From L-R : Roger Johansen - Owner, Tangerine Mastering; Andres Mayo — Owner, Andres Mayo Mastering; Bob Auld, AES NY Section Chair.
Bob Auld, Section Chair, welcomed about 50 members and guests. He mentioned the passing of pioneering Mercury Living Presence producer Wilma Cozart Fine. Roger Johansen introduced our presenter, Mr. Mayo.
In today's music creation environment, artists and producers are often using their home studios for music production. While achieving a better cost/benefit ratio, they usually lack technical resources, and the acoustic response of their rooms is unknown. Therefore, there is greater need for a professional mastering service in order to achieve so-called "standard commercial quality", and bring objectivity into the work being created.
Andres Mayo is the owner of Andres Mayo Mastering in Buenos Aires, Argentina. His studio is a state of the art 5.1 surround mastering facility and he has lectured worldwide on the topic of surround sound. In his presentation Andres tried to answer the question "What can and what can't be fixed at the mastering stage?" He discussed a list of common mistakes that can be found in homemade mixes, with audio examples taken directly from recent mastering sessions. Topics included: bass and kick being too present; sibilance and harshness in vocals; mixes that are too bright, or have excessive or insufficient dynamic range; hiss or broadband noise from mics and outboard gear; and jitter and dithering problems. Andres often finds songs that are mixed at different levels, and therefore lack unity and a focal point in terms of an overall album sound.
He went on to present listening examples. We learned that focus can be lost if, in a very short period, we are presented with a multitude of processing choices to examine. We often go for the variant that is too bright.
Andres also talked about the role of the mastering engineer. His goal is to educate the artist and producer who comes in with an album created in a home project studio. It is a win/win situation for him when the album comes into the mastering session with the least amount of non-mastering work for him to do on it. The mastering engineer has to understand the artist's concept of the work or project; never try to hide his or her opinion; do anything to help the music come out; and never insist on modifying something to which the artist is deeply committed.
He also discussed the uses of equipment for mastering, and imparted a technique of using the DeEsser in the TC6000 for fixing overly-prominent bass, kick, guitar or vocals, as well as multiple level DeEssing on vocals.
His parting words included advice to all engineers: be as versatile in as many recording fields and genres as possible. It is a changing world, and this may be the best way to ensure work for the foreseeable future.
