How many masters?

[Magnus JohanssonParticipant]

Hi Adam

Feels like I´m using the wrong word (masters), I´m sure you get what I mean.
I´m wondering how many masters you regulary output per project/song. Those that come to mind are:
CD, Vinyl, Mastered for iTunes, Lossless/lossy downloads (same as cd?), HD Lossless download (Pono), Streaming services.
It got more than I thought! What differs between them when it comes to mastering apart from final bitrates and samplefrequenzy? Do you do different "DR" versions based on target service?

[Adam AyanParticipant]

Hi Mange,

We are creating many different types of production masters for all projects these days. Creatively they are all the same, they only differ in deliverable. That means different sample rates and bit depths (I always master at the highest rate the mix was proved at), and overall level in the case of Apple's Mastered for iTunes, Spotify, and possibly in the future other streaming services.

So, the variations are usually as follows: DDP for CD Master, High Res WAVs for HD digital distribution, High Res WAVs with side splits for Vinyl, 441/24 WAVs lowered in level for MFiT, 441/16 WAVs for all other digital distribution, as well as 41/16 WAVs lowered in level for digital distribution (I am experimenting with this as of late) - I think that covers all of them!

Best,
Adam

[Jared ShermanParticipant]

I am guessing when you say side-splits for vinyl you mean that you make one single WAV for the entirety of Side A and a second single WAV with all the songs on Side B?

It's interesting that Mastered For iTunes is 24-bit. I did not realize that was the case.

[Adam AyanParticipant]

Hi Jared,

Yes, the side splits for vinyl are separate WAV files for the entirety of Side A and Side B, at the highest res mastered.

MFiT has always been 24 bit - that is one of the sonic perks of the program. Every lossy encoder does a better job encoding from a 24 bit master vs. 16 bit master.

Best,
Adam

[Jared ShermanParticipant]

Adam, in addition to the normal masters do you also, as standard, provide instrumental masters, vocal only masters, or any other? Of course those different versions would have to be provided to you and requested, but what is the frequency that you have to do masters that differ from the "album" version of a track? Are those limited to only some songs off a record, are these typically requested more/less frequently by major labels?

[Author]

Posts