I tend to agree with the above posts of Jeremy and Mark. I'm no master of the mastering by any 2 bits...however, in my little world of audio, I have noticed a few things...

I use Bias Peak on a MAC platform. When I first got the software up and running, I was a mastering fool...everything that was on 2 track DAT found it's way on my MAC HD and compressed, smashed flattned out like a piece of paper...the hottest possible levels without clipping...talk about tomatoe indicators!!! but I wanted to see how far I could push the limit! (Pun intended). Ahem, anyway, what I did this past weekend was to take a couple of those songs and remaster them so that they were not as hot - more dynamic range...I think the lower levels sound more natural and realistic, punchy, clean and articulate.

In this day and age with the bigger is better phatter is dumber mentality, I can see why most of today's music is pushed way beyond what is necessary IMHO. Call me crazy, but if someone's got to turn their amp up to 4 instead of 3 to get the same volume and their stereo goes to 10, what's the diff? oh, and yes, all my amps go to 11.

Alan

I finished a project last month that was with a 60 piece orchestra and 150 voice choir, recorded LIVE 24-bit through an Amek analog console, and remixed straight to 24-bit Sonic Solutions DAW. We then mastered the CD on Sonic using Sony's super-bit-mapping and used NO COMPRESSION. The dynamic range is incredible!! It is truly amazing to listen to something that maintains the feel of the live performance.

IT'S ALL ABOUT THE MUSIC!!!

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ERIC SEABERG • San Diego, CA
eseaberg@home.com

Eric, YOU DA MAIN!!!!

It is somewhat up to the audio engineers here to set levels. It all depends on the purpose of the recording and where it will be played. If it is a movie soundtrack the dynamics are essential. If it has to compete
with FM radio where you are driving to the din of traffic well another story. Personally I
sometimes like to listen to the birds in my yard. They seem to put things in perspective eh.
no worries