CD mastering is a process that modifies your audio CD before it is replicated in order to enhance its quality. Mastering is a crucial step that can enhance the depth, clarity, warmth and resonance of a recording. It is the difference between a professional sounding audio CD and an amateur recording. After a recording is made, whether it is a live performance or a studio project, the final mixes need to be mastered using the following procedures;
Assembly and Editing
The audio tracks are imported into a digital editor such as Wavelab and sequenced into the correct order in an audio montage. This process also involves choosing the amount of spacing between tracks and implementing fades or cross-fades. Any DC Offset will be removed, and some noises/clicks will also be removed manually, as accurate as single sample alterations. Other anomolies may be removed using waveform restoration.
Effects and Dynamic Processing
This is when the audio is enhanced using a variety of tools and the art of mastering is put into practice. The mastering engineer will use his/her judgement to alter each track in a particular way so that the album/EP in question has a consistent sound throughout – it is altered so that there are no conflictions in loudness, balance, tone, and depth. It involves many processes which may or may not be used, such as compression/expansion, limiting, noise reduction, equalization, stereo widening, mastering reverb, harmonic excitement, and maximization.
Output
After the creative stage is analysed and completed, the tracks are rendered down to CD quality (16-bit, 44.1kHz) and dither is added to the signal to avoid low level distortion. Information is then encoded into the CD, such as track and artist names, as well as ISRC codes. The final product is then error-checked and transferred to the appropriate media such as CDR, DVD, or even transferred over the internet via FTP in DDP format.
