Mastering Houses
5 December 2004
Most pressing plants will do mastering too, but usually its best to go to a
specialist. Also many of the pressing plants send it elsewhere to get mastered
anyway. The demands of pumping up a sound system to 120dB + demands
extreme accuracy in the low end. Its best to get someone who knows and
understands this to translate your tracks onto vinyl. The Mastering Engineer eq's and compresses in order to get the hottest possible
level and best sound. If you pick "One-Step Processing" you only get one set of record stampers, which
usually last only for 1,000 records. If you get "Two-Step Processing" then that is
where they make something called "a Mother" which after your first set of
stampers go, (at about 1,000 records) you can have more stampers made from the
"mother" and keep pressing the same record without having to get it RE-mastered.
It is actually possible in certain cases to have your processing done by a separate
company from your pressing, thus possibly saving extra money. (but i think this is a
small margin) Direct Metal Mastering is a more expensive process that more clearly transmits the
transients (very high frequency attack sounds, sparkle etc.). It has been said that
it is not as applicable to the requirements of dance music (bass orientated stuff),
works better for ambient or delicate material. Very few labels actually use this
process. For ambient and radio orientated labels, it is something to consider
though. Apparently Strictly Rhythm is now doing DMM. My own personal opinion is
that there is a certain weird sheen that just doesn't please. Kind of ABBA.
