Audio Mastering

by bob katz advanced use

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Table of contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Welcome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

TUTORIAL
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Your Room Your Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . 7 Metering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Dynamics Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Sequencing: Relative Levels, Loudness and Normalization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Recipe for Radio Success . . . . . . . . . . 11 Dither . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Equalization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Sibilance Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Noise reduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Monitors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Advanced Mastering Techniques . . . . . 17

APPENDIX
Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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WELCOME

Congratulations on your purchase of a TC Electronics Finalizer. You now own the audio equivalent of a Formula One Racing Car. Have you ever ridden in a finely-tuned racecar on a cross-country track with a professional driver? I have. It 's more exhilarating than any theme park ride. Every corner is carefully calculated. Every tap on the brake is just enough to make it around the curve without going off the road. Such great power requires great responsibility, and the same is true for owners of the Finalizer. Now you 're the driver, you can do an audio "wheelie" any time you want. You can take every musical curve at 100 mph....but ask yourself: "is this the right thing for my music"? This booklet is about both audio philosophy and technology. A good engineer must be musical. Knowing "what 's right for the music" is an essential part of the mastering process. Mastering is a fine craft learned over years of practice, study and careful listening. I hope that this booklet

References: The Digital Domain website, http://www.digido.com, contains further references to topics mentioned in this booklet, with information on dither, compression, metering, monitor calibration, "good-sounding" commercial CDs to listen to, scientific references, and more. APPENDIX - GLOSSARY dBFS - dB reference full scale Full scale digital is defined as 0 dBFS, the maximum numeric level which can be encoded. Gain, Loudness, Volume and Level Loudness is the subjective judgment of level, by ear. Loudness is an approximate quantity, while level can be repeatable measured, if the averaging time of the measuring instrument is specified. In a professional context, don 't use the term volume to avoid confusion with quarts and liters - use loudness instead. Use the professional term gain control rather than volume control. Gain is often confused with Level. Gain is the property of an amplifier or attenuator, while level refers to the amount of signal going through that amplifier. For example, a signal may measure a level of -10 dBFS before going through an amplifier. If the amplifier has a gain of 6 dB, then the level of the signal on the output of the amplifier will be -4 dBFS. Absolute values are applied to level (e.g., 6 volts, or -12 dBFS), while only relative values can be used for gain (e.g. a gain of 2X, or +6 dB). It is incorrect to say that a device has a gain of +7 dBm or dBv...dBm or dBv or dBFS are absolute terms reserved for measured level, not for gain. Sample Rate The number of samples per second. The preferred abbreviation is S/s, or kS/s, e.g., 44.1 kS/s. Common usage is "44.1 kHz", but this approach is often confusing when the same sentence also refers to bandwidth or frequencies of interest. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A big thank you to Bob Ludwig, of Gateway Mastering, Portland Maine, and Glenn Meadows, of Masterfonics, Nashville, Tennessee. Bob and Glenn reviewed the manuscript and added helpful suggestions that made an even better booklet. 20