CD mastering is simultaneously an art and a science. Mastering consists of the one creative and technical step that precedes pressing a record album. In fact, mastering is similar to an editor’s role of polishing a rough and raw manuscript and making it ready for publication.
The professional who perfects the craft of mastering is called an audio mastering engineer. Audio mastering is usually done in a studio, with calibrated acoustics and just one set of wide-range monitors. The highlights of audio mastering are a few signal paths, customized gear and specialized tools.
For best results, mastering should never be done in the same studio as the recording. Instead, a mastering engineer should be allowed to bring his own expertise and freshness to an album project so that the final output is distinctive from any other album.
A CD mastering engineer must have a technical background, a musical ear, and up-to-date equipment. He must know how to read music, understand a range of musical styles, edit music, and be able to combine these with digital processing equipment.
In addition, the true master for a CD is the glass master, etched on the laser cutter at the pressing plant. In fact, the glass master is done away with at the production stage. But the only permanent thing here is the stamper or that round metal that presses thousands of CDs before it can be replaced.
The material sent to the plant may either be an Exabyte DDP tape, a CDR or a PCM-1630 tape. Even if the material is in the premaster stage, it is usually labeled a 1630 tape or CDR CD Master. Finally, the bits on the final CD will match those on the master that left the mastering house and are heard in your car.
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