What is Mastering and Why Should I get my Music mastered

What is Mastering and what does it actually do?
On a technical side, mastering will prepare a final master format for replication or duplication. A verified error-checked master can be provided that will ensure the highest possible quality will be reproduced. On an artistic side, the mastering engineer can analyze the audio and makes decisions as to the overall tone, level and dynamic range of the music as a whole, and provides a uniform balance for the entire sequence. By using processes like compression, limiting, equalization and other signal processing etc., we can help make your record sound the best it can. With EQ we can clear up frequencies to make your record sound clearer and/or bigger. By using compression we can help “glue” the mix together and give your record a sonic fullness that you may be looking for. This is all performed in an accurate control room with high resolution monitors and amplifiers. Using Digital editing we are able to cut out unwanted parts, making songs flow smoother while cleaning up beginnings and endings of songs and creating a more enjoyable sequence (we are also able to “de-noise” projects with a high noise level, talk to us before hand and we can make certain we’ll have all the right additional audio that may be helpful). There are also special effects we can add to your record. Let us know if you have any ideas initially. We would never add effects without consulting you first (Often these are production ideas that come about after the mix was completed, or that the mix engineer felt he could not adequately provide). Overall, the process should make your CD more listen-able on a wide range of playback systems, and bring it to it’s fullest potential.

Why should I get my music mastered?
One main reason many people desire a mastering process is for perspective… so your mixes and album stand up today, and, years down the line. Having a fresh set of trained ears go through a record has long been an essential part of the recording process. Many people spend a great deal of time agonizing over the details of their album. Mastering brings in the fresh perspective that many people involved in the recording process dont have. We also enjoy getting involved during your recording process, to ensure your mastering can be it’s best. Call us if your having concerns about your recordings. Remember, overall, the process should make your CD more listen-able on a wide range of playback systems. All this must be done with great quality gear in an accurate control room.

Alan Douches To Speak at Launch Music Conference 2010

Alan Douches West West Side Music mastering, New York Mastering Engineer

Alan Douches
(West West Side Music)
Douches has been in the music mastering business for 17 years, acquiring a reputation as one of the best in the industry. Douches credits including mastering work for a diverse range of musicians, including everyone from FLEETWOOD MAC to RUN DMC to FALL OUT BOY to ALKALINE TRIO to MASTODON and countless other household and near-household names.

For more info http://www.launchmusicconference.com/panels/index.htm

www.westwestsidemusic.com

The Everyday Motive: New EP PRESALE!!

The Everyday Motive will be releasing their FIRST recording at the start of the New Year!

It will feature SEVEN songs, beautifully recorded, mixed, and mastered by Shane Olivo, J. Christopher Hughes, and Alan Douches at Bobby Peru’s Recording Studio, Post-Historic Recording Studio, and West West Side Studios. The CD will feature the photography and design of Milwaukee’s own Jeremy Mlodik. What I’m getting at is that this album is going to be the best $7 you’ll spend in 2010! The only bad news is that it’s going to be a little while until we get the CDs made. We’re having 1000 copies pressed at Media Omaha by Dustin Treinen, but that will take some time.

BUT THERE IS GREAT NEWS!!!

For all of you who can’t wait, we want to offer you a PRESALE offer!
We’ll send you ALL SEVEN MP3’s this month, AND mail you the official CD ASAP (free S&H), when you preorder online!

CLICK HERE to order now!!!

Thanks for waiting!
~John of The Everyday Motive

Naughty Rob recording!

Posted by West West Side Music

Alan Douches re: Freelance Whales – THANK YOU!!!!

Alan Douches re: Freelance Whales – THANK YOU!!!!

Alan,

Over the summer, you mastered “Weathervanes” by Freelance Whales for me.  I wanted to write to let you know that since the album was released things have really picked up for the band.  We had a song placed on the season finale of “Bored To Death” on HBO, the band was featured as a band to watch on Stereogum, was an artist of the week on NPR’s “World Cafe,” and had an incredibly successful run at CMJ.  The band has just returned from a 6 week North American tour opening for Fanfarlo and are about to sign a deal with Frenchkiss Records and Mom+Pop Records.

Both labels are nuts about the record and are planning on re-releasing it as is, and from a sonic perspective I think you had a huge role to play in that.  I’ll be the first to admit that my mixes were not perfect and had some issues, and I think the mastering job you did is a big reason why there hasn’t been much discussion of remixing.  I’ve even had some old-timers tell me the loved how analog it sounds – so I’m so glad you chose to have the mixes hit tape.  This is my first production to be released nationally so naturally I am thrilled.  I knew all along that there was serious potential with this band, and I am just happy that I picked the right guy for the mastering job.

Thanks again,

Jeremy Skalrsky

—
MajorWho Media
Engineer, Producer, and All Things Miscellaneous

jeremy.sklarsky@gmail.com

http://www.westwestsidemusic.com

Mastering Music – The Loudness Wars from Wikipedia What do you think?

Loudness war

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The trend of increasing loudness as shown by waveform images of “Something” by The Beatles mastered on CD four times since 1983.

The loudness war, also referred to as the loudness race, is a publicized criticism of the recording industry‘s practice of digitally mastering albums with progressively increasing levels of loudness and reduced dynamic range.

The phenomenon developed as the result of the widespread adoption of the compact disc digital music format. The recording process of early CD releases differed from prior analog methods that had no set ratio of minimum to maximum level of perceived loudness. Dynamic range was dictated by the playback limitations of analog equipment, including vinyl record and cassette players. With the advent of CDs, music was encoded to a digital format with a clearly defined 16 bit dynamic range, equal roughly to 96 dB. Since most musical performances have a smaller dynamic range than that afforded by CDs, their recordings rarely approached the maximum possible levels. The loudest parts of a musical performance, the peak levels, serve to contrast with quieter passages which determine the initial volume setting chosen by the listener. With time, members of the music industry sought to promote their recordings by amplifying the average volume of a performance to fit a greater portion of the overall dynamic range of CDs. This method set recordings apart by offering listeners a subjectively “louder” listening experience.

See the whole article What do You Think I’d Like your opinion on comments below

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Connect With West West Side Music Alan Douches on Facebook and Myspace

Connect with West West Side Music Mastering, Alan Douches On Facebook and Myspace

West West Side Music mastering new York
>>In music mastering, it has always been our goal to bring the best objective and subjective points-of-view together, and create with the production team, the very best possible final master. Now, more than ever, bands have amazing control over their sound, and communication with us is key to helping achieve successful final goals. For sessions that need to be done unattended, we make high use of our FTP site where you can follow the progress of your session. Alan Douches (West West Side Music’s chief engineer) has assembled a unique collection of “State of the Art” equipment to facilitate the mastering process. If you have specific concerns, please give us a call. SERVICES * Audio Mastering * Surround Mastering * Blu-ray Authoring * DVD Authoring * Enhanced CDs * Audio Restoration * Live Recording * Analog Mixing * Surround Mixing * Transfers * Audio Post Production
connect on facebook west west side music open group
connect on myspace west west side music

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Steve Watson’s “Emmy” award for his audio post production skills

Audio Post Production

Now that Staff engineer Steve Watson has an “Emmy” award for his audio post production skills, we figured we give many of his (and our) old time friends in film and TV an affordable option to having their sound be as good as their picture. Many “Audio-Post” rooms (especially in NYC) have barely enough “real” audio gear to record a proper voice-over, not to say anything about actually mixing gear. Just because you have a “Digi-002” doesn’t mean you’re an engineer! We’re all in agreement, that art should not be dictated by technology – but sometimes there’s a lot at stake and experience is not just desired, but necessary.

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Call us directly at 845-563-3094 or email us… wwsm@mac.com

Blue-ray Authoring at West Westside Music N.Y.

WWSM New York

Blu-ray Authoring

Just as DVD meant a five to ten time increase in storage capacity compared to CD, Blu-ray Disc will increase DVD capacity by five to ten times. This is due, among other reasons, to the usage of a blue instead of a red laser and improved lens specifications, allowing for a much smaller focus laser beam which enables the recording of much smaller and higher density pits on the disc. Although the authoring process is realitively similar to DVD authoring, pressing costs for BluRay Discs are still quite high, but we have been persuing several replicators to find economical ways to help our clients release their products in full HD resolution.
With the emerging trend of HDTVs becoming more common, and consumers getting used to High Definition quality and expecting the same from their pre-recorded media, the logical next step is the distribution of packaged media in HD format. Blu-ray Disc is the ideal format to suit this need.

Due to its huge capacity, the Blu-ray Disc format not only allows for a movie to be stored in the absolute best High Definition quality on a disc, but it also offers room for additional extras such as making of and special features. Blu-ray Disc even offers the room to store these extras in HD quality as well. There’s no need to pack an additional disc to store these bonus materials, thereby eliminating costs for content providers and simplifying the end-user experience.

What’s more, the capacity and the enhanced interactive and network features of the Blu-ray Disc for Movie and audio Distribution format also offers new and unprecedented features. For example, additional video material may be stored on the disc in a “locked” way, only accessible to users who have been authorized to do so after an online payment procedure. Additionally, users might be able to make direct purchases of merchandise related to the disc’s content, such as sequel discs or theater tickets. The interactive features of Blu-ray Disc go way beyond those offered by DVD-Video, adding additional value to a title release on Blu-ray Disc.

Stay tuned…

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Call us directly at 845-563-3094 or email us… wwsm@mac.com www.westwestsidemusic.com

Steve Watson WWSM Surround Room

Steve Watson – Senior Engineer

One of West West Side Music’s original engineers, Steve helped forge the original groundwork for “Deko Music”, West West Side Music’s original indie label. Alan met Steve as he was taking over responsibilities as chief engineer and co-producer for “Noise” New Jersey (the relocated home of indie guru “Kramer” and his original Noise New York Studio). There he honed his indie production skills working with “King Missile”, “Jad Fair”, and “Galaxie 500″ to name but a few. While working on a live concert movie with King Missile, Steve got the bug to bring high quality audio to the film and video industries. As Noise New Jersey ran into community “Zoning Issues” he made a quick transition to becoming an in-demand “music” engineer in the TV and Film world.
After making significant headway increasing the quality of music and audio in the New York City TV world (Emeril Live, Rachel Ray, Will & Grace, Spin City, Sesame Street, Montel Williams and ABC and CBS News to name a few) Steve is back with West West Side Music, helping expand the Live Recording and Surround Sound Mixing areas. His years of experience mixing live music for TV is a passion he shares with a love for indie music. Some of Steve’s live recording credits include Mariah Carey, Tom Petty, the B52’s, Korn, Lauren Hill and Silverchair, and has mixed live for Broadcast for Michael McDonald, Charlie Daniels, Willie Nelson, Al Jarreau, Chick Corea, Sammy Hagar and Trace Atkins.

A fantastic musician as well, he has toured and played internationally with Kramer (Bongwater), Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine), Damon and Naomi (Galaxy 500), and indie artist “Dogbowl” and brings a wealth of musical experience to every project he is involved with. A rare individual, he is just as much at ease working with a Digi 02, analog two inch, or an SSL 9000.

Presently, Steve is helping re-design WWSM’s Surround Room to handle new broadcast equipment and formats that will become part of the new emerging Multi-format future that bands, artists and labels will need, as digital distribution becomes the norm for both audio and video.

Call us directly at 845-563-3094 or email us… wwsm@mac.com   www.westwestsidemusic.com

Steve’s credits @ albumcredits.com

https://westwestsidemusic.wordpress.com

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Jamal Ruhe – Engineer West Westside Music

Jamal Ruhe – Engineer

Jamal had the good luck to be born the year Innervisions, Dark Side of the Moon, Let’s Get It On and Quadrophenia were released. Dad was a studio owner, mom was a music teacher. He had the good luck of starting a band that would record a debut Timothy White of Billboard would later call, “Dazzling… one of my favorite albums of all time.” He also had the bad luck to have that recording shelved in a label shake up. He’s had the good luck to work on recordings at Ardent, Capitol, and Manhattan Center Studios among others, and the good luck to meet Alan Douches at the corner coffee shop!

West West Side Music has two dedicated mastering suites, and a dedicated multitrack room that just needed someone to show up to track and mix in it. The “Back Room” boasts a 2″ Studer with both 24 and 16 track head sets, a ProTools rig as well as an analog console and full compliment of analog outboard gear. Jamal is happy working on Rock, Hip Hop, Metal, Hardcore, Indie Rock, Americana and just about anything you can put up on a set of speakers. He has lived many lives in the world of music.

Through the years, has worked behind live and studio consoles as well as shared stages with a wide variety of artists. In no order, some names you might recognize: Frank Black, Dick Dale, Morris Tepper, Pavement, Low, Jon Rauhouse, Blonde Redhead, Old 97s, Modest Mouse, Giant Sand, Owen, Har Mar Superstar, Bardo Pond, Elliot Smith, Three Mile Pilot, Seven Storey Mountain, Those Bastard Souls, G Love and Special Sauce, the Flaming Lips, the Hooters, the Gin Blossoms, Orange 9mm, Shudder to Think, Weakerthans, Steve Miller Band, Ryan Adams, Pedro the Lion, Julianna Hatfield, Link Wray, Rainer Maria, Tortoise, the Refreshments, the Sea and Cake, Slash’s Snakepit, the Promise Ring, Reubens Accomplice, the Supersuckers, DJ Radar, DJ Z-Trip, Ozomatli, Quinto Sol, Dr. Ralph Stanley, Guitar Wolf, Dandy Warhols, Guided By Voices, David Garza, Marshall Crenshaw, Nils Lofgren, Nels Cline, L7, the Gossip, Mike Watt, Zeke

Call us directly at 845-563-3094 or email us… wwsm@mac.com www.westwestsidemusic.com