Mastering business in decline

[Blumlein 88]

Yeah, that's one more reason why I dislike what streaming is doing to music. It's a fundamental shift to our musical culture. Of course, musical culture has always been changing. The orchestral classical tradition emerged when European society changed and there were royal courts who demanded that kind of entertainment, and who were so skilled at exploiting poor folks that they got an economic surplus which allowed them to pay composers and performers. Rythmic music like jazz/blues/gospel etc emerged because Europeans and Americans enslaved a whole lot of Africans and sent them to a new continent. So it's not like musical culture is or should be static, or that the musical culture of the past was in any way ideal.

But still, the album-based format of popular music was a rather nice kind form of musical culture, I think, which fused availability with some level of artistic intent and complexity. And now we're in the process of replacing it with something else. I'm not convinced that we're replacing it with something better.

Spotify's Daniel Ek is very explicit about it: He says that artists and musicians need to put out new songs much more quickly in order to make money, and that musicians can't insist on producing whole albums to perfection anymore.

Hence the EP, or half album.

While there are times I use PC based digital music to play a collection of diverse songs on a playlist, I suppose it is just my imprinting that doing such is not my usual method. I still tend to grab a folder with an album in it. Load all the songs on the album and listen. Leftover imprinting from the AOR days or late 60's and 70's.

 

[maverickronin]

I'd just like to point out that Plato was complaining about his day's popular music back in the Republic.

 

[Thomas savage]

It's an obsolete concept, unless it's for LP issues where you have to make EQ choices.

For digital native, it's all in the mix, not the mastering.

Precisely, you don't need to pander to format now so you don't need to master .

Give it straight and let us and our software do the ' mastering ' on our devices .

Thats how technology had moved on , its got nothing to do with the art of music . Mastering was interpretation of intent with the expressed understanding of destination format and its ' compromises ' in play back situations .

What you have now is dolby Atmos music , maybe we need mastering engineer's again lol

 

[oivavoi]

I'd just like to point out that Plato was complaining about his day's popular music back in the Republic.

Indeed.

 

[watchnerd]

I'd just like to point out that Plato was complaining about his day's popular music back in the Republic.

I can't blame him.

Greek folk music is great if you're taking shots of ouzo / raki, dancing drunkenly, and sacrificing lambs.

But it seems to have been stuck in a creative rut since the pagan days.

 

[watchnerd]

Hence the EP, or half album.

While there are times I use PC based digital music to play a collection of diverse songs on a playlist, I suppose it is just my imprinting that doing such is not my usual method. I still tend to grab a folder with an album in it. Load all the songs on the album and listen. Leftover imprinting from the AOR days or late 60's and 70's.

Yeah, you're just old, dude.

 

[Blumlein 88]

 

[sergeauckland]

Yeah, that's one more reason why I dislike what streaming is doing to music. It's a fundamental shift to our musical culture. Of course, musical culture has always been changing. The orchestral classical tradition emerged when European society changed and there were royal courts who demanded that kind of entertainment, and who were so skilled at exploiting poor folks that they got an economic surplus which allowed them to pay composers and performers. Rythmic music like jazz/blues/gospel etc emerged because Europeans and Americans enslaved a whole lot of Africans and sent them to a new continent. So it's not like musical culture is or should be static, or that the musical culture of the past was in any way ideal.

But still, the album-based format of popular music was a rather nice kind form of musical culture, I think, which fused availability with some level of artistic intent and complexity. And now we're in the process of replacing it with something else. I'm not convinced that we're replacing it with something better.

Spotify's Daniel Ek is very explicit about it: He says that artists and musicians need to put out new songs much more quickly in order to make money, and that musicians can't insist on producing whole albums to perfection anymore.

In the history of recorded music, now some 100+ years, albums have been something of an oddity.

First cylinders, then records, the 3-4 minute 'single' has been the norm. The driver for Long Players was classical music where breaking up a symphony or opera into 4 minute segments was more than a little disconcerting. Pop/Jazz soon took advantage of the new format, but the charts were still very much driven by singles. Later, when CD came about, classical music was again the main driver, no clicks and pops and a whole symphony (or two) on one CD was great. Pop/rock music had by then developed into Prog, where the album, then CD, proved popular.

Then streaming happened, and it's back to singles, and classical or album driven music is very much of minority interest, such that tagging, essential for managing both on-line and on-disk libraries really can't cope. Even classical radio stations mostly now play 'singles' rather than complete multi-movement works, so I think the circle is complete.

S

 

[Mnyb]

Sligthly of topic , but to support the odd indie artist buy thier music on Bandcamp or not so indie you be surprised , most of my music buying budget goes to bandcamp or used CD’s .
I think bandcamp is a service that gives quite a decent chunk to the creators.

 

[Mnyb]

Heck on unmastered originals , I’ve even found sleeper hirez releases on Bandcamp . Some artists just convert directly out of thier DAW and you get 24/48 flac files , ofcourse not announced as such which is refreshing for once .

 

[mhardy6647]

The real value of a mastering engineer is having another set of ears to evaluate the overall vibe of an album, to apply corrections to tracks to get them more in line with the others (especially when parts or entire songs were recorded in different locations, with different equipment, or with different personnel) in order to give it a consistent sound signature, to improve translation across systems, and to determine how much dynamic range should be left based on the style/genre and artist or label preference (whoever's paying ).

Otherwise, even budget musicians can DIY the entire thing with a good set of ears. As other people have said, the hardware and software musicians have access to now are as good as or better than pro-level systems from not so long ago.

I am thinking there's a joke in here someplace about the remixes and/or remasters that have been performed, supervised, and/or approved by one Mr. James Patrick Page.

 

[watchnerd]

or used CD’s .

Nothing against buying used CDs, but I don't think one can put that in the 'supporting the artists' bucket as they don't get any money from used CDs.

 

[Mnyb]

Nothing against buying used CDs, but I don't think one can put that in the 'supporting the artists' bucket as they don't get any money from used CDs.

No you can’t I mixed two topics , Bandcamp is good for the artist I also buy used CD’s really two different things

 

[Inner Space]

I am thinking there's a joke in here someplace about the remixes and/or remasters that have been performed, supervised, and/or approved by one Mr. James Patrick Page.

I was at three dates on Zeppelin's first 1969 tour and remember them as a quantum leap up in shattering loudness. My watch stopped one night. How Page isn't stone deaf now amazes me. Or maybe he is.

 

[Robin L]

Concerning how much to pay: Back when I was a teenager I usually bought a CD a month. Considering my disposable income back then, that was a LOT more than what I'm paying for music today. These things have to do with expectations. People today have come to expect that music is free. We need to un-expect that.

Back when I was a teenager, I wound up buying about 10 LPs a month. Back when I was in my twenties, it was more like 20. In my thirties, add about 10 CDs a month on top of that. In my fifties and early sixties? Sometimes it was 20 CDs for $10. Now? Nada. Unnecessary.

I dunno, it's possible that same folks pay, some folks don't. As long as I had a job in some kind of a store that sold music, I came to expect free music. When I broadcast on radio, music distributors pushed music to me.

 

[Robin L]

I bet over half of ASR doesn't know the difference between mixing and mastering.

This:

And this is where all those mastering jobs went away.

 

[infinitesymphony]

Overall vibe of an album -- I think that was an important concept when people listened to whole albums.

I'm not saying that doesn't happen from time to time these days (Daft Punk, Beyonce), but I'm not sure how much it matters for the vast bulk of playlist driven streaming.

I agree overall, and with streaming services using ReplayGain the overall loudness is less of an issue than it ever has been, especially when playing songs back to back from different genres and eras.

But I will say that the vibe of a track will often cause me to dig into the album it's from, and if the vibe is consistent there, I'll dig further into the catalog. If an artist has released consistently high-quality music from a certain point forward, I'll probably follow them. For me, the overall quality of the production often goes hand in hand with my enjoyment of the music.

I am thinking there's a joke in here someplace about the remixes and/or remasters that have been performed, supervised, and/or approved by one Mr. James Patrick Page.

Remasters are a whole other can of worms. Watch as the remasters become brighter and more compressed over time.

Is it the aging hearing of the people involved? Is it compensation for the age of the tape and the way it sheds and loses fidelity as it's played back? Is the best remaining source a digital tape from an early ADC? Has it been flavored for contemporary tastes? At some point every remaster from tape hits a sweet spot between what fidelity is left, the ADC used at the time, and the ears of the mastering engineer.