The Voodoo of CD Mastering

The Voodoo of CD Mastering

The Voodoo of CD Mastering


Over the next week, I’m going to be doing a lot of reorganization. Let me
know what you think.

This site is best viewed with

Netscape Navigator 2.0

*.txt files are discussions I’ve been archiving from the the sonic,
ddesign, and daw-mac mailing lists and rec.audio.pro
newsgroup and a few other places. I’ve generally edited out the bulky
headers and sigs. I update these every once in a while.
The latest update is shown in parens. (Sorry the articles aren’t always
in any particular
order…)

























Digital Audio Workstations


digid-vs-sonic.txt – Digidesign vs. Sonic Solutions, what’s
right for you? (12-26-95)



Sonic Solutions

usp-dangers.txt – Dangers lurking in the Sonic Solutions USP (12-26-95)


sonic-digid-fusion.txt – Integrating Digidesign stuff with
Sonic Solutions stuff (12-26-95)


ABG (dealer page)



Digidesign
(Frank’s unofficial page)
digi-init-dae.txt – Problems
with Digidesign INIT’s and the DAE (12-26-95)


audiomedia-issues.txt – issues concerning the Audiomedia card (12-26-95)


audiomedia-noise.txt – getting the SCSI chatter out of your
Audiomedia audio (12-26-95)

PC-Based

Sadie |

Spectral |

Digital Audio Labs

Standalone

Fairlight


























Audio Hardware and Software

D-A, A-D, sample rate converters, digital meters, etc.

Apogee |

dB Technologies |

Mytek |

Z-Systems


analog2digital.txt – thoughts on A-D converters (12-26-95)


connections.txt – interfacing digital audio equipment (9-6-95)


jitter.txt – with some general DAC issues (12-26-95)


overs-and-metering.txt – and clipping and distortion etc. (12-26-95)



T.C. Electronics

m5000.txt – tidbits on the T.C. Electronics M5000
(12-26-95)


l1_vs_m5000.txt – which is better? (a moot point
since they’re totally different animals, but still interesting discussion)
(12-26-95)

DSP Plug-ins

Waves |

Arboretum

Misc. Processing

valley.txt – Tidbits on Valley DSP’s (12-26-95)

Other cool stuff

Gallery Software






























Mastering Houses


recommendations.txt – every once in a while, somebody asks for names and
numbers of good mastering engineers… here’s the nets collected two cents
(10-7-95)

MUST VISITS
(highly informative)

DRT Mastering |

Digital Domain

MasterMakers

Mastering Houses

M Works

Frankford/Wayne Mastering

Ultimate One (Hong Kong)

Trevor Sadler

Restoration and Mastering

Audio Mechanics

Quintessential Sound
Omega

Restoration and Mastering

Soundworks (w/NoNoise)

HotWax Recording

Nilson Creative Media Corp.

The iNTERLAB

Editing, etc.

Riehl Communications

Editel

























CD-Recording Hardware, Software, and Media


cdr-drives.txt – CD-R hardware and software (12-26-95)

cd-9xx.txt
on Sony’s writer (also known as cd-2xx by Sonicians) (1-3-96)

CD-Prep Software

Toast |

Golden Hawk

CD Writers
Yamaha

Media

cdr-media.txt – CD-R media (including the yellow vs. green controversy)
(12-26-95)

cd-art.txt – printing and silkscreening on CD-R’s (9-6-95)

Don’t forget…

hard-drives.txt – trials and tribulations of hard drives
for digital audio (9-6-95)

backup.txt – backing up large soundfiles (10-7-95)

audio-from-cd.txt – converting audio on CD to soundfiles (10-7-95)











General philosophy


  • canonical-jokes.txt     – including Gabe Wiener’s list of engineering jokes
    (9-6-95)


  • copy-protection.txt     – NEW! the bane of much music software (12-26-95)


  • costs.txt     – articles with specific price info (12-26-95)


  • crippling.txt     – on the annoying habit
    many companies have ofreleasing crippled versions of programs
    as marketing gimmicks (12-26-95)


  • mailing-lists.txt     – info on mastering-related (sometimes vaguely)
    mailing lists (9-6-95)

    Monitors


    • The Art (?) and Science (???) of Mastering

    Artistic Choices

    bass.txt     – how to stop bass which sounds cool on great monitors
    from going blech on cheesy boom boxes (9-6-95)

    compression.txt     – use of compression in mastering (10-7-95)

    dithering.txt     – techniques for reducing quantization distortion (12-26-95)

    equalization.txt     – use of equalization in mastering (12-26-95)

    mastering-adv.txt     – advice on “problem solving” in mastering
    (9-6-95)

    mastering-importance.txt     – colorful exchanges on the importance and role of
    the mastering engineer (9-6-95)


  • noise-be-gone.txt     – tools and tips for dehissing, declicking, decrackling,
    etc. (12-26-95)

    normalization.txt     – to normalize or not to normalize (and issues related
    to matching apparent volumes) (10-7-95)

    pitch-shift.txt     pitch shifting and time stretching/squishing (12-26-95)

    stereo-image.txt     – improving the stereo image during mastering (9-6-95)
    		•

    Technicalities

    1630-vs-exabyte.txt     – (and vs. CD-R) What’s the best
    mastering format? (12-26-95)

    error-correction.txt     – (in CD’s, DAT’s, etc.) (12-26-95)

    filter-formulas.txt     – conversion formulas
    for filters specified with differing units (12-26-95)

    golden-ears.txt     – do these lessons in listening work? (12-26-95)

    redbook.txt     – CD format standards (12-26-95)

    hidden-track.txt     – NEW! (with some general DAC issues)
    (12-26-95)