#What is a ddp audio professional#
#What is a ddp audio series#

As computer technology developed through the 90s, a data disc or hard drive became a suitable medium to bring to the mastering engineer. In the late 80s, many final mixes were recorded onto digital tape in RDAT or Reel to Reel format. Since the start of multitrack recording in the 1960s, this format was always analog tape.

The final mixes must be brought into the mastering studio in some format. Let's take a quick look at each step in the process. Today, mastering engineers can do things that were not even conceivable just a few decades ago. The development of digital technology, in particular, has increased the options of mastering audio exponentially. Let's review those step one by one and show how they have developed over the years.Īlthough the order in which some of these steps are taken has changed through the decades, each step must still be carefully considered. While the mediums have evolved and the number of ways we can master audio have increased, the basic steps remain. What has changed is the tools used, the medium worked with and the end product that is released to the public.

#What is a ddp audio series#

The Process of mastering audio involves a series of steps that have not changed very much over the decades. Pre mastering audio became the bridge from the recording studio to the consumer and a critical part of the music industry. The loudness wars began with the pressure to make every song louder than all the others on the radio. The addition precision equalizers and high end compressors helped to address the increasing demand for sonically superior records. Special control rooms and consoles were created to aid the process. Pre-mastering is the preparation process before the actual mastering of the stampers takes place.

As this technology developed the term pre-mastering entered the lexicon of the audio world. Technology would quickly develop to accommodate the issues faced in the transfer process. Soon, the job of the transfer engineer would become an art-form of its own. Overly dynamic performances or excessive bass frequencies, that would normally destroy the lacquer, could be more easily dealt with in the transfer process. This extra step in the process took a load of pressure off of the recording engineer who could focus primarily on capturing the performance and not have to worry about whether it would cut well to the lacquer. The job of a transfer engineer was to take the analog tape master and transfer it to the lacquer so that the metal stampers could be created. The transfer engineer's job is what we commonly call today, the mastering engineer. The process of recording to analog tape removed many technical limitations of recording directly to a lacquer and added an important new job, the transfer engineer.

#What is a ddp audio professional#

In the professional recording studios, the emergence of the analog tape machine in the 1950s changed the way records were made forever. Each emerging technology presented new options to the consumer and new challenges to the mastering engineer. These changes include 33 1/3 and 45 rpm discs, audio cassettes, 8 track tapes, CD's, mini discs and mp3s. The mastering process has evolved over the years to follow the changes in commercially released technology from the original 78 rpm discs. Mastering, by technical definition, is the actual process of creating the stampers that are used to press the vinyl discs. Once cut, the disc was processed to create what is called a metal 'stamper' used to press the melted vinyl into the actual discs played on a turntable. Up until the creation of the analog tape machine, all performances were captured directly to a form of vinyl disc called a lacquer. The art of mastering audio has developed immensely since its start in the early 1900's.