What is "Mastering"
Mastering. The word "mastering" brings up different concepts of what actually is being done to your music. Lets take a step back and discuss some ideas. Have you ever noticed that some CDs sound LOUDER than others? If you look at the meters on your stereo you may also notice that the difference in the levels are actually very small between louder CDs and quieter CDs. The reason for this is that the stereo meters measure the level of electrical energy, while we humans just know that it is either louder or quieter. Digital music is on a scale where 0 dB (zero decibals) is the loudest the music can be, all other (quieter) levels being expressed in negative numbers like >> -8 db or -62db. Now heres the tricky part, we humans perceive equal levels of different sounds unequally. We always perceive higher frequency sounds as louder than an equal electrical level sound of lower frequency. If we were to EQ (as part of mastering) more high end in your music (along with compression and low end enhancement) the final product would sound LOUDER and more agressive (aka White Zombie, Ministry) although there is a trade off in low end.
There is no hard and fast rules that must be followed when mastering: The goal is to have a CD where the listener can set their EQ to their liking and not having to adjust his EQ to compensate for huge leaps in tone and/or volume between songs (unless of cousre drastic is desired!). An Improperly mastered CD will sound uneven between songs if the perceived levels are not kept equal. All the songs may have been put to DAT at zero dB, but they can be dramaticly different in their LOUDNESS! Do not under estimate this important step in your project. Lump Head Studio can Master your DAT and give you a "red book" CD, the industry standard for Glass Mastering (Mass Production Preperation).