Production Advice

Recording in Studio 3 @ SRT circa 2001

I quit my job yesterday.

It’s a big deal for me – I’ve worked at SRT for over fifteen years now, so I hope you’ll forgive me if this turns out to be a slightly self-indulgent, sentimental post !

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There are plenty of moments to enjoy in this video with veteran mastering engineer Howie Weinberg – not least, proof that mastering engineers really do have a sense of humour !

I want to pick up on just one thing he says almost in passing though, and amplify it. People are always asking “What is mastering”, and it’s a question that lots of people have tried to answer, including me:

What is mastering ?

But Howie’s analogy is short, sweet, and very, very, deep. He says that a mastering engineer is like a photographer who specialises in retouching images in the darkroom to get the very best out of them.

I want to make that statement simpler, and explore the idea in a little more depth.

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Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends, We’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside…

I know, it’s been ages.

And, the way things are looking at the moment, it’s going to stay slow for a while longer yet…

So, stay tuned to the RSS feed for future updates, including a brief summary of all the goings-on of Dynamic Range Day – but in the meantime – enjoy this video about the recording and mixing of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

I was going to say “please enjoy this video”, but honestly, if there isn’t something to delight or amuse you in here, you’re reading the wrong blog.

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AND YOU KNOW WHAT ?

I’m not going to shout about it.

Even though that was the whole idea – to be honest, I’ve been SHOUTING non-stop since midday yesterday, and I’m getting a bit of a headache. (“Shouting” on the internet means typing in ALL CAPS)

When I suggested this gimmick for Dynamic Range Day, I had no idea how good an analogy it was be for the Loudness Wars. It’s not my original idea, by the way – I can’t remember who made the comparison originally, I think it was on one of the mastering forums.

BUT ONCE YOU START TO DO IT, TYPING IN ALL CAPS STARTS TO FEEL REALLY ODD, BECAUSE ALL THE SUBTLETY, MEANING AND NUANCE OF WHAT YOU’RE TYPING IS GONE.

And when you connect that to music, it really does make the point incredibly well. Exactly the same thing happens to music when we push the level up and up – so that there’s no contrast, no light and shade, no subtlety or room for impact.

TYPING IN ALL CAPS I FIND MYSELF LOOKING FOR *NEW* WAYS TO GET EVEN MORE IMPACT AND I JUST FIND MYSELF GETTING MORE AND *MORE* FATIGUED…

…just like listening to hyper-compressed music.

So, does that mean I think the idea is a huge success ? Well, yes and no.

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…Wow.

I hoped it really was a good idea, but I never expected this kind of response.

I announced the idea of Dynamic Range Day almost exactly one month ago now, inspired by Derek Siver’s thoughts on starting a movement and Seth Godin’s suggestion to Declare A Holiday to publicise issues we care about.

Now, we have over 2500 people signed up to take part on the Facebook Event page, another 1000 who may be “attending”, and over 5000 more who have been invited.

People are posting on blogs and websites and talking about it on forums all over the place – here are just a few examples:

Sonic State
The Gear Page
Audio Geek Zine
Turn Me Up !
hb. hifi
Home Studio Corner
0dB.pl
AVI HiFi
Pleasurize Music Foundation
braindance.co.uk
Big Toe Studio
Digitube Blog

I’ve even been asked to support and contribute to a proposal for university research into the Loudness Wars – more on that in a future post !

And in less than 24 hours, RIGHT NOW, Dynamic Range Day will be is here !

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