Interesting article on Syro's masterer

There's a recent Guardian article on Mandy Parnell, the woman who mastered Syro for CD.  And here's an interview with her for Sound On Sound.

vinyl mastering > cd. bummed the vinyl mastering wasn't released digitally :^( 

The CD master is worse than the vinyl (which probably wasn't much processed at all) for those of us who like to hear Richard's tricks in their purity, but it's an extraordinarily difficult album to master and she did a great job making it pump without going over the top. She was obviously instructed to maximize it in accordance with the loudness war and had to make compromises that make certain detailed tracks (circlont6a in particular) sound bad.

Agreed. Would love to hear the unmastered digital for reference. Most of the time I tend to prefer it, I tend to think the artist that creates the music probably has the best sense of intentionality in mind, though whoever the fella was that mastered the Analords (I know he's been mentioned here before jus can't be arsed to remember) has an excellent set o' ears. She said it herself: everyone wants loudness. If anyone from Warp's production team is reading this: PLEASE STOP

Well you could have a point. From personal experience, my own music has often come back sounding quite different after a mastering engineer gets their hands on it.

I feel I should qualify that last post in that I think overall she did a fine job with Syro, vinyl definitely sounds better mixed imo, but in general I think I'd rather have dynamics over loudness any day. I feel for engineers that have to try to make something that'll sound as good on cheap bluetooth speakers as it would in a car as it would on a boat and hifi.

The CD master still isn't too terrible

I prefer the CD.

Thx for posting!

I'm guessing the digitals are mastered the same as the cd master. Although theres the especially mastered for itunes thing as well. So that makes me wonder whether digitals are generally mastered separately from the cd version.

  On 2/19/2017 at 1:25 AM, killabyte11 said:

Well you could have a point. From personal experience, my own music has often come back sounding quite different after a mastering engineer gets their hands on it.

Post ur tunes

I can't tell the difference between the cd master and the vinyl. They both sound great to me. Maybe the difference is more noticeable on shittier speakers, I've only compared on my monitors.

  On 2/19/2017 at 11:25 AM, caze said:

I can't tell the difference between the cd master and the vinyl. They both sound great to me. Maybe the difference is more noticeable on shittier speakers, I've only compared on my monitors.

to me its the tiniest details of the percussion in the tracks standing out a bit more in the vinyl. can hear the individual shakes,etc. compared to the cd master which sounds more like a uniform whole ? 

i got the 24bit wav's from syro and the cd and i honestly can't tell a difference

  On 2/19/2017 at 1:25 AM, killabyte11 said:

Well you could have a point. From personal experience, my own music has often come back sounding quite different after a mastering engineer gets their hands on it.

in a good or a bad way? and what made you give it to a mastering engineer?

also post ur fuckin tunes, enough of this blue balls shit, maybe i'll buy a record if if i like it

In any case - digital will never sound like analog, even if we try to bring closer the digital sound to the analog sound

I prefer the oggs

  On 2/20/2017 at 1:34 PM, Bechuga said:

I prefer the oggs

wma or the highway

  On 2/18/2017 at 5:38 PM, ZoeB said:

And here's an interview with her for Sound On Sound.

This was amazing! Thank you for sharing this!

How often do people just skip the mastering process? I imagine there are some artists who don't like their tracks sounding differently than they mixed them.

  On 2/20/2017 at 10:15 PM, Brisbot said:

How often do people just skip the mastering process? I imagine there are some artists who don't like their tracks sounding differently than they mixed them.

There should be a dialogue between the mixing and mastering engineers when it comes to mastering. Like Mandy said in the SoS video, the mastering engineer is the unbiased neutral listener before mastering, so they can give honest feedback on anything they notice. Whether the mixer agrees or not is to be discussed.

On artists skipping the mastering process, in my experience, most bedroom producers are actually skipping the mastering engineer - mastering their own mixes by consistently flooring a limiter on the master bus without realizing that they essentially mastering their track.

  On 2/19/2017 at 11:25 AM, caze said:

I can't tell the difference between the cd master and the vinyl. They both sound great to me. Maybe the difference is more noticeable on shittier speakers, I've only compared on my monitors.

apologies in advance for super neurotic post here.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m9fik1qijg04fcj/circlon14.mp3?dl=0

first 25 seconds = cd, second 25 seconds = own personal vinyl rip (complete with pops and noise)..

i've lowered the cd master 7db to get it matching the volume of the vinyl rip. 

the percussion in the second half has pretty distinct rim clicks, etc. that get kind of swamped out in the cd master.

the main difference is that the small details in the background get compromised to allow the overall volume to be louder (which more than anything is immediately noticeable in the percussion). it's subtle but the distinction's there enough for me to prefer the vinyl mastering. 

also, this isn't so much a jab at the masterer as much as it is on the industrys expectations for things to be at a certain volume (the whole loudness war thing dictating how things should sound?). 

and just so noone complains about me posting snippets of copyrighted music .. the vinyl is still available to purchase -> https://bleep.com/release/53848-aphex-twin-syro

It's an incredible shame that all of the digital formats, even the 24bit WAV is the CD master. Good luck hearing the extra details that lossless formats enable when the mix is so loud. Imagine having the vinyl master in a digital format without any skimping on the low-end. I guess you can't listen to anything without compromises these days.

ye i'm sure alot of people have no issues with the cd master and are prolly thinking i'm being pedantic, which is fine by me. 

the vinyl does exist though and i'm happy to listen to that i guess, over the cd master which is still good :^) 

Mandy Parnell discussing the mastering process she acknowledges the challenges of mastering for the current climate as well, which is cool.

Yeah I just listened to the vinyl and my WAVs back to back and the difference is substantial. Dang. Such is the way of the industry I suppose. Definitely makes me rethink my own mastering a bit tho.

buy my arse, only a fiver