Mastering Post-Production For LP
Entering into this mastering production, I received the brief of mastering 10 tracks + 1 B-side of an alternative electro acoustic LP. Receiving reference for levels consisting of - “Search Party” & “Royal Blue Walls“ by Jane Remover, and “The Last High” by The Dandy Warhols.
Following this, I received the files and began a preliminary master of the tracks. With the first tracks being mastered with the artist present, we honed a good sound which was satisfactory - and then for the rest of the tracks this was done independently to bring up similarly to the first few done. Utilising some mid/side processing to add depth into the centre mids of the mix, this emphasised some of the heavier synth elements whilst still providing a spatial dynamic to the mix to enhance it’s stereo presense. Additionally to this, some compression and overall stereo balancing was applied to each track. The balancing focused the low-end as especially prominent as was the case in the initial mixes, with compression and soft clipping adding grit to the backing synthesis and percussive elements.
Following a digital test pressing being sent to the client, and following reception and feedback it was concluded that the low-end and soft clipping was now too prominent. Going back to the masters with the artist, we found the mid/side processing was also excessive in it’s redistribution of the mix, bringing this right down to bring the mid sections closer in proximity to the lister, this also had the additional effect of balancing the base better against the rest of the mix, however it was still left in a place of needing additional enhancement and lift.
With a few other areas of adjustment such as level balancing of backing vocals and midrange enhancement, the overall consideration going forward was to achieve an enhancing fuller midrange and crisper top-end sound which falls closer to the timbral qualities of a more vintage / large FM sound. With this in mind, planning forward for the achievement of this sound I knew I’d need to find something new to utilise in achieving this sound. Following some investigation into this area, I came across a post-production trick utilising the encoding stages of a Dolby A processing unit. This processing circuit essentially works as a multiband splitter & compressor / expander. Using the architecture described below, I set up an emulator using multiple aux tracks / filters & compression to replicate the sound of this processing unit. Having been previously used in its hardware form for numerous mastering applications over its time as a popular processing unit, however predominately also for vocals, the application of this emulated version felt both relevant and appropriate if the results were to be as expected.
Utilising this expanding processing configuration, I have gone ahead and routed signal in parallel from the tracks in the mastering session. With tracks having immediately been enhanced to a significant degree from this processing upon first impressions. Imparting reinforcing sound characteristics of a fuller and crisper image, the top-end is certainly enhanced with a clean airy quality which provides polish to spacious mix sections and a crisp texture to heavy distorted synth sections. Overall enhanced definition across the stereo field - comparable to resolution increase. With this new processing bringing noticeable better results, I went through the tracklist and began remastering track by track.
Notable dependent variations on each master include send level to the Dolby A - ranging from -18db to -11db. Compression has been significantly reduced, with some bypassed completely or utilised at <70% primarily for imparting timbral characteristics. With heightened and enhanced high-end, low end balance has improved. Most significant sonic adjustments occur from EQ, utilising mid-side processing the sides on all tracks have been attenuated up in mid-high bands, with mids having cuts and only few boosts. Most processing sequenced EQ before light compression, being then sent in parallel to the Dolby A and merging finally at the stereo bus and final limiter.
Following this, I sent another digital test pressing to the artist to see what their consensus is on the sound. After receiving very positive feedback on the overall sonics of each track, I exported out each individual track / assigned metadata, and transferred over the final masters to the artist.
