Audio Mastering Blog

Happy New Year

2009-01-22T18:54:00.000-08:00

Greetings music lovers,
Ok, I think it's safe. It looks like we all made it through the crazy holiday season, and the crazier state of the union. Are you feeling the economic turn around yet? Yeah, me neither. But, hey great music should be the one recession proof industry. When times are good, turn up the tunes and celebrate. When times are bad, crank up your favorite songs and drowned out the world. Cliches asides, here's looking forward to 2009. We've been keeping busy at The Sync Room with projects from Tropical Soul, Blue Light Special, Kris Ballerini and The Hagan's Family. Many thanks to the studios, bands, producers and fans who keep the central PA music biz in biz.
Under the category "that which does not kill us...". I just got back in touch with a close friend from Nashville. It seems his company not only made it through these hard economic times, but was bought by a much larger music company. Proof positive that if you keep doing what you do, and do it better than anyone else, you will make it. Congrats to Randy Hart and Aircast Productions.
In hard economic times, I've heard it said that only 3 things are really needed; 1) Food, 2) Clothing and 3) Shelter. If we were all only base creatures, without the need to feel and express ourselves, that might be true. But, we are much more. The joy, the sorrow, the trials, the triumphs, the failures, and the successes we face, need a outlet. We need a way to share them. And music is the medium. Our way to connect. Our way to make it through.

More than ever... Make a joyful noise,

Chad

Welcome to the Neighborhood

2008-06-25T20:32:00.000-07:00

What a grand opening! Thanks to all who came. This past Saturday, June 21st, The Sync Room threw a little party to celebrate our grand opening. We have had a few projects come through before Saturday's official opening. But Jenny and I wanted an event to signal that Lancaster's first dedicated master/ audio post facility is up and running. We had a good showing of studio owners, musicians, audio school directors, industry professionals and media personalities. We both had some great conversations with everyone who attended. Making friends is always easier when mixed with food and drinks. I hope this is the first of many such gatherings. It is our desire to build and serve the central PA and Mid-Atlantic music community.
One of the great things about Nashville's audio community was the AES engineer "Hang Time". It was a chance for studio owners, producers, engineers and musicians to get together once a month and share their love of all things audio. The AES (Audio Engineer Society), now in its sixth decade, is the only professional society devoted exclusively to audio technology. Its membership of leading engineers, scientists and other authorities has increased dramatically throughout the world, greatly boosting the society's stature and that of its members in a truly symbiotic relationship. But, don't let the description scare you. Gone are the days of white lab coats and anti-social behavior. "Hang Times" offer sleep deprived, over worked, under appreciated engineers to support each other and some time with the only people who might actually understand them.....other engineers. All of that to say this. We had a great time meeting everyone who came out for The Sync Room's grand opening. Let's stay in touch and bring others into the mix. Pun intended.

Make a joyful noise,
Chad

The Loudness Wars

2008-04-27T13:37:00.001-07:00

Posted on a bus stop bench on Nashville’s Music Row, “Louder isn’t better. It’s just louder”. Someone took a sharpie and wrote under it, “And better”. Yes, the loudness wars are alive and well. If you’re a musician, producer, engineer, or even a music lover, you know what I’m talking about. It’s the ongoing battle to have the loudest mix on the radio. Or an indie CD that’s as “loud” as a major label release. Behind closed doors, mastering engineers complain about the fact that dynamic range is a thing of the past. They hate having to squeeze the life out of a great mix just to gain a few decibels of apparent volume. Some think that loudness wars are a recent phenomenon. It goes back much further, and CD’s are not to blame. From the earliest 45 rpm singles, artists and labels have been trying to have their product be the loudest record in the stack at the radio stations. Even back then, record companies would send out compilations of new singles to radio stations on a single LP. Once artists, labels and producers listened to these, if their song wasn't the loudest one on the record, they would call the mastering engineer and have them raise the level so it could be competitive. CD’s should have made it better, not worse. CD’s increased dynamic range. The absence of rumbles, ticks and pops, and the fact that the needle would never jump out of the groove, caused the artistic community and engineers to embrace this format. At first there were many dynamic titles produced. Several record companies even went as far as to put disclaimers on CD’s released stating that they were not responsible for speaker damage caused by the extreme dynamic range of that particular disk. Now, mastering engineers have more tools, and better sounding tools, at their disposal, to make things even louder. No one wants a client to say, “I love everything you’ve done, but could you just make it louder?” So, engineers reach for their favorite compressor and mastering limited and crush away. Once things reach 0dB full scale, you think that would be it. But, I’ve taken commercially released CD’s and gotten 1.5 to 2 dB more out of them through SADiE without them distorting. Yes, I can make your tracks louder. But, is that what they really need? Maybe what they need is simply to take what is best about your unique sound and polish and enhance it. Louder is only one aspect of what a mastering engineer can offer. But more on that later.

Make a Joyful Noise-

Chad

Opening Blog

2008-04-19T22:08:00.001-07:00

Well, at 37 years old I thought I wouldn’t have too many more firsts in my life. But, here I am posting my first blog entry about opening my first business. I still haven’t eaten my first Rita’s Italian Ice. So I have that to look forward to. Back to the topic at hand. Opening THE SYNC ROOM. To bring you up to speed, I need to employ a Wayne’s World-esk flash back. My wife and I had just moved from York PA to Nashville TN. She was, and still is, an aspiring songwriter. One day she asked me, “What did you always want to do? What’s your passion?” I replied, “I always loved recording, but that’s not why we came here.” Being the smarter of us she said, “Duh, Chad, its Nashville. Look around. If you don’t pursue recording here you never will.” As usual, she was right. I went back to school for audio and graduated first in my class from SAE, Nashville. After five great years, we felt the pull toward home. We love Nashville, but needed to be with our families. We had been living in East Nashville. A cool, hip, part of the city that was going through a renaissance. We knew we would need a place like that in PA to be truly happy. We looked a long time to find a city that offered a vibrant music and art scene. We found a great realtor in Jeff Geoghan, who found us a fantastic home in Lancaster City. Not only does Lancaster have an incredible art scene, it also has a lot a cool restaurants. From old favorites like Lancaster Brewing Co, Quipps and The Lancaster Dispensing Co., to new hot spots like Fenz, Iron Hill Brewery and Yorgos, Lancaster makes it easy to enjoy a night out. But, I digress. We found an old cigar warehouse, imagine that, that was being turned into a collection of art and music related office spaces. What a perfect fit. One of the rooms used to be a walk in freezer for Kegels produce. I couldn’t believe my luck. To acoustically isolate a room like that would have cost thousands of dollars! The current owner, Mike Heberlein (who also owns and runs Lancaster Art Galleries), worked with my wife and I to renovate the room.

Thus, The Sync Room is open and ready to go. Keep watching for the grand opening in May. I’ll post the details as it’s planned.

Make a joyful noise-

Chad