My exclusive "Cool Mastering" process takes a UNIQUE and REVOLUTIONARY approach to preparing your music for final release to: Album, Broadcast, Streaming, File-Sharing, etc ...
Traditional Analog Mastering slams your precious music against a brick wall, I will NEVER do that!! Instead I use a meticulous, 'handcrafting', process to make sure every delicate peak in your music remains intact and just as you mixed it...Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release, Immersion to final mix ... to protect the precious harmonics that carry the 'juice' of your sound.
By keeping the peaks intact I can maintain the full dynamic range of your sound, while using my outboard array of the finest analog EQs and Compressors money can buy, to gently 'squeeze' the 'juice' out of your music's harmonic frequencies, and up to the surface of your tracks!!
I don't care how much work I have to put in to make sure your tracks sound PERFECT and you are 100% satiisfied !!!
If I accept your project, I will provide you a free sample clip of your music 'Cool Mastered', so your satisfaction is 100% Guaranteed!!
Feel free to reach out if you have any questions.
Juicy
Topics (Click to Expand):
What is Cool Mastering?
Cool Mastering gives your music the built in headroom it needs, to sound PERFECT on any player.
Instead of cramming your music from the bottom up to a digital ceiling, Cool Mastering places the original peaks of your music at -2.0 DB, then carefully raises the floor of your sound with EQ and Analog Compression to create the 'illusion of loudness' without distortion.
By Transferring your final Master to 32 Bit Float format, I can keep the peaks intact and use the 'limitless headroom' to preserve the sonic integrity.
Then I bring the mix peaks back down to -2.0 and carefully raise the bottom from there with surgical normalization.
What does 'Juicy' mean for your sound?
When thinking of the 'Juice' of your sound, think about the 'percussive' sounds, vs. the 'musical' sounds.
Consider the 'two sounds' of an acoustic guitar, one is the percussive strike of the pick on the strings, and the other is the harmonic quality of the string as it rings out after the strike.
The percussive strikes will never be a pleasing sound to the ear and must always be minimized, those sounds are 'crispy'. The richness of the vibrating string itself is the 'Juice', and it must be featured if the sound is to be useful in a mix. This particular sound MUST BE handled at the mix level with proper compression and release timing! It is almost IMPOSSIBLE to recover that juice in mastering, if the track is bounced without it.
In terms of a singer's voice, consider an opera singer like Pavarotti, his voice is ... seriously ... like 100% juice, you never hear his throat, only his pure harmonic radiance. Now think of a singer like Rod Stewart who has a lot of grit and rasp amd throat sound, producing a sound with less juice... but still cool!! :D
Thank goodness the 'Loudness Wars' are over and here is why...
I was trained by some top LA mastering engineers, starting in 2005, when CDs were the medium and every new release had to be louder than the last one, in order to sound competitive.
When I listen back to some of the top commercial CD references from that era, that we used as loudness comparrison, for example 'Renegades of Funk' by RATM, yes the track is loud as heck but jeez ... it is soooo distorted!
And ... if you put it on a modern player and turn the volume up to ten, the whole mix comes apart and the speakers are crying ... what good is that???
Streaming services require mixes at -1.0 DB, I can bring the mix down to -2.0 DB and use careful EQ in the presence range to make the loudness difference, that is why Cool Mastering always sonds Juicy, no matter how loud you crank it.
How to properly prepare your mixes for Juicy Mastering.
So many books could be written to discuss this topic.
This addresses what my teachers called a 'flat mix', which is a mix that is properly setup for optimum analog mastering.
The primary focus is on what will happen to the mix when it is exposed to the 'crucible' of high-end analog compression that 'hears everything'.
A flat mix sounds noticeably differnt from what the ear is used to hearing as a final mastered mix. The overall sound quality is 'dull' by comparrison, and the overall loudness is lower, typically between -6 and -2 DB.
In the simplest terms, you could take EVERY major threshold parameter of your mix and dial it back 2 DB ... and you would probably be safe.
On the higher level, the relative levels of the mix itself must facilitate the ultimate assembly of the 'Fletcher Munson Curve', so it can BRING PLEASURE to the PICKY frequency demands of the human ear.
One of my mixing teachers told me Air Force Pilots had been used to prove the human ear is an 'active organ', it does not just sit there on your head waiting for sound ... it 'reaches out' ... searching for sound.
A Cool Mastered mix is crafted to 'reach out' to the delicate nerves of the human ear and bombard it with just the right balance of frequencies that make the human want to listen and hear more.
Here is the gear you need if you want to master your own mixes and make them Juicy
If you buy my DIY guide to Cool Mastering your own mixes, I will provide you with my amazing gear list and a Juicy Discount with my partners at Vintage King ... the ONLY PLACE TO BUY YOUR HIGH END AUDIO GEAR!!
LET YOUR AMAZING NEW ANALOG GEAR .... YOU BOUGHT FOR LESS THAN THE PRICE OF PRODUCING ONE ALBUM ... WARM UP !!! HERE IS WHY ... Biasing and Distortion Smoothing ... "Cold" analog components introduce HARSH , non-linear crossover distortion and cold brittle UNSTABLE performance ...
WARMED UP ANALOG COMPONENTS ... EQUALS BETTER EVEN-ORDER HARMONICS ..... AND COHESIVE GLOW .... AS WELL AS BETTER TRANSIENT HAND OFF .. Which is all GREAT NEWS for your Juicy Mastering Experience!!! ;D
Here is my Step-By-Step Guide to Cool Mastering if you are a DIY type.
If you would like to purchase the Cool Mastering handbook, please send an email to juicy@juicyaudiomastering.com. |
