Turtlerock Forum

Hi all
I am interested in doing a specific course in Mastering. Are there any courses that could be recommended focusing mainly on Mastering in Melbourne or even online courses. I have a little time on my hands and would like to spend it getting to grips with this mystical art.
Cheers

I doubt very much in Australia that there is anything specific - Mastering seems to be one of the 'dark arts' that is not widely taught unless you happen to be lucky to get a job at a mastering facility.
There are lots of folk who say they do mastering as part of their studio services - after all, they want to keep you for the whole process as a client generally.

A quick Google search shows there are a few online mastering courses

http://www.musicianuniversity.com/courses/audio.html
http://www.audiocourses.com/
http://www.audiomasterclass.com/ - this has a module on Mastering

Through Berklee Online
http://www.berkleemusic.com/school/cour ... em_id=8254 - Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools
http://www.berkleemusic.com/school/cour ... em_id=8257 - Advanced Mixing and Mastering with Pro Tools
http://www.berkleemusic.com/school/cour ... id=2251864 - Audio Mastering Techniques

I hope this is helpful

Mastering is more common sense than a "black art", knowing the limitations and specs of playback mediums (film, radio, tv, CD, mp3............. etc).

I don't think a course could teach you how to become a good mastering engineer, it could teach you the tricks, specs and the tools but becoming a competent mastering dude takes years of learning, listening and tweaking, also a good repertoire of trashy jokes helps too, heh.

Then once you know all that stuff you just need a small fortune and you're on yer way.

I think angus is on the right track, if it's something you want to do
go to and pay for some mastering sessions , try a few different guys to see different
and common approaches
combined with the couple of books on the subject and a few months lurking on gearslutz or psw you would be as well on your way as anybody

and if you really and actually want to be a mastering engineer proper
get a job at a big place and chime back in in 5 years time with the results
it takes 5 years to learn when to do nothing to a mix
10 years to find out it takes ten years

rick wrote:it takes 5 years to learn when to do nothing to a mix
10 years to find out it takes ten years

This why Rick is da man!!! :)

The only time there'd be a 'dark' or 'black' art to it is if we had the lights dimmed too low... it's basically tonnes of listening experience in a real accurate & detailed monitoring environment requiring zero guesswork. As Rick said.. knowing when to leave well alone. And every job's a clean slate.
Happy to help demystify things, Marc... feel free to tee up a time to drop around with some mixes.
I'll even fire up the "mystical cauldron" for a cuppa.

Adam Dempsey wrote:Happy to help demystify things, .

Happy to Dempseystify things :P

LAME JOKE WARNING!

Adam Dempsey wrote:The only time there'd be a 'dark' or 'black' art to it is if we had the lights dimmed too low... it's basically tonnes of listening experience in a real accurate & detailed monitoring environment requiring zero guesswork. As Rick said.. knowing when to leave well alone. And every job's a clean slate.
Happy to help demystify things, Marc... feel free to tee up a time to drop around with some mixes.
I'll even fire up the "mystical cauldron" for a cuppa.

This is completely off topic but I just got asked by an artist if I could dim all the lights on the console because with every light in the room off they were too bright and killing the vibe.

If anyone knows how to do this on a J series the vibe will thank you heaps.

...get them some sunglasses? or a blindfold?

just trade it for an old 4000E, most of the lights will be out of order

Someone nerdy could probably fit a switch to the light power circuit, or perhaps even a dimmer...

Mitch Kenny wrote:

Adam Dempsey wrote:The only time there'd be a 'dark' or 'black' art to it is if we had the lights dimmed too low... it's basically tonnes of listening experience in a real accurate & detailed monitoring environment requiring zero guesswork. As Rick said.. knowing when to leave well alone. And every job's a clean slate.
Happy to help demystify things, Marc... feel free to tee up a time to drop around with some mixes.
I'll even fire up the "mystical cauldron" for a cuppa.

This is completely off topic but I just got asked by an artist if I could dim all the lights on the console because with every light in the room off they were too bright and killing the vibe.

If anyone knows how to do this on a J series the vibe will thank you heaps.

Kurt wrote:Someone nerdy could probably fit a switch to the light power circuit, or perhaps even a dimmer...

Mitch Kenny wrote:

Adam Dempsey wrote:The only time there'd be a 'dark' or 'black' art to it is if we had the lights dimmed too low... it's basically tonnes of listening experience in a real accurate & detailed monitoring environment requiring zero guesswork. As Rick said.. knowing when to leave well alone. And every job's a clean slate.
Happy to help demystify things, Marc... feel free to tee up a time to drop around with some mixes.
I'll even fire up the "mystical cauldron" for a cuppa.

This is completely off topic but I just got asked by an artist if I could dim all the lights on the console because with every light in the room off they were too bright and killing the vibe.

If anyone knows how to do this on a J series the vibe will thank you heaps.

It's OK. I juuust took a black sharpy and coloured in his eyeballs.

The vibe is once again safe so please carry on :)

pretty sure there ACTUALLY is a light dimmer under the belly on the right hand side somewhere :)