While music fans regularly dish out their weight in gold for “remastered” versions of their favorite records, most listeners have no idea what the process of mastering a record actually is. Thanks to a new clip from Crosses (†††), the collaborative project between Chino Moreno (Deftones), Shaun Lopez (Far) and friends, non-audiophiles can see the process in action on a killer track from the band.
When an album is mastered, the goal is to create balanced levels of the songs and a general sense of cohesiveness to your recording. When one song at a time is recorded, the result is songs that all peak at different levels and have different EQs. A mastering engineer creates a fluidly consistent sound among the songs, from track to track, bringing each song to its most presentable ideal sound.
Watch the process of mastering take place on the Crosses track “Epilogue,” where the most subtle sonic changes can affect the entire atmosphere of a song. Monsterlab Audio produced the clip, in which we can see the general thought process and trial-and-error experimentation throughout mastering.
We hope to hear new music from Crosses in 2015, but their website hasn’t been updated since September. We do know Deftones are in the studio, however, and that is damn exciting news. In the meantime, here’s something to stare at while we wait for the goods:
