Mastering

The biggest music technology manufacturer in the world has stuck to hardware — until now. Do Yamaha's first plug-in processors have what it takes to compete with the big names in Mac and Windows software?

I had four tracks transferred to vinyl and told the pressing plant to do any necessary EQ'ing required. I got the test pressings back and found them to be very harsh in the upper frequencies when compared to my CD master. Should I get my tracks professionally mastered for vinyl next time?

Last month we showed you how to go about recording a complete (jazz) band to stereo on location. Now let's examine the ways in which you can compile and process the different takes to make up a coherent whole.

Recording and mixing an album's worth of tracks is a big enough challenge, but turning the results into a consistent-sounding CD requires specialist tools and skills. The former, at least, are now available to anyone with a Windows PC...

As one of the senior engineers at New York's famous Sterling Sound, Chris Gehringer has mastered some of the biggest hip-hop and R&B hits of recent years.

We provide some tips for making your masters sound as loud as commercial tracks, without sacrificing too much sonic quality along the way.

Twenty years after Steve Levine first produced Culture Club, he reveals how he has been using a new generation of digital tools to restore those original recordings.

Many home and project studio owners are interested in mastering as a way to add that professional sheen to their recordings. The newest way to do this is with iZotope's DirectX mastering tool for PC.

Among his many credits as an engineer, producer, programmer and artist, Jon Astley is perhaps best known for his award-winning work remastering classic albums from the likes of The Who, Abba and George Harrison.

The final stage of production - turning your mixes into a finished CD - requires some specialised tools. Martin Walker runs through the options and considers how best to set up and use the necessary PC software.

TC Electronic have upgraded their already impressive Finalizer mastering processor to include a number of new features, most notably 96kHz capability. Hugh Robjohns finds out if it's still at the top of the tree.

Drawmer are the latest hi-tech analogue equipment manufacturers to enter the digital world of all-in-one mastering solutions. Paul White finds out how well they've pulled it off.

Taking the essence of the highly regarded Finalizer Plus, TC Electronic have repackaged their multi-band compressor in a new easy-to-use format. Hugh Robjohns puts it through its paces.