I was talking last night to a friend about how good audio equipment could make mastering “imperfections” more obvious to the listener. Specifically we were talking about how many audio products tend to boost some frequencies which are already boosted in the mastering phase of a recording (and how that shouldn’t be done for the most part). The larger topic was about sibilance on equipment and how different people’s tolerances for sibilance could be.

“Bad Production”?

But then I had another question and thought to myself if I had ever considered anything as “bad mastering” and wondered if it was a matter of taste or if there’s an actual technical dogma for it. I’d like to believe that I have some pretty decent equipment I listen with to actually hear what’s going on in these records.

As it is, I tended to have less problems with equipment sibilance despite having an audiologist tell me that my ears were more sensitive than average — as well as I tend to have less problems with how final recordings sound like… despite being a musician and a production enthusiast for the most part of my adult life.

Anyhow, I ended up naming Urbandub’s “Embrace” album as my closest example of how a “bad master” might sound like to me in contrast to Typecast’s “How Your Influence Betrays You” in terms of the use of bus compression (musically, part of how most of these records get their punchiness).

The kick drum in Urbandub’s “Frailty”, specially in the double-kick parts, causes the attack of the guitars to “duck out” of the mix. If you notice a “pumping” sound, that’s what it is.

But then, for literally 100% of the time I’ve been listening to the whole album since it came out, I didn’t consider this “bad mastering” as ultimately detrimental to the work as a whole or even in part. I’ve quickly grown to consider it as a legitimate part of the over-all sound of the album. And at least the NU107 Rock Awards kind of agreed with me in giving them multiple nominations for it.

I actually think, in this case, it served much of the songs and I could no longer imagine listening to a track without that over-compression going on. I actually tried mimicking this effect in some experimental tracks I had been working on. EDM also does this a lot — sometimes very intentionally with sidechaining.

Of course this kind of effect shouldn’t be done if artists or producers clearly don’t want that kind of sound out there. In that case, I would call it “wrong” or even “bad” (why put out something you don’t want?) — but I’ll have to ask the artist first if they wanted it on or not.

One of the few times compression can be clearly heard, even by untrained listeners, is when it starts pumping. Pumping refers to the audible, unnatural level changes associated primarily with the release of a compressor. The audio signal contains material that changes level in unexpected ways. It might be steady-state noise, the sustained wash of a cymbal, or the long decay of any instrument holding a note for several beats or bars. Listeners expect a certain amplitude envelope: The noise should remain steady in level, the cymbals should decay slowly, etc. Instead, the compressor causes the signal to get noticeably louder. This unnatural increase in amplitude occurs as a compressor turns up gain during release. […]

[…] Note, on the other hand, that the pumping artifact may, on occasion, be an interesting effect. If each snare hit causes the cymbals to pump, the result can be an interesting, unnatural envelope in which it sounds as if the cymbals have been reversed in time. Used sparingly, such an effect can add great interest to the production.

Alex Case, p.160, “Sound FX: Unlocking the Creative Potential of Recording Studio Effects”

“Happy Accidents?”

This whole question at large reminds me of Bob Ross, in terms of making art in general. He said “there are no mistakes — just happy accidents”.

Now, over and over again, I say: we don’t make mistakes we have happy accidents.

Bob Ross, S11E13, “The Joy of Painting”

Add to that Adam Neely’s “repetition legitimizes” idea, and this whole thing starts to make sense.

OK. So why does this work? The music is off the grid. By some accounts, it’s out of time, and the rhythmic equivalent of playing out of tune — so, what’s the secret? The secret is repetition. Repetition legitimizes.

Adam Neely, Dec 18, 2018, “How to Play Music With a “Drunk” Feel “

And I guess this is the same as before with how some people considered fuzz guitars as “bad tone” the first time it was discovered — as it is today with many respectable listeners who may consider a particular mastering output as “bad”?

So when Glen was recording this Marty Robbins track in Nashville as a recording engineer, this mistake happens — they put it to tape, they listen and they love the track (a couple of guys didn’t love it). But the ones who loved it won the argument, they printed it down, it got on the radio, became a hit. And from that point on, Glen was given the idea that led to the first-ever fuzz pedal, the “Maestro Fuzz-Tone”. […] This pedal changed everything.

Joshua Heath Scott, Jun 8, 2018, “The Origin of Fuzz (2018)”

Or how the gated reverb characterizing 80s drum sound — which wasn’t supposed to be a thing until Phil Collins et. al. decided it was a good “accident” to keep on making — and the rest was history.

That punchy, unnatural drum was the sound of the 80s, and it’s back. It’s called “gated reverb”. And like many of the greatest inventions, it was discovered by accident.

Vox, Aug 18, 2017, “How a recording-studio mishap shaped ’80s music”

There’s also a whole article on MusicRadar by David West diving deep in to the same topic.

Or A Bad Taste?

But, you know what, there might probably be such as a thing as “bad mastering” — or “bad art” in general. It has to be out there — because people keep on noticing them. There’s a technical dogma that I am not aware of or maybe just too lazy to care about.

And maybe the problem is that, after all these years apparently listening to cheap equipments and a relatively unsophisticated taste, I still struggle in recognizing them?

Could be.

Cover photo by Silvestre Leon on Unsplash.