BLOG-O-RAMA (The Dirty Sanchez Experience)

posted by cs004 on Nov 10

Today I had the pleasure of attending Bryant Wong’s mastering session of the Honor’s Orchestra concert and LVC Orchestra & College Choir’s concert (Mozart’s Requiem) for two hours. For the majority of the session, we’d switch between projects. For both projects, Bryant mostly used the OZONE plug-in which had multiple effects that you could use. If I remember correctly, it had a compressor/limiter, reverb, harmonic exciter, and I think 2 or 3 other effects. Not knowing what a harmonic exciter is, I asked Bryant and he explained how it added harmonic content to your track. Anyways, for the most part, Bryant did a lot of EQ experimentation. He told me that generally when you EQ something, its best to have the EQ line a smooth as possible. Also, if there is a problem, it is better to cut it by a few dB than to boost it usually. Bryant briefly ran through the audiosuite and explained that it is more to process and change the signal than for simple effects. He also briefly touched on automation, and showed me the waveform option and volume trim. I asked Bryant about the mic set-up and he explained both concert’s set-ups. I believe for the Honor’s Orchestra concert he used two 44’s, one 32, and two PZM’s; for the Requiem concert he used a deccatree that mounted one 44, two 14’s, and two 32’s; he also used four 14’s which he placed infront of the soloists, and two PZM’s which he mounted to the back wall. Bryant pointed out that the PZM’s sounded like they picked up certain singers in the back more than the overall choir, but those mics were needed because the College Choir didn’t do too great of a job enunciating. Also, Bryant told me his philosophy: “You can never have too much material.”  It’s better to have too much and not use some of it than not have enough and work your best with as little as you got. At some point in the session, there was an unexpected celebrity appearance by good ol’ Michael Kudrack, as well as Jeff (Bryant’s partner) coming in a little while before. Mike wanted to back up one of his files from Studio C to his external harddrive. Unfortunately, the computer wasn’t very reliable, and he had to try backing it up nearly 10 times. This took a while, so we sat around and chatted. Bryant explained to me how if your working on something you’ve never worked with before (say a bassoon), or simply are mastering something previously recorded (for instance the Requiem), it’s best to have an audio copy of it so that you could check it out and take a screenshot of the waveforms. This allows you to pretty much copy it exactly. Anyways, after multiple CPU overloads and beneficial teachings, we did one of the last things before I left about 20 minutes early. Bryant cut part of the beginning of a song in the Honor’s Orchestra concert because there was a baby crying. Professor Dietrich stopped the song about 15 seconds into it and restarted. The mic’s picked up a great quote from him in which I believe he was talking to the orchestra, “I don’t think that was your playing.”