My Dogs have Learned to Dig up Trees and a few thoughts on Mastering Music

Today we are doing some photos. Going to drive out to Castaic Lake in 2 hours or so. Really excited about it. The pics are going to be something entirely new for me. An experiment if you will. My goal is to do a photo with every song as well. Sort of give a glimpse into the world of that song. Express it visually.

As for the songs, we are finalizing mixes this weekend actually and I have to figure out mastering for Monday. Which is a bit stressful but it will come together. Even if it is last minute :) Mastering is a weird process. Hard to really explain to people. The basic premise is to level the song out and bring the overall volume up. So basically, you don't have to play with your volume knob as you listen to the song. It's all balanced. Bad mastering is when you find yourself needing to turn up or down a song in the middle of it, just to have a comfortable experience. There are of course other things that they do as well, making sure the bass is not too heavy, making the mix sound "warmer," more analogue, etc...

But mastering is a weird thing because you can have this cheapo version done and this super expensive version done and have trouble telling between them. Of course, there are times when you definitely know why this mix costed more - but from my limited experience, there have been moments where I really do not HEAR why this mastering mix costs so much more.

I am still learning to figure out that whole situation. The hardest part is you can spend days mixing a song, and when they master it - the mix is TOTALLY different. And you just have to eat it. So I have a bit of distaste for the whole process. But it's entirely important to do right at the same time :)

As for daily life... my 2 dogs have discovered digging. And pretty much everyday there is a new hole somewhere in the yard... It's hard to stay angry with them though. As far as I understand, you have to find a "good digging spot" for them and encourage them to focus their energy there. That way you channel their instinctual behavior and they don't end up ruining the entire yard. Wish me luck :) Between digging holes with my dogs in "very specific areas of the yard" and finding the "best mastering setup", my days are getting quite "exciting"...




xox