Back to School Special
Posted on | September 1, 2010 | No Comments
What a summer! Since June we’ve mastered 25 projects from 8 different states, styles ranging from rock to classical to surf to folk to jazz to country. Oh, and 1 DVD!
To say thanks, we’re offering 20% off all mastering projects booked from now until Sept. 15.
Wrapping up a recording? Drop us a line.
My Responsibility
Posted on | August 12, 2010 | No Comments
I’m working on an album for a San Diego-based rock band. I did a sample for them and they decided to use ZenMastering, at which point I e-mailed the bassist, “I have all the final mixes and everything sounds good. The songs rock, the performances are tight and the engineer did a great job on tracking and mixing. This will be an excellent album.”
He responded, “Thank you for being so incredibly responsive. Hearing you say that about the songs makes my heart skip a beat! You have no idea how long it’s taken us to get to this point.”
Actually, I do. I was a musician who made recordings and played live for about 10 years before I got interested in mastering. I think it’s one of the things that makes me a good mastering engineer…I understand the responsibility of my job to take the recording from the 20-yard line and get it into the end zone.
2010 SDMA
Posted on | July 26, 2010 | No Comments
I’m proud to announce 2 of our clients are nominated in the 2010 San Diego Music Awards:
- Best Alternative Band: New Mexico (formerly Apes of Wrath)
- Best Jazz Album: Steph Johnson, “Mysterious Feminine”
Paul’s Principles of Audio Production
Posted on | July 25, 2010 | No Comments
- Audio production is a combination of art and science. It’s helpful to be familiar with both subjects.
- Equipment is important, so buy the best you can afford.
- It doesn’t matter if you’ve bought the best gear in the world, if you don’t know how to leverage its capabilities you’re not going to get great results.
- A signal chain is only as good as its weakest link. If you invest in expensive gear you need to make sure everything else connected to it is of similar quality.
- Be detail oriented, but not obsessive. Remember: you ruin a delicate fish by overcooking it.
- Technology can never supersede physics. The best microphones and speakers are always beholden to the acoustic properties of the rooms they capture and reproduce sound in.
- Regardless of what formats or technologies are developed to capture and process sound, professional recording, mixing, and mastering will always be the cornerstones of a great recording.
- Always focus on the music, not the technology that captures it.
Lessons From a Compilation
Posted on | July 22, 2010 | 1 Comment
I just finished mastering a compilation disc for an artist who is putting together a fundraiser. It’s other people’s recordings of his songs done over the years. So I got to hear recording techniques and quality from a 10-year span. It was educational, to say the least.
There were only 2 new songs that needed proper mastering, the rest was adjusting levels of the various tracks to make everything sound consistent and then cutting a master disc. So I used the levels I set on the two new, well-recorded tracks as the basis for the overall level of the disc. This gave me a good benchmark to hit for volume. A few of the songs needed to come up in level, but most needed to come down…anywhere from 1-4 decibels.
The most interesting thing to me was that of all the songs, two that were released on major labels had the poorest sonic quality. They were just too smashed in mixing and mastering and they really sounded flat compared to the rest of the mixes…all of which were done in project or home studios.
This pretty much validates my theory that technology has become so democratized that there’s really no difference between what you can purchase and what a big studio or label has, equipment-wise. The key is in the care and attention-to-detail given to the music and recording process.
Piracy
Posted on | July 20, 2010 | No Comments
I saw this video today. It’s good advice.
Great Story
Posted on | July 9, 2010 | No Comments
If you’re a fan of the electric guitar, this story by Dweezil Zappa will make you smile.
Slow Down…You Move Too Fast
Posted on | June 16, 2010 | 1 Comment
I recently received a note from a prospective client that went something like this…
“I’ve just wrapped up recording an album I’ve been working on for the last year (and writing for about 15). I’m looking to wrap it up as quickly as possible.”
My reaction was, what’s the rush? Seriously. If you’ve been working on a project for a year or more (not uncommon), don’t just try to wrap it up in mastering ASAP.
Art takes time. If you’ve lost perspective, step back a bit. My experience is that nothing good comes out of rushing a project when it’s at the 20-yard line.
Analog Tape Texture for Drum Stems
Posted on | May 31, 2010 | No Comments
I’m starting to offer a new service @ ZM, which is running clients’ L/R drum stem mix-downs through my analog tape processors, and then giving them back to replace in the mix.
It’s something I’ve been working on (in concept and reality) with my Iconic Audio mix engineer — to accurately get that analog punch and tape curve for the kit — and I feel it’s ready for prime time.
Article in the Latest Issue of Tape Op
Posted on | May 24, 2010 | No Comments
I have an article in the latest issue (May/June 2010) of Tape Op magazine. If you subscribe, check out the End Rant on page 74.
This is my fourth article in Tape Op and I’m grateful they continue to support my ideas and articles. Interestingly, the last article was published exactly a year ago, in the May/June 2009 issue.
About This Blog
From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
We welcome comments from readers...pro or con!
