Mandy Parnell Discussing Mastering

[john]

Hi

 

Award winning Mastering Engineer Mandy Parnell discusses production and mastering. She is credited on albums by Aphex Twin, Björk, Snoop Dogg, The White Stripes, The XX, Brian ENO and many more. Mandy Parnell is one of the most respected Engineers in the business. Here she discusses her perspective on the dark art of audio mastering. She covers what mastering involves and what it doesn’t involve, industry best practices when preparing material for mastering, gear, home mastering, online mastering services and much more. A very worthwhile watch.

 

 

 

[MikeRobinson]

As I listened to this clip – and, thank you, John, for sharing it – I was reminded of the "TV section of the department store" experience:  "every display, of 'the same signal,' is different."  (Yes, things are very-decidedly different at The Apple Store, where all of their equipment is calibrated.  But even so ...) "The path from 'your product' to 'the eventual consumer' remains, in some weird way, 'almost as uncertain as in the days of m-o-n-o(!) AM Radio."  Caveat Producer...

 

One take-away seems most clear:  "Give 'em room."  Don't give 'em a file of digital numbers that is "as close to 'the maximum integer' as possible," because their faceless algorithms (no one is actually listening ...) are going to perform mathematical operations against it that you won't like. (And they won't all do the same thing.)  

 

"And then, there are ... earbuds."

[ImKeN]

I love what she said about emotion.