|
        
Post-Production is the phase where the recordings for each song
are listened to, edited, and mixed into a single good take for that
song. Then, various other post-production 'mastering' processes
may or may not be performed, depending upon the need and upon the
budget. These other processes include: Noise Reduction, Audio
Detailing (removal of extraneous noises), equalization,
limiting/compression, normalization, and putting the songs
together for 'album' continuity. The result of most
post-production jobs is a master CD meeting the "Red Book"
standard, that is ready for duplication or replication.
Details on Post Production and Mastering Processes
(for those of you who are curious)
- Equalization (EQ) - In general, given the quality equipment Lucid uses,
little or no EQ is needed. However, for more distant recordings,
sometimes, the high frequencies need to be turned up a little to bring out
details, or mixes between different microphone groups or instruments may
need a little equalization to balance the sound between them to make it more
cohesive. Lucid uses high quality linear phase digital EQs to maintain
high sound quality and spaciousness.
- Limiting/Compression - These terms refer to 'dynamic range' - the
difference in volume between loud and quiet parts. When
limiting/compression is performed, it typically compresses the volume,
making the quiet parts louder and/or the loud parts quieter. Much of
today's pop music is very compressed such that the loud and quiet parts are
almost the same volume. However, most classical music really benefits
from full, uncompressed dynamic range to fully evoke the listeners
emotions. Thus for this type of music, ideally, little or no
limiting/compression should be used. Lucid follows this philosophy
whenever practical. See our page on Dynamic
Range for details. Since Lucid usually attempts to minimize
compression, you may notice that Lucid CDs
(and many other quality classical labels) seem to have a lower average
volume than other brands. This is so that you can take advantage of
the full dynamic range of the music. However, sometimes it is
appropriate for the mastering engineer to utilize a small amount of
compression when there are only a couple of places on a CD where the volume
gets very loud. If these few 'ultra loud' spots aren't compressed to
make them a little quieter, then the volume on the entire rest of the CD
must be 'turned down' to accommodate those couple of really loud spots while
staying under the maximum volume technically allowed on a CD. That
being said, there are times when compression is good - even on classical
music. For example, if the music needs to be played back in a noisy
environment, such as a car, compression can help by turning up the volume on
the quiet parts loud enough so that the listener can hear them over the
traffic and engine noise. However, unless requested, Lucid does not
master to optimize for a noisy listening environment. We use little or
no compression whenever possible.
- Normalization - This is basically volume adjustment on a per-song basis,
keeping all songs within the limits of the digital medium (e.g. 16 bit
CD). If there are some really loud songs and some really quiet songs
that must go together on a CD, the mastering engineer will adjust the volume
of the loudest song to fit within the maximum volume the CD can
handle. Then, other songs will be adjusted relative to that one so
that all songs on an album fit together and sound appropriately loud
relative to each other. The mastering engineer should aim to set the
volume of all songs so that the listener will enjoy listening to the album
from first song to last without adjusting the playback volume.
To do this, the mastering engineer may prefer to 'turn up the volume' on the
quiet song just a little to make it easier to hear next to the loud
song. Normalization is basically making per-song volume
adjustment decisions for all of the songs on an album.
- Continuity - This is the process of selecting the song order and the
spacing (silence, applause, or quiet room ambience) between songs. For
many concert recordings, the CD simply follows the order of the songs as
they were performed. Lucid typically follows concert order, but will
sometimes adjust song order when it seems particularly appropriate.
Lucid also typically does not fade-out between songs for concert
recordings. Our most common continuity technique for concert CDs is to
make the CD to sound like it is a real, complete concert with just music and
applause. We usually leave in the applause, although it is
sometimes shortened. Additionally, we typically remove all talking
between the songs unless requested to keep it. For non-concert
recordings, Lucid can make song order decisions if requested, but we usually
defer to the artists regarding song order.
- Noise Reduction - This is the process of removing
'steady state' background noise, such as air handlers, machine noise,
etc. Ideally, you want to record in a quiet space that doesn't
have any of this noise, as noise reduction usually causes the audio quality of the music
to suffer at least a little
bit. Therefore, Lucid prefers to not use noise reduction.
However, when noise reduction is required, Lucid does an excellent job of
removing noise while leaving the music intact.
- Audio Detailing - This is the process of removing
extraneous temporary noises from recordings. Examples of this include
temporary traffic noises (motorcycle taking off), cellophane wrappers,
coughs, squeaks, etc. Each instance of this kind of noise is handled
individually. Most of the time, 90% of the noise is removed with very
little effect on the music. However, some noises are so close the
musical notes, that they are difficult to remove without affecting the
music.
|
