Mastering 2.0: The Real or Perceived Threat of DIY Mastering and Automated Mastering Systems

ABSTRACT

This article explores mastering–the final stage of the music production process, which until recently has proven resistant to the democratizing characteristics of “Music 2.0.” Musicians are now able to forgo the services of professional engineers in favor of plug-ins such as iZotope’s Ozone and online automated services such as LANDR. This article draws on survey responses from mastering engineers to address the nature and extent of disruption to the mastering profession. The engineers surveyed here suggest that certain parts of the mastering process may eventually be replaced by automated algorithms but argue that there are distinct advantages to having an objective “set of ears” assess the final recording.

KEYWORDS:

• Automated mastering services
• disruption
• disruptive innovation
• Mastering
• popular music
• production

Acknowledgments

We express our thanks to the mastering engineers who took the time out of their schedules to participate in our survey and offer their professional opinions.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. A full exploration of disruption in musical practices and industries is beyond the scope of this article, but to highlight a few notable examples we point to the establishment of musical notation in the ninth century, which imposed a fixed form on music. Later, the invention of movable type forever changed the ways in which music was published and disseminated (Taylor 3). Similarly, the emergence of recording technologies in the late nineteenth century transformed how music was written, produced, distributed, and consumed (Byrne 81–122; Collins and Young 18–29).

2. For example, Trent Reznor spent a month writing and recording Nine Inch Nails’ The Slip (2008). Numerous radio stations received copies of the album’s only single, “Discipline,” within 24 hours of its completion and before Reznor had even finished the rest of the album (Collins and Young 41).

3. Interestingly, Owsinski notes that in the United States mastering is considered the final stage in music production, whereas in the UK it is thought of as the first step in manufacturing or preparing the recording for release (“History”).

4. It is worth noting that there are different types of mastering profiles, from those who specialize in vinyl cutting to those who work exclusively in digital domains.

5. Music 2.0 is also manifest in distribution in that professionals and amateurs alike have access to the same distribution platforms: iTunes/Apple Music, Spotify, YouTube, etc.

6. We administered two identical surveys. The first (marked [A] for the purposes of this article) directly invited responses from active professionals. The second (marked [B]) was publicly promoted on forums. Individual participants are anonymized and identified here by their mode of participation and an assigned number.

7. It is worth noting that this particular respondent is entrenched in the traditional recording industry and responsible for administering the archive of a deceased high-profile artist; this respondent’s experience of recording and mastering is markedly different from that of most other participants.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steve Collins

Steve Collins is Senior Lecturer in Multimedia in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University. His research focuses on copyright law, musical creativity, digital technologies, and disruption in the creative industries. He is the coauthor of Beyond 2.0: The Future of Music (Equinox, 2014).

Adrian Renzo

Adrian Renzo is Lecturer in Music in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University. He has published research on the esthetics of 1980s medley records, the construction of Spanish “Megamixes,” and the working methods of amateur remix producers.

Sarah Keith

Sarah Keith is Lecturer in Music and Media in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University. Her research focuses on popular music and culture, particularly in the Australian and East Asian context, as well as music technology, and music and screen.

Alex Mesker

Alex Mesker is an Associate Lecturer in Music in the Department of Media, Music, Communication and Cultural Studies at Macquarie University. He has published research on the use of soundtrack libraries in television animation, film soundtrack studies, and strategies for developing expressive interfaces for musical and computational arts.