What is audio-mastering, what does it do, is it necessary, and most importantly, why is audio-mastering important to an independent musician? Before mastering my new double-album Animist, I spent a lot of time trying to answer these questions.
Simply put, audio-mastering makes your music louder. In other words, mastering is the difference between the volume level of (insert any major commercially released album here) vs. the volume of the album you recorded on your laptop or 4-track recorder. If you are not sure what I mean, just compare the volume of your favorite major label CD vs. the volume of a CD you recorded yourself.
Although the subject of mastering is much more complex than this, volume level is good place to start. Volume, or how loud a CD sounds is directly tied to the dynamic range of the recorded audio. Dynamic range is simply the range in decibels between the softest and loudest parts of a recording. However, it is important to remember that dynamic range is measured in the aggregate, i.e the dynamic range of a particular recording is based on a collection of the peaks and valleys of the audio signal as opposed to anyone particular peak or valley.
This past week was a very enjoyable one. The weather stayed consistently mild, alluding to the approaching spring. I also had the chance to play music with a variety of people in a variety of ways which is my favorite thing to do.
Monday was spent working and scheduling conflicts prevented me from teaching my Decorah student. Tuesday was also spent working, however I did have time to release a free Animist 5 Song Sampler.
Wednesday I had the day off and despite sleeping in a little longer than I had planned I had time to record a basic electric guitar track for one song and drums tracks for two new songs I am working on before I accompanied Michelle Lynn and Adam Ptacek to the Dave's guitar shop to help Michelle pick out her first electric. She ended up picking out a cool Danelectro re-issue and I was so enamored with the guitar that I ended up buying one for myself. After the shopping trip, the three of us headed back to Ghost in My House Studio and experimented playing a variety of new and old Michelle Lynn songs as a three-piece with Adam on bass and me on drums. We had a blast and are looking forward to working up a good collection of songs to play together for some potential live shows.
Wednesday evening Jaran and Joe were over for another Brahman Shaman rehearsal. This was a lot of fun as usual and now that we are starting to feel more comfortable with the ten songs we have been focusing on we may try to add some more songs at the next rehearsal.
It was back to work on Thursday but afterwards Joe Dawson came over and finalized another vocal track as well as laying down a 2nd guitar on one of the songs. We also did some synth experimentation with a borrowed Roland Juno, but used up most of our time messing with the sounds. I think there are only a couple more overdubs left before we can start mixing and hopefully the whole project will be done within a couple of weeks.
I had work off Friday and got a little time in the morning to work on some bass lines for a new song. Michelle Lynn came over at 10am and we started work on the recording of her 4th album, Twisted Logic. Michelle played through all the songs for me and we did a quick live recording of them for reference and to figure out tempos. Michelle definitely seems more interested in tracking the songs with the click track this time which will make adding additional instrumentation that much easier. In the afternoon Adam came over to the studio as well and the three of us spent an hour or two trying out some more of Michelle's songs as a three piece.
Saturday was mostly spent doing errands and chores around the house. Saturday night I loaded up the drums and headed down to the Root Note to drum for Nick Shattuck's all ages CD release party. Nick drew a great crowd and we pretty much just played the album from start to finish and had a good time doing it. You can check out some of the videos of the performance by clicking here.
Sunday I had fun giving another guitar lesson and I find that it really helps to play drums with the student when we are focusing on rhythm aspects of guitar playing.
This coming week on Wednesday the song "Youth" from the recently released Animist double-album will be featured on Z93.3's "Play it or Hate it". For more info click here. This coming Saturday I will be heading to the Gas Alley Pub in Tomah, WI to drum for Nick Shattuck.
