On Mon, Jun 16, 2003 at 09:24:01AM -0700, Mark Knecht wrote: > I think one point that is getting overlooked by a few folks here is that > often the tracks on a commercial CD are not done on the same tools, or even > in the same studio. They may not be done by the same tracking engineer, or > the same mixing engineer. One may be done in London and another in LA, all > using different people, with each track having it's own sound and > characteristics. > > A major task of the mastering engineer is to put all of this together into a > final product that sounds consistent and works together. The mental tools, > and ears, required to do that are potentially quite different than those > used to get the tracks on disk... Indeed. The last CD that my band recorded was done in 2 very different studios: A) 48-track DA-88 studio with tracking engineer Shari and mixing engineer Dave. B) 16-track 2" analog / 24-track ProTools hybrid studio with tracking & mixing engineers Mike & as you'd imagine, the resulting tracks were quite different. The transitions between A and B on the released CD are quite smooth and not at all obvious - you have to listen closely to the drum compression to notice which is 2" and which is DA-88, that makes it obvious to my ears. I own a CD by one of my favorite bands that was done in a similar way, and the mastering engineer was asleep at the switch IMHO. The two studios are night and day and the transitions are jarring. -- Paul Winkler http://www.slinkp.com Look! Up in the sky! It's ULTI IDEAS! (random hero from isometric.spaceninja.com)
