Music Worth Listening To
If you’re a person who appreciates great music that’s amazingly recorded, check out Waterlily Acoustics.
Waterlily is run by Kavi Alexander, one of the true living masters of audiophile recordings.
What makes his recordings great isn’t just that they’re impeccable sonic creations, but that they contain world-class musicians performing great music.
Some of it is [...]
Teamwork
I was recently contacted by a musician for mastering. He was referred to me by an old acquaintance of mine from years back in the San Diego acoustic music scene. This potential client actually had a project that needed mixing (in ProTools) and mastering.
For mixing I referred him to Kyle Thompson, an engineer/producer I master [...]
FINALLY…
…a zombie flick starring major Hollywood actors with a soundtrack by Van Halen!
Interesting Television
My wife and I caught a bit of this show on PBS last night. Interesting stuff.
Amateurs
One of my favorite lines from my all-time favorite movie, The Big Lebowski, is when Walter Sobchak (played by John Goodman) keeps muttering “fuckin’ amateurs” when referring to people he has no respect for.
In reality, amateurs are a huge part of scientific and artistic life…and deserve a lot of respect. Charles Ives, one of the [...]
Casual Listening
It’s a great moment when I get to listen to the reference disc, just before I give it to a client for approval. I get to hear — slightly more objectively — what I’ve worked on, and can reflect on what decisions let to this point. I’m doing that right now, as I (OMG!) type [...]
All Music Is Therapy
One of the great things about being an independent mastering engineer is the variety of interesting music I get to master. Within the span of weeks I mastered a hard metal band and today I’m starting work on what’s being billed as “music therapy”.
IMO, all music is therapy. That’s why people love it, even if [...]
Is Dither Universal?
I was listening to NPR yesterday and heard a short piece about a visual artist who uses static from analog television as part of his art. Now that the switch has been made to digital, he will be losing some raw material to work with.
He mentioned that a bit of static is actually an echo [...]
Detective Work
Sometimes when something’s wrong in my signal chain, it requires a bit of detective work to figure it out. Recently I had the volume pot on my Benchmark DAC-1 replaced. It was getting scratchy sounding when I adjusted it, so I sent it to the factory for a replacement.
When it returned, I noticed that sometimes [...]
The Value of Reliability
Music is a creative art. But as a studio (i.e. business) owner, you also have to be reliable. Otherwise, you won’t be in business long.
I was reminded of this recently when I did an assessment of local studios: who’s new, who’s still around, who’s closed down, etc. I was stunned at the number of studios [...]
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!
