IK and Gavin Lurssen set to unveil revolutionary mastering product at NAMM 2016

[do_androids_dream]

Mastering is about being a master of compromises. Threading the thin red line of what should and should not be done, sprinkled with subjective taste, always working towards a common denominator - translation.

How much mastering have you done? Of your own music? Of other peoples? Because I speak from experience - over 1000 tracks so far.. and what you're saying just seems like meaningless, pretty, made up nonsense rhetoric phrases that indicate a lack of actual knowledge on the subject.

[kbaccki]

I took it simply as: you can polish a turd, but it's still a turd.

How do you polish a turd? Do you stick a buttercup in it? And why when nobody cares?

I don't know. I've just heard that it's possible... this turd polishing. But I don't have the deets, so can't really comment further. For all I know it's easier to put lipstick on a pig than to polish a turd.

[ghettosynth]

I took it simply as: you can polish a turd, but it's still a turd.

How do you polish a turd? Do you stick a buttercup in it? And why when nobody cares?

I don't know. I've just heard that it's possible... this turd polishing. But I don't have the deets, so can't really comment further. For all I know it's easier to put lipstick on a pig than to polish a turd.

Well, that depends on your skillset and turd/pig in question. It's almost always easier to catch a turd than it is to catch a pig, but once you've got a good grip, well, that's when the real challenge begins. I mean, if you get lipstick anywhere near the pig's snout you're going to get full credit, but, that's going to have to be one crazy good polishing job if you want people to notice that you worked your magic on that turd.

One time when I was about five, I really needed to drop trow, but my mom was all like "you kids stay outside and play", well, when you're five and you need to drop trow, you need to drop trow, so I did. I dropped a sweet log right there in a patch of grass in the back yard. Then my sister found a potato, no, I don't know where she found the potato, but we dropped that potato right on top of that log and it kind of flattened it out a bit. At this point, and to bring this home, we did what all good kids do in a situation like this, we made up a song about the turd in the grass with a potato in the turd and danced around the potato turd singing our made up song.

Yeah, that was pretty much the song, "turd in the grass, potato in the turd."

So, yeah, that's kind of a metaphor for my music and this thread, it's like there's this sweet grass patch (my home studio) which should be inspiring and lead to beautiful plants and flowers, or at the very least, a nicely manicured lawn. But, at the end of a session, it only seems to give birth to a turd. Getting it mastered would be like dropping a potato on top. Sure, it would flatten it out a bit, but people would still say, yeah, I see that you've got a turd in the grass, with a potato in it.

[djscorb]

There are some ridiculously good mastering engineers around who openly admit that they absolutely suck at mixing.

Sorry but that doesn't translate at all. How can an ME advise you on your mix if they (fill in the blank)...?

In the same way a Diabetic can make great wedding cakes, or a bald man can be a great hairdresser, or an old unfit guy can be a great sports coach, or......

[do_androids_dream]

There are some ridiculously good mastering engineers around who openly admit that they absolutely suck at mixing.

Sorry but that doesn't translate at all. How can an ME advise you on your mix if they (fill in the blank)...?

In the same way a Diabetic can make great wedding cakes, or a bald man can be a great hairdresser, or an old unfit guy can be a great sports coach, or......

Lol, no, not the same at all.. might seem like that in theory - in an ideal world - but nope - not at all in practice.

Think it through. A big part of an ME's role is to recognise when mix changes are necessary. You then need to be able to inform the client what those mix changes should be. How could you possibly do that if you... don't know how to mix?

[4tune]

Yeah, that was pretty much the song, "turd in the grass, potato in the turd."

Just think What Ik`s new product could do for that song though!!

[djscorb]

Dude, I'm a mastering engineer so whatever. I can mix, but I'm not the best and happy to admit that, but people who are better at mixing than me come to me for mastering. This is a fact so take from it what you will.

You're not the only guy here who thinks he knows what he's talking about to be fair and I'm pretty sure BManic knows his shit when it comes to mastering, as does Brian Lucey.

Relax, it's all good!

Cheers

Scorb

[do_androids_dream]

Dude, I'm a mastering engineer so whatever. I can mix, but I'm not the best and happy to admit that, but people who are better at mixing than me come to me for mastering. This is a fact so take from it what you will.

You're not the only guy here who thinks he knows what he's talking about to be fair and I'm pretty sure BManic knows his shit when it comes to mastering, as does Brian Lucey.

Relax, it's all good!

Cheers

Scorb

I believe the only way to learn anything is through experience - empirical - make mistakes and lots of them. It's really difficult to know who actually has experience and who spends all day reading the internet and regurgitating what they read. I know there are people who break the rules but a lot of the time that type of person is presented as the typical example round here - everyone can be an ME because some other guy who 'can't mix' is one. That's damn rare (among good ME's anyway). Things like that get thrown around here as if it's the norm - it ain't!

Sometimes I feel like opening a 'put your money where your mouth is' thread to see who is blowing hot air and who isn't.. I spend too much time here to be honest..

[camsr]

Well, that depends on your skillset and turd/pig in question. It's almost always easier to catch a turd than it is to catch a pig, but once you've got a good grip, well, that's when the real challenge begins. I mean, if you get lipstick anywhere near the pig's snout you're going to get full credit, but, that's going to have to be one crazy good polishing job if you want people to notice that you worked your magic on that turd.

One time when I was about five, I really needed to drop trow, but my mom was all like "you kids stay outside and play", well, when you're five and you need to drop trow, you need to drop trow, so I did. I dropped a sweet log right there in a patch of grass in the back yard. Then my sister found a potato, no, I don't know where she found the potato, but we dropped that potato right on top of that log and it kind of flattened it out a bit. At this point, and to bring this home, we did what all good kids do in a situation like this, we made up a song about the turd in the grass with a potato in the turd and danced around the potato turd singing our made up song.

Yeah, that was pretty much the song, "turd in the grass, potato in the turd."

So, yeah, that's kind of a metaphor for my music and this thread, it's like there's this sweet grass patch (my home studio) which should be inspiring and lead to beautiful plants and flowers, or at the very least, a nicely manicured lawn. But, at the end of a session, it only seems to give birth to a turd. Getting it mastered would be like dropping a potato on top. Sure, it would flatten it out a bit, but people would still say, yeah, I see that you've got a turd in the grass, with a potato in it.

:p f**king hilarious

[incubus]

This thread is absolutely hysterical!

Some company announces a product with a tad of hyperbole and now everyone is discussing every single detail of minutia about being into mastering/the evils of it, how good/bad everyone is.......

And we don't even know what the product is

[camsr]

This thread is absolutely hysterical!

Some company announces a product with a tad of hyperbole and now everyone is discussing every single detail of minutia about being into mastering/the evils of it, how good/bad everyone is.......

And we don't even know what the product is

It's obviously a multi-band potato.

[djscorb]

Haha! Very true

For me, it's simply that I hang out in the effects forum rather than anywhere else. This whole thread should probably be in the "Everything Else" or "Off Topic" forum, but that's a mod's decision and IK probably pay for a fair wedge of ad space on KVR so that ain't gonna happen.

@android...

I hear you mate, I spend too much time here as well (especially when bouncing!!) and there are a lot of pundits here with no real industry experience. However, Bmanic isn't one of them imho.

Anyway, it's Saturday night so time to get a beer or three!

Cheers

Scorb

[do_androids_dream]

Haha! Very true

For me, it's simply that I hang out in the effects forum rather than anywhere else. This whole thread should probably be in the "Everything Else" or "Off Topic" forum, but that's a mod's decision and IK probably pay for a fair wedge of ad space on KVR so that ain't gonna happen.

@android...

I hear you mate, I spend too much time here as well (especially when bouncing!!) and there are a lot of pundits here with no real industry experience. However, Bmanic isn't one of them imho.

Anyway, it's Saturday night so time to get a beer or three!

Cheers

Scorb

Man, thanks for lightening my mood! Sorry to anyone I've gone off at.. It's all good.. breathe.. I sit in this studio 7 days a week - I hardly even know it's Saturday lol.

[bmanic]

There are some ridiculously good mastering engineers around who openly admit that they absolutely suck at mixing.

Sorry but that doesn't translate at all. How can an ME advise you on your mix if they (fill in the blank)...?

I don't know.. why don't you ask for instance Brian Lucey? Sure, he didn't get into mastering from nothing.. of course he has recorded and mixed his fair share but he isn't shy in admitting that he isn't all that good at mixing.. but then again he probably compares himself with the big names out there. It's not like he is talking about amateur/hobbyist levels of mixing.

[bmanic]

Mastering is about being a master of compromises. Threading the thin red line of what should and should not be done, sprinkled with subjective taste, always working towards a common denominator - translation.

How much mastering have you done? Of your own music? Of other peoples? Because I speak from experience - over 1000 tracks so far.. and what you're saying just seems like meaningless, pretty, made up nonsense rhetoric phrases that indicate a lack of actual knowledge on the subject.

Well, I do know mastering takes quite a bit of people skills to be successful (at least back when I started and people actually came to the studio for attended sessions.. which is rare now). What got your panties in a knot?

I've been on and off mastering since late 90's. Started out as an adventure and turned out to be my main living in the mid naughties and am currently considering going back to it.

I'm sure I've done 1000 tracks by now. I've done a few top 20 chart albums here in Finland back in the day in case you want to start going the "my dick is bigger than your dick" route.

The meaningless rhetoric you say that I spew actually has a point and I firmly believe in it. I can explain it further in case you are truly interested but going from your attitude I feel like it may perhaps be a waste of time to both of us.