Audio Mastering Cleveland Ohio

Audio Mastering, the final and crucial step of audio production, requires a meticulous approach. It involves three distinct stages. The first is the delicate task of balancing all the instruments of a stereo mix. For example, in a rock song, the guitars and drums need to be balanced to create a powerful sound. The next step is to optimize playback across all media formats, a process that demands precision. This is crucial for ensuring that a jazz track sounds as rich and full on a vinyl record as it does on a digital platform. The final stage is to ensure that each song on an album resonates with the others, creating a cohesive and harmonious body of work, a beautiful outcome of the mastering process, regardless of the genre.

Traditionally, mastering uses four tools. The first is equalization. The second is the compressor. A third device on the list is limiting. The last is a stereo enhancer. The stereo enhancement would include a sum and side processor.

Audio Mastering takes a holistic approach, whether in Cleveland, Ohio, or elsewhere. It treats all the songs on an album as a unified entity, not just a collection of individual tracks. The treatment of songs follows a three-step process. The first purpose is to make the songs sound like they belong to the same record, creating a sense of unity. The second goal is to attain cohesiveness in your songs, ensuring they flow seamlessly from one to another. Lastly, the audio engineer should raise the volume of the pieces of music to the industry-standard level, a specific volume range recommended for distribution on all forms of media, ensuring they are ready to be enjoyed by the audience professionally.

Analog Designs Black Box - Our Secret Weapon for Audio Mastering

At Starsound Studios, we take a unique and comprehensive approach to audio mastering. We use high-end mastering equipment and a meticulous sonic approach to mixing and mastering audio. Unlike the traditional method of mastering audio separately, we combine these processes, ensuring every element of your music is given the attention it deserves. This comprehensive approach, where every aspect of your music is taken care of, allows us to deliver exceptional results in one seamless process.

At Starsound Studios, we rely on high-quality equipment to ensure the best results. We first run the bussed audio from the individual tracks to our “return” AUX track. The first plugin on our mastering return track is the Brainworx Digital V-3. We use it to seek out and eliminate “masking” frequencies. The next plugin is the Analog Designs Black Box.

The audio then receives further digital processing by plugins on that auxiliary track. First, the new processing would include our custom-made pre-set on the SSL Bus Compressor. We also use the mastering compressor plugin from Capital Records. Last but not least is the audio limiter. The limiter, positioned at the end of the chain, is a crucial tool in audio mastering. It ensures that the audio track reaches a competitive radio level by preventing any peaks from exceeding a certain threshold, thereby maintaining a consistent and balanced sound.

Audio Mastering Process

The Audio Mastering process in Cleveland, Ohio, is comprehensive and cutting-edge. First, we start with the usual plugins on the master AUX channel. Then, we bounce the master AUX track to a second AUX track with four plugins to reach exacting LUFS and genre-specific Tonal Balance. Of course, those three plugins are in a specific order for a particular reason. Ozone 10 is first. The EQ curve is set to scoop the sound to the way we prefer. Ozone 9 Advanced EQ is second. Ozone Tonal Balance is third. The fourth and most important is Process Audio's plugin, Decibel. The Ozone products speak to each other. That inter-plugin communication lets us use Ozone's research into hundreds of genre specific songs within Tonal Balance. We can see if we have reached the same EQ balance as their research. Usually, we are close if we still need to achieve their exact target. If we do not hit the precise target, ozone 10's Tonal Balance speaks to Ozone 10's EQ. We can correct that without leaving Tonal Balance. The last plugin in the chain is Process Audio's Decibel. Decibel is a powerful audio LUFS meter that lets us achieve exacting social media standards.

Our use of these four plugins is about meeting standards. This approach ensures strict LUFS mastering standards and genre-specific EQ. The final step is to bounce the meter AUX track to an audio track, meticulously recording every LUFS goal to stereo audio WAV masters. This meticulous recording process, where we ensure we meet the LUFS target goal, is a testament to our commitment to delivering the best possible results. You receive one social media standard at -14 LUFS and -4dB True Peak. We then transform these into MP-3s from the WAV LUFS standard masters, a process in the standalone Ozone 9 Advanced. We've found that Ozone 9 Advanced produces superior sounds to our ears compared to simply bouncing out of ProTools. We also appreciate the creation of metadata within Ozone 9. The process may be long and tedious (3 to 4 hours). Still, it's a testament to our commitment to delivering the best possible results.