Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
Looking forward to this arriving in my mailbox! Not listening to a note of it beforehand.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Steve F.
www.waysidemusic.com
www.cuneiformrecords.com
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“Remember, if it doesn't say "Cuneiform," it's not prog!” - THE Jed Levin
Any time any one speaks to me about any musical project, the one absolute given is "it will not make big money". [tip of the hat to HK]
"Death to false 'support the scene' prog!"
please add 'imo' wherever you like, to avoid offending those easily offended.
Do not give into the volume wars.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
I don't quite understand the point of heavy-duty mastering. You can turn your stereo's volume up, and almost any decent stereo will give a clean sound at high volume. Although I suppose it makes sense for commercial radio play, where having a potential big hit single in the charts leap out of the speakers with a bullet gives it a better chance than one that does not.
I also listen to a fair amount of classical music - where, oddly enough, the opposite arms race may be found: very low-level mastering, as a method of bragging about the recording's high dynamic range. In this case, a volume that allows ppp flutes and strings to be heard clearly over such common ambient noise as the furnace or fridge will almost blow the speakers at bass-drum and brass crescendos. Which might be even more infuriating.
Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
Hey gang! Nick Prol and his illustrious teenage combo, The Proletarians have scaled the summit and achieved the coveted 'most popular' long player on the old ProgArchives! If you dig the album (and I know you do), we would appreciate it if you dropped us a line here.
This is pretty much the coolest for me. I discovered Cardiacs, VdGG, Gentle Giant, Comus, Magma, Henry Cow, UZ, and countless others thanks to this resource. And it's pretty amazing considering we DON'T consider the band a 'prog' act in the least.
17965201_10212669251908944_1589643044_n.jpg
Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
Oh they're prog.
Ian
Host of the Post-Avant Jazzcore Happy Hour on progrock.com
https://podcasts.progrock.com/post-a...re-happy-hour/
Gordon Haskell - "You've got to keep the groove in your head and play a load of bollocks instead"
I blame Wynton, what was the question?
There are only 10 types of people in the World, those who understand binary and those that don't.
Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
Slight digression into mastering:
There's more myth and nonsense surrounding mastering than any other part of recording. My way of working since the beginning, and what I always say to people who ask me about their own projects - I probably said this to you, Ian, when asked for suggestions - is to mix the songs to sound the way you want them to, then all you need to do when compiling them into a finished master is to adjust the relative levels of the songs. Know which moment(s) of the album you want to be the most climactic and loud and balance everything else against that. With that approach I have even had other engineers ask me what kind of high-end mastering gear I used on such-and-such an album, and I say "I just put the songs in the order I wanted them and that was it".
That's with my own work, no "mastering" work is needed. Other times I'm asked to master something for someone else which does need a lot of work, if for example each track is unintentionally drastically different sounding than the next and the "client" wants them to all have a similar sound, or if the mix is weak, over-eq'd, or too dynamic.
If you want to get slightly technical, I'm old-fashioned and still aim at around -14 dB RMS for the "loud" parts. I'll let it get to -9 RMS for REALLY loud bits or if I'm mixing for someone else and they really really want it louder, but going beyond that is going to start down the road of limiting or compressing for no other reason than gaining a few unnecessary extra tenths of dB's at the cost of clarity, which I won't do even if asked. (For those who may not know, "RMS" value is what gives the sense of "loudness" in a recording.)
Yes you have to use common sense and you want the album to be clear and audible, not so dynamic that the listener has to keep fiddling with the volume, unless that's what you want obviously!
Thank you, sir, thank you!
Yes, exactly - and one of the most inspirational things to my own production work was when I got Bottled out of Eden , put it on for the first time and went "why is it so soft?" One day I was spinning it in the car at about 11 and I realized there's absolutely NO distortion, no matter HOW much I cranked it. In fact, the louder I cranked it, the better it sounded. That was an epiphany! All my stuff is mastered on the soft side now (though I can't take credit for the mastering on Loon - that's all Ben Spees, but I feel he did it much like I'd have done it)
Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
It's not "soft", are you referring to the very start of the album, where there is just a droning sound and vocals? Obviously that section is quieter than when the full band comes in later, otherwise there would be no climax. And note how that whole first track gets subtly louder and louder as it goes on, right up to the last few seconds where it's at its maximum level. It's a continual lift for reaching an ecstatic moment.
Maybe "compared to" other modern rock albums it's not as crushed and needlessly ruined for no practical reason other than to match the absurdly clipped levels of other albums which serves no purpose other than to make people turn the volume knob down a notch and complain that CDs aren't as good as vinyl etc etc, but let's not start that again! Oh and I'm glad my work on B.O.O.E. was inspirational for you
BD
www.bdrak.com
Thank you for saying this, Bob. I have thought the same thing for decades and get frustrated by albums, that, for example, are barely audible during a flute/tinkly xylophone section, only to blast you through your roof, when the bass and drums kick back in. Now, I love dynamics, but you need a reasonable balance, so the listener can leave things at one level.....IMO.
neil
Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
Ian Beabout
Mixing and mastering engineer. See ya at ProgDay !
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...m/bakers-dozen
https://cuneiformrecords.bandcamp.co...-and-holland-3
colouratura.bandcamp.com
I was thinking the same thing myself. Ran across this album today thanks to a Dave Newhouse Discogs mention, tracked it down, streamed it on BC, and bought it immediately. Sounds very much like a Bob Drake album (which is a GOOD thing) with a lot of famous and near-famous guests. Bump!
Just listened to Loon Attic. Oh my... oh my... Immediate purchase.
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