The Last Decibel
Posted on | November 29, 2009 | No Comments
There’s a theory in power amp design that the first watt is the most important watt. I’ve been thinking lately that, in mastering, the last decibel may be an equivalent concept.
There’s always a point — in modern music mastering — where people want the mix as loud as possible. And it’s part of my job to decide (and convince the client) when that last reasonable decibel of dynamic range has been squeezed out of a mix. This is the point where the music loses its impact and clarity and starts sounding bad. Snares loose their crack; bass guitar and kick start melding into a low-frequency “feeling” rather than defined instruments, and the depth and width of the sound stage begin to collapse. Believe it or not — the line is usually crossed within a 1db threshold.
This is why the most pristine playback system (and listening environment) — coupled with proper metering and good engineering experience/judgment — is so important in mastering. It doesn’t matter how much amazing gear a mastering engineer uses to process a mix. If that last decibel has been exceeded, all the effort that came before in the recording, mixing, and mastering process falls apart.
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From Ohm to Om reflects the opinions of mastering engineer Paul Abbott, owner of San Diego's ZenMastering.
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