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In Reply to: RE: Tip of the iceberg posted by Dave_K on June 17, 2015 at 06:33:03
One reason why there are mastering engineers is to balance/tweak the sound which the mixing engineer created, and to make the sound quality and loudness of every track "match" with the others, and to sound good/great against competitors in the marketplace.Another reason is cost. Nobody in their right mind would spend the money to do that job while sitting in a recording studio control room full of stuff, with an expensive studio on the other side of the glass. Mastering rooms are "bare bones" and specifically designed for a different specific purpose.
Lastly, there is no "one proper" level or EQ setting to hear a recording "as the mastering engineer intended". Another part of their job is to make the recording sound good in a variety of playback environments at a variety of levels.
:)
Edits: 06/17/15Follow Ups:
I wasn't trying to debate whether an independent mastering engineer adds value to the process.
I was only trying to emphasize that there are no standards to help ensure good results when the product is being developed by multiple engineers working in different places on different systems.
If frequency response and monitor level were standardized in the music industry like they are in the film industry, then in theory the mixing engineer and mastering engineer's decisions are primarily artistic. Whereas today they can be influenced by perceived differences in loudness and frequency balance that arise due to working at different levels on systems with different frequency response.
Bob Katz and Floyd Toole have articles available online that discuss the problem and solutions in more depth.
Something of a rarity, but I know that recording engineers or other pros involved in the production of a recording sometimes do specify a *proper* volume level for listening.
Read the liner notes in some of John Marks' CD recordings sometime. He definitely does believe in a proper level for the recording at hand and he definitely specifies what that level is.
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