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[Ken Sutton]

Hello all,

Last week I got a call from a Detroit Rapper who wants me to do some Mastering for him and his crew,the cd has 14 songs on it and needs it in a week,cool no problem.I set up the time and tell him to come by.Two days later he calls back and says he DON'T want any Eq-ing or St wideing on it Just make it LOUDER,I said ok,But!

Well he came by and drop of the songs, and the frist song has alot of clipping on the Vox,the 2nd song is the same and the 3rd , the Vox has drop-offs in it and alot of bleed from headphones.

I know I shouldn't,and I didn't, but I wanted to fix it because it needed to be done.

What do you do, or tell someone that it's bad, and not lose the job?

My Rep is on the line.( at least in my mind it is )to give the Best I can and keep them happy and comming back.

Is this what we have become in music?

Just make it louder and un-unerstandable?

I care about the work I do,but more,and more I find that people realy don't!......I gess get it out there is their goal no-matter how it sounds.

Just Make it " LOUDER "


Ken Sutton.

[Thomas W. Bethel]

Explain to him or her that there is only so much you can do with what you are presented.You are a professional and you will do a professional job on the material but you are limited in some respects to what is coming in the door.

Try your best to do the best possible job and at the same time suggest to the rapper that the "next time"  he or she bring in their material as they are doing it and you will listen to and help them solve the problems (if they even know they are having problems)

Having done a number of RAP albums over the last couple of years I can safely say that sometimes in a effort to make their album the LOUDEST the rappers clip the material in recording. They also add WAY TOO MUCH BASS and sometimes over compress and over eq the whole album and then want you to make it "louder" to boot. They also listen to their material on a boom box or in a boom car and have the bass cranked up to 11 so it is hard to make a judgment call on overall quality when you are listening to something at 135 dBSPL with a smiley EQ curve.

If you want to be known as a professional mastering engineer then you have to be professional with your client. If they still want things done there way after explaining what might be wrong and they are paying the bills then you will have to do it THEIR way to satisfy them. A happy client is a repeat client and may bring in more work

Best of luck!