Mastering in Manhattan

Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM, By Mike Levine

11:30 AM Listening Down

Chuck Morrison, the owner of MoRisen Records, arrived. Shortly thereafter, Calbi started listening to the stereo mixes for the session (which were delivered on a hard drive) on his Pro Tools rig. The songs, by The Talk, could be described as guitar-based, British-sounding pop rock with an indie edge.

Calbi explained that first it's important to listen to at least part of all the songs to get a good idea of what needs to be done. It's better, he said, “than starting to twist and turn knobs and take something to a place where you're not going to really go, or overbake it or overcrank it.”

According to Calbi, the preliminary listening lets him get a handle on the overall fidelity. “Whether its smooth or rich sounding, whether its plastic sounding or digital sounding.” As he listened to one of the mixes, he said, “This one is sort of on the plastic-digital side. And I can definitely deal with that in two or three different ways immediately, by going through this tube equipment.

“The great thing with this song is that balances seem correct to me. The vocal balance compared with the guitar seems right, the bass — although the sound could be improved — is not too loud or too low. If the balances are good, we know that we're not going to have to struggle today. A lot of it is going to be just a matter of trying to make it more texturally pleasing.”

As you might expect, badly balanced mixes are a lot more challenging to master. “If you get something where the drums are like, way, way too loud, the vocals are buried, the guitars are too low, or the guitars are overwhelming everything and they're really bright,” Calbi said, “then you're going to have a very remedial sort of day, and it's really tough.”

After listening to more of The Talk's songs, he said that he was noticing “some bass inconsistency that we're going to have to iron out. Otherwise, the songs where the bass is light are going to have less impact and are going to sound weak, and the album is not going to have momentum.”

He listened for one song from the group to use as a benchmark that he could tailor the rest of the mixes to. “You look for one to do first that's pretty much where you want to go.”

While Calbi continued to listen, I talked to Morrison. He told me that MoRisen has nine artists on its roster currently, including The Talk. I asked him if they're all from the Southeast. “Everybody's from North Carolina, believe it or not,” he said. “There's a good regional scene there.”

Morrison was enthusiastic about The Talk's upcoming CD. “It's the biggest record I've done to date,” he said, “in terms of time, budget, people working on it, additional musicians that we used on a couple of songs, and so on.”

I asked him how long the mastering sessions he attends generally last. “Usually, just a day,” he said. “I've never had a two-day session mastering, anywhere.” Calbi told me that about 60 to 70 percent of his sessions are attended.

12:10 PM Let the Tweaking Begin

Calbi had finished his preliminary listening and was ready to get started with the actual mastering. He decided to start with a song called “Any Other Saturday” and use it as his benchmark.

The basic signal path that he would use throughout the session started at the Pro Tools rig, where the source files resided (see Fig. 6). The signal would then pass digitally through the Muth console after which it would be converted, temporarily, to analog. Then it would pass through a custom-built tube amplifier that Calbi decided to use to help warm up the sound. While it was still analog, Calbi could also patch in a variety of processors, as needed for each song.

Next, the signal would be converted back to digital and split, with one pair going to the rack of digital processors and the other going into the inputs for Pyramix on the PC. With the sophisticated switching and monitoring capabilities of the Muth console, Calbi would be able to compare the original song, the analog-processed version, and the analog and digitally processed signal.

12:25 PM All Things Being Equalized

For “Any Other Saturday,” Calbi eventually decided to add several equalizers from his analog arsenal. He chose the Manley Massive Passive and the two EAR 822Qs. He pushed a button on the console that sent the mix through an M/S matrix, allowing him to work on center-channel elements. “The Manley is set up so I'm EQing the center channel separately from the side channel,” he said. “The vocals are being pulled forward, and I'm pulling the bass out a little bit.”

I asked him what frequencies he had adjusted with the various EQs on this song. “A dB at 150 Hz, a little bit at 112 Hz, and that center channel EQ that I talked about at 1.2 kHz,” he said. “I'm getting the vocal all clear and the bass nice and filled out.”

He also decided on some digital EQ settings, and then printed a copy of the song (minus the digital EQ, which will be printed later) into Pyramix.

“Notice that I lowered the volume when making a copy,” he pointed out. “That's what I was talking about before: I only listen to something loudly when I have to. That's why I always turn it down. Otherwise, at the end of the day, everything starts getting brighter. It's like when you get in the car the next morning after you were listening to music the night before, and you turn the car on and all of a sudden, ‘Wow! What the hell was I doing?’”