Go With Your Gut
I’m wrapping up the Thanksgiving weekend with my parents, who live in Pittsburgh. It’s cold, which reminds me why I moved to San Diego 21 years ago (at age 19). I had an inkling at the time that the warm weather was where I wanted to spend my life, and some place that had a [...]
Follow-up on Accountability
In the spirit of full disclosure, it came to my attention (from the Accountability post) that the client had confused CD Text with CDDB. Not that uncommon. So much so that I had an earlier blog posting explaining the two.
Where It’s At
Artur Schnabel once said, “The notes I handle no better than many pianists. But the pauses between the notes — ah, that is where the art resides.”
This is a sentiment I’ve tried to convey for years through my audio writings and, most recently, this blog. Basically, everyone has access to the same tools. If you’re [...]
Get Back
Well, as usual, the Vatican is on the cutting edge. They’ve just declared that The Beatles music is better than what’s being put out today.
Stay tuned…they may be letting us know soon that stereo is better than mono.
Accountability
This note from a client illustrates an unfortunate situation that I’ve seen happen twice now.
“We received [the album] from the manufacturer, and it sounds fantastic! The warmth, the nuances, even the silence between songs is perfect.
There is one hitch, and it’s a bummer: the Artist and Song Title data file wasn’t on the master, and [...]
Crushing the Death Magnetic
Well, even though world stock markets are crumbling before our eyes, you can take solace in the fact that I’m looking out for the quality of your audio. As proof, check the Nov/Dec issue of Tape Op magazine.
The last page is a section called Paul’s End Rant, which is an article I wrote called [...]
Integrity
In modern mastering, engineers often boast about a finished product by how different it sounds from the original mix. As if to say, “Look, we did some real work here.” But with a high-quality recording, a mastering engineer has to utilize very high-quality tools to enhance the sound without compromising it.
Bernie Grundman once said that [...]
Playing the Edge
More in my series of yogic comparisons to mastering…
In yoga (asana) practice, there’s a concept called “playing your edge” where you push things as far as you think you can safely go. This changes from day-to-day depending on how you’re feeling and what’s going on in your life.
In mastering, I would equate playing the edge [...]
Parallels
Some people think that in yoga you twist and contort yourself to impose an effect on your body. In reality, you are using postures to undo muscular-skeletal patterns that have been slowly created over time…to, eventually, bring you back to equilibrium and balance. So, each posture becomes a deliberate antidote to undo what you have [...]
Hear with Your Ears, Not Your Eyes
So many times in audio, people focus on the things they can see. What mics does a studio have? What compressors, reverbs, or equalizers? It’s pretty simple to see why…I mean, why would you invest money in gear no one can see when you’ll get more clients with knobby knobs and flashing lights? Well, because [...]
keep looking »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!
