Crossing the Line
Well, it’s December 31st. Tomorrow is the beginning of 2009. So, I feel like I’m about to cross some sort of imaginary line. Maybe it’s real? I’m grateful that over the past few weeks I’ve had time to catch up with some people, and get a few things done, that I normally don’t have time [...]
Lemonade
You probably thought this was going to be another food simile entry. Not so fast grasshopper. I thought I’d take a minute to reflect on that adage about turning lemons into lemonade.
By all accounts, the upcoming year is going to be a tough one financially…for everyone. But there’s always a silver lining to difficult situations. [...]
Indian Food
OK…on the heels of my groundbreaking Latte post, here’s another seemingly perplexing entry. My wife is Indian. Dots, not feathers, as the phrase goes. So I’ve had my share of Indian food over the past 10 years. And one thing I’ve noticed is that it’s a combination of opposing flavors and tastes: spicy, sweet, sour, [...]
Latte
I’m fond of audio analogies/similes. I’ll admit, some can be a bit contrived and/or forced. But I think, when the comparison works, it makes you realize that sound production is a process like any other. Breaking it down into an assembly line helps you achieve good results much easier. With that in mind…
A good recording [...]
Historical Perspective on Metering
One of the downsides of digital audio is that when it started taking hold, musicians using DAWs became fixated with the digital peak level that was displayed on an interface and quickly forgot about average level. Worse yet, a generation of musicians who have grown up using digital probably don’t know anything but peak metering.
Metering [...]
Pointing in the Right Direction
The number of e-mails I’ve received from people who read “Paul’s Rant” in the Nov/Dec Tape Op has been gratifying. One came today from a well-known, grammy-winning mastering engineer…who also happens to be a friend of mine. He said, “Well done my friend. Let’s take this industry back.”
I find it heartening that long-time professionals are [...]
I’m a Mac…I’m a PC
OK, so it came to my attention that the original video I posted didn’t sync so well on Macs. So, I’ll encode a PC version (Windows Media Player) and a Mac version (MPEG, QuickTime-friendly) from here on out whenever I have a video to upload.
If you had problems before, here are the videos in their [...]
Resolution for 2009
A bit of a play on words…har har. Yesterday I listened to a musician’s CD — something from a few years back that was recorded/mixed/mastered “in house” by the same person — and was SHOCKED at how much distortion was on the disc. Most of it from pushing the recording too hard in mastering. It [...]
200
Well, this is blog post 200…for those of you keeping track (which is probably no one). So, I feel like it should at least be noteworthy.
Life is good, as well roll in the the waning days on 2008. It’s downright cold in San Diego (in the 30s at night!) and as I see snow in [...]
One of Those Days
Some days, nothing goes right. We’ve all had them. In mastering, what starts out looking good ends up as a strike out.
One client’s file looks like a 2×4
Another client only has an .mp3 as a master mix
The final client’s vocal track is clipping all over the place
Well, it wasn’t a total loss. I got the [...]
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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!
