From Ohm to Om — The ZenMastering Blog

So here’s a subject worth broaching…but probably one that you’ll never get a definitive answer on. You get a great collection of outboard gear. But then you patch it together with cable from Radio Shack? Of course not, but have you seen the price of boutique cable in the audiophile market? It can easily be more than the gear you’re connecting.

The first question to ask is “how much better is audiophile cable than cheap cable?” The short answer is “a lot”. But here’s where it gets complex. Anyone who knows anything about the science of sounds will tell you that good cable does not need to break the bank.

I generally stick with silver cable, as it’s a better conductor than copper (the stuff you’ll find in mid-grade “audiophile” cable like Monster). If you use that as a guide, you can find many companies that make really good silver cable for an affordable price.

When I first started mastering (back in 1998) I had Monster cable connecting everything. Then I learned about DH Labs and slowly migrated to their stuff. When I recently upgraded to Lipinski L-707 speakers, I also upped the speaker cable to DH Labs finest bi-wired stuff.

In each case, I heard a noticeable improvement in sonic clarity. However, at this point I believe I’d have to spend 10x more to get 10% improvement. And that’s the way it usually is with products…you hit a ceiling where the quality goes up incrementally but the price goes up exponentially.

I think it’s definitely worth investing in good cable if you’re going to invest in good equipment. Otherwise you’re undermining the equipment’s capability. You just need to find your acceptable price point.

This isn’t going to be a holier-than-thou rant by a mastering engineer about people who always want their music louder. It’s a realistic reply for people who do want louder mixes: make your recordings clean and good.

Now, by “clean and good” I mean two things. First, make sure that you recording/tracking is clean. Is it distorting from processing too much…or by YOU trying to make it loud? (Remember…that’s the last thing someone does in mastering: after eq-ing and compressing.)

Once you have that, make the mixes good. This means understanding a good mix and having a good set of monitors (and/or headphones) so you can create a solid mix that stands up in headphones, cars and — yes — even in MONO! (i.e. Do the drums collapse into the center channel when put in mono?)

I’ll give you a tip from the mastering perspective: M.E.’s can make just about anything loud as hell…if it’s clean and well recorded. If those two things are done right they can push the mix to the brink of destruction…and it will still sound good.

The other little secret is that — even in heavy/loud music — a bit of dynamics (say, micro-dynamics) is necessary. Did any word stick out to you in the title of this post? Probably because I set it off from the other words with visual dynamics.

So, go forth and make your recordings as quiet or loud as you want. If they’re clean and well mixed, you can take them anywhere.

…no, not the bad kind. The good kind. I’m just finishing up mastering a San Diego-based singer-songwriter’s album. When I first heard it I said to him, “wow, these drums sound good.” He kind of had a coy look when he said, “oh, those are Drums From Hell samples.”

The funny thing is that when I went to the company’s site, they market themselves a “heavy metal” drum sounds. This guy is an acoustic-based singer-songwriter…but the sound of the samples is great and sounds right at home.

It just proves to me, once again, that if you have a good drum sound to build on (real or sampled), the rest can move from there.

In life, everyone has their place. The problem is, most people have a bit of a distorted idea of what their place is. Generally, they put themselves higher in the food chain than they actually belong.

This was made evident a few years ago when I saw a study about the wealthiest Americans. Over 7% of wealthy people felt they were in the top 1% of America’s financial elite.

Yes, even the rich can be deluded.

So it goes in the game of music. People often overstep their bounds in what they feel their job is. I recently got an e-mail from a potential client who wanted to know how much I would charge for an album to be mastered. When I gave him the quote he said, “I think that’s a bit high. This really doesn’t need that much work.”

I responded by saying that, in all candor, it’s my job to decide how much work needs to be done on the mastering end…not his. And that even if it turned out not much needed to be done, the same amount of time is involved in getting to that process. I didn’t get a reply e-mail.

I’ll admit, at times I’m guilty of being brusk…but never dishonest. However, I do sort of see the mastering engineer’s job to be like Jack Nicholson’s colonel in A Few Good Men.

But I’m sure my view is also a bit distorted.

I went to get my mail today and saw a package marked par avon/royal mail. At first I though, “FINALLY! That investment with the Nigerian merchant banker is paying its dividends.” But when I opened the package I saw it was a CD that I mastered about a year ago for a band called OneDayLife.

Great band from England, a la Blink182. College-aged kids that write smart-ass punk/pop-rock…and know how to play it. I hadn’t heard this disc in a year and am listening to it as I type this entry. Damn good stuff. Makes me think there is hope for the world. Just maybe.

Just taking a moment of repose here to say thanks to everyone who’s reading. This blog doesn’t get a lot of comments, but people mention in phone calls and other e-mails that they enjoy it. One person recently even mentioned they’d read “months of archives.”

It touches the heart…and makes me think that I’m not completely crazy to have the blog. Or, if I am, I’ve got company.

I’ll keep trying to spit out a few paragraphs a day…and hopefully people will continue to find it of value.

One of the topics that came up at the NXNP music panel I sat on last weekend was posed by a well-known San Diego DJ. He said that up-and-coming musicians need to be ready and willing to compromise their art on the road to making commercial progress.

I agree, but added that there’s a fine line that needs (IMO) to be treaded: compromise vs. trusting your gut. Or, knowing when enough compromise is enough.

This is different for each artist. Some musicians don’t have and limit, as achieving success is the most important thing to them. (This, BTW, isn’t a dig: there’s a reason it’s called the music business…and people that understand that are usually better suited to be in it.) Others are very compromise-averse. This doesn’t negate their chances for success, just makes their options narrower.

In the end, every artist wants success for their art…whether it’s commercial success or personal-vision achievement. I think the hardest thing is to realize both.

I saw a 60 Minutes piece on Dubai last night. Like everyone else, I’ve heard LOTS about this emirate and was curious to learn more about it.

Perhaps it’s the way 60 Minutes portrayed it (and its prime minister), but Dubai struck me as a big version of Las Vegas: an “add water” oasis in the desert filled with people that have copious amounts of money, built on the backs of a less-fortunate class.

It also doesn’t seem like a really sound ecological idea to be dredging the ocean floor to reconstitute sand for extending coastline. But, hey, I’m no structural engineer or ecologist. I’m sure they know what they’re doing.

But, the prime minister did say they advised the U.S. against the Iraq War.

“Mr. Burns…I think we can trust the president of Cuba.”

Sat on the Music Business 101 panel yesterday @ NXNP. It was a very positive experience. I got the chance to see some old acquaintances (Ben Moore and Ken Leighton) as well as meet some new folks.

I was really impressed with the “togetherness” of the whole group. Everyone had something of value to add to the discussion, and the audience seemed to be really tuned into everything…offering some good questions at the end.

My only critique is that we didn’t have enough time to get to everyone. But I guess we could still be there…

Kudos to Kevin Hellman, and I’m looking forward to NXNP 2009…where I’d be honored to sit on another panel.

I see tons of ads for audio software and hardware that claim to “warm up” your cold/sterile digital mixes, make them more “life-like”, and improve the clarity. IMO, most of this stuff (99%, give-or-take) is crap. The best way to get great sounding recordings is never needing stuff like this.

Why don’t they work? Well, for starters it’s a mystery what really creates good sound in gear. Even very knowledgeable design engineers don’t really have any idea what about great gear that defines it’s sound. Is it the tubes? The transformers? The absence of transformers? The short signal path? Or the over-built power supplies?

The problem is, you can find examples of designs that implement all of these and still give great results. There are too many elements to gear to isolate one (i.e. the character of the tubes) to really pinpoint it and say “this is what creates great sound reproduction.”

My experience is that there’s one thing that leads to a clear, warm, life-like sound…and that’s making a recording with as few steps as possible. No matter what type of gear you use, what style of music you’re making, or how you decide to record (as long as you’re using good, solid principles of sound recording), this keeps the integrity of the signal intact and provides the most visceral listening experience.