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By The MASTERING Team, on May 22nd, 2012
My name is Steve Taylor and I am the newest member of the SoundOps team. I will be here to assist you as you work with us on your mixes. I have been in the music industry for fifteen years both in my own bands and also managing bands and artists across several styles of music. As a manager, many of my artists have signed with major booking agencies, publishing companies, and record labels. It’s been a joy to help them in their careers.
Now, I am very excited to be here at SoundOps to help you out in your carreer. And this is where it all starts. You need the best sounding recordings you can have. Thats why I’m here as your coach in the studio before, during, and even after we master your mixes.
If you have any questions about how I can practically help you take the next step and get the most out of your recording project, email me at steve.taylor@soundops.com or hit me on chat.
I look forward to speaking with you soon,
Steve Taylor
(404) 402 7001
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AUDIO ANALYSIS $7
Ever wonder if your project is actually ready for mastering? Let our engineers analyze your mixes. We will give you detailed reports with professional feedback, so you always sound awesome.
MORE THAN ONE MASTER $99
Get 3 studios for the price of 1! We call it multiMASTERING – a small team led by our head engineer John Taylor will deliver 3 different press-ready masters so you can have full artistic control.
By The MASTERING Team, on May 16th, 2012
You’ve worked hard composing and recording tracks without settling for anything less than perfection. But should you go a step further and also do your own mastering on your studio computer? While the temptation is great to do so, think twice before diving into this project. Improper audio mastering can truly degrade the overall quality of your music. Thus, it is always best to seek out professional level companies to complete this last critical step for you.
So what exactly does audio mastering do? Essentially it cleans up your audio files, making sure they are free from any defects so that the best reproductions can be made. This requires the use of sophisticated engineering equipment which home computer software cannot easily replace.
All the best songs that we hear over radio or TV, a solo performer or a band, are mastered by an expert sound engineer before the CDs are released. This makes hearing songs a more pleasant experience than actually it would have been.- The Importance of Audio Mastering
Usually, this crucial step would require lengthy and expensive face-to-face meetings with sound engineers. However, now your tracks can be effectively mastered remotely through online mastering studios.
SoundOps takes audio mastering a step further by using a multimastering technique. In this unique setup, each sound engineer uses remote access to master each track with different combinations of equipment. After the three best editions are selected by a team of engineers, a detailed report is given to the client that is available for download or shipped back to the client.
Next time you hear your favorite song, remember that behind that great sound is quality audio mastering. Let SoundOps be your choice for professional remote digital mastering to make your music stand out from the rest. Visit SoundOps.com today for more information.
By The MASTERING Team, on May 7th, 2012
You never know when it’ll hit you — when the key to that bridge or an idea for an overdub — will suddenly just be there. And you have to get it down, right now.
We get it. That’s why there’s unlimited mastering, our flat-rate 24/7 service for artists, engineers, producers — anybody trying to keep track of all that audio coming out their ears.
We have people waiting to help, whenever you’re ready to work.
It makes sense to us, because some of the world’s greatest and most innovative musicians, artists, writers and scientists do some of their best work when nobody else is around. Or when everyone else has already gone to dinner — or off to bed.
They all have their processes.
Writers Alice Munro and Toni Morrison, for instance, used to work early in the morning, long before sunup, according to dailyroutines.com. Not because they were inspired by the stars, but because they had … well, kids.
Erik Satie, the 1800s avant-garde French composer known for his repetitive music, used to do a lot of his thinking during his daily six-mile walks. (Maybe all that walking was what made his work so repetitive.)
Then there’s the late Truman Capote: “I can’t think unless I’m lying down, either in bed or stretched on a couch and with a cigarette and coffee handy,” he says in an entry on the website. “I’ve got to be puffing and sipping. As the afternoon wears on, I shift from coffee to mint tea to sherry to martinis.”
OK, we might be able to find a spare cot around here somewhere … but you’ll have to arrange for your own martinis.
Within reason, though, whatever you need to do — and whenever you need to do it — we’re here. Contact us when you’re ready to work.
By The MASTERING Team, on May 1st, 2012
A lot of people, when they hear the words “audio mastering” immediately imagine this quintessential scene: A female pop recording artist, standing in a felt-padded, oak-paneled room, is facing the glass partition that separates her from 2-3 middle-aged sound managers, holding headphones over one ear ear with one hand, the other hand swerving around her in melodramatic circles as she belts out a soulful melody. To me, and I hope also to everyone else, this is a pretty annoying image. It’s annoying to think about if you’re someone who has ever had anything to do with recording any kind of music. If you have, then you probably know recording is messy, and it likely happens in a room with countless 1/4 inch cords laced across the floor, and red solo cups lining every windowsill and available table space. You would know that more often than you would expect, recording it doesn’t take place in an idyllic oak-paneled room with production staff.
More and more, people are making records at home. They’re making them in their basements, their garages, their bedrooms, hell, they’re making records in their closets. These days, the kinds of music you can make on lower budgets is getting better and better.A lot of musicians that are making music at home, who aren’t the pop singer in an oak-paneled studio, believe that there’s some sort of mutual exclusivity between “professionally mastered” music and “professionally recorded” music, that they can’t have music professionally mastered that was recorded at home or in a garage. Either that or they think themselves really “punk” or “DIY” or something of that nature and decline to use it because it’s incoherent with their personal musical aesthetic
I learned the hard way that that’s not necessarily true. When I was younger, I recorded my first album with some friends, using a Tascam DP-24 24-track recorder. There wasn’t really much “mastering” to it. We just sort of said to ourselves, “Yeah, pan that guitar right, that one left, center the bass, center the vocals, and turn down the drums” and we were done. About a year later, a close friend of mine who had been studying to become a sound engineer came to me and asked if I had any raw audio I could give him to practice working with, so I sent him some of the raw tracks from my earlier recordings, thinking that whatever he brought back would sound just like what I had made earlier. When he brought them back to me, I was absolutely shocked by the brand new, near-perfect sounds I was hearing in my own music. I was pretty much ashamed that I had ever even released them into the public in their previous state. I’ve recorded two albums since then, both in my home, utilizing my same lo-fi approach, but would later take them to be professionally mastered, and I’ve never regretted it.
There’s nothing un-DIY about having a second (and slightly better) set of ears to listen and finely tune to your home-recorded music.
By The MASTERING Team, on April 20th, 2012
So maybe your dad was wrong — maybe you can make money as a musician after all.
We won’t try to claim that it’s all because of audio mastering or anything, but for the first time in seven years, overall U.S. music sales were up in 2011.
Yup. The Recording Industry Association of America is saying sales rose by $7 billion last year.
That’s encouraging … but on the other hand, you probably shouldn’t get into all the math and market details with your old man. The increase only amounts to .02 percent, according to MTV.com.
Another on-the-other-hand consideration:
“Physical sales, which are mostly made up of CDs, were down by 7.7 percent,” MTV reports. “That was a narrower dip than in recent years but a dip nonetheless. That was more than made up, though, by a 9.2 percent rise in digital sales, which made up more than half of the industry’s revenues for the first time in history.”
RIAA research suggests the sales numbers got a kick from Adele, who became the first artist to go double-platinum on iTunes.
The research also found a few surprising nuggets, MTV says:
“Even as downloads gained ground on physical CD sales (more than 240 million sold, totaling $3.1 billion), the kids were still digging that old-school vinyl. Sales of records and revenue from that category were both up more than 30 percent to $119 million and 5.5 million copies.”
That should placate your pop a little.
Either way, contact us if you want to refine your sound. We think you can prove Dad wrong about your career choice.
By The MASTERING Team, on April 12th, 2012
In some odd way, Neil Young’s 1972 song “The Needle and the Damage Done” could’ve been predicting the audio mastering frustrations and debates of the past few years.
Guys like Young miss the crisp, full range of a needle on vinyl — and the damage, the way he sees it, is coming from the inferior sound of MP3s.
That’s why he’s working on a new audio format of his own to find something that’ll sound closer to vinyl, Rolling Stone reports.
Young applied for six trademarks last June, the magazine says: Ivanhoe, 21st Century Record Player, Earth Storage, Storage Shed, Thanks for Listening and SQS (Studio Quality Sound).
The trademarks seem to be part of a project called Pono, which Blue Rider Press — the publisher of Young’s upcoming memoir — mentioned in a news release issued last fall:
“Young is also personally spearheading the development of Pono, a revolutionary new audio music system presenting the highest digital resolution possible, the studio quality sound that artists and producers heard when they created their original recordings,” the release said. “Young wants consumers to be able to take full advantage of Pono’s cloud-based libraries of recordings by their favorite artists and, with Pono, enjoy a convenient music listening experience that is superior in sound quality to anything ever presented.”
Young, long known for his attention to audio details, spoke with Apple’s Steve Jobs just before his death last fall about developing an iPod-like device that could store about 30 vinyl-quality albums, Rolling Stone says.
So who knows?
If Young’s efforts pay off, though, we’ll be among the first to say “Hey, hey, my, my …”
If quality’s that important to you, contact us.
By The MASTERING Team, on March 30th, 2012
The debate over how much Apple’s new “Mastered for iTunes” program improves sound quality is still flaming, but if you’re audio mastering for wide-audience distribution, the news is getting a little more encouraging.
While criticism of the new program flares, Apple believes its encoders can now preserve a more dynamic range of sound, giving consumers better-quality downloads, according to a Loopinsight.com post from Jim Dalrymple.
And Apple is inviting engineers to submit high-quality masters, adds Dalrymple, who spoke with veteran mastering engineer Jim Ludwig. Apple is even trying to give engineers some tips on how to master for digital, Dalrymple says.
Ludwig — who’s worked with Coldplay, Bruce Springsteen, Nirvana and Soundgarden — is sold on the new program, telling “The Loop” that Apple’s process doesn’t really change how engineers approach their work.
Mastered for iTunes doesn’t even come into play until after the creative process is finished, he says.
Here’s what is different, though:
“Instead of sending it to CD and then having the AAC files ripped from that, mastering engineers can now use Apple’s tools to create custom AAC files from the high-resolution master,” Dalrymple’s post explains.
The result? With any luck, ready-for-the-masses digital sounds that are as true as possible to what artists and engineers originally laid down.
“Some people think that mastering for a digital format is silly, but it’s downright stupid to ignore iTunes,” Dalrymple argues. “Apple is the largest distributor of music and if you don’t think that improving the quality of your music for millions of people, then you don’t really care about your fans.”
Whatever side you’re on contact us. We’ll help you make peace with the format.
logo/image/artwork is property of Apple & iTunes.
By The MASTERING Team, on March 23rd, 2012
We had to smile.
A production school geared toward new and aspiring musical artists was offering a big discount off its self-directed, online classes.
“The music course is comprised of seven lessons and teaches students how to be an artist, music producer, beat maker along with recording, mixing, mastering and helps develop a personal music business plan,” said the outfit’s press release.
Hey, we’re not into trash-talking anybody’s business, so here’s wishing them the best.
Just a word of caution if you happen to be teetering on the edge of this question: “Should I learn to do all this stuff myself, or pop for professional music mastering?”
We’re kind of biased on that one, of course. But seriously, here’s what we recommend when it comes to answering that question.
First, education is always good. We love working with educated customers and creative partners.
Second, be clear in your own mind about your goals. In other words, know why you want to learn music mastering and how you hope to someday apply your new knowledge. Is music a hobby for you, a personal creative outlet, an entrepreneurial interest — or a higher calling?
Finally, if you know you’re serious, but not sure where to turn to really improve your understanding of what makes for mediocre-versus-excellent mastering, contact us.
By The MASTERING Team, on March 15th, 2012
This one almost drew a flag, but after further review, we decided we couldn’t see the harm in NFL players learning a little bit about music mastering.
The idea, according to a recent Associated Press story, apparently took root with retired defensive end Darren Howard, who’s played for the New Orleans Saints and the Philadelphia Eagles.
Howard, who left football in 2009, had always wanted to be in the music business — so when he left the gridiron, he started his own recording label, Empyre.
Meantime, the NFL’s player-engagement division took a survey and found that a surprising number of players had dreams just like Howard’s.
That led to the league teaming up with New York University’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music to hold a music camp.
About 70 players applied, and 20 made it in to the four-day camp, AP reports.
Players who got in included former Oakland Raider Justin Fargas, Marvin Austin of the New York Giants, Brand Lloyd of the St. Louis Rams and former Ram and Jacksonville Jaguar Torry Holt.
The players visited a professional music studio at one point, getting some instruction on how to make records from Nick Sansano, who’s head of production studies at the Clive Davis Institute.
Sansano explained the differences between a $3,000 microphone and a $95 one, according to AP.
“If that’s of good quality, that’s where you should spend your money,” Sansano told the players, holding up one of the spendier mikes.
Useful information, Howard and the other players agreed after the camp. But they’re keeping their expectations realistic:
“I’m not looking to knock nothing out the park,” Howard says. “I’m not trying to be Puffy … I just want to make good music, make some money, add something to the community and provide some jobs …”
Well, OK. Maybe those thicker helmets of theirs are paying off after all.
if you want a guy manhandling your audio, good luck. If you want someone who doesn’t do music as a hobby
call SoundOps.
By John Taylor, on March 8th, 2012
A closer look at the process, in reverse order:
You’ve got mastering, which is the cooking, congealing, garnishing, and ultimate presentation of the meal.
You’ve got effects – and they’re applied to individual instruments. Like compression applied to a kick drum track. This is similar to needing to separately cook chicken before adding it to a soup. You don’t just drop raw chicken into soup; it must be prepared on the side. So sometimes adding (even lots of) compression to individual tracks is the right thing to do.
You’ve got the mixing of the individual tracks (the ingredients). Everything must be blended with the correct balance of flavors. Just as milk compliments a chocolate chip cookie, bass guitar with compression compliments a kick drum.
And lastly you’ve got specific details. Are the drum heads and guitar strings recently changed and precisely tuned? This is similar to, is the lettuce fresh? Is the tomato ripe? When you cut up the onion, did you use the knife in a sawing motion (better) or a crushing motion (not so much)? Was your mixing session done in 32-bit float (better) or 16-bit (not so much)?
Deductions and Derivatives:
If someone hands you a plate with a steak on it that was just roasted in the oven, you can’t turn around and throw it on the grill and hope to grill it to perfection. It’s already cooked! And it can’t be re-cooked. So we see it’s the process that makes the difference. Sure, the oven-roasted steak is indeed cooked, and edible, and not raw. But it could have been done better.
This is similar to when we receive audio that is too hot. Sometimes the amateur engineer will crank the master level during mixing because (it’s true) it can make it sound better right there in the moment. But essentially they’re cooking their steak instead of letting us handle it.
Although some mixing engineers unknowingly cook their steak, we are here to look out for what the general listener wants on their plate in the end. Sometimes this involves working with the engineer to “uncook” things.
We strive to specialize in exactly how every single ingredient needs to be handled. Just like when you’re perfecting a recipe, the specifics are paramount. Too much salt and the dish is ruined.
Experience brings attention to detail: You’re cooking a pork roast. Obviously it’s important to be able to know the internal temperature of the roast so that you take it off the heat at the right time. But, a master chef also understands and knows exactly what the internal temperature of the roast needs to be before it begins cooking.
Think about how much food means to world culture. The best recipes are the most desired. People are willing to pay a lot of money for a good meal.
Those who have the perseverance to perfect recipes are ultimately rewarded.
John Taylor
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