Thursday, April 29, 2010

Mastering Your Songs

You’ve poured your heart and soul into your music.

It deserves that huge sound you’ve been dreaming about. The mastering engineers at K&R All Media Productions can give your music the soaring highs and booming lows it needs to compete against the multitude of other releases out there.

Every major label release is mastered to prepare it for radio play and retail sale. The reason? In the studio you record one song at a time, resulting in songs that all peak at different levels and have different EQs. A CD mastering engineer can unify your album with skillful use of EQ, gain and compression to give it a consistent sound from track to track. This process also allows the engineer to pump up the volume of your overall album so it’s as hot as can be and sounds unbelievable.

With mastering from the K&R All Media you can get the professional sound you want at a fraction of the cost. You’ll get the same exact treatment that perfectionists such as Eminem, The Roots and Jason Newsted of Metallica fame have received from us. All for as low as $99 a song.

A fresh pair of ears can be the difference between a good-sounding CD and a great one. A real advantage of post production is that an unbiased sound professional has the opportunity to evaluate your master and determine how to get the most out of your production. After you’ve spent weeks or even months in a recording studio listening to your CD over and over again, a fresh pair of ears can put the project into perspective for you and let you know whether or not your CD will benefit from post production. After all, you only have on chance to make your music sound its best. The choice is up to you.

The mastering engineer, to improve your recording, can:
• Raise the overall level.
• Even out the song levels and EQ individual tracks for cohesion.
• Correct minor mix deficiencies with equalization.
• Enhance flow by changing the space between tracks.
• Eliminate noises between tracks.

Free Preview!
We’re so confident that mastering can make a huge difference in the majority of recordings, that we are offering a FREE Mastering review – upon request – when you place a new CD replication order. As part of our mission to make your CD project a success, a K&R engineer will preview your master to determine whether or not your CD would benefit from post production. Call us and we’ll give you our honest opinion with no sales pitch.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Your Ear's Perception of Direction

The fact is one ear cannot discern the direction from which a sound comes. Two ears are required to get the job done. The ability of two ears to localize sound sources in space is called binaural effect, and is the result of the use of three cues received by the ear: interaural arrival time differences, interaural intensity differences and the pinnae.

-Interaural arrival time differences refer to the path the sound takes to get to each ear. You hear a twig break to the right of you. Naturally, your right ear is going to hear that sooner than the left since the path for that sound is shorter. Your left ear does not hear the twig snap until after that sound has traveled the additional distance to that ear.

-Interaural intensity differences follow the same principle, but refers instead to the intensity or volume of the sound. Using the same twig example, your right ear has no obstruction between it and the sound. It is a clear path. Your left ear, on the other hand, hears a lesser sound level that was created by the acoustic shadow of your head.

-The pinnae utilize two ridges in your outer ear to help the brain determine the exact direction which the sound came from. The timing between the sound hitting the first ridge and the second, clarifies exactly where the sound is coming from.

These three cues, integrated together, tell you where sound is coming from.

Why does this matter to you, the recording artist? Understanding these basic concepts about how the ear works can make the difference between a successful, money-making album and a bomb. We all want to produce the best product possible. Choosing a professional studio with an audio engineer who understands and works with these sound concepts will make your recording the best it can possibly be.

Later we will talk about how you do this in a studio.

Tips to Prepare for Recording Session

You are ready to bring your talent to a professional studio. Before you do, the following tips will go a long way to making your hard work sound the best it possibly can.

-Record your songs played live, whether at a rehearsal or live gig. A simple cassette recording may help reveal weak parts of a song.
-It sounds basic, but be sure to have all of your musical and vocal parts worked out ahead of time.
-If using sequenced material, have it all ready before the session.
-For those using a click track, be sure your drummer is comfortable playing ot it.
-Plan and rehearse more songs than you plan to record. Some songs just do not sound as strong on tape as they do live. Example: if you are planning a four-song EP, prepare six songs, just to be on the safe side.

Remember, the studio can do a lot to perfect your sound, but they need quality components to start with. That is up to you, your talent and your preparation.

NOTE: For a comprehensive list of recording session preparation tips, see this article: http://www.knr.net/rectips.htm