Mastering in the analog domain

Hear the difference

As you may hear in the comparison above, the analog sound is way better, with more definition. Indeed, there is a sense of depth and weight that sound acquires when processed in the analog domain that cannot be achieved with digital emulations, no matter how accurate they are. but…

Don't let the knobs fool you

It is true that a good mastering studio will most certainly process your music with analog gear but this is not something that magically will make your sound good. In fact, most people believe that the more analog gear we pass their music through, the better it will sound but it's quite the opposite.

Most people think that the more analog gear there is, the better the studio… and the result!

Every analog processor has its own character and tone that color the sound in a very nice way, but this color is actually distortion, a very nice distortion so, two things: for this distortion to be that pleasant the gear must be of very high quality (very expensive) and second, distortion will sum from the first processor to the next and so on, so if you stack up too many processors, chances are you will get a lot of distortion and what once was a nice coloration will turn into a dirty blurry sound. 

Magnetic Tape Example

In this example, we didn't use any compressor at all, the compression you hear is just magnetic tape, Telefunken M15 to be precise; and as you can hear, it has a lot, and I mean a lot, of hiss, so if we go further with more analog gear we will also add distortion to that hiss. 

Conversion, the cornerstone

No matter how expensive, high-quality, professional-grade or whatever you want to call it, analog hardware is, none of this will add quality to the sound without a near-perfect conversion from the DAW to the analog gear and back again. And I'm not talking about audio interfaces (of which there are tons of brands, models and qualities) but dedicated units that only do conversion, and two of them are needed, one to go from the DAW to the analog gear (digital to analog converter or DAC) and one to return the signal to the DAW (analog to digital converter or DAC).  

The Apollo x16 is one of the best interfaces in the market and offers 16 inputs and 16 outputs via db25 connections

To put it in perspective, the Apollo x16 from universal audio (16-in/16-out) one of the best interfaces in the market costs around 4K whereas a 2-channel dedicated Burl Audio Bomber DAC costs around 2.5K, not to mention that you need another one to return your signal to digital, an ADC, which will cost you another 2.5K!

Burl Audio Bomber DAC and ADC, both handle only 2 channels, we do use those models in the studio.

And why this huge difference in the price tag? Well, there are a lot of technical reasons like jitter and anti-aliasing but I don't think that the nitty-gritty will give you more idea than the comparisons you just heard. 

Lastly: Digital remains very important

A lot of people think that mastering is synonym of analog processing but there are actually a lot of stuff that must be done in the digital domain, for instance, dynamic EQ, which is very important for a clean master. Downward expansion is another process that is better done in the box, specially when it's multi-band. Space and depth recovery just can't be done in the analog domain and there are a bunch of other processes that belong in the box or with digital outboard gear.

The most obvious example is the use of Weiss DS1 Mk3 mastering compressor which is regarded as the pinnacle of mastering compression and it is a completely colorless digital unit. This compressor is so versatile and precise that almost every mastering studio has one, and being transparent allows the mastering chain to have more analog processing, so don't let anyone try to fool you, mastering is not about how analog you can be and digital is most certainly a very important part of a mastering chain.

Weiss DS1 Mk3 is regarded as the best mastering compressor ever made, completely digital and colorless, we use the software version as it is a 1 to 1 copy of the hardware.