Final Mastering Notes
I gotta get my blogging momentum back up! I kinda crumbled blog-wise under all of the last minute record arrangements, helping Meri pack up and all that. So, for lack of original content, here are our final notes to Jon Cohrs - www.spleenlessmastering.com - about what kinds of adjustments we'd like to see made to our mastered album, having heard his first go at it last night. It sounded quite good, and these few final things will hopefully make it exactly what we hear in our heads. All the time. Meanwhile, we have our first post-record gig tonight, a benefit for Diane - of Dave & Diane of our practice space NWRS - who, under treatment for a particularly nasty form of cancer, could use some help with her medical bills. Way to go Oregon! Without further ado, our mastering notes, in epistolary form:
Jon-
I rounded up Team At Dusk over here and we gave the masters a listen tonight - great work, my man! We were all delighted with what you did. We felt that you did a really nice job with frequency management, for lack of a better term. The whole thing has a nice warmth to it without turning into mud. So, thanks for that. Also, the main thing we wanted to see from the mastering - all of the parts sitting more comfortably together - you accomplished spectacularly. If there is a general comment as far as adjustments go, it's that we would probably be happy to see 5-10% less compression overall (although Come Too Far and You Make Me Worry sound great on that end as is). Also, thanks for being so responsible timewise and getting these masters to us when we needed them. Some more detailed thoughts and requests follow:
1) Come Too Far
- We thought that the crossfade into We Could Do Anything was awesome, but that it could come 1-2 seconds faster. That is to say, a second or two less of the white noise/airfilter sound than is currently there would make it even better, we think.
2) We Could Do Anything
-This track seemed a tad too compressed, generally speaking
- There seems to be a click at the end of the track right now. In addition to just fixing this with a little fade or what-have-you, we don't really want to hear any digital silence on the record (with one possible exception we'll come to), so if you could make the cut from We Could Do Anything to You Make Me Worry harder/jump-cutier. There doesn't need to be silence there as far as we're concerned.
3) You Make Me Worry
-This track sounds great (the vocals are sitting very well).
-Did you boost the bass on this track? If so, perhaps doing it a touch less.
-There's a click at the end of this track right now that can be resolved the same way as the last transition. Again, no digital silence here - just roll on over into Farewell Joel Dean's low hum.
4) Farewell Joel Dean
- To elaborate about this transition, we think that the low hum should be 1-2 seconds longer than it is currently (before the "real" instruments come in). Nice work bringing the birds out in the beginning.
- This was one of the songs that sounded a bit too compressed to us. Ease off just a bit to allow the vocal stacking that happens throughout to be a little more dynamic.
-If there was a bass rolloff on this track, maybe bringing a little more of the bass back in. It seemed somehow more absent to us than in the mixes for whatever reason.
5) P.S.
-Cut 2 seconds off of the downtime between Farewell Joel Dean and this. If there is digital silence here, it's fine.
- This song (along with Farewell Joel Dean and Act of Violence) was one of the ones that we felt was too compressed for our taste. It seems to have buried the vocals on the verses a little much, and brought the high end of the cymbals out into too much of a wash. If you can back it off a bit, that would be great.
6) Act of Violence
-The transition from PS to this was PERFECT! Good timing, and we all felt it.
-As mentioned above, this seemed a bit too compressed to us. In particular, the bass seemed a bit absent, and the high-end cymbals (the ride in particular) kind of dominated.
- If there was a bass rolloff, a little bit more bass would be good. This might just be a result of the compression mentioned above.
7) The Face Is That Of An Angel
- There seemed to be a little click on the transition from Act of Violence to this.
- Before the guitar comes in on this song, did we give you any extra spaceship noises? If so, it would be great to add a second or two of them before the guitar comes in. Maybe a crossfade from the very end of Act of Violence (after the band has stopped and there are those little cymbal tinkles)?
- You were very polite in leaving the 4 minutes of ambient noise at the end of this track. We just stuck it on there so you could have it to use as you saw fit. As it turns out, we want it way shorter. As a ballpark figure, we thought 3:28 of the current mix would be a good place to fade out.
8) Tired Eyes
-This is probably the most annoying comment I have, so be warned.
-We did something stupid that we discovered only when listening to your master tonight, so thanks. We remixed this song largely to bring down the level of the piano. Unfortunately, when we bounced, we forgot to arm the automation on that track. So, I'm sorry to say, I'll be dropping off the REAL final mix of Tired Eyes with the automation included for you tomorrow early afternoon (Sun.). It shouldn't be overwhelmingly different on your end. Our apologies.
-Our idiocy aside, this song sounds terrific!
9) Welcome Home
- We think there should be no downtime between Tired Eyes and this. Tired Eyes has a lengthy "post-song" (the snare rattle, the guitar beating etc.) which we think could crossfade nicely and gently into the opening (guitar tinkle into trombone blast) of Welcome Home here.
- This song seemed a bit too compressed, perhaps. For example, the bass trombone blast at the beginning seemed louder than the main part of the track. If it's possible to back off on that a little and still have the volume reasonable and all, that'd be nice.
-Was there a bass rolloff here? If so, if it was because of the trombone at the beginning or the weird loud tom section in the middle distorting or behaving otherwise weirdly, don't worry about. This parts can sound weird. The bass guitar seemed a little quieted down here, so if there was a rolloff, more bass would be cool.
-The final fadeout on this track - and hence the record - was lovely and elegant. We loved it much. Good work!
So, there you have it Jon. I hope this wasn't too much commentary to give you. We really liked what you did with everything - these were just the last little nit-picky details. Thanks for your time and energy - it's really added a great deal to the record. Give me a call if there's anything to clarify or whatnot. It's very exciting for us to be at this stage.
Lastly, what do we owe ya? I'll be sure to get you your remuneration. You've earned it!
Thanks for your work,
Cary
Jon-
I rounded up Team At Dusk over here and we gave the masters a listen tonight - great work, my man! We were all delighted with what you did. We felt that you did a really nice job with frequency management, for lack of a better term. The whole thing has a nice warmth to it without turning into mud. So, thanks for that. Also, the main thing we wanted to see from the mastering - all of the parts sitting more comfortably together - you accomplished spectacularly. If there is a general comment as far as adjustments go, it's that we would probably be happy to see 5-10% less compression overall (although Come Too Far and You Make Me Worry sound great on that end as is). Also, thanks for being so responsible timewise and getting these masters to us when we needed them. Some more detailed thoughts and requests follow:
1) Come Too Far
- We thought that the crossfade into We Could Do Anything was awesome, but that it could come 1-2 seconds faster. That is to say, a second or two less of the white noise/airfilter sound than is currently there would make it even better, we think.
2) We Could Do Anything
-This track seemed a tad too compressed, generally speaking
- There seems to be a click at the end of the track right now. In addition to just fixing this with a little fade or what-have-you, we don't really want to hear any digital silence on the record (with one possible exception we'll come to), so if you could make the cut from We Could Do Anything to You Make Me Worry harder/jump-cutier. There doesn't need to be silence there as far as we're concerned.
3) You Make Me Worry
-This track sounds great (the vocals are sitting very well).
-Did you boost the bass on this track? If so, perhaps doing it a touch less.
-There's a click at the end of this track right now that can be resolved the same way as the last transition. Again, no digital silence here - just roll on over into Farewell Joel Dean's low hum.
4) Farewell Joel Dean
- To elaborate about this transition, we think that the low hum should be 1-2 seconds longer than it is currently (before the "real" instruments come in). Nice work bringing the birds out in the beginning.
- This was one of the songs that sounded a bit too compressed to us. Ease off just a bit to allow the vocal stacking that happens throughout to be a little more dynamic.
-If there was a bass rolloff on this track, maybe bringing a little more of the bass back in. It seemed somehow more absent to us than in the mixes for whatever reason.
5) P.S.
-Cut 2 seconds off of the downtime between Farewell Joel Dean and this. If there is digital silence here, it's fine.
- This song (along with Farewell Joel Dean and Act of Violence) was one of the ones that we felt was too compressed for our taste. It seems to have buried the vocals on the verses a little much, and brought the high end of the cymbals out into too much of a wash. If you can back it off a bit, that would be great.
6) Act of Violence
-The transition from PS to this was PERFECT! Good timing, and we all felt it.
-As mentioned above, this seemed a bit too compressed to us. In particular, the bass seemed a bit absent, and the high-end cymbals (the ride in particular) kind of dominated.
- If there was a bass rolloff, a little bit more bass would be good. This might just be a result of the compression mentioned above.
7) The Face Is That Of An Angel
- There seemed to be a little click on the transition from Act of Violence to this.
- Before the guitar comes in on this song, did we give you any extra spaceship noises? If so, it would be great to add a second or two of them before the guitar comes in. Maybe a crossfade from the very end of Act of Violence (after the band has stopped and there are those little cymbal tinkles)?
- You were very polite in leaving the 4 minutes of ambient noise at the end of this track. We just stuck it on there so you could have it to use as you saw fit. As it turns out, we want it way shorter. As a ballpark figure, we thought 3:28 of the current mix would be a good place to fade out.
8) Tired Eyes
-This is probably the most annoying comment I have, so be warned.
-We did something stupid that we discovered only when listening to your master tonight, so thanks. We remixed this song largely to bring down the level of the piano. Unfortunately, when we bounced, we forgot to arm the automation on that track. So, I'm sorry to say, I'll be dropping off the REAL final mix of Tired Eyes with the automation included for you tomorrow early afternoon (Sun.). It shouldn't be overwhelmingly different on your end. Our apologies.
-Our idiocy aside, this song sounds terrific!
9) Welcome Home
- We think there should be no downtime between Tired Eyes and this. Tired Eyes has a lengthy "post-song" (the snare rattle, the guitar beating etc.) which we think could crossfade nicely and gently into the opening (guitar tinkle into trombone blast) of Welcome Home here.
- This song seemed a bit too compressed, perhaps. For example, the bass trombone blast at the beginning seemed louder than the main part of the track. If it's possible to back off on that a little and still have the volume reasonable and all, that'd be nice.
-Was there a bass rolloff here? If so, if it was because of the trombone at the beginning or the weird loud tom section in the middle distorting or behaving otherwise weirdly, don't worry about. This parts can sound weird. The bass guitar seemed a little quieted down here, so if there was a rolloff, more bass would be cool.
-The final fadeout on this track - and hence the record - was lovely and elegant. We loved it much. Good work!
So, there you have it Jon. I hope this wasn't too much commentary to give you. We really liked what you did with everything - these were just the last little nit-picky details. Thanks for your time and energy - it's really added a great deal to the record. Give me a call if there's anything to clarify or whatnot. It's very exciting for us to be at this stage.
Lastly, what do we owe ya? I'll be sure to get you your remuneration. You've earned it!
Thanks for your work,
Cary
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