How does music actually get from the studio to the consumer?

[Bayesian 1,359]

One of the pleasures of being on the JWFan forums for me is steadily learning about the way music is brought to us as consumers. I never realized how technical, artistic, and complex the process can be. My deep admiration goes out to all the people who make that happen.

 

If listening to a live performance is, let's say, a "first generation" experience, what does listening to a CD count as? How many steps are there between a live performance/recording session and hearing the recorded music on your speakers at home?

 

My under-informed guess is about 8 steps:

 

• Performance is recorded onto tape (2nd gen)
• Tape is copied/cloned to a different tape to be worked on by engineers? (3rd gen)
• Contents of second tape are edited, then stored either digitally or back onto a third tape? (4th gen)
• This content gets mastered (5th gen)
• Mastered content gets transferred to a master disc for pressing (6th gen)
• CDs are pressed (7th gen)
• CD gets ripped to iTunes or other digital library by consumer (8th gen)

 

As an interested non-engineer, I'd love to know what I got right or wrong in the list above. I liken these steps to the process in photography that leads from "wow, that's a nice shot, let me get my camera out" to a framed picture on the wall -- that is to say, a process with potentially dozens of individual steps and decisions to make along the way.

[James 119]

Before the performance there is the draft, the composition, the official orchestration and I really do not know anything, but it is a job that on average must occupy the hands of about 500 people. It's a lot of work!

[Kasey Kockroach 2,343]

Well, you see my friends, when a mommy orchestrator and a daddy orchestrator love each other very much...they make music! Which is personally delivered to you in convenient compact disc form by hired storks!

[Jim Ware 526]

At a very high-level:

Recording -> Editing -> Mixing -> Album editing (and possibly remixing) -> Mastering -> Album production & distribution

 

Most things are recorded to digitally to disk nowadays - it's unlikely that tape will be involved.

[Richard Penna 3,671]

'Mastering' feels a very wide term to me.

 

If I have to adjust sessions, it will only ever be to boost the volume and trim silences. What other steps would a professional do to 'master' an album?

[A24 4,326]

5 hours ago, Jim Ware said:

 

 

Most things are recorded to digitally to disk nowadays - it's unlikely that tape will be involved.

 

Yep, it's all files these days.

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,265]

Don't tell that to hipsters!

[John 2,032]

MP3 is all you need.

[Unlucky Bastard 7,782]

128kbps is about right.

[Sharkissimo 1,973]

12 hours ago, Richard Penna said:

'Mastering' feels a very wide term to me.

 

If I have to adjust sessions, it will only ever be to boost the volume and trim silences. What other steps would a professional do to 'master' an album?

 

The big four are the following:

• Equalization - In a contemporary studio this is more likely to be a parametric (either minimum phase or linear phase) rather than graphic EQ as they allow a finer adjustment of frequency bands.
• Dynamic range compression - Either multiband or single band. There a number of fancy techniques here like parallel compression (balancing an uncompressed mix with a compressed mix) and side-chain compression (that cheesy 'pumping' effect you hear in EDM tunes--essentially an input (usually a four-to-the-floor kick drum) triggers the mix to 'duck' whenever it hits
• Limiting - involves setting the maximum output gain and adjusting the input gain; attack and release, link control, gain reduction and clipping. Too much here to explain.
• Noise reduction - Uses noise gates and expanders to attenuate high and quiet noise artifacts respectively, and likewise low-pass and high-pass filters for high frequency and low frequency artifacts.

[Jim Ware 526]

21 hours ago, Stefancos said:

Don't tell that to hipsters!

 

I wonder if that notorious hipster Michael Giacchino is having The Incredibles 2 recorded analogue to tape....