Mixing | The loudness war

The loudness war is finally coming to an end. Many of the studio clients are asking me to determine the overall level of the mixes. This gives me the ability to mix more dynamic range into the audio instead of smashing the audio to squeeze as much volume as possible out of the tracks. This makes me so happy to hear quality music being produced at the studio.

Mixes that are smashed and hyper-compressed are lifeless and have no soul. The industry is flooded with this garbage and now we have a generation that will have to live with some form of hearing loss. I'm not sure what record execs were trying to achieve. They didn't sell any albums this year. Only Taylor Swift went Platinum and her album is not hyper-compressed. Go figure.

Mastering | Getting your mix ready

I'd like to offer some advice about mastering. Many tracks come in to the studio for mastering and sometimes the mixes are not ready to be mastered. So here are a few tips on how to get your mix ready for mastering.

The primary thing to keep in mind when mixing is to make sure that you leave enough headroom in the mix for a mastering engineer to work their magic. So many times I get a mix that has absolutely no headroom. The dynamics of been squished to a point of no return and it is virtually impossible to master these tracks. Be conservative with the volumes of your mix. If you want your music to be louder just turn up the volume on your monitors. Do not use a limiter or a compressor to squish the music and boost the level. It's a good idea to not sacrifice the dynamics of your mix for increased volume levels. Use meter software and make sure that your mix has at least 6dB of headroom. This means that the maximum peak level of your mix does not exceed -6dBFS.

Dither is another area that can be confusing. To keep things simple, don't use dither if you have no idea what it does. If you track at 48KHz | 32 bit when recording and mixing, then make your mix at the same settings. The mastering engineer will do the dithering for you and make sure that the audio fidelity is maximized. If you convert your files to a different sample rate w/o dither, then you could induce artifacts or digital distortion into your mix.

If you're not quite sure how to deliver your files for mastering, then just ask your mastering engineer. Be sure to send the best quality files, too. Don't send MP3 versions if you have WAV files available. There are many sites that allow you to transfer big files for free. Sites like wetransfer.com is a great site for file sharing.

Hope this gives you a little more insight. Please leave comments and questions.

No Platinum Albums in 2014

DeathandTaxesMag.com has an article out talking about the fact that no albums went Platinum in 2014. Now could this be because there wasn't any outstanding music in 2014? I highly doubt it. With albums from the Black Keys, Beck, & Jack White hitting the store shelves this year, the odds are in favor of music being available to go platinum. The new Taylor Swift album just hit shelves and is trying to make a big push for the holiday season, but it might be too late to save a bleak year in music sales.

Just in general, CD sales have steadily declined since the era of MP3 players. Buying a CD is not translating to the younger generations. They have no interest in collecting CDs when they can just easily download and share music digitally. Companies like Rhapsody are single handedly killing the music industry CD sales. For only $10 per month, listeners can have access to almost all the music in the world. Then they can rip the music and share it with their friends that don't have a Rhapsody account. Digital media has changed how people listen to music and the listeners will no longer pay high prices for CDs ever again...if they ever do buy CDs again.

When I go to local shows, I buy a CD from the bands for a few reasons. First, I want to support local musicians and independent music. This is where the focus of the music industry should be. If we don't support the local music scene, then we won't have any new music. Second, I like collecting unique and rare band albums. Some of these bands will only be around for a short while before the music industry gobbles them up and forces them to find another way to earn a living. So I like that my CD collection is comprised o music the most of my friends have never heard. In addition to all the great music that is recorded a the studio, I have a collection of songs that no one else on this earth has heard.

Now I'm not encouraging readers to go out and buy CDs to help stimulate the market or help main stream musicians reach platinum status. I am encouraging readers to buy CDs from indie bands and help stimulate the local music scene. Be supportive of local musicians that write and perform original music. This is the essence of music that connects us spiritually to one another and to the universe. So get off your couch once in a while and go out to see a live show. Cheer on a band you've never heard before. Support music so it can go on inspiring us and future generations.

A client has posted the 'No Platinum Albums' article link on his FB page: https://www.facebook.com/binsacca/posts/10152794615819190