Re: Powered Subs...on to mastering

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

hi Kris,

1) It's possible that an uneven frequency response in your headphones 
causes part of the problem, maybe you're having to push the bass 
frequencies up to make them sound right, leading to problems with the car 
system.

2) Surely there's no standard answer for the question about the dynamic 
range on a jazz album. I bet a John Scofield album is far more compressed 
than "Kind of Blue".
Traditionally, classical albums would be compressed just enough to fit 
them onto vinyl, so not really any guidelines there either.

3) You need at least one set of good full range studio monitors if you're 
serious about mastering,
otherwise it's guesswork. I've read good reviews of headphones for 
mastering as a cheaper alternative though. Even then, you need to watch 
for bass frequencies that are below the range of the speaker.

4) I would work through the whole piece looking for loud peaks, and then 
think about whether to reduce the volume on each of them manually (from 
individual track if available) if that would help to make the overall 
normalised track a bit louder.


>From a listener point of view, I rather hear your music with dynamics 
>fully intact, if that's how you like it to sound, and no multi-band 
>compression ;-)

andy butler