Level matching of A/B samples on mastering websites

[MoreSpaceEcho]

By the way, every session I've ever attended with a truly great mastering engineer involved some attempt at a level-matched comparison while working.

did we do that when you were here? i don't think we did. shit.

[Nick Sevilla]

By the way, every session I've ever attended with a truly great mastering engineer involved some attempt at a level-matched comparison while working.

did we do that when you were here? i don't think we did. shit.

+1

I think this comparing, or A/B -ing of masters, is akin to having to compare your mix to a rough mix.

Ever have an artist with "demoitis"?

I have, plenty of times. It really is hard to get an artist to listen and then understand why what a mix engineer, and what a mastering engineer does, to their music.

I usually explain briefly, that I am mixing the music for two reasons :

1.- A broader audience. To me this means that certain things, like intelligibility, a certain aesthetic expectation, and sometimes a little common sense usually make for a better mix. You want as many people as possible to like the music, so things like completely buried vocals, an instrument that is so completely out of context within the mix, like a guitar solo that is way louder than anything else (we're talking a lot here) etc, can turn off a lot of people who listen for the first time. This of course is for artists who do want to sell to the public. Those that do not, I usually mix it however they want it. Salvador Dali...

2.- The song itself. The song sometimes does not need buckets of reverb to drown in, sometimes needs a different sounding kick than 90% of albums that are currently out there, etc. Imagine lyrics singing about light fluffy clouds, immersed in a dark muddy mess of a mix. Hard to picture the clouds in the muck...

Cheers