Creation and

Translation

Hear What Your Producing Masters 


Audience Hears That Translate
Table of contents
Chapter 1 – Hear What Your Audience Hears

What is Flat Sound and Should I Care?

6

What is Loudness?
14

Calibrating Your Listening Room for Loudness? 24

Chapter 2 – Producing Masters That Translate

6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

32

Creating Masters for Streaming and Selling 43

2
Introduction
Creating music, sound, images or any kind of art nourishes our soul
and makes us human. Creating art is a gift that we should never take
for granted and by sharing our vision with the world, we benefit both
ourselves and those around us. Creating can also be a curse. We
chase elusive feelings and even question our own self-worth when we
stumble while expressing our vision.

Music and sound, unlike other artforms, transform to fit the

environment that we listen in, so sound uniquely creates an
experience that fills time and space. Because sound is an experience,
the sounds we produce influence the space around us as the space
around us interacts with the sounds we create. When we better
understand our listening space, we can create more freely-with the
confidence that the rest of the world will hear our artistic visions just
as we mean them to be heard.

The topics in this eBook will bring into focus an understanding of how
our listening conditions can be controlled to provide a trustworthy and
translatable representation of what our audience will hear. How we as
creators listen ultimately affects what our audience hears. How loud
should we listen? How pure must our monitor system be? What kind
of files need to be distributed? These questions will be answered in
this eBook.

3
Happiness lies in the
joy of achievement
and the thrill of
creative effort.
Franklin D. Roosevelt

4
Chapter 1
Hear What Your 

Audience Hears
Listening and creating sound is what we do. We are experts. Well,
we are inspired creators and we work hard at becoming expert at
effectively recording, producing, mixing and mastering sound. Our
instincts and our soul inform us about what is good, musical,
powerful, sad, or humorous. How do we know what we hear as
“loud” or “powerful” will be interpreted by others as loud and
powerful? Or bright? Too bright? Now we get into a bit of the
science behind the art.

It turns out that humans tend to perceive qualities of sound, like

loudness and frequency response, in measurable ways. If we are
aware of the basic principles of audio perception, our own sound
will translate better to our audience. For example, we need to
understand what loudness really means and we need to know how
accurate the frequency and dynamic response of our monitor
system must be in order to deliver consistent results to our
listeners.

A bit of knowledge in those areas will save you a considerable

amount of trial and error. This chapter explains some of the
principles of hearing and monitoring audio while we work.

5
Chapter 1 Hear What Your Audience Hears

What is Flat Sound

and Should I Care?
by Adam Kagan

Choosing new studio monitors or headphones seems to be a very

straightforward process. At the heart of the issue, we basically need a
monitor system with flat sound. How much can I afford? What product
has the best specifications for my budget? Easy enough. Is it really
that easy? We should all suspect that the answer is not that simple.
When choosing the best headphones or monitors many factors come
into play that seem to have little to do with specifications or even
price.

What we really want in studio monitors or headphones boils down to

two key elements. First, we desire a speaker that produces a wide
range of frequencies accurately with a wide dynamic range. Second,
we desire a monitor system that is enjoyable to listen to for long
periods of time. We need a monitor system that is both accurate and
fun. Let’s first take a look at the accuracy part.

Flat Sound Is…

Let’s define flat sound to mean that any sound played through a
monitor system sounds exactly like the original source. That is a
difficult, if not impossible task for any monitor system. For example, if
you listen to a violin in a room, the intensity and timbre of the
instrument sounds different at any listening position in the room. So
who is to say what does the actual source even sound like? Now let’s
just assume that we want to accurately reproduce the sound of a
stereo pair of microphones that captured a musical performance.

6
Chapter 1 What is Flat Sound and Should I Care?

That should be relatively easy. Compare the size of the microphone

diaphragms to the size of typical speaker components. Obviously,
there is not a simple one-to-one relationship between the device that
captured the recording (microphone) and the playback device
(speaker). So, we can see how the translation from source to monitor
is a difficult journey, but we still desire accurate monitors that can
reproduce all the frequencies and timbres we need to hear, so let’s
define accuracy.

Spec Speak
There are many specifications that manufacturers use to describe the
performance of monitors and headphones, some of which describe
their accuracy and some of which simply describe their physical or
electrical attributes. (See sidebar) For this discussion, the most
important specification relating to flat sound is frequency response.
We basically need our monitors to reproduce frequencies that
humans can hear–from 20 Hz up to 20 kHz. In reality, it is extremely
expensive and complicated for a monitor speaker to cover this wide
range, so we settle for a reasonable range that covers the music or
sound that we mostly need to focus on.

For instance, string instruments from double bass up to violins, cover

from a low of about 40 Hz to as high as 17 kHz. For hip-hop or
electronic music with synth sub basses or even for pipe organs and
concert bass drums, the lowest frequencies may extend slightly below
20 Hz. We can assume that most monitors produce adequate high
frequencies because the power requirements and physical
manufacturing of high frequency tweeters or horns is relatively
simple. Accurate bass reproduction, on the other hand, requires much
higher power, large physical devices and sometimes some very
sophisticated tricks of physics.

7
Chapter 1 What is Flat Sound and Should I Care?

Headphones will almost always beat studio monitors in their ability to

affordably reproduce bass frequencies and even modestly priced
headphones can boast the ability to reproduce frequencies from
below 20 Hz to above 20 kHz. Studio monitors without high-powered
subwoofers, or very large woofers, rarely produce much below 40 Hz,
with many affordable models rolling off around 70 Hz. Therefore, we
simply have to buy the speakers or phones with widest frequency
response for the price we can afford. Well, maybe that’s not really the
whole story…

Monitor manufacturers often boast about their monitor’s capabilities in

a way that hides the flaws of the true frequency response by leaving
out the data that doesn’t look so good. The more respectable
manufacturers don’t simply show a frequency response range, but
they also mention the amount of tolerance, or variability, throughout
that range. For instance, a spec of 20 Hz to 20 kHz looks good,
unless it is more correctly shown as 20 Hz to 20 kHz (± 6dB). That
plus or minus number tells you that perhaps 1 kHz is 6 dB above the
average response and 100 Hz is 6 dB below the average response.
That gives us a 12 dB window of accuracy at any frequency. Not so
good. Be wary of any frequency specification that does not mention
the range of tolerance.

Basic Monitor Specifications

Sensitivity
Useful for headphones or passive monitors. A measurement of a
speaker’s efficiency. How much sound is produced for a given input
level. Higher sensitivity numbers mean the monitor will play louder
with a given input signal. Written as dB SPL output for a given input,

8
Chapter 1 What is Flat Sound and Should I Care?

like 90dB/1milliwatt. Doubling the power (mW) will increase the

loudness by 3 dB.

Impedance
Impedance, a measurement of electrical resistance in ohms (Ω). For
headphones, low impedance phones (30 ohms) will play loudly with a
portable music player, like a phone. Higher impedance headphones
(250 ohm) are more appropriate with professional headphone
amplifiers and studio equipment.

Frequency Response
A monitor’s ability to produce sounds from low bass to high treble, in
hertz. Usually this spec is accompanied by a tolerance in decibels,
like 20 Hz to 20 kHz (± 3 dB). Ideal human hearing covers 20 Hz to
20 kHz.

How good is good?

In reality, a tolerance of ± 2dB or even ± 3dB is acceptable, as long
as the overall frequency response curve doesn’t dip up and down like
a picket fence. Small variations in frequency response over wide
frequency ranges are easily smoothed over by our brain and even a
perfectly flat response from a monitor will not be perfectly flat by the
time it reaches our ears For my money, when reading specs I value a
flat(-ish) frequency response over total width of frequency response,
so I would rather have a monitor that produces 50 Hz to 18 kHz (± 2
dB) than a monitor that simply states 35 Hz to 25 kHz with no mention
of tolerance. Since bass is really the most difficult area, some

9
Chapter 1 What is Flat Sound and Should I Care?

manufacturers provide specs that look like “± 1¾ dB from 60Hz to

19kHz and down 10 dB at 40 Hz.” This spec tells us not that only is
the frequency response extremely flat for most of the range, but also
describes how the bass rolls off down to 40 Hz, where it is still
present, but at a lower level. So, choose a frequency response that
you feel covers the range you need, but with an accuracy that you
feel secure about.

The rest of the story

Ok, we know how to interpret frequency response specs, and we
know what flat sound is. Now we get to the part of what do you
actually want to listen to all day long for inspiration, comfort,
appropriate volume and, of course, accuracy. Most of these factors
come down to personal preference and relate to the design and
manufacture of a specific device. Ported speakers sound different
than sealed boxes. Open back headphones sound different than
closed-back headphones. Different crossover frequencies and driver
sizes affect midrange phase response, which colors the sound in a
way that a frequency chart will not explain. Ribbon tweeters sound
different than metal dome tweeters, but again that difference is not
shown by their frequency response graph. Speaker personality and
timbre must be considered along with frequency response to truly
judge the type of impression a specific monitor produces.

The House Curve

After all this info about flat frequency response, some people, like
hip-hop producers, may simply prefer lots of bass in their monitor
system because it feels good! We make music because we enjoy the
emotion, the fun, and the mood. Creating sound is our passion and
our vice, not scientific experiment. Once you’ve chosen a monitor
whose frequency response and personality you get along with, don’t

10
Chapter 1 What is Flat Sound and Should I Care?

be afraid to play with the overall tone of the speaker­. The overall
treble vs. bass response is often referred to as the “house curve” of
the monitor system. Most monitors allow you to slightly customize the
low, mid and high frequencies of the monitor. These onboard
equalizers help with accuracy and room correction, but may also be
tuned for your personal taste. Once again, flat sound represents a
sort of accuracy, but flat sound may not be a productive or enjoyable
way to work.

If one should choose to incorporate a house curve into their monitor

setup, it becomes more likely that mixes and masters will not
accurately translate to the outside world. Therefore, if you enjoy
working on a monitor system with hyped bass, you must be aware
that outside your room the mix will have less or possibly uneven bass.
Mixers who regularly use the same mastering engineers come to trust
that their mastering engineer will correct this type of problem, but if
you master on a hyped system, the potential for poor translation
increases.

Simulated Target Curves

Sonarworks software provides target curves to simulate a typical
domestic listening environment and also an X-Curve environment.
The domestic playback curve provides an opportunity to audition what
a typical home stereo is likely to sound like, while the X-Curve
simulates the sound of a movie theater playback system. Sonarworks
intends these playback curves to be applied after your listening
environment is corrected to be flat. That is, once your system is
known to be flat, you change the target curve (house curve) to
simulate a specific playback environment.

11
Chapter 1 What is Flat Sound and Should I Care?

Conclusion
Flat Sound
I prefer to say accurate, or flat sound is a good starting point and then
fine-tune the sound to your liking. Every studio monitor, by way of its
physical design and production trade-offs has its own sonic
personality, but studio monitors tend to be more accurate, trustworthy
and more durable than home stereo models. Try many different
monitors, observe what your peers and heroes use, and at the end of
the day, trust your gut. Of course, don’t forget to acoustically treat
your room. Experiment with creating your own house curve so that
you enjoy listening in your own environment, but be aware of potential
translation problems!

Remember that Sonarworks Reference software allows the user to

create a flat sound and then apply a custom house curve via its
built-in bass boost and tilt equalizers. Flat sound ultimately describes
a certain accuracy that will translate to other systems, but remember
to always keep things enjoyable and productive.

12
Music is a moral law.
It gives soul to the
universe, wings to
the mind, flight to the
imagination, and
charm and gaiety to
life and to
everything.
Plato

13
Chapter 1 Hear What Your Audience Hears

What is Loudness?
by Brad Pack

Volume. Level. Gain. Amplitude. We engineers use a lot of different

words to talk about loudness—but none of them offer an entirely
accurate description. Loudness, a commonly misunderstood term, is
as complex as it is important. This article will explain everything you
need to know about loudness so you can master your tracks like a
pro. Read on to learn about the difference between peak and RMS
metering, different ways of measuring sound, and different methods
for achieving loudness when mixing and mastering.

What Is Loudness?
Loudness is commonly confused with volume. The two terms,
however, are entirely different concepts. Volume is a scientific
measurement of the quantity or power of a sound. Loudness, on the
other hand, is much more difficult to quantify as it is completely
subjective and based entirely on your personal perception of sound.
The frequency content, duration, and volume of a sound are all
factors in how we perceive its loudness.

We often describe volume using Sound Pressure Level (SPL), which

measures the change in air pressure caused by a sound. If you’ve
ever stuck your hand in front of a subwoofer and felt those pulsating
bursts of air, you understand the concept. We can measure SPL with
a meter, but SPL doesn’t gauge how subjectively powerful or how
loud a sound will seem to an individual.

The easiest way to understand loudness is to listen to two different

frequencies at the same monitor volume level. First, play a 1 kHz sine
wave and adjust your monitor controller so the volume is comfortable.

14
Chapter 1 What is Loudness?

Now play a 10 kHz sine wave without adjusting the monitor controller.
Hopefully you will notice that the two tones do not have the same
loudness, even though the volume level has not changed.

Volume can also be measured in its electrical form using the decibel
system. A decibel (dB) measures the ratio between two levels: the
level being measured against a fixed reference level. Decibel
numbers relate to a specific scale, or reference point, like a voltage
level. You can think of it like measuring temperature, where we all
know that 75 degrees Fahrenheit is much different than 75 degrees
Celsius. It is important that you know the scale, like C° or F°, in order
to understand what the temperature measurement means.

Analog and Digital Levels

For analog audio, volume may be measured using the dBu scale on a
VU meter, which represents a value referenced to .775 volts. VU
meters are calibrated so that a professional audio meter reads 0 VU
at a voltage of +4 dBu, or 1.228 volts.

In the digital domain, volume is measured using the dBFS scale,

which stands for “decibels relative to full scale.” Digital audio signals
become clipped at 0 dBFS, which is the loudest digital signal that can
be represented without distortion. While there is no single standard
for converting between digital and analog levels, many DAWs define
analog +4 dBu, or 0 VU, as -18 dBFS, while some companies use
other standards, like 0 VU = -20 dBFS. A reference level or -18 dBFS
= 0 VU provides 18 dB of headroom over 0, so the maximum analog
level would be +22 dBu, or 18 dB above +4 dBu (0 VU).

15
Chapter 1 What is Loudness?

Peak Metering vs. RMS Metering

Now that we’ve determined how to accurately measure volume levels,
let’s talk about how that information is displayed. Most analog and
digital systems use a combination of peak metering and RMS (VU)
metering. For instance, Pro Tools meters, when set to display “Digital
VU,” show the peak level with a single yellow tick and the RMS level
with a solid green bar on the same meter display. The peak floats
above the green bar and it is easy to see both values and compare
the peak vs. average level as the sound plays.

Peak metering measures the maximum instantaneous level of a

signal. Peak metering does not offer an accurate measurement of
perceived loudness, but instead indicates how close our signal is to
clipping.

Designed to emulate the response of analog VU meters, digital RMS

meters react much slower than peak meters and more accurately
display the perceived loudness of a signal. Sustained sounds display
higher RMS levels than transients signal (like short percussion hits).

Peak + RMS Levels

To better understand RMS (VU) vs. peak levels, simply create a click
track in your DAW and take a look at a meter that displays RMS +
Peak. The meter will display the average (RMS) level as a solid bar
and the peak level as a single bar or tick. A click track, which has a
very high peak level and low average level, will show very different
levels for the peak and average levels. Now try the same experiment
with a string pad or flute sound. In this example, you will notice that
the RMS and peak values are very close to each other.

16
Chapter 1 What is Loudness?

This experiment shows us that percussive

sounds have very high peak levels but low
average levels, while less percussive
sounds have similar peak and average
levels. The example in figure 1 shows a
Pro Tools meter displaying a plucked
acoustic guitar next to a distorted electric
guitar and you can see the differences in
the peak vs. RMS level on the meters.

Pro Tools Digital VU Meter

This meter displays the average level
in green and the momentary peak level
with a yellow line, or tick.

Peak Level

-18 dBFS = 0 VU

RMS or VU Level

The K-System Meter

In practice, many engineers use a combination of peak metering,
RMS metering, and their ears to determine the true perceived
loudness of a track. However, a more sophisticated system for
measuring loudness was introduced in by Bob Katz in 2000.

17
Chapter 1 What is Loudness?

According to Katz in the September 2000 issue of the AES Journal

article How To Make Better Recordings in the 21st Century – An
Integrated Approach to Metering, Monitoring, and Leveling Practices;
“The proposed K-System is a metering and monitoring standard that
integrates the best concepts of the past with current psychoacoustic
knowledge in order to avoid the chaos of the last 20 years.” In other
words, he found a way to set meter levels and monitor volumes that
makes sense to our ears and eyes.

The idea behind the K-System is that different types of music require
different amounts of headroom, but the average level of music should
be standardized. Classical music or film scores require about 20 dB of
headroom above their average level to allow for loud moments,
dynamic pop music requires 14 dB of headroom, and very
compressed pop or rock music requires 12 dB of headroom. Bob Katz
proposed one meter scale for each musical style and named them
K-20, K-14 and K-12. Therefore, a K-20 meter places its 0 dB (0 is
the target) at 20 dB below full scale, K-14 places 0 dB at -14 dBFS,
and K-12 places 0 dB at -12 dBFS. So we can say “Master this song
for K-14” or “Master this for +2 dB over K-14.”

To use the K-System in your studio, play pink noise with a signal
generator plugin at a level that reads 0 dB on a K meter in your DAW.
Adjust your monitor gain so that an SPL meter set to C weighting and
slow response reads 83 dB at your listening position when only one
speaker is playing. Then repeat this process for the other speaker.
You may want to mark your monitor controller positions for each K
scale reference level (K-20, K-14, K-12), and you might find that the
-6 (76 dB SPL) is more appropriate for long days of music production.
The K-scale you choose as your meter will depend on the style of
music you are producing.

18
Chapter 1 What is Loudness?

Reference Loudness Levels

It turns out that most humans enjoy music (or films) at nearly the
same loudness level (SPL), which turns out to be right around 83 dB
SPL. Therefore every movie theater is calibrated so that pink noise
played at -20 dBFS produces a volume level of 83 dB SPL from each
speaker in the theater. This allows a film mixer to know that their mix
will translate in every theater, all around the world. When working on
modern pop music productions, especially in smaller rooms, we often
lower that monitor level by 6 dB to 77 dB SPL.

LUFS / LKFS
The K-meter has been further refined and a modern standardized
approach to measuring perceived loudness is called the LUFS or
LKFS system. Originally called Loudness Units relative to Full Scale
(LUFS) and renamed to Loudness, K-weighted, relative to Full Scale
(LKFS), this loudness standard was created in 2006 as to standardize
audio levels for video formats. Most broadcast, film and video game
companies have adopted LUFS / LKFS as the standard for measuring
loudness and a typical film mix level spec would be stated like: -27 dB
LKFS ±2 LU.

In order to represent perceived loudness more accurately than ever

before, LKFS/LUFS measures levels over a longer period of time and
with a flatter frequency response than a standard VU meter. Even
streaming audio services are getting in on the action. Here’s what
Spotify recommends regarding loudness levels:

“Target the loudness level of your master at -14 dB integrated LUFS

and keep it below -1 dB TP (True Peak) max. This is best for the lossy

19
Chapter 1 What is Loudness?

formats we use (Ogg/Vorbis and AAC) and will ensure no extra

distortion is introduced in the transcoding process… Negative gain is
applied to louder masters so the loudness level is at ca – 14 dB
LUFS. This process only decreases the volume in comparison to the
master; no additional distortion occurs.”

All this technical speak means that a song with an average level on a
K-meter or -14 dB and a peak level of -1 dBFS will play on their
service exactly at the volume it was uploaded at. A louder song will
simply have its volume lowered to match this reference level. All
streaming services use similar rules so that all the songs play back at
a similar volume and the listener does not have readjust their volume
for different songs. In practice, most well produced top 40 pop songs
have a K level of about -8 dB during their loudest chorus section and
an overall K level of about -11 dB. It is also recommended to leave 1
dB of peak headroom on masters so that conversion to mp3 or other
lossy formats does not introduce extra distortion.

Achieving Loudness in Mastering

Since most streaming services adjust, or normalize, the level of every
track to -14 dB LUFS, mastering engineers can’t simply use a
maximizer or limiter to push our masters as loud as possible. Instead,
we have to create the correct impression of loudness using mastering
tools like equalization, saturation and dynamic range processing to
create the intensity and loudness that suits our music.

Tools for Measuring LUFS Levels

While some DAWs like Steinberg’s Cubase and PreSonus Studio One
are equipped with LUFS meters, most DAWs only provide basic peak
and RMS meters.

20
Chapter 1 What is Loudness?

Don’t worry; there are plenty of highly accurate and surprisingly

affordable, or even free, options for LUFS meter plug-ins. Listed
below are a few of our favorites.

Loudness Meters
Nugen Audio VisLM or Mastercheck Pro;

iZotope Insight 2;

Waves WLM Plus;

Meter Plugs K-Meter and Dynameter;

Youlean Loudness Meter;

Klanghelm VUMT and VUMT Deluxe.

21
Chapter 1 What is Loudness?

Conclusion
Now that you know what loudness is, how to measure loudness, and
what LUFS your mixes should be at, the only thing left to do is put
these new skills to use. Calibrating your room for loudness is one
important step towards consistent mastering and mixing, and
perfecting your monitors’ frequency response with a tool like
Sonarworks Reference 4 may be the next logical step. Happy mixing
and mastering!

22
Once someone
asked me three
words that best
describe me and I
said 'Loud, Louder,
and Loudest'!
Anastacia

42
Chapter 1 Hear What Your Audience Hears

Calibrating Your Listening

Room for Loudness?
By Eli Krantzberg

When it comes to mixing and mastering music, our aesthetic

sensibilities can be fickle. What sounds right to us one day might not
seem right the next day, or when listened to at different volumes, or
through different monitors, or in different listening environments. Our
perception of sonic qualities, including instrumental balances and
overall intensity, are influenced by a number of variables. As simple
as it sounds, monitor volume is one of the main variables that we can
control to help us achieve consistency in our mixes.

One of our main goals while mixing and mastering is to achieve a

certain amount of musical impact or feeling, which we call loudness.
While volume describes the actual sound pressure level (dB SPL) in a
room, loudness can be thought of as how intense, dense, powerful or
“loud” the sound feels to you. For example, a recording of an
explosion played back at a low volume still sounds like a “loud” sound
to our brain, while a recorded whisper played back at a high volume
still feels like a soft sound.

Both volume and loudness are important considerations and during

mixing and mastering, where our job is to create the appropriate
intensity, or loudness, of the music. Maintaining a consistent, or
calibrated, listening volume helps us remain focused and consistent
when making adjustments and decisions that affect the loudness of
our project.

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Chapter 1 Calibrating Your Listening Room for Loudness?

Is Monitor Volume Important

While We Mix?
At different playback volume levels our brains perceive the loudness
of different frequencies unevenly. For instance, when monitoring at
low volumes, our ears and brain focus more on the midrange while
the low and high frequencies are not perceived with the same
emphasis. At higher listening volumes, the low and high frequencies
appear more prominent while the midrange frequencies command
less of our aural attention. Objectively, and in terms of physics, the
actual frequency balance stays the same at all volume levels, but the
human brain’s interpretation of the frequency balance changes.

In the 1930’s two acoustic researchers, named Harvey Fletcher and

Wilden Munson, studied the phenomenon of human perception of
frequencies vs. loudness. They developed a loudness contour, called
the Fletcher-Munson Curve (fig. 1), which indicates the volume (dB
SPL) levels across the frequency spectrum necessary for the listener
to perceive a constant loudness level when presented with pure
steady tones. This calculation was refined in 1956 and is now used as
the ISO 226 standard for Equal Loudness Level Contours.

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Chapter 1 Calibrating Your Listening Room for Loudness?

Given that we perceive the blend of frequencies differently at various

volume levels, how loud should we monitor when we are mixing or
mastering? From the Fletcher-Munson Curve graph (fig. 1), we see
that a monitoring level of 85 dB SPL (in a large room) provides the
flattest hearing curve. If you are working in a smaller space, like a
typical bedroom studio, the flat response is probably closer to 79 dB
SPL. Now that we are aware that our sensitivity to bass and treble
frequencies becomes more flat as volume increases, we can infer that
monitoring too softly will cause us to want to increase the bass and
treble content of our mixes (because at low volumes the midrange is
most prominent and bass and treble seem too low).

Calibration
Our goal is to find a trustworthy, or calibrated, monitoring level which
sounds well balanced in your listening environment. To calibrate your
monitoring level, you will need either a software or hardware SPL
meter. I use an iPhone app called SPLnFFT Noise Meter, but you
could also use a dedicated SPL meter, like the Velleman analog meter
or the Extech digital meter.

Start by bringing your monitor levels down for now­–we will set monitor
volume as the final stage of the overall adjustments. Set up a signal
generator plugin in your DAW to output pink noise at -20 dBFS and
verify that level on the master fader output meter. If you use a stereo
signal, keep your output panning at 100% L/R, but if you use a mono
signal generator, make sure to center the pan knob.

If you have a software control panel, like UAD’s Console application,

you can double check that the level reaching the hardware is showing
as -20 db. Once this is established, set the output gain of your audio
interface all the way up at 0 dB.

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Chapter 1 Calibrating Your Listening Room for Loudness?

For techies:
We typically reference -20 dBFS for digital levels because that level
matches the analog world’s headroom standards, where -20 dBFS is
roughly equal to +4dBu or 0VU. Note that -20dBFS = +4dBu is the
SMPTE/AES standard. Pro Tools and the BBC default to -18 dBFS =
+4dBu, the EBU standard. Among mastering studios, -14dBFS =
+4dBu is also common.

Grab your SPL meter or launch your SPL app and position it in your
listening position, where your head would usually be, with the
microphone pointing up. If the app or SPL meter gives you the option,
select the C weighting scale and slow response time, as these are the
most accurate settings for this type of measurement. Pan the pink
noise to one speaker and slowly bring up your monitor volume until
the SPL meter is registering 82 dB SPL. Pan the signal to the other
speaker and verify that you have the same 82 dB reading (less than ±
.5 dB between the left and right speakers is close enough). When you
pan the pink noise back to the center you will notice the meter will
now read 85dB, which is a 3 dB increase because both speakers are
playing. You should also notice focused center image, which will
confirm that your speakers are in polarity with each other. For mixing
or mastering pop music, an 85 dB playback level may feel too loud,
so it is common to readjust this level down to 79 dB. This level (79 or
85 dB) is now your calibrated monitor level. On monitor controllers
with a digital readout it is easy to store and recall this precise setting,
otherwise you may want to place a mark on your monitor controller to
indicate this playback level.

With your monitor level set and both speakers matched, you can now
mix, confident that you are working at an optimal and consistent level.

27
Chapter 1 Calibrating Your Listening Room for Loudness?

Because of the Equal Loudness phenomenon, it is vital to keep your

monitoring level consistent when mixing. Of course you will find it
useful to occasionally monitor at quieter levels to verify that the
important elements of the mix remain audible even at low levels.
Many audio interfaces and monitor controllers have an adjustable DIM
function, which allows you to press a button and drop the monitor
volume by a preset amount. DIM is useful for checking balances at a
lower listening level and also simply to allow you to have a quiet
conversation while the music is playing. Switching off DIM will
instantly set your monitors back to your calibrated monitoring level.

If you regularly mix or master on headphones, level calibration is not

as straightforward. We can’t easily measure the SPL level of our
headphones, so we must rely on our musical sensibilities. For
headphone calibration, I suggest you listen to well-mastered
reference songs at various levels until you feel that you have found a
level that provides the proper feeling of impact, intensity and a
full-range frequency response. Then, try to mark your headphone
monitor level control at this calibrated level. As with monitor speakers,
the more consistent you are with your listening level, the more
consistent your mixes and masters will turn out.

Mastering Tip
To set your optimum mastering monitor level, import some reference
tracks that have been mastered and listen to them at your calibrated
level. Then make small (2 or 3 dB) level adjustments to find your
optimum calibrated mastering level. Now you can confidently compare
your masters to commercial reference masters for their loudness,
impact and feeling without relying on level meters.

28
Chapter 1 Calibrating Your Listening Room for Loudness?

Mixing Tip

To set your optimum monitor level for mixing, import some reference

tracks that have been mastered and lower their playback level in your

DAW by 6 to 8 dB and listen to it at your calibrated level. Then make

small (2 or 3 dB) level adjustments to find your optimum calibrated

listening level. By lowering the level of mastered tracks by 6 or 8 dB

you can more fairly compare your unmastered mix to mastered

reference songs.

Calibrating your room for loudness is an essential step towards

consistent mixing and mastering. Calibrating your monitors for a flat

frequency response is equally important and tools like Sonarworks

Reference 4 create the optimum EQ curve for your monitors in your

listening environment. Calibrating your monitors for proper loudness

and frequency response, puts you well on your way to creating

professional sounding, competitive mixes and masters.

29
Chapter 1 

Key Takeaways
Strive for Flat Sound in your listening environment

Experiment carefully with a house curve for you

monitors

Learn to decipher manufacturers specifications

Practice listening at a calibrated loudness for the

best frequency presentation and consistency

Get a feel for loudness meters, like the K Scales

and LUFS meters

Use an SPL meter to calibrate your listening room

Learn to listen for loudness, or density and power,

not just volume

Use Sonarworks Reference software to develop a

flat in-room response for your monitors

30
2
Music is such a
great communicator.
It breaks down
linguistic barriers,
cultural barriers, it
basically reaches
out. That's when
rock n' roll succeeds,
and that's what
virtuosity is all about.
The Edge

42
Chapter 2
Producing Masters
That Translate
Confidence is security for an artist. If we feel confident that our
vision will be delivered to our audience and that they have a
fighting chance of interpreting our vision nearly the way we
imagined, then we can sleep a bit better. If we can’t trust that our
sonic picture is seen in the proper light, then what’s even the
point? Producing masters that translate to our intended audience
seems to many people to be a secret art that only a few mastering
engineers or mixers have the key to.

The truth is that if we work in a trustworthy environment and create

inspired productions that feel right to us in our calibrated, true
listening space, then the audience will receive a proper
presentation of our vision. It is really as simple as that. Work in a
calibrated space, create excellent sounding productions and
export files that remain as true to the original source as possible.
The following articles explain how this works and points you in the
direction of producing masters that you will be proud of on any
playback system.

32
Chapter 2 Producing Masters That Translate

6 Tips for Creating

Masters that Translate
Well to All Systems
By Nick Messitte

The topic at hand requires more than just this article to be

complete—there are books, podcasts, and courses devoted to this
subject. Nevertheless, this brief article highlights some important tips,
and points you toward further techniques that are well worth your time
to explore. Here are six tips to get you started.

1. Treat your room and calibrate

your speakers
You need to face this simple truth: you are far better off spending
money (and effort) on room treatment and monitors than on any other
piece of gear. How can you appreciate all the sonic wonders of your
beautiful gear if you can’t trust what you’re hearing?

So, you need to understand the basics when it comes to your room.
Room dimensions, construction materials, surface finishes, and other
physical elements all influence the acoustics. As an experiment, run
Sonarworks calibration software on your speakers in an untreated
room and check out the corrective room curve suggested by the
software. If this curve is anything but (mostly) flat, the curve is telling
you just how much influence the room exerts over your monitors.

When setting up a new room it is advisable to consult an acoustician,

but their services aren’t inexpensive and their processes may seem
complicated. However, most companies that manufacture room

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Chapter 2 6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

treatment products have acousticians and consultants on staff. These

professionals can make basic recommendations to their customers
regarding off-the-shelf treatment options. A few of the acoustic
companies with consultation services are GIK Acoustics,
Prosocoustic, and Auralex Acoustics, and there are many others.
Many companies like these offer online analysis tools, and are also
happy to review photos or sketches of your room in order to provide
expert advice for specific room treatment options.

As for your speakers, there are a couple of good guidelines (note:

speaker placement is covered in depth in our blog post by Barry
Rudolph here). Start by setting up your speakers about 20% of the
room-length away from the front wall, and symmetrically placed
between the side walls. Set up your monitoring position in an
equilateral triangle, and aim the speakers to focus on a point just
behind your head, when you are seated in the sweet spot.

These are good starting points, but you will need to refine the room
setup with your ears. Use reference material for this—listen to songs
you know inside and out. Key in to specific mix elements that reveal
acoustic problems: stereo width and imaging, mix details like vocal
reverbs, bass presence and tightness and the tonal balance at
various listening levels. If what you hear doesn’t stand up to the test
of “does this sound the way I know it should,” then you have been
informed of the shortcomings of your current setup. Use mixes that
you are very familiar with and also make use of test recordings, like
those from audiophile companies or from the Audio Check website. In
particular, the MATT test will let you hear with a simple audio test
what frequencies cause your room to ring, reverberate and smear the
sound.

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Chapter 2 6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

2. Maintain a calibrated monitor level

during mixing and mastering
When you turn up your monitors, a funny thing happens to the lows
and highs: they stick out more, feel larger and louder. Turn the dial
too low and you get the opposite—these frequency ranges seem
harder to hear while the midrange remains present.

So, it’s best to maintain a proper and consistent level while mixing
and mastering. You will not make objectively good judgments if you
continuously fiddle with the level—especially when comparing the
master to the original mix or your mix to reference mix.

Research shows that for typical project rooms, a consistent listening

level of around 76 to 79 dB SPL (or as high as 82 dB in a large mix
room) presents a properly balanced frequency response. Working at
the appropriate volume allows you to make decisions you can trust
and ones that will translate to the outside world. Try starting at 79 dB
and see if that is comfortable and if you feel comfortable with more or
less volume, step it up to 83 or down to 76 dB. The actual level is not
as important as being consistent and mixing or mastering at the same
level every day. (Be sure to read our blog post “Calibrating a Listening
Room for Loudness” by Eli Krantzberg)

Beyond a calibrated monitoring setup, you must also level-match your

mix or master with any reference for a true comparison. Level
matching helps you to make sure you’re making things sound better,
not just louder. When I’m mixing for a client and they want to compare
my mix to a commercial release, I simply turn down the commercial
reference song by about 8 dB to give the impression of the same
loudness. This way we are comparing frequency balances and mix
quality and not simply reacting to loudness differences. Check out the
Perception plugin from MeterPlugs, which allows you to compare
level-matched versions of a raw mix to its processed master.

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Chapter 2 6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

3. Produce a well-balanced, dynamic,

and appropriately loud product
The goal of mastering is to show off a mix in the best light, both by
itself, and in the context of an album or playlist. This means masters
must sound balanced in frequency content as the listener moves from
song to song. If the lows are too overwhelming, or the highs are too
harsh, listeners will find them challenging to enjoy without fiddling with
volume and EQ controls. Refer to our two previous tips, and you’ll be
on your way to a well-balanced master, since you can trust what you
are hearing in your room.

We also need to take great care in ensuring proper dynamics–both

during a master and from song to song. We don’t want to crush
dynamic range and kill a song’s impact, while we don’t want so much
dynamic range that the soft parts of a song fall below the ambient
noise or our listening environment. This is especially true for listening
in cars, outside with earbuds or on built-in phone or laptop speakers.

It’s not uncommon to apply volume automation during mastering to

keep the overall dynamic range in check. Say, for example, we have a
pop song where the mix jumps up 6 dB from the verse to the chorus.
We could simply use volume automation to slightly (and tastefully)
bring up the level of the verse to flow more musically into the chorus.
Dynamic range considerations may vary from genre to genre, so you
must stay attuned to what’s appropriate for the style. Every client
seems to wants a loud, banging master, but achieving loudness is not
simply a matter of compressing and limiting or maximizing to high
heaven. Rather, you must make other musical adjustments to achieve
a desired target level. Keep in mind your distribution chain as well.
For instance iTunes recommends leaving 1 dB of peak headroom to
allow for the slight level increase when creating mp3s from .wav
masters. Leaving this headroom gives the mp3 encoder a better
chance of producing a less distorted mp3 file.

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Chapter 2 6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

As an exercise in achieving loudness, apply a limiter or maximizer to

achieve the loudness you desire. Is the mix distorting or feeling
pushed too much? If so, start adjusting different EQ bands (before the
maximizer plugin) to see what frequency ranges cause the mix to
overload. Perhaps the sub bass needs to be pulled back or the lead
vocal level is impairing your ability to make a loud master. I find that
I’m constantly balancing the maximizer against EQ changes as I
refine a master that. Each song has a sweet spot where the mix
sounds musically balanced and appropriately loud. As always,
compare your master to a reference in the same genre to ensure you
are creating a musical and competitive master.

4. Use headphones for technical and

creative checks
In professional studios, engineers tend to do the bulk of their creative
work on monitor speakers and then check for technical quality issues
on headphones. Headphones often highlight technical issues,
including distortions caused by clipping or limiting, as well as clicks
and pops that are often caused by edits, plugins, automation or clock
issues. Sometimes, small noises in an otherwise great mix become
much more apparent after the mastering process. After a QC pass,
you may choose to repair technical issues with something like iZotope
RX or the various dedicated repair and restoration tools provided by
mastering DAWs.

Eschewing headphones during the creative part of mastering might

not be practical when working in a suboptimal room or when volume
is an issue. You might not have the best sounding room or accurate
monitors when you’re starting out, so go ahead and make decisions
through headphones. Just be aware of the inherent risks of only using
headphones, as presented in this article. If you rely on headphones
for anything other than quality control, be sure to make extensive use

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Chapter 2 6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

of reference masters. Also, don’t forget to try a Sonarworks

headphone profile for your specific headphones, which will produce
an accurate and trustworthy frequency response for your specific
headphone setup.

5. Decide if you should reference

material outside your room
Pros know their rooms and monitors inside and out. If a master plays
well in their room, it will sound great on other systems. But, many
engineers still provide a boombox or home stereo system for their
clients to reference. Clients may be disoriented in the listening
environment of a mastering room, so a boombox or Bluetooth system
may be welcome reference point.

Mastering engineers who have tens or hundreds of thousands of

dollars to make it happen can invest in proper construction, acoustical
treatment, power conditioning, and high end wiring. Every little bit
matters and the smallest elements all contribute to the final sound.
That said, many engineers don’t have access to those kinds of funds,
so they must make use of all the tools at their disposal, including
multiple reference monitor systems.

Listen on your iPhone. Listen on your car stereo. Listen on your

boombox. Then go back and do it again. Don’t just bring your master
to these playback systems—bring along the original mixes and other
reference material as well. Level match as best you can (the volume
knob is your friend), and make quick, broad decisions as to whether
your master stacks up against the competition. On a car stereo
system, I don’t mind if the vocal feels a bit too loud or soft, but does
the low end hold together? On a phone speaker you won’t hear the
bass or kick drum accurately, but can you hear the lead vocal and
important elements of the track? I find that when listening outside of
my studio, I listen for the main musical elements and the meaning

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Chapter 2 6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

and emotion of the song. I don’t worry too much about the small mix
details like subtle effects or pannings.

6. A question: Should I master

while I mix?
The consensus seems to be no, you shouldn’t. These are two (too)
different processes. Different mindsets and different goals. Some
engineers, however, do master while they mix, and can do it
successfully. These people usually have a lot of experience, a great
deal of confidence, and the ability to quickly change mindsets. The
master-while-you-mix process may finish up with a great mix that is
also a competitively loud master, but that is still only part of the story.

I’d recommend you leave mixing and mastering as two separate

processes. Mixing addresses the arrangement, production and
emotional needs of the song, while mastering prepares a great mix to
fit in with the world that it belongs to. You mix a song to convey its
meaning, emotionality, intelligibility, story, and other unique facets.
You master to compete and fit in context among songs of a musical
genre or on a specific album and also to sound well-balanced in
different of monitoring environments. Don’t forget that mastering also
includes album sequencing, technical quality control, proper encoding
of metadata, as well as proper encoding for distribution or
manufacturing.

To combine mixing and mastering into one step is dangerous. You

ought to think nothing of metadata while mixing just as you ought not
think of sidechain-compression on the bass while mastering. The
mastering mindset is one of improving an already established product
and preparing it for distribution, whereas mixing is like creating a
single planet out of a universe out of chaotic, disparate elements.

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Chapter 2 6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

Clients do expect your mix to sound “like a master,” so you may find
yourself applying some mastering processing to your mix in order to
achieve a competitive level and some added polish to your mix. Keep
in mind that a little goes a long way and your perspective will change
once you’ve been away from the mix for a day or two.

The Simple Truth

Let’s end this with the secret of making mixes that translate. If your
room and monitor system is properly tuned and sufficiently accurate
and you work at a proper and consistent listening level and you
occasionally check your work outside of your room, masters that
sound great in your room will automatically sound great everywhere.

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Chapter 2 6 Tips for Creating Masters that Translate Well to All Systems

Conclusion
Creating mixes that translate on all systems takes time and practice.
However, it’s a lot of fun! I recommend practicing the process every
day. Take one mix each day that you have on your drive—it doesn’t
matter which—and try to make it sound like a mastered product that
works on all reference systems, using the tips we’ve discussed. Try to
keep the process fast; don’t spend more than half an hour mastering
a song during this practice routine.

Keep track of the elements of your masters that consistently surprise

you, like too much bass or certain frequencies that feel too loud or too
soft. Take this knowledge back to your mastering setup and try to
figure out if you are not hearing those same problems in your room
and, if that’s the case, why can’t you hear those problems. At the end
of a few weeks, you’ll be surprised at how much better your masters
have improved!

41
Put your heart, mind
and soul into even
your smallest acts.
This is the secret of
success.
Swami Sivananda

42
Chapter 2 Producing Masters That Translate

Creating Masters for

Streaming and Selling
by Adam Kagan

Here’s the situation: You, as a mastering engineer, just completed

mastering a few songs for a new independent artist, and they love
your work. Excellent job! Now they’ve asked for a few deliverables.
First they would like copies of the songs for upload to all the
streaming services. Second, they would like a copy of each song for
their music videos, which will wind up on YouTube. Third, they would
like to manufacture a couple hundred CDs to sell during their
upcoming tour and also give away to their crowdfunding supporters.
Your job, since you’ve gotten this far, is to create versions of the
masters that are suitable for each of the above uses. Let’s examine
each case to see what’s really needed.

Compression vs. Compression

When recording, mixing and mastering music we apply dynamic
compression, which is a way to musically control dynamic and tone.
During lossy encoding, like mp3 or AAC, data compression is applied,
which reduces physical files size. For this article, compression refers
only to data compression.

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Chapter 2 Creating Masters for Streaming and Selling

YouTube and Streaming Video

Audio for video is probably the simplest case, so let’s get to that first.
For video, you should deliver a 16bit, 48kHz .wav file version of your
master and include instructions to the video editor to encode the
audio as PCM, uncompressed audio. Every video editing workstation
is different, but the editor needs to choose an export option, or codec,
that embeds uncompressed PCM audio into with the video file. Do not
let them export using a lossy AAC or mp3 codec.

When the high-resolution video with PCM audio gets streamed via
YouTube (or other streaming services) the highest resolution playback
setting should stream uncompressed audio and video. If the user
chooses a lower quality playback setting, YouTube will stream a more
compressed, lower bitrate and lower quality video and audio file. If
your original video file contains an already lossy file, it will be
transcoded again for lower bitrate streaming, so the viewer hears an
audio track that has been twice damaged by lossy encoding. Demand
that video editors keep this in mind! I have personally spent a bit of
time learning the encoding options of a few common video editing
programs so that I can gently offer some suggestions to a video editor
as to what encoding format may be best for a given situation.

Headroom and Lossy Encoding

You should be aware that creating a lossy-encoded version (mp3 or
AAC) of a music file will introduce some distortion, and thereby raise
the volume of the audio file by a little bit. A 320 kbps mp3 may raise
the volume by 0.5 dB, while a 128 kbps mp3 may raise the volume by
as much as 1.5 or 2 dB. Knowing this, it is important to maintain a

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Chapter 2 Creating Masters for Streaming and Selling

ceiling of at least 1.0 dB (True Peak) for your mastering

maximizer/limiter when exporting for lossy encoding, which includes

mp3, AAC and use in streaming videos.

True Peak

Ceiling

-1.0 dB
Treshold

-2.0 dB A

Ozone Maximizer

A Ceiling set to -1 dBFS

B True Peak is On

-0.9

Optimize for Online Distribution

Streaming and download are the two most likely ways your music will

be distributed online. In most cases, your music will be available for

streaming on services like Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer, etc.

For purchased music, you will most likely use a service like iTunes,

Amazon Music, 7Digital, eMusic, BandCamp, etc. For those of us who

are not signed to a major record label, we must use aggregators, like

Tunecore, Distrokid, to submit our music to streaming and sales

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Chapter 2 Creating Masters for Streaming and Selling

platforms. While most aggregators allow you to upload almost any

version of your song (mp3, .wav, flac, etc.), it’s best to provide a
version that will play well on all the sites.

Each streaming site measures the loudness (LUFS) of your song and
matches your song’s level to that of all the songs on the platform. In
order to avoid processing your audio, most songs are simply lowered
in level to meet a specific LUFS measurement. However, not all
services use the same LUFS standard and not all sites measure
loudness the same way. So what are we to do? For better or worse,
we don’t have much of a choice here. When using aggregators, we
are able to provide one master that gets distributed to all the
platforms. But really, that’s okay as long as our master is competitive
with other songs in our specific genre. Everyone’s song will be treated
the same way on each platform, so the playing field stays level.

Optimize for iTunes

The iTunes store is an exception to the above description. iTunes will
currently accept MFiT (Mastered For iTunes) masters from
independent artists via Distrokid. The deal with MFiT is that an MFiT
certified mastering engineer will provide iTunes with a 24 or 32 bit
.wav file. MFiT also specifies that you leave some headroom for mp3
encoding. To become certified in creating MFiT masters, take some
time to read and understand the Mastered for iTunes guide from
Apple.

Mastering Plugin Resources

It is important to know exactly how a particular lossy encoding or

streaming platform will change the level and sound of your master.

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Chapter 2 Creating Masters for Streaming and Selling

To that end, the following products allow you to audition your master

in various encoded formats to check for loudness problems on many

platforms:

Ozone 8 Codec Preview;

Nugen Mastercheck;

Expose by Mastering the Mix;

Sonnox Codec-Toolbox.

CDs, Vinyl and Online HD

While it’s becoming less and less common for independent artists to

manufacture and sell CDs, the idea may still appeal to many,

especially those of you who play live shows or have an audiophile

audience. When preparing to manufacture CDs, make sure to print

the final master at 16bit, 44.1 kHz. If you intend to press vinyl, contact

the pressing plant or cutting room to see if they would prefer an

unmastered or a 24 bit file instead of the 16 bit CD master. Vinyl

cutting often works better from a master that hasn’t already been

maximized for CD.

If you are pressing compact discs, be sure to check with your CD

plant to see if they require a Red Book audio CD, disk image file or a

special DDP file for duplicating or replicating your CDs. The plant will

also need your artwork delivered in a specific format, so make sure to

get that info before you complete your graphic design elements.

Online sales of uncompressed .wav files seems to be available from

only a few sources, like HDTracks , AIX Records , Chesky Records and

artist sites like Bandcamp and Soundcloud .

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Chapter 2 Creating Masters for Streaming and Selling

These sites will sell the highest resolution version of the music you
can provide. Even if you provide uncompressed files to these sites,
you should be aware that many listeners will still convert the
downloaded files to mp3, so it is still advised to leave 1 dB headroom
on your .wav file masters.

It’s a Wrap
DIY distribution has become the norm and it behooves all of us to
learn about the best way to create and distribute our masters. The
business side of distribution and revenue collection is a vast issue,
but creating masters that sound great on all the various platforms and
media should become second nature. Remember that as streaming
services mature, they may periodically update their delivery
recommendations, so do your homework and try to stay on top of the
state of things.

48
Chapter 2 

Key Takeaways
Set up your acoustic space to optimize for
flat sound

Listen at a calibrated volume in your room

or headphones

Produce dynamic, punchy mixes

Check your masters for technical errors

and noises on headphones

Use reference material to make sure your

masters sound competitive

Understand your distribution media and

their inherent qualities and flaws

Stay abreast of the best practices for

digital distribution services

49
If you're looking to get the best out of
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Systemwide app Reference 4 is already used in more than 40 000
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50