While I have been mixing the ‘House of Cards’ songs my thoughts have been drawn towards the final polishing of the album; the mastering process. For the benefit of those of you unfamiliar with the term, mastering is the action of taking a final mix and ensuring that the dynamic range and sonic brilliance of the recording is as good as it can possibly be for reproduction across a wide range of playback devices. Often this will involve a selection of bespoke mastering tools such as particular speakers, outboard hardware and software plugins. More importantly, a well trained set of ears are required; mastering demands very critical listening and therefore cannot be properly achieved without a mastering engineer.
When I was considering who I would want to master the ‘House of Cards’ album I had only one team in mind; Masterdisk. “Mastering your favourite records since 1973″, Masterdisk have earned a reputation as one of the oldest and most respected mastering studios in the world. This Manhattan based outfit have a staggering catalogue of hit records to their name and recent success stories include work for Gorillaz, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kanye West, The Mars Volta, Michael Buble, Sting and The White Stripes.
Keen to keep up with developments at Masterdisk, I follow a number of their engineers on Twitter. One such recipient of my attention is Andy Wilson. Andy approaches mastering as though it were a musical instrument; “music has always been magical to me and I want my clients music to sound as powerful as it can” he says. As a songwriter and musician in his own right, Andy brings an intimate understanding of the recording process to his mastering. He also delivers super cool competitions to Twitter…
Earlier this month Andy was feeling particularly generous and announced via his Twitter stream that he was running a competition; artists/bands/musicians were invited to provide Andy with humorous reasons why he should master one of their songs… free of charge! The entry that Andy found most amusing would win. You can probably guess where I’m heading with this. No? Oh. Well, put it this way – either I was the only entrant or I owe Mackenzie the polecat a beer. You decide:
http://twitter.com/#!/audiojustice/status/155339381249552384.
Mackenzie the polecat in the Audio Justice photoshoot that just keeps on giving… pic taken by www.witchalls.com
Having been crowned the winner of Andy’s competition, I had to decide which song to send Andy to master. As ever-patient readers of this blog will know, my intention is to release a download-only single free of charge in advance of the album’s release. I had pretty much decided that ‘Empire City’ would be the single of choice. The song deals with the pursuit of self-gratification and pleasure, pure hedonism, in a city of vice and without any regard for the consequences of these actions. Set loosely against a backdrop of New York City, it seems appropriate that a mastering engineer based in New York should be involved.
Andy is an award winning engineer who has worked in studios in California, Nashville, Atlanta and the greater New York/New Jersey area for over eleven years. He’s been concentrating on mastering for the past seven years and says, “mastering to me is a creative and artistic process. I love to take a project that the client believes sounds good, and make it sound incredible. Their surprise never gets old to me!”
A good mastering job should be “well balanced, sound consistent on any playback system, and evoke an emotional response for the listener,” according to Andy. In his personal listening, Andy is partial to rock, alternative, singer-songwriter, and country, but he’s mastered many different genres and enjoys musical diversity. “I believe I bring a musician’s point of view, rather than just an engineering background, to my work. I look at mastering as another musical instrument. Music has always been magical to me, and I believe it’s very powerful. I want my clients’ music to sound as magical and powerful as it can.”
‘Empire City’ (along with a few of the other songs from my ‘House of Cards’ album) is now mixed and ready for mastering. I’m looking forward to hearing the final version once Andy has worked his magic, but I’m looking forward to sharing this significant milestone in the project with you even more. I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as the song is available to download.
In the meantime, if you want to know more about Masterdisk, or the mastering process, why not visit www.masterdisk.com or visit Andy’s own website at www.andywilsonaudio.com.
Dan
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