MAMEWorld Forums - The Loony Bin - Re: CDs to be abandoned by major labels in 2012

> I think the sound of the master tape should be preserved. I cannot speak for hip hop
> or rap because I don't listen to that type of music. If it, or any music for that
> matter, needs a certain amount of compression, fine. Let the producer and artist
> determine that and put it on the master tape that way. Once the master tape is done,
> the medium that you listen to should be transparent. It shouldn't add or take away
> anything. To me the only thing remastering should do is remove noise and repair
> things like tape dropouts, etc. Unfortunately, the sound of the master tape is no
> longer preserved as the producer / artist intended to sound. It is EQ'd, compressed,
> clipped, etc.

The thing is, you wouldn't like the sound of a raw mixdown. Mastering is a little understood but critical part of the recording process. It's really something of a black art. Most mastering engineers are specialists - that's all they do.

It's kind of hard to explain what it is, exactly. Part of it is compensating for the limitations and characteristics of the format(s) the music is destined for. Part of it is giving a consistent sound to all of the tracks on an album. And part of it is just giving the recording that final layer of polish.

There are really only a few reasons for remastering, beyond making more money for the record company. The biggest is simply to master the recording for contemporary formats. A lot of the complaints about "harsh" CDs in the early days were due to record companies taking the masters that were created for vinyl and just transferring them to CD. Once you started getting recordings that were mastered specifically for CD, a lot of the harshness complaints went away. Another reason is to take advantage of technology that simply didn't exist back in the day. Finally, some recordings were simply not mastered very well. A lot of them were pushed out quickly, without a lot of care. After all, nobody knew at the time which ones would become classics and which ones would flop.

The basic problem these days is the record companies messing with the process. Someone decided about 10-15 years ago that a louder recording "popped" more, and would therefore attract more attention and sell more copies. Everyone jumped on board, and so now you have the Loudness Wars. I'm sure most mastering engineers know better, but in the end they're just employees of the record company. You can take a stand on the artistic integrity of the latest Justin Beiber album, or you can collect your paycheck and go home to your kids.