[Frank Stearns]

(Scott Dorsey) writes:

Frank Stearns wrote:
I sent a recent project back to the mastering house *three times*,
****ing off many people in the process. (Though, to their credit,
each time the client thought "everything sounded great" they could
eventually hear what I had been complaining about as each revision came back.

So, why weren't you at the mastering session?

Normally, I would have been. But relocating to a rural setting has made such travel
awkward at best. I was in the loop remotely for another project which turned out
reasonably well -- but that mastering guy was in New York, and the clients wanted
something local to them (Portland, 2500 miles from NY, 1000 miles from me).

Besides, after several pre-project email exchanges, reviews of other projects,
testimonials, etc, confidence was high that we'd get something good.

Unless you absolutely know the mastering engineer and he knows exactly
what your tastes are, you really want to attend the session because
the sooner you catch things, the better.

That's potentially a two-edged sword. I'm not sure I want "my tastes" possibly
derailing the guy from what he supposedly does best. I'm perfectly willing to accept
something done better. My ego would not be bruised because I hadn't thought of
something. I just don't want something worse!


My ongoing question to the engineer had been didn't you hear any of
these issues while you mastered???

He did, but bright and heavily limited is fashionable.

That's true, but I do think one redeeming thing about this place was that they
didn't always do that. I think there was something in his room, monitors,
or processing methods that let this get by.

Even after 3 tries it was not what it should have been. It
became (to the client) diminishing returns, and the mastering house
had, in their own estimation, done everything I'd asked for -- except
bring back fully the depth and sparkle that I'd sent them. They
apparently simply could not hear the difference, and the sound had
thus been "grayed". The sound had become dimensionally flat and musically
not as interesting.

And you won't get that unless you can sit down with the mastering engineer
and go one step a time through the chain so you can point out exactly what
it is that you want. The mastering engineer is likely to be doing what is
fashionable right now rather than what you want, unless you're there.

Well, I'd be somewhat hesitant to start having him pull apart his chain. Who knows
-- with his room and monitors, I too might /not/ have heard these issues to begin
with while on site, and then, later, upon review in my room, the fingers start going
back and forth..."You were here, you heard it, so what's the problem?" kind of
thing.

As it was, he was willing to go through 3 iterations without additional charge.

I didn't think so, as I have heard (and own) some stunning CDs with
the qualities I aspire to get in my own work. And in playing back
this recent project for laymen (but on good monitors in a good room)
they each could readily detect the before and not-so-good after.

Well, find the mastering engineers that did those projects, and call them!
But even doing that, you want to attend the session.

Unfortunately, Doug Sax has passed; not sure of the current state of the Mastering
Lab, and I doubt my clients could have afforded them in any event.


I'm curious as to your own experiences with your own releases. Do you feel a growing
disservice from mastering in general, or have you found a few gems
scattered among the gravel? If so, I'd love to know who you prefer to
use. (The mastering house noted above came highly recommended and had
some bigger-name clients, but I'll never go near them again.)

I call Don Grossinger. It took many years of working with him before I got
to the point where I was just willing to send him a couple reels of tape and
have him do it unattended, though.

Okay, thanks.

I remember being at Europadisc with him when I first got him to disable
the Neumann limiter he had in the desk....

See, this is an underlying thing that's bothering me. If anything, the mastering
folks ought to be the supreme minimalists, hopefully understanding that even if a
piece of gear isn't actively "doing something" it will color the sound. The thinking
should be that of only adding something if really needed.

Some work that way, but a growing trend seems to be "just leave it all in the signal
path, turn it all on, and then rock-on, dude." (Shudder.)

In the later revisions of this project, the guy pulled analog and digital pieces out
of the chain. At least at that point my ears stopped hurting. I'm still incredulous
he didn't hear those issues from the beginning.

Frank
Mobile Audio
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