Tiran McClam has been a professional
audio engineer/producer for over twenty years. Due to the ever-changing music
business, his job description changed slightly four years ago, adding mastering
engineer to his title. Originally, McClam was the owner and chief audio
engineer of a thriving business, which averaged over 30-40 clients per week,
and he also employed an assistant audio engineer. As a testament to his skill
set, he has had the honor of completing some very successful projects such as:
recording songs for Angie Stone; and
recording songs for a Timberland protégé, multi-platinum producer named Danger. In 2010, he opened his mastering
business, MasterSonixx Mastering,
and this year, he also became a managing partner, producer, and chief mastering
engineer of Art Of Audio Productions. He has completed hundreds of mastering
sessions in the last four years, and is considered an expert in his field,
since his mastering tutelage came from one of the top mastering engineers in
the Southeast region.
When asked about his general philosophy
on mastering audio, Tiran was very forthcoming about his thoughts. McClam
stated that mastering is one of the most underrated and misunderstood processes
of audio engineering. He explained that many people in the music business,
specifically music artists, do not understand the importance of mastering and
the necessity of it being done correctly. He elaborated with the following: For
the last 15-20 years the loudness wars have been a perfect example of this lack of knowledge, where people have been
making music louder and louder, due to this competitive trend of having the
loudest music on the market, at all costs.
Tiran also stated that today’s
independent music artists do not have a lot of knowledge on the technicalities
of recording, mixing, and mastering a record. He explained that they think
their music is being mixed and mastered simultaneously when they go to the studio,
when in actuality, true mastering requires a complete separate process.
Furthermore, mixing and mastering require two separate sets of criteria, and
professional mastering is usually not done in the same session as a mix
session. McClam surmised that artists might be getting one or two processes
that are used in real world mastering, out of a multitude of significant
treatments that are required to produce a radio quality product.
Tiran’s additional insight about
mastering technology was that both technology and software have come a long
way. He stated that despite the fact that digital technology is superb for
recording and mixing, it has not quite risen to the challenge for mastering
strictly in the digital domain. McClam added that there are still numerous
advantages with using analog hardware, such as equalizers, limiters, and
compressors, in comparison to their digital software counterparts. The reason
is that in a software program, such as a compressor plug-in for example, it is
actually molded from a piece of analog gear. He further explained that the
difference, however, is that the original analog gear has an infinite number of
qualities making it sound the way that it does. Tiran stated that the software
program just couldn’t possibly capture all of those qualities; it only emulates
a limited number of characteristics.
When I asked McClam to tell me what
skills he believes are necessary to be a great mastering engineer, and how to
get those skills, his response was very specific. He was adamant about the fact
that the best mastering engineers are almost always people who have started out
as recording/mixing engineers. Learning the craft from the bottom up is crucial
because you would end up with a developed ear, which is extremely important
since 30% of mastering is critical listening. Additionally, you should have a
good understanding of sonic dynamics and how they work, along with an extensive
knowledge of various types of music. Finally, he stated that you must have a
true passion for what you will be doing, because it is not as glamorous of a
job as it might seem.
Tiran’s final advice was to be sure to align
yourself with a qualified and reputable engineer who has been mastering for a
long time, and see if you can intern, apprentice, or obtain tutelage from that
person. He also strongly recommended buying Bob Katz's book, Mastering Audio – The Art and the Science
SECOND EDITION. He concluded with the recommendation that you should also
diligently research any and all information you can find on mastering, and
practice repeatedly what you have learned. After all, practice makes perfect!
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