Mastering, 80s Style
Having grown up in the era when compact discs were becoming popular, the sound of digital albums from the late ’80s is the sound of my youth. It was a time when I was discovering the musical artist within myself and developing my opinions on which music sounded good. To me, this period of the CD had a very distinct sound. There was not nearly as much emphasis on getting the albums as loud as possible or advanced processors to remove the sterility from the digital domain. A disc from those days has a very open sound with a lot of dynamic range and a very clear sound. I was recently mastering some bluegrass music and decided to go for this clear and open sound in the mastering rather than try for a gimmicky thirties type of gritty analog master. You can read about how I achieved the ’80s sound in the new article, Getting The Late ’80s CD Sound
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December 18th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Agreed, the 80’s mastered sound encompassed a lot of the elements that are noteworthy….clarity, punch, but still leaving breathing room.
The only thing I didn’t care for in some 80’s stuff, was the drums…namely the kick, were understated and in the background. Today we’ve gone to the other extreme. I am simply proposing balance.
A lot of the pop records of the mid to late 80’s had a good example of well rounded balance. Those are always good reference points!
cheers,
Fotios
October 24th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Hi there, i have read your tutorials and tried them on my mixes with great results!
These deserve more comments IMO because they are straight forward but do the job really well.
I hope to see some more on the iZotope Ozone 3 and Waves for that matter good stuff!