Music Mastering Services

What is music mastering?

Music Mastering is basically about 3 elements. Those elements are equalization, dynamics control, and loudness management. You could add a fourth element which is effects, but overall the first 3 elements are involved every time a song is mastered.

Why is an Equalizer an important?

An equalizer, or EQ, is used to turn down the frequencies that are negatively affecting the music or song, and to accentuate the frequencies that are positively affecting the music or song. Also, an EQ is used to balance the frequency spectrum of a song or music. In other words, you don’t want the high or low frequencies of a song to be too loud or present and you don’t want the middle frequencies to be too loud or present. You want them all to work together while being balanced with one another. This gives the music the best chance of sounding good on any medium or any playback device.

How do dynamics play a role in music?

Music is very dynamic. This means that the sound moves around, and it moves around a lot. Just think of a human voice. When communicating, the human voice goes up and down. It gets higher pitched at some points, and lower pitched at others. At times a voice gets louder, and it gets quieter at others. The same thing happens with a song or music, and those changes need to be controlled to some degree to avoid sonic chaos. During mastering, the dynamics are primarily controlled by compression. You want the sound to move, just not too much. A compressor gently controls the dynamics of a song without crushing the life out of it. It also acts as another way to balance out the frequency spectrum of a song or music. The balance is achieved by balancing the overall tone of the song, as opposed to specific frequencies like with an EQ.

How do you handle loudness management?

We want our music to be loud, but not too loud. This is what loudness management is all about, and this is achieved using a limiter. When it comes to controlling dynamics, a compressor is Dr. Jekyll, and a limiter is Mr. Hyde. The compressor is the easy-going dynamics processor, while the limiter is the strict, no-nonsense; my way or the highway type of dynamics processor. Some peaks may get by the compressor, but they won’t get by the limiter.

Music Mixing

Mixing music is more involved than mastering music because you’re dealing with individual tracks. With mixing, there are basically five elements. Those elements are volume, panning, equalization or EQ, effects, and dynamics. A mix is about three things, and those three things are balance, balance, and balance.

The volume of the individual tracks is balanced against one another.

The tracks are panned or directed towards different spots in the stereo field to give the instruments their own space. It’s like watching a movie. If there is a house, a car and a big tree in the scene, then those three things are spread out across the screen to make all of them easier to see as they occupy their own space. If all three were in the same part of the screen, something would get blocked. That works the same way when mixing music, and that’s what panning is for.

The EQ is basically used for the same reason for mixing as in mastering, which is cutting the bad and boosting the good. And EQ also helps to shape the tracks in a way to make them fit better with each other. But during mixing, an EQ can also be used for more of a creative purpose than in mastering. This is because you’re dealing with individual tracks as opposed to a stereo mix, so more flexibility is possible.

Effects are used to enhance the elements of the tracks. Effects can include reverb, delay, chorusing, flanging, etc. Once again, it’s all about what works best, and what sounds best.

Analog Summing

Ever since music has been recorded digitally, there has been a debate about which is better; digital summing or analog summing? Well the fact is, one is no better than the other. It’s all a matter of taste and preference. Analog summing historically was the process of recording and mixing music. Since at one time in a recording studio all the equipment was analog, every recording was “analog summed.” Analog equipment simply means the actual physical units like the recording/mixing console, and the effects processors like compressors, equalizers and vocal effects units, and the tape machine that held and operated the tape that the music was recorded onto. They all occupied actual space. The all were constructed of physical materials. They all were connected with cords and cables via inputs and outputs. And they all had electricity running through them. All of these factors colored the sound of the music. Analog summing is simply the combination of all of those units working together, and the music being mixed and then “summed” when it was recorded or transferred to another medium. And back then, all of the recording media itself was analog. Once digital recording came along, and later on, plugins; this eliminated the need for physical connections and connectors. And as it is today, eliminated the need for analog gear almost altogether. We still need microphones, an interface, headphones and speakers. But once the actual recording is finished, it’s primarily digital from there. And that is what “digital summing” is; the combination of the digital tracks being mixed, using plugins, and it all being “summed” together on the DAW. And “digital summing” also involves the computer performing several mathematical computations during the “digital summing” process. There are some who believe that a little something was lost, once mixing digitally or “in the box” was introduced. Artists and engineers who fall into this category came up with a few different and innovative ways to restore that analog element into digital recordings, and thus the term “analog summing” was coined. Long story shortened… it’s like having the best of both worlds. Flamebridge Music offers this process as a service along with mastering and/or mixing, and as a standalone process all by itself.

The Analog Summing process simply involves sending your music out of the computer in real time, through an actual analog device, and then re-record your music back into the computer via sound cables.