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I have been mystified...
Yesterday we got our CD mastered by Dan Stout at Colossal Mastering. This was my first trip to a mastering studio and I was pretty nervous about my mixes being good enough. Once I got past the nerves though it was a great experience.

He had I think two oscilloscopes going, one on his computer(s) and one in the rack. He did the following that I noticed:

1. Collapsed the stereo image on the guitars, which made the guitars very present but they weren't stomping on the vocals as much. The end result is, it sounds very "three dimensional" compared to the mixes I gave him. How? no idea.
   
2. Added some EQ to the very tippy top end and the low end. He made the bass sound pretty huge and present. Each song had different EQ curves, which I think he did by ear, but the end result is that all the songs sounded like the same CD... I don't know how you'd even approach that, it was completely baffling.
   
3. Made it loud. It's not as loud as, say, the newest Bad Religion CD, but it's definitely way up there. It wouldn't sound out of place in a jukebox or iPod. I think that's good, because any louder and it would be one of those CDs that just hurts to listen to after a while.
   
4. Did crossfades and start points and spacing for the CD. We were probably a pain in the ass about this, we were a little picky but he accomodated us very graciously.
   
5. Cut a master CD with an error report for the pressing plant. This comes with a "PQ" sheet that we give the pressing plant that has all the start/end times, etc. Then we also got a reference CD that was just a normal burned disc.
   

There are a lot of guys out there that don't know any better and they just run your stuff through some compressors, make it loud and call it "mastered" but this was way different. He had great attention to detail (he picked out a barely-audible piano part that we put into one of the songs) and was seriously a wizard when it came to handling that equipment. He moved lightning fast.

There are some inconsistencies in the CD, like in some songs the kick drum is a little louder than in others, but that kind of stuff is really our fault. Next time I sort of know what he can and can't do, and I can try to mix accordingly. The only other thing I noticed is that we didn't do any real A/B listening against other CDs. I would have liked to do that, but in the end it turned out great anyway.

For next time, I learned:

• I think I might need new monitors. Regardless, I need to acoustically treat the basement, because I'm getting a low and low-mid frequency buildup that is making me mix things very bass-shy. Also, when I'm panning things the stereo imaging on my monitors isn't that great so I think I tend to overcompensate by panning things either way out or way in.
  
• My samples for the kick drum were very inconsistent. I think this might be due to the way dfhSuperior automatically turns things down when they would otherwise clip. I think a couple of the songs got affected by that little "feature." I need to watch this next time and make sure those samples are rock solid. Every little thing counts!
  
• Find a new sample for snare. The one I used cut through the mix, but only really turned out good in a couple of songs. I think a more characteristic sound would fit a little better.
  
• I need to find a better way to record Jared's bass. It sounds good, but it could be better.
  
• When in doubt, sing it again. When you love it, sing it again, JUST IN CASE!
  
• Do not fuck with my formula for guitars. They turned out awesome!!

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