R/E/P > Brad Blackwood

Mastering Playback Systems

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jfrigo:
sui-city wrote on Sat, 24 April 2004 15:34

I was wondering what sorts of playback systems are most commonly used in mastering studios.
Do all of you have Alsihad systems? 2-trk Tape?
And how do you like to receive the tracks that you are going to master? What format do you ask your clients to give you?


We have a Pro Tools rig for playback and the very occasional processing should there be something in particular that a plug-in does better or easier than the rest of the gear in the studio. Some people actually lay out all the songs in order in a pro tools session that we can simply open instead of importing or dragging the audio files into another DAW. It's convenient for them and for us. We also have an Alesis ML9600 Masterlink, a Sony PCM-800 (same as DA-88 but AES and XLR I/O) for DTRS tapes or bit splits, a DAT machine, a Nakamichi cassette deck with balanced output, a Sony CD player with an AES output, and an Ampex ATR for 1/4" and 1/2" playback. We also have a few software applications on the computer that can translate most computer sound files into something we can play back. All these formats hopefully make the life of our clients easier so they can send whatever they are comfortable with. A CD-ROM with AIFF or WAV files or 1/2" analog tape would be the most common formats (in that order) and also the most preferred. The other formats are rarely used.

Gold:
I get more 1/4" tape than 1/2."  I have a few regular clients who use 1/4". Oddly  I get more masters on tape for CD only projects than for vinyl projects.

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