The Mastering Show Ian Shepherd

You can't go a day without someone telling you how loud your music should be, these days.

"Everything has to be -8 LUFS"
"EDM has to be -6 LUFS or louder"
"-11 is the perfect balance"
"Just master everything to -14"

...but they can't all be right !

In fact, none of them are, and even more importantly, they may not even be talking about the same thing. And the differences are really important. So in this episode I try explain really clearly and concisely:

The 3 different types of LUFS
The difference between them
Why it’s crucial to know which type you’re talking about
Why mastering to integrated targets makes no sense
When -14 LUFS isn’t loud enough – and why ?
Why it’s not about ‘how loud’, it’s about how you make it loud
Why integrated LUFS values are the result, not the goal of mastering


Full show notes on our website
https://themasteringshow.com/episode-92

It’s virtually impossible that you haven’t heard music of some kind mixed by Alan Meyerson by this point - he’s one of the most prolific and successful film score mixers in the business.

And luckily for us, he’s also super-generous and open about the information he shares, including his perspectives on mixing and ‘mastering’ music for the movies. So in this episode we dig deep into all the details, including topics like:
* Is there really such a thing as ‘mastering’ for film ?
* What needs to be delivered, and what is the process ?
* How loud does it need to be - are there any standards ?
* When does Alan deliver mixes in Atmos, and why ?
* How he uses the centre channel and surround channels
* Why you might want to use saturation or pitch-shifting (!) in a movie score mix

Show notes

http://themasteringshow.com/episode-91

Everyone is talking about inter-sample peaks and True Peak limiters - or in fact it’s more accurate to say they’re arguing about whether ISPs are audible or not, and whether True Peak limiters sound bad !

In this episode I’m joined by Alexey Lukin, iZotope’s “godfather of RX”, to talk in detail about exactly what ISPs are and why they’re so confusing - including:

* How are inter-sample peaks measured, and why do you see different results with different meters ?
* What are DSP overshoot peaks, and how are they different ?
* What does over-sampling have to do with all this, and why is it important ?
* Do True Peak limiters really sound bad, and how should we test them ?
* Why will they NOT prevent lossy decoder clipping, sometimes ? And
* What the hell are we supposed to do about all this ?!?

If you’re not already listening to Matt Boudreau’s fantastic podcast Working Class Audio, you need to start now !

Matt is a highly respected mixing and mastering engineer who has recently moved into working in Dolby Atmos, where he’s already picked up some seriously impressive credits - oh, and also produces one of the top Audio podcasts around.

Which is why if I try to think of anyone better to learn the fundamentals of good audio for podcasting and journalism from… well, I can’t. And the great news is that Matt has put together a new “PodClass” course to help people with just that.

In this episode we talk about the course and what inspired it, but also plenty of other great stuff, including

Making the move from pro musician to audio engineer
Getting started in Atmos - workflow, dynamics and more
Work-Life balance - is it better to be a lark, or a night-owl ?
The secret advantages of running your own podcast...
…and the crucial importance of great audio (And what it has to do with COVID lockdowns !)


Enjoy - and if you want to try Matt’s course, make sure to use the discount code TMS to get a 30% discount and help support The Mastering Show at the same time !

DJs get a lot of flak, especially about loudness. There’s a deep-seated belief that “loud” masters are still a requirement for club music, and that DJs are somehow to blame.

But is this fair ? The reality is much more complicated and interesting than the popular cliche that DJs will only play loud masters, and in this episode Ian dives deep into the issue with Joe Caithness, who works as both a DJ and a mastering engineer. Topics include:

The reality of DJ-ing
The problem with peaks
Loudness ? Or consistency ?
The power of Pioneer
The shocking missed opportunity of loudness metadata
The ‘sound’ of loudness

And much more !

Full shownotes on our site
https://themasteringshow.com/episode-88

It’s amazing what mastering can achieve - but it’s also amazing how many things can influence the results we get right from the recording stage.

In this episode Ian talks to Mike Senior about how to fix mastering problems at the recording stage, without using a time machine ! Topics include how to avoid:

Muddy mids
Harsh guitars
Sibilance
Resonant snares
Boomy or hollow vocals
Exposed vocals
Stereo image issues

And many more !

Links

Mike has put together a fantastic page of resources for this episode, including an excellent video about stereo mic technique - click here make sure you check it out !

https://cambridge-mt.com/misc/mastering-show-2212-resources/

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-87