Know Your Place
Posted on | August 10, 2008 |
In life, everyone has their place. The problem is, most people have a bit of a distorted idea of what their place is. Generally, they put themselves higher in the food chain than they actually belong.
This was made evident a few years ago when I saw a study about the wealthiest Americans. Over 7% of wealthy people felt they were in the top 1% of America’s financial elite.
Yes, even the rich can be deluded.
So it goes in the game of music. People often overstep their bounds in what they feel their job is. I recently got an e-mail from a potential client who wanted to know how much I would charge for an album to be mastered. When I gave him the quote he said, “I think that’s a bit high. This really doesn’t need that much work.”
I responded by saying that, in all candor, it’s my job to decide how much work needs to be done on the mastering end…not his. And that even if it turned out not much needed to be done, the same amount of time is involved in getting to that process. I didn’t get a reply e-mail.
I’ll admit, at times I’m guilty of being brusk…but never dishonest. However, I do sort of see the mastering engineer’s job to be like Jack Nicholson’s colonel in A Few Good Men.
But I’m sure my view is also a bit distorted.
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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!
