J-Texas wrote on Thu, 10 April 2008 16:55 |
I mean this VERY seriously:
When you master, do you go for what most people think is "good"?
I don't know another way to make that NOT sound sarcastic.
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Yes and no. Yes, you want to please the most people with the sound of the recording, but no, I wont compromise something simply because I don't think most people will like it.
The fact is everyone hears things differently, but like any other data grouping, you can make a representative bell curve of how people hear things. When mastering, we are trying to get everything we can out of the mix, to make it match the artist's ideal first and foremost, but after that, there is a certain amount of effort trying to fit it in the window where it sounds 'good'. IMO, the ability to do this is one of the things that determines the overall commercial success an engineer enjoys.
My point is this: if you asked 100 people if your mix was too dark and bass heavy, I'll bet 95 (or more) of the them would answer 'yes'.