Robert Henke talks with Rashad Becker about Mastering

[jostber]

Many important views from one who knows:

http://www.monolake.de/interviews/mastering.html

[AllenLowe]

I've always felt that there was a good deal of mystification involved in recording and mastering - for recording, if you have a good machine, good mics and a good-sounding room (and good ears), you've got the prime elements. I've always had the most problems when I've trusted the setup to another engineer.

Mastering means good converters, good monitors, good eq. I've mastered all of my own cds with nary a problem and always good reviews.

of course, bear in mind that all of the above applies primarily to jazz and improvised music, though I think it could easily apply to rock. Problem is that I'm semi-old school - I like to record live to multi-track with very directional (and usually but not always) condenser mics - this preserves the "playing together" feeling while allowing some flexibility in the mix - directional mics limit the leakage, but leakage itself is no crime.

I'm not saying it's simple, but it is do-able(find a good 24 bit recorder, too) - I recorded Roswell Rudd on an 8 track Tascam machine about 15 years ago (used a ribbon mic because of his volume) and he told me it was the best his sound was ever captured on a recording - I think this was because I use no compression or limiting, and everything breathed naturally.