- How would you best describe Mastering?
Mastering is the final stage in the recording process, after you have recorded and mixed your record.
Mastering engineers only have control over the stereo mix, so they are listening to the way the track works as a whole piece rather than concerning themselves so much with the individual balance.
- Is mastering really essential or can artists get away without it?
99% of tracks need mastering in some way, from the basic levelling of the tracks to extreme eq and compression and anything inbetween! All major releases are mastered so if a track isn't mastered, it will likely not have the presence of sound to compete on the radio or on an mp3 player against other tracks.
- What does mastering add to a recording?
Balance, dynamics and most importantly space and clarity.
It's a very strong possiblilty that you cannot achieve these things just from recording and mixing, as the engineers involved in these processes are much more geared towards listening to the individual tracks rather than the whole mix from the perspective of a mastering engineer.
You could argue that music only needs to be mastered because everything else before it has been, but it's not as simple as that - an experienced mastering engineer can make a great result out of a mix. And obviously the better the mix, the easier the mastering engineer's job so the effect of mastering varies depending on the quality of the mix.
- Due to the fact that most recording are now over compressed to the point that any subtleties are lost, with most labels just wanting everything loud, does an unsigned artist have to do the same in order for there recordings to fall in line with most current releases?
Most records that are well made come into the mastering process uncompressed, as a good engineer will know that it's not their task to compress the hell out of the final mix.
The good mastering engineer can get the track to be loud enough to compete, without the need to compress the dynamics out of the track. You find that if a home studio engineer has compressed the track badly at mix stage then the feel has already been lost, and the track will never be as loud as a professonally balanced record.
It is the EQ that makes the difference to the percieved loudness and not the crushing effect of compression and limiting these are used to add dynamics.
- What advice would you have for an artists going though the mastering process?
Do not compress your mix, as that is a decision for the mastering engineer. They should have the knowledge to choose the exact amount of level, compression and eq to add to your track. They will have spent years using the same equipment, same speakers in the same room, day in day out...that is what you are paying for, so get your mix sounding as good as you can without trying to do the mastering engineer's job for them. Then you can leave with a finished record and never have to tweak it again.
taken from:
http://www.streakymastering.com/faqs.php