Today (Wednesday) I got the master reference back, and I was very nervous. What would it sound like? Did I make the right decision?
Mastering is the final touch of the album, to sweeten and finalize everything for production. Wikipedia explains the process more detailed. Sometimes nothing can happen to the sound, somethings magic can happen and sometimes shit happen. You never know.
The mastering process is either done by the artist or producer themselves (because of budget) or a professional mastering engineer (because it should sound awesome). The mastering process, the final sound, is profoundly important to me, and if there was one thing I was not going to do myself, it was mastering. And if I'm not doing something by myself, I get the best there is in the world to do it for me.
The album is mastered by The Exchange Mastering Studios in London, by Nilesh Patel. The reason I chose this studio and this engineer, was simple. For some inexplicable uncanny reason, turns out The Exchange has mastered almost all of my favourite artists and albums, Nilesh in particular those with a sound I love. I was not aware of this until a few months ago, I have no idea why, but I guess there must be something in their secret mastering magic that resonates with me.
If this magic could be applied to my music I had no way of knowing. Only way to find out, was to try. So a few months ago I booked Nov 27th with them. This was partly the reason for a hectic deadline, I did not want to loose my mastering date (and my money). I could not attend the session, couldn't afford it, and also it is better for me to listen and approve the tracks on systems I know, like in my studio.
So finally, by afternoon today they ftp'ed back a reference master for me to listen to.
It sounds like one billion dollars, with laser. Purple laser. Purple, velvet laser. That heals. When I heard the mastered tracks the first time it was like a field of extra colors appeared in the air. I wanted to drink it, capture a cup of invisible soundwave nectar and have it flow inside of me, just listening to it wasn't enough. I had no idea my baby Unicorn had this within.
It sounds like purple velvet laser on my studio reference monitors, it sounds like purple velvet laser babies on my ipod, it sounds like purple velvet laser escapism on my laptops, it sounds like purple velvet laser cruise missile in Hans Igors car. It is never fatiguing on 11, and it sounds clearly and detailed even on a low setting on the ipod in noisy streets. The subs are slamming and the highs are candy cottoned.
Purple velvet laser FTW!
