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From	synthhtnys@comcast.net
Subject	Re: Remix vs Remaster Was: Beatles Remasters
Date	Wed, 16 Sep 2009 17:45:25 +0000 (UTC)

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Mastering is where you get the tracks to play together nicely! EQ, compression 

are main players here... it's basically leveling everything so that a quiet track 

doesn't completely disappear after a loud one... so you don't have to constantly 

reach for the volume knob...  Last chance at EQing out any nasty frequencies or other issues 

Really hard to define, but it's an important part of the process of recording music. 



Mixing occurs before this step. You understand that for the most part individual elements 

(Bass, drums, voice etc.) are recorded seperately, right? Mixing is where you get all the 

levels right so you can hear everything  and the loud guitar doesn't eclipse the quiet flute or whatever. 

These are sweeping generalizations, but hopefully it will help you understand.... 






----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Eichelberger" <markeichelberger@verizon.net> 
To: audities@smoe.org 
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 9:17:24 AM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: Re: Remix vs Remaster Was: Beatles Remasters 

Mike, 
Well, I still have a basic question.  Just what occurs during mastering? 
(And I am assuming this mastering process happens after mixing.)  If the 
producer/artist mixes the master tapes to get the sound they want, what else 
is there to do?  Why does is now have to be mastered?  Confused.... 

Thanks, 
Mark 
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Myers" <mmyers1446@yahoo.com> 
To: <audities@smoe.org> 
Sent: Wednesday, September 16, 2009 11:58 AM 
Subject: Re: Remix vs Remaster Was: Beatles Remasters 


Mark; 

Here's one easy way to think of it... but there are a couple fine points in 
here too :) 

Any tape or original sound source can be remastered to some degree... 
whether it is the original "un-mixed" master tape for instance, or, as in 
the case of the Beatles, they took the MIXED tapes that were the ones used 
to create the singles and LPs long ago and did a lot of digital wizardry to 
clean the sound up.... and this is what you are hearing on the CDs we're all 
raving about... so in other words, the engineers did not feel empowered nor 
were they allowed to go back to the UNMIXED original tapes and make changes 
back at that point in the process... 

REMIXING, however, is a whole other can of worms, and that is what I think 
you're wanting info on as well... if those engineers were to go back to the 
original 4 or 8 track tapes and start REMIXING things, it would have set off 
a whole new controversy... when things are remixed, that means they could 
actually pan sounds differently in the stereo channels, make the guitar lead 
a lot louder, change the dynamics in the harmony parts etc... remember, 
George Martin, some Abbey Road engineers and the BEATLES themselves made 
those music/dynamics/sonic choices as to how the songs would be MIXED and 
this is sacred ground in the opinion of many... those mixes were artistic 
statements and they resulted in the master copy tapes that were used in 
these recent releases... 

You probably have other CDs in your collection that say they were REMIXED 
and REMASTERED.... which means someone like Jimmy Page or Pete Townshend or 
Robbie Robertson went back and took all of the unmixed contributions to a 
song and sat and made new versions of the sons with a remxing project that 
probably inlcuded remastering as well... 

Did that help? 

Mike 



--- On Wed, 9/16/09, Mark Eichelberger <markeichelberger@verizon.net> wrote: 

From: Mark Eichelberger <markeichelberger@verizon.net> 
Subject: Remix vs Remaster Was: Beatles Remasters 
To: audities@smoe.org 
Date: Wednesday, September 16, 2009, 7:47 AM 

Folks, 
All this talk of mixing, remixing, mastering and remastering is confusing my 
non-musician brain. Could one of you musician/recording studio types define 
these terms or describe the process. I've always been confused on the 
differences of a mix vs. a master. 

TIA, 
Mark E., 

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