Mastering: A Major Issue For the Indie Music Community
At the recent Audio Engineering Society (AES) 131st Convention in New York, IZotope announced the release of the latest version of it's mastering suite called Ozone 5, a cost-effective software solution for mastering. t's due out November, according to AMSouldRecords.com.
NOTE: AES runs several Conferences throughout the year, with the 44th Conference happening Nov. 18-20 in San Diego.
Why is this so important? In the Indie music community and home studio market, next to making money, mastering is the most controversial game in town. Digital Technology is the basis for the current Indie music scene and why the industry is in a state of upheaval. True, this is old news, ever since Napster and the mp3 turned music into a pirate's game. But the home studio market is growing by leaps and bounds and the opportunity to commercially release new music from artist/band direct-to-consumer is gaining steady cyber-ground.
For all intents and purposes, CD technology is either dead, or certainly headed for the same graveyard as cassette and vinyl. However, delivery is not so much the issue as the quality of content being delivered. Without the right mix and mastering, a recording can sound cheap and amateurish, and the Internet is inundated with such inferior recorded songs.
Actually, the songs and artistry of the artist or band might not be that bad. What's bad is the sound of the recording itself. It could be poorly arranged, but most recording problems lie in the mix and mastering is never considered. In fact, many musicians don't even know what mastering is. Like the final coat of paint on a brand new car, mastering is the final stage before a recording gets commercially released.
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