Quote:
Originally Posted by Fran Guidry
I had no idea that mastering and cutting had been separated. As I understood the workflow the mastering engineer would observe the action of the cutting head through a microscope and make sonic adjustments based on what he saw.
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Most mastering engineers these days don't have a lathe. The job description has changed to the point where it's now, "make it sound great and make it really loud." It comes in as a tape or a file, and leaves as a "better" tape or file.
And yes, with disc-cutting there can be microscope work involved. The engineer might play through the master tape and identify potential trouble spots. He or she will then do a test cut of that area onto a lacquer, ballparking the spot on the disc where that bit of music would actually land, and then play it on a turntable and/or take a look under the 'scope to see if adjustments are called for. Since every moment of the music is going to be in a different place on the disc, the engineer can do several of these tests on the same lacquer. So it's not like they're burning through a whole stack of them to get one good one.