Audio Defined. Densification and thinning of the air molecules – it is really all there is. But because our brains have learned to use sound to retrieve information from the outside world, and eventually started to use sound to communicate with other brains, can get things to express and evoke feelings that sounds.
This takes Björn Engelmann, MD of Sweden’s best mastering studio Cutting Room, fixed on where he sits and works in his studio at St. Eriksplan. Educated at the Swedish Radio he began to engrave vinyl records at Polar Studios in the early 80s before he went over to the Cutting Room in 1985.
When we come by to say hello, there are final mixes on tape with Per Gessle and the Melody Club in front, and on computer screens, we see Tempest’s upcoming album visually rendered as compact sound waves. With the help of equalizers, compressors, and his professional ability, Bjorn produces a sound image that he says makes the “music to sparkle and shine a little extra” compared to the final mix he was delivered from the recording studio.
-The result of a good mix is chills and goose bumps, says Björn Engelman. Although I use both proven methods and proprietary trade secrets, there is never a given recipe for a final master to be achieved, it is different for each track and must always be examined carefully presented.
The word Mastering comes from the process aimed to produce a finished audio master, from which vinyl records and CDs can be produced. Mastering is an art that is surrounded by a certain mystique in the music industry – even talented producers can get some wonder in his eyes when they talk about good mastering technicians sensitive ears and the expensive machinery.
But as the sound technology is evolving so do the demands on how the older music should sound. The analog-digital conversions which were made from the old tapes in the CD’s early years is not comparable to today’s standards. Making new masters of the old tapes have become popular, on the 9th of September 2009 Apple Records released new mastered versions of all of the Beatles studio recordings.
But what is the goal of sound image when re-mastring? Is it to to sound as much like a vinyl disc as possible, minus the background noise? Should it sound like it did in the studio, but if so, in whose headphones, or from which chair position? Should it sound like the raw, un-mastered cassettes?
-None of that, says Björn Engelman. One should go from the audio tape, as with any other form of mastering, polish the facets of the unpolished diamond as the finished raw mix from the studio can be compared to. This means the re-mastering gang at Abbey Road needed to rely on their own creative ability governed by their own feelings about how they think the material should have sounded – ultimately that is about it.
How does it look for mastering the art in a climate where it soon will not be made any CDs anymore, and people seem content with overly compressed mp3s? And, perhaps more importantly, where most opt out of home stereo equipment for the benefit of the computer’s built-in speakers and the small iPod-shells? Is the result of mastering still relevant, or is it already removed compressed when it reaches the majority of listener ear?
Björn Engelman says that it is as important as ever, because mastering is designed to optimize listening in all formats – from advanced stereo equipment to the smallest laptop. People have been listening to music in small cash radios as long as pop music existed. Furthermore, it is a myth that we only listen to music in a bad format today. Mp3s are drawn all over a comb, even though they have significant differences depending on what bit rate they are made.
E-mastering can vary in quality and you should never pay in advance – sometimes customers got back a file in which they have not heard any difference after “mastering”. The new wave of home mastering with software programs, however, nothing Björn Engelman offers his thoughts:
“Do-it-yourself-just-as-good” is based on uneducated and a little knowledge. I would not invest in an analog-digital converter for 6,000 Euro or an analog EQ for 12,000 Euro if there were AD’s or EQ plug-ins for 200 Euro which are just as good.
One of mastering’s primary functions is precisely to bring up the volume on a rich and sonorous manner, without the sound sounding distorted and poor. But recent years have shown an inflation in the volume – there is a volume war where record companies want higher and higher final masters, because everyone wants to play their disc to have a bit fatter volume than any other, or at least as high. To make a volume increase is necessary to compress the sound together, that is, reduce the peaks in amplitude sound waves so that the sound is more compact. The strong become weaker, making the entire volume of the mixture to be increased without making it too strong in which the song is strongest, but it also makes the music less dynamic.
Volume-war is an abomination, sighs Bjorn. When customers ask for adjustments in the finished material, it is in nine cases out of ten for pulling up the volume further. People are afraid to play their song to sound weak, now when everything else is so maximized. Sure you can, but at the expense of the musical expression.
There are emotional values in sound and pictures to change them do not go unpunished – Beatles re-mastered editions are likely to create controversy among Beatles fans, not least compression carried out to just increase the volume. Critics will argue that much of The Beatles charm lay in their sound just as it was, while proponents will argue that it is fair when the old songs are played along with new music, and that re-masterings will attract new generations of listeners who could not embrace the music as it has so far failed. Again, it will support what music is historically accurate. Quite unnecessarily, since only each listener emotions can decide what is right and wrong. With goose bumps and chills as a result.
From an interview with Björn Engelman in Swedish newspaper SvD.
Published: September 4, 2009, 00:30. Last Modified: September 8, 2009, 08.07
