The deep importance of full range monitoring and acoustic treatment in the sensation of musical feel.
Introduction
In a world of increasing lack of clarity, able humans must attempt to demonstrate human values and expertise in all its forms, actively, wherever it can in professional roles, moving into the future.
The following is inspired by some online discussion regarding full range monitoring, acoustic control in mastering and the feel of music. I felt it would be enjoyable and interesting to elaborate as it seems some consider the 2 unrelated.
I propose that musical feel and physics are not mutually exclusive and that without application of physics, feel is very easily misjudged. One does not under any circumstance have priority over the other, in fact they rely heavily upon each other. I also propose that small monitors in poorly treated rooms are presenting mastering as a service, in name only.
This is an interesting topic, both from a human sensory and technical perspective. Two aspects that are interdependent and in no way separate.
This is a pictoral presentation of musical note A0 – 27.5Hz – Pictures are not musical feel. – full range mastering monitors are required to hear and feel this correctly. TDL Prism, from a Hip Hop track.
Musical feel as a whole and constituent parts
Musical feel can be described as the whole presentation of music, to ears, body and mind, we can however discuss constituents. When one considers ‘musical feel’ we first have to ask what “feel” is ? Related to the appreciation of music.
An emotional response of some kind seems to fit as a reasonable answer, or a direct perception of musical presentation to our human senses.
It is reasonable to start with the musical feel originating from the melodic and rhythmic elements of music. In addition, emotionally, music can feel uplifting or sad, we could suggest (as 2 obvious examples). And from a more musically orientated perspective, built from grooves, musical interactions, musical progression (chord sequences and melody), instrumental balances, sonic density, space, textures, representation of time (past, present or future) dynamics, silences and so on.
Musical feel can also be a little different for each listener, one track that sounds melodically sad to one individual might make them cry and for another they feel a sense of seriousness, yet may not cry. Of course music has many potential feels, aggression (heavy rock, hip hop), energy (to provoke the expression of human dance), happiness, beauty, togetherness or the feel of a scene etc.
I would also suggest that feel also comes from rhythm, timing has a definite part in feel, whether it is natural drumming rhythms, swing and so forth or in electronic modern dance music styles where a hypnotic, psychoacoustic effect may be desireable.
The feel of music is a whole, undivided, direct perception of the entire faculty of human sensation and is difficult to pin down to individual sensory responses as we can see below. Musical feel is not spectrum analysis images. That’s the basics covered.
The meeting of emotions, brain and body.
Musical feel is also something directly felt as a physical vibration in the body, typically, we can approximate direct physical feeling in the body with frequencies below 100Hz, and critically, commonly below 50Hz. This relates to scale which is an important word for myself. For myself scale relates to the physicality, power and size of sonic presentation to ears and yes, body. Directly sensed vibrations inside the skeletal frame and resonant cavities. For myself full range mastering monitors means down to to 25Hz.
Having inadequate low frequency output accuracy in mastering, the mastering engineer will not physically feel anything. That means the monitoring is not commensurate for the task. How can you make judgements related to feel when you do not physically feel ? Physical feel of music is an important aspect.
This irks me in a sense as there are many people charging quite significant sums of money for audio mastering yet have an incapacity in their studio for sensing scale. A shortcoming from their direct personal decisions to use small inadequate monitors or headphones. Presumably for cost, convenience, their chosen lifestyle (travelling etc.) or often arrogance and ignorance. (some may simply never heard what truly amazing monitors are like) What’s the priority here ? The afforementioned or seriousness about their profession and clients ? It almost goes without saying that the acoustic control to get the most from high end full range monitors must be be considerable. I would be cautious about letting those who use arrogant shortcuts to master your music, be wary. They often charge way beyond what they should as they have an illusory notion that they are superior. See through this.
I have copious RockWool RW3/RW45 and Knauf bass trapping and room linings. To the order of about 28 standard bales 1.2 meter x 400mm x 600mm. Not just a few tidy looking pieces of purple and mauve foam, plus one diffuser panel. That may look tidy but it is completely useless as room treatment. I have one bass trap here 1.8m deep ! To trap a room properly down to 25Hz needs huge amounts of treatment.
For the record I use PMC IB1S, a 3 way, 10 inch driver based transmission line professional monitor (36kgs each in weight) that output 25Hz very well indeed. (In room I recently heard a plug in outputting a 20Hz infra sound bump when engaged !) There are images of these trusted monitoring tools in situ across this website. Here, your music will be mastered using these monitors :
Professional Monitor Company – PMC IB1S 3 way – 10 inch transmission line monitors
https://pmc-speakers.com/products/archive/archive/ib1s/
You do not physically feel any sub bass using headphones or small monitors, that is a distinct mastering disadvantage.
Acoustics are controllable and that will 100pct affect musical feel, in this physical reality without descriptive vagaries.
In an untreated or sparsely treated room the “feel” will be inconsistent and will change radically depending on where you are in the room as you stand in nodes and antinodes at various frequencies (rooms modes, i.e. reflected phase interactions creating peaks and dips in the entire frequency response monitored). “Feel” will change as you move a mere 10cms in any given 3D room axis, left – right, forwards – backwards, and up or down. Significantly less so when a room is very well treated.
Cutting corners by those purporting to be mastering engineers charging significant fees is easily investigated by prospective clients. My personal view is that headphones and small monitoring systems are not appropriate for mastering music. They are irrefutably inadequate tools.
Digging deeper into musical feel : a matter of volume (SPL)
There will be a different tonal response in the brain and ears from music at different reproduction volumes. As different partials and harmonics in the elements of the music become more or less prominant, changing relative to sound pressure level (SPL in dB) versus the ear’s level dependent frequency response. This is especially evident in bass sounds and bass frequencies, as harmonic balance perception is not static. As volume increases the ear’s physiology / biological response dictates that it is better able to hear lower frequencies relative to when SPL is low.
A loud reproduction volume will also likely bring about a greater endogenous neurotransmitter release (endorphins/oxytocin, possibly serotonin) and therefore provoke a physical response in the listener/s, the vibration you feel directly in your body and via your ears, and brain. Feel is not static even in relation to studio technicalities, monitors, room, low frequency bass extension and accuracy. These aspects are controllable and some of the personal, biological and emotional responses are much less so, but always very much influenced by physics and studio set up decisions. (Acoustic accuracy and deep bass extension and associated accuracy is controllable which undoubtedly influences all the personal musical feel.)
That will even change “feel” in an anechoic chamber due to the human auditory system’s evolved physiology and biology. The Fletcher-Munson equal loudness contours come into effect. Look them up online if not familiar with them. This is something worthwhile to consider.
Mastering engineer relationship to your musical feel
As we can see musical feel and reproduction systems are very deeply reliant on each other. The feel of music is often a physical response, something innate. Less so a long article like this, but something visceral. I often experience the hairs go up on my arms or legs when I work with great music, or a smile appears from out of nowhere, or I shed a tear, all of this has happened on a few occasions. Why wouldn’t it ?
This is the entirely of the musical presentation and reproduction experience through commensurate monitors for the task.
What an artist feels about their own music is clearly of the greatest importance, although it may be the case that any given artist is producing their music in an acoustic environment that is far from ideal and budget restrictions mean that they may be using a fairly modest set of studio monitors. This can skew the sense of feel somewhat for technical reasons.
As such it can be difficult to judge feel in a poor room acoustic, this is where authentic mastering on monitors with deep sub bass capacity (deep, yet accurate of course, not over blown sub bass for the sake of it) this becomes of great importance. If a mastering engineer is using fairly small speakers it might be the case that the client will not fully hear the impact of whether the mastering engineer is using full range monitors themselves until it is played out on a very large capable P.A. system. That is a very unfortunate place to find this out for obvious reasons. (the client is likely often using a pair of 6.5 inch monitors as is typically common with restricted bass scale and low frequency extension.)
This is why it is 100pct necessary that large, accurate monitors are used when selecting a mastering engineer. If a mastering engineer does not show their monitors on their website I would suggest they could be rather embarrassed at a technical level. So be very cautious when choosing a mastering engineer. Tools matter, they reflect on actual experiencial knowledge.
You want to be sure your music was mastered on a full range system before it gets to somewhere like here that has plenty of 30Hz sub bass output.
Conclusion
When seeking mastering services it makes a lot of sense to ensure the mastering engineer has a monitoring situation that is up to the task of sincere improvement of musical reproduction, in its entirety. The choice of a full range system (big speakers with deep sub bass output to 25Hz to put it bluntly) reflects on knowledge and experience. Tool choices matter, they aid or hinder decisions, and they reflect on professional engineering experience level.
Feel is a deep aspect of music, some aspects personal and the human aspect very much alive and open to misjudgement with small monitors and acoustics. Technicality is an aspect that can be controlled and so it should be to minimize misjudgements. This is logical. Having wide bandwidth monitoring to deep sub bass frequencies and accurate acoustics should not be second thought (or in some cases seemingly entirely ignored) for mastering.It is entirely essential, anything else is inappropriate.
I would go as far as to say without accurate, deep monitoring by a human being that can innately feel (and a supporting technical position to enable), anything else is mastering in name only. Getting the low frequency feel and power right is a significant part of the job.
Personally, I don’t ever want to use headphones for mastering eq decisions and use nothing less than a speaker monitor system that can reproduce deep sub (and be able to feel it when need be.) to at least 25Hz.(along with accuracy and exceptional detail resolution.)
Headphones have a useful secondary monitoring purpose and are very useful for some specific mastering job aspects. However, not as a primary monitoring tool, irrelevant of their expense. I consider this the approach of a serious mastering engineer.
In times where there is greater confusion about what authentic mastering is, it is worth prospective clients using their diligence to investigate mastering engineer monitoring choices, visually (website images) or by written word (monitor model numbers) and subsequent online research. Especially when some people are charging quite significant sums of money for their attempts with small speakers or headphones. It is up to prospective clients to investigate these controversial small monitoring choices.
I feel it is important to outline what the scope of a human mastering service should involve. As a professional mastering engineer these are my views on authentic practice for musical betterment and how it relates to physics and commensurate monitoring systems (DACs, room and monitors).
Please do not hesitate to get in contact : safeandsound123@googlemail.com
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Barry Gardner