Mastering

Well, we mastered my album yesterday. And, by “we,” I mean that I sat on a couch and watched Jeff at Peerless Mastering master my album. My participation was limited to keeping Jeff entertained while he worked and listening to the tracks as he finished them. I gave my thumbs up to pretty much everything (I asked for a minor tweaking to the first track). 

My producer, Pete, stopped by to take a listen and he was happy with the results as well. That was a relief for me because I didn’t need that kind of responsibility. Jeff is fantastic, however, so it wasn’t that hard to approve the tracks. In fact, it wasn’t hard at all.

We were in the studio from 1pm to about 10:30, which, by my math, is one loooong day. It was made all the much better by me getting myself lost on the way (I was in the wrong lane, couldn’t get over in time and ended up on 93 South instead of 93 North). So, if this post is a bit discombobulated, it’s because I can’t remember the last time I got a decent night’s sleep. 

Pete warned me that mastering can be a bit dull. It’s not really a participatory process, and Jeff needs time to work his magic. So, you sit there for an hour or so and then he says “take a listen to this” and it sounds fantastic and then you go back to sitting around. Luckily, Jeff is an entertaining character who told me all sorts of fun stories and provided me with interesting reading material. 

He has an interesting way of working where he makes some changes, turns and talks to the person sitting in the studio and then goes back to the song. He had a name for his technique, but I can’t remember what it was. He compared it to a bad smell. If you’re in a room with something that smells bad, you gradually get used to it and then it doesn’t smell bad anymore. This is a good thing if you’re a casual smeller, but would be a problem if you were in charge if fixing the smell (“What smell? I don’t smell anything!” is rarely an acceptable solution). In the same way, Jeff tunes the song in and out in order to keep his ears fresh and to avoid getting used to something that smells not so good.

A lot of people have asked me what mastering really is, and I still don’t have a completely concise answer. It’s basically the process of cleaning things up, making some tweaks, checking the levels and making sure that all of the songs on the album work together. There’s a whole bunch of other stuff that goes into it, but basically it’s the art of making things more better. Jeff really got into the project, so he really more bettered that shit up.

Holy crap I need a nap.

I am currently sitting in Logan Airport, waiting for my flight down to Dulles so that I can attend a training in Reston, VA. Our plane was apparently broken, so they delayed my flight. Just what I wanted. More sitting around. I think I’m developing calluses on my posterior. But, I’ll take the waiting over the flying in a broken plane. Rather late than dead and all that. Plus, last night I was sitting around on a couch and today I am sitting around on a rocking chair. So, we’re mixing things up a bit.

My plane was supposed to take off about 15 minutes ago and is now scheduled to take off sometime in the next hour and a half. We would have been here indefinitely (it’s apparently considered not wise to hurry the guys in charge of fixing planes), but they found an extra plane and so we get to fly off on that one. That plane just needs to arrive first. And then be prepped for our use.

It’s gonna be a long night.

Still need that nap.