
If you still want to appeal to the Fan, who listens all
the way through, you might not put the very best song
first-you might save it for later on. But you certainly
want the first song to be one that's accessible; this isn't
the place for that weird-but-fun Hungarian dance in
Lydian mode. Instead, you want something up-tempo
and inviting. Something that grabs the Gatekeeper's
attention, while telling the Fan that the album is worth
going farther with.
After that first track, it's important to maintain a
sense of forward motion by mixing up fast and
slow, funny and serious, light and intense, long and
short. Here's the sequence of Bob Bovee's album,
with notations.
You can see how Bob began with an accessible
Hank Williams song, then alternated up-tempo with
medium-tempo or slow; serious with funny. He mixed
up the keys, too; a sequence of four songs in G (say) is
likely to strike all-the-way-through listeners as boring,
though they might not be able to say why. Looking at
the chart reveals a distinct fondness for the key of D,
but there's only one spot in the album that places two D
tunes in sequence-and one of those is an instrumental.

http://www.boveeheil.com/recordings.htm

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - October 2016