mastering day 10.06.
mastering day is always a fun one. somehow i always end up forgetting some crucial detail back at the house, like the audio. but today i had learned for once and i had everything, on time. met some friends on the street, at 9:30, heading out for a leisurely cafe breakfast before work at hardwax. where else does that happen? berlin is so strange sometimes, you have to check yourself and remember that this isn’t normal. we’re musicians and sound enthusiasts making a cozy simple living, but it’s via the weirdest music on the planet.
walked all the way to kreuzberg, lovely morning, sun blazing, trees full green, pretty girls on bikes… and into d&m, where they have a pile of excellent esoteric audio gear sitting atop scavenged furniture. so berlin. no wasting money on a custom built swooping walnut desk that will look good in the fisheye promo shots, fuck it. get the best gear where it counts, build the rest yourself, and get on with it.
then it’s on to make decisions, but not too many. as i do this more, i offer less and less input at the mastering stage, put more and more trust in the engineer. just sit there and pay attention. my work is mostly done, just make sure there aren’t any glaring mistakes and we’re cool. things gradually shift…. okay, sounds a little bit better i guess. some squawky noises. what is he doing there? then with a certain microscopic flourish, he switches back into the unmastered version. the heavens open up and angels sing ten thousand harmonies. HOLY FUCK, my version sounds like charlie brown’s teacher, underwater. theirs sounds like a rainstick, or beans in a jar. ten million little details and full of life.
a few hours later, a new lacquer is done, and a new track mastered for an upcoming comp. the animosity record is going to be good. it was not easy to cram all that on a single sided 10″ at 45 rpm. we managed, and the test cuts sounded good. now it’s in the pressing plant’s hands. so many steps with making vinyl, something can go horribly wrong at every stage… this one is sorted so far. so we will see.
back home with the files on usb stick, to obsessively a/b/c/d the mastered version against my self-mastered one, the original, a few other different versions and tweaks. ears are shot at this point but i gotta just check it out so i can sleep right. next morning with fresh ears usually reveals the truth.