Mixing Vs Mastering - Now hear this
I CONSTANTLY get asked if i will mix AND master a project for a prospective client. I felt an educational blog post was very much in order. First, the obvious. Let me back up and start with a simple question........ Would you ask a policeman to put out a fire? Nope, firemen do that. Would you ask an architect to build your house? No, he would design it, somebody else would build it. So why would you ask a mix engineer to master your record? I'm probably gonna catch alot of hell for this post, but people really need to know, so i'm gonna tell you.
Except for a very few incredibly gifted people, (Jay Newland being one of them), mix engineers are NOT mastering engineers, and vice versa. I must qualify that by pointing out a few facts. Pick your ten favorite albums, and research all of the people who mixed those albums. Now go to ALLMUSIC.COM and look at their credits. How many of those mix engineers ever mastered an album you've heard? Now do the same for mastering engineers. How many of those Mastering engineers ever mixed an album you've ever heard? I'm not saying that a mastering engineer cant crank out a decent mix, and if pressed to do so, i probably wouldnt do a half bad job at mastering, but umm...... if you havent yet noticed about me..... "not half bad a job" is not exactly where i personally set the bar. Stick me in an A level mastering studio and give me some time, and I'll probably do a good job of mastering a record. Then let a real mastering engineer like my favorite, Emily Lazar (www.TheLodge.com) or Ted Jensen or Bob Ludwig walk in that same room with that same music and that same gear, and my job of mastering is going to probably sound pretty mediocre in comparison.
This leads nicely to my next point.... Mastering requires a totally different set of tools. The real top mastering engineers have a whole lot of gear that you'll never see in a mixing studio. (if your mastering mainly with plugins, thats not really mastering) Top mastering engineers have the ability to affect the sides of a mix differently than the middle of a mix. thats right, those lunatics can brighten up the sides of a mix and not the midle, and compress the middle of a mix completely independently of the sides. I cant do that, i don't have the right TOOLS. Let alone the right ears. Plus mastering engineers usually (not always) have the craziest looking, most expensive speakers you've ever seen. Mastering rooms are tuned differently than mixing rooms. And then there's experience. These guys work on optimizing a stereo mix. they do it probably 50 to 75 times a week. Thats experience that a mix engineer just cant fuck with. I mix on average 5 to 8 songs a week. Thats experience that a mastering engineer just cant fuck with. they usually deal with 2 tracks, i usually deal with a boatload of tracks. I blend and balance, they optimize. i do surgery, they handle broad strokes. i dont mean to make mastering sound easy. its not. neither is mixing.
The importance of having a great mix. Look, the best mastering engineer in the world cant save a bad mix. They can certainly make it sound better, but bad will never be amazing. You need to start with a great mix (actually start with solid production and performance!!!!!). So if your sitting in your home studio saying to yourself "well, i wanna compete with the majors, and i'm gonna mix my record myself and just hire a top mastering engineer", guess what, your not going to compete with your mixes. I'll give you an analogy. I'm a good golfer (not true i'm a terrible golfer, but lets pretend), I can get out on the greens and play a really solid round of golf. I think i'm good. But wait, is that Tiger Woods golfing after me????!!!!! Holy crap, a real pro is on the greens now. So i shot a 15 over par, Tiger shot a 9 under par. I guess he's the real pro. Why is he so much better at Golf than i am? Because he plays golf every day, for many hours a day, and competes at the very top levels. I just play for fun. I might spent 10 days a year on the greens, Tiger spends 10 of every 11 days on the greens. How can i compete with that? And yet, i hear this all the time "I'm a pretty good mixer, but i just cant get it to sound like the majors", Well, i spend over 300 days a year in the studio, every year, mostly mixing. I know how to do things with audio that most of you dont even know is possible. trust me on this one. But mastering engineers do stuff with audio that not even i know how to do. Straight voodoo.
So, i'm about to offend some people. Sorry in advance. If someone presents themselves as both a mixing AND a mastering engineer, I'd make an educated guess that they are not very good at either. First thing i always do when i see somebody like this is go to ALLMUSIC.COM and look at their credits. ALLMUSIC is a great bullshit detector. its an independent website that lists album credits. I dont know how they do it, there are albums listed on there that i worked on that i had even forgotten about. Almost all of my credits are posted on ALLMUSIC, i say "almost" all, because occasionally labels leave credits off of records, this happens far too often and it sucks. secondly, sometimes if you work on a remix, or a radio mix or a non album version of something, the credit doesnt make it to ALLMUSIC, However, if you have ANY credits on nationally released albums, major or indie, they should show up on ALLMUSIC.COM. In alot of mid level markets, studios will do offer both mixing and mastering services, out of necessity of survival, and because the majority of clients cant afford a top mixer or a top mastering engineer. But the majority of the time, those albums will sound like "local" releases. You probably understand the difference. They might sound good, or even really good, but you know there's just something about them that doesnt quite sound like most of the records in your collection (this isnt all the engineers fault by any stretch of the imagination. unsigned artists typically try to record and mix an entire album in less time than i take to record and mix one song that i produce.)
There's a website called KingsOfAR.com (kings of A&R) they always list these up and coming buzz bands, and they always list the people behind the projects. You'll see something like Band XYZ was produced by Mr ABC (credits inlcude U2, Linkin Park, and Audio Slave) so you naturally go "WOW, who's THAT guy!!!! Then you go to ALLMUSIC and he's either not even listed, OR, none of the mentioned credits are listed, OR, my favorite, he was the assistant on those projects. I was on the phone one night with a prospective client from Reno who told me they've had the guy who used to work with Dr Dre mixing their album. So i said "who is it" they told me, i went to allmusic, looked him up. Turns out he was the assistant on a Dr Dre album. So i told my prospective clients "Did you know he only assisted on those records? which means he probably plugged stuff in, got coffee, took notes, etc..." They were a bit shocked to hear that. Now i'm not slamming assistants, i was one too. but if your the type of assistant who tells people that your assisting credits are engineering credits, your going to have a short career. But i digress.
Go to my credits page now, go ahead, I'll wait for you to come back....... ....... ....... OK. Hopefully you noticed there are no mastering credits listed. As i said, i'm not a half bad mastering engineer, but i have too much respect for the mastering engineers on my level to refer to myself as a mastering engineer. And i dont like doing a hack job for any client big or small. So i stick to mixing. I am very good at that.
Anyway, man i'm long winded tonight. Look, choose anyone you work with carefully. if someone says "i worked on XYZ" go to ALLMUSIC.COM and check them out. did they really? Know the difference between a mix engineer and a mastering engineer. 2 different professions. and if your an artist, or producer, or??? Don;t feel like you need to wear all the hats. So many people wannabe the artist, producer, recording engineer, mixer, and mastering engineer. what you'll end up being is in your basement forever wondering why people arent responding to your music. If your an artist, be the best artist you can be. If your a producer, produce something every day. If your a mixer, mix every day. Remember even the top producers hire people to mix their records. why? because everybody has their spedcialties. Sometime people have multiple specialties, but most people are rarely great at more than one.
- Ken
Except for a very few incredibly gifted people, (Jay Newland being one of them), mix engineers are NOT mastering engineers, and vice versa. I must qualify that by pointing out a few facts. Pick your ten favorite albums, and research all of the people who mixed those albums. Now go to ALLMUSIC.COM and look at their credits. How many of those mix engineers ever mastered an album you've heard? Now do the same for mastering engineers. How many of those Mastering engineers ever mixed an album you've ever heard? I'm not saying that a mastering engineer cant crank out a decent mix, and if pressed to do so, i probably wouldnt do a half bad job at mastering, but umm...... if you havent yet noticed about me..... "not half bad a job" is not exactly where i personally set the bar. Stick me in an A level mastering studio and give me some time, and I'll probably do a good job of mastering a record. Then let a real mastering engineer like my favorite, Emily Lazar (www.TheLodge.com) or Ted Jensen or Bob Ludwig walk in that same room with that same music and that same gear, and my job of mastering is going to probably sound pretty mediocre in comparison.
This leads nicely to my next point.... Mastering requires a totally different set of tools. The real top mastering engineers have a whole lot of gear that you'll never see in a mixing studio. (if your mastering mainly with plugins, thats not really mastering) Top mastering engineers have the ability to affect the sides of a mix differently than the middle of a mix. thats right, those lunatics can brighten up the sides of a mix and not the midle, and compress the middle of a mix completely independently of the sides. I cant do that, i don't have the right TOOLS. Let alone the right ears. Plus mastering engineers usually (not always) have the craziest looking, most expensive speakers you've ever seen. Mastering rooms are tuned differently than mixing rooms. And then there's experience. These guys work on optimizing a stereo mix. they do it probably 50 to 75 times a week. Thats experience that a mix engineer just cant fuck with. I mix on average 5 to 8 songs a week. Thats experience that a mastering engineer just cant fuck with. they usually deal with 2 tracks, i usually deal with a boatload of tracks. I blend and balance, they optimize. i do surgery, they handle broad strokes. i dont mean to make mastering sound easy. its not. neither is mixing.
The importance of having a great mix. Look, the best mastering engineer in the world cant save a bad mix. They can certainly make it sound better, but bad will never be amazing. You need to start with a great mix (actually start with solid production and performance!!!!!). So if your sitting in your home studio saying to yourself "well, i wanna compete with the majors, and i'm gonna mix my record myself and just hire a top mastering engineer", guess what, your not going to compete with your mixes. I'll give you an analogy. I'm a good golfer (not true i'm a terrible golfer, but lets pretend), I can get out on the greens and play a really solid round of golf. I think i'm good. But wait, is that Tiger Woods golfing after me????!!!!! Holy crap, a real pro is on the greens now. So i shot a 15 over par, Tiger shot a 9 under par. I guess he's the real pro. Why is he so much better at Golf than i am? Because he plays golf every day, for many hours a day, and competes at the very top levels. I just play for fun. I might spent 10 days a year on the greens, Tiger spends 10 of every 11 days on the greens. How can i compete with that? And yet, i hear this all the time "I'm a pretty good mixer, but i just cant get it to sound like the majors", Well, i spend over 300 days a year in the studio, every year, mostly mixing. I know how to do things with audio that most of you dont even know is possible. trust me on this one. But mastering engineers do stuff with audio that not even i know how to do. Straight voodoo.
So, i'm about to offend some people. Sorry in advance. If someone presents themselves as both a mixing AND a mastering engineer, I'd make an educated guess that they are not very good at either. First thing i always do when i see somebody like this is go to ALLMUSIC.COM and look at their credits. ALLMUSIC is a great bullshit detector. its an independent website that lists album credits. I dont know how they do it, there are albums listed on there that i worked on that i had even forgotten about. Almost all of my credits are posted on ALLMUSIC, i say "almost" all, because occasionally labels leave credits off of records, this happens far too often and it sucks. secondly, sometimes if you work on a remix, or a radio mix or a non album version of something, the credit doesnt make it to ALLMUSIC, However, if you have ANY credits on nationally released albums, major or indie, they should show up on ALLMUSIC.COM. In alot of mid level markets, studios will do offer both mixing and mastering services, out of necessity of survival, and because the majority of clients cant afford a top mixer or a top mastering engineer. But the majority of the time, those albums will sound like "local" releases. You probably understand the difference. They might sound good, or even really good, but you know there's just something about them that doesnt quite sound like most of the records in your collection (this isnt all the engineers fault by any stretch of the imagination. unsigned artists typically try to record and mix an entire album in less time than i take to record and mix one song that i produce.)
There's a website called KingsOfAR.com (kings of A&R) they always list these up and coming buzz bands, and they always list the people behind the projects. You'll see something like Band XYZ was produced by Mr ABC (credits inlcude U2, Linkin Park, and Audio Slave) so you naturally go "WOW, who's THAT guy!!!! Then you go to ALLMUSIC and he's either not even listed, OR, none of the mentioned credits are listed, OR, my favorite, he was the assistant on those projects. I was on the phone one night with a prospective client from Reno who told me they've had the guy who used to work with Dr Dre mixing their album. So i said "who is it" they told me, i went to allmusic, looked him up. Turns out he was the assistant on a Dr Dre album. So i told my prospective clients "Did you know he only assisted on those records? which means he probably plugged stuff in, got coffee, took notes, etc..." They were a bit shocked to hear that. Now i'm not slamming assistants, i was one too. but if your the type of assistant who tells people that your assisting credits are engineering credits, your going to have a short career. But i digress.
Go to my credits page now, go ahead, I'll wait for you to come back....... ....... ....... OK. Hopefully you noticed there are no mastering credits listed. As i said, i'm not a half bad mastering engineer, but i have too much respect for the mastering engineers on my level to refer to myself as a mastering engineer. And i dont like doing a hack job for any client big or small. So i stick to mixing. I am very good at that.
Anyway, man i'm long winded tonight. Look, choose anyone you work with carefully. if someone says "i worked on XYZ" go to ALLMUSIC.COM and check them out. did they really? Know the difference between a mix engineer and a mastering engineer. 2 different professions. and if your an artist, or producer, or??? Don;t feel like you need to wear all the hats. So many people wannabe the artist, producer, recording engineer, mixer, and mastering engineer. what you'll end up being is in your basement forever wondering why people arent responding to your music. If your an artist, be the best artist you can be. If your a producer, produce something every day. If your a mixer, mix every day. Remember even the top producers hire people to mix their records. why? because everybody has their spedcialties. Sometime people have multiple specialties, but most people are rarely great at more than one.
- Ken
posted by Protools Mixing at 4:48 AM
6 Comments:
u're right ken. I think makes one thing...GOOD ...longtimes and bring the experience more u're work more u're progress and stop to want to make all. theses people lies they just want to make money. they kills the music they don't love music they ' re bad for everybody who loves unconditionely the music .
they're kills people who try to become a real artist because it's so hard to bring the good road ... to create a real identity.
In an industry this competitive, and it is seriously COMPETITIVE, Its important to have a top notch production for your musical resume'.
Ideally it'd be nice to have a professional studio to lay the tracks down in, a professional mix engineer to work his magic, and a genius to master it. Unfortunately that can cost serious amounts of money. I'm all about your repeating theme of "It takes money to make money" in a career. Which is why I have to save up those major dollars in order to get a professional CD made, then I wanna do it all over again for another CD.
But for the time being, I not only continue to write (as a musician) but I at least try to advance my mixing skills by teaching myself new tricks for altering the sound. Not so much trying to wear all the hats, but to be competent in each area of production.
Have a good night all
-Tom
I knew Soap Boxes were good for something.
So, will you mix and master my CD for me? Just kidding. Thanks for the article. I enjoyed it and learned a few things.
Pedro
So what would your advice be to those of us sending off demos on a small budget?
If I can only afford to pay for either a good mix engineer or a good mastering engineer which should I pay for and which should I do for myself?
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