The Gossman Passion, Pre-Mastering Thoughts

John and I finished mixing The Gossman Passion just after 11:00 p.m. yesterday. I'm really pleased with the mixes and I can't wait to apply the final EQ and make the overall volume adjustments.

For those of you who aren't familiar with what mastering is, it's the process of preparing a project for CD. In the mixing studio, what were doing is mixing for the song...it's kind of a MICROMIX process. We're making sure that everything is audible and in the right proportion to the other elements. Mastering is more of a MARCOMIX approach. In that process, the project is analyzed as a whole...it's more of a "big picture" audio stage. Often, an unmastered audio project will cause the listener to want to turn up or turn down the volume from track to track.

In my estimation, the best mix we have is for "Eli, Elil, Lema Sabbachthani?" The whole project sounds great, but that one seems closest to what the final project should sound like. In that way, we'll compare the other tracks to it and make adjustments in EQ and volume. There are a few sibilance issues that show up on some speakers with a few of the songs. And, on one of the songs, an electric guitar seems a tad loud in the right speaker. Those are some things that mastering can help smooth out. I'm so tweaky that these are things that only I notice. Overall, the important thing that this project already has is a great balance of all the players and all the parts. You never lose the narrator or any of the singing in spite of the fact that it really rocks at times.

I played the project for Holly, my wife, and Pavita, a friend, last night and they both loved it. Holly and Pavita both sang on the project so it was good to let them hear the entire thing with their parts in perspective.

I'm listening to Kind of Blue right now. It's a great ear break. I'd like to make a jazz record someday that's recorded live to analog tape. No mixing, just performance. That would be great. This project was the direct opposite of a project like that. By necessity, it had to be multi-tracked.