Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science
Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science book cover

Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science

3rd Edition

by
Price
$43.65
Format
Paperback
Pages
408
Publisher
Routledge
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-0240818962
Dimensions
9.1 x 8.4 x 0.7 inches
Weight
2.6 pounds

Description

"The definitive work on mastering...an indispensable resource for anyone working with audio. If you only buy one book on audio, this has to be it - it should be required reading for anyone involved with recording, producing or mastering music."-Sound on Sound magazine"After reading it, you will likely consider this book to be required reading for all audio professionals, regardless of technical background, who are interested in creating better sounding audio. I know that I do." - Jim Kaiser, Journal of the AES, March 2008"I just received my book in the mail. Bob, you did a great job with the 2nd edition. This version does not read as clinical as the first edition making it an easier read. I really like the layout and updated info you put in the book."- Glenn Bucci, Revelation Sound Studio"Aimed at intermediate to advanced users, what sets this book apart is the liberal inclusion of practical tips, and the author's ability to be authoritative without being didactic. Even if you already do mastering, this book will help you do it better."- Craig Anderton (editor of EQ magazine) "I have no reservations when I recommend that every engineer working with audio purchase a copy of Mastering Audio."- Tape Op Magazine, March/April 2008"If you want to know what goes on behind the scenes in recording the music you enjoy; and learn more about digital audio, this comprehensive, insightful, and accessible book is without peer."-Absolute Sound (Oct. 2007) "Within the pages of the outstanding third edition of his book Mastering Audio: Tile Art and the Science , Katz not only demystifies the subject of mastering in a logical, well-organized way, but he has created a resource that will be equally of interest to pros and beginners … [The book] examines topics that are important in every stage of the recording process, such as properly dealing with dynamics and monitoring, or understanding dither and jitter. Katz also delves into mixing and effects processing from the standpoint of the mastering engineer and the types of problems he or she typically encounters. Consequently, Mastering Audio should be mandatory reading for anyone making music in a personal studio." -Gino Robair, emusician.com "An important reference book needed during these times of fast-changing audio resolution standards and delivery methods, Katz offers an easy-to understand approach to the many technical conundrums and mysteries that challenge even the seasoned professional audio engineer." - Barry Rudolph, Music Connection Praise for the previous edition: "The definitive work on mastering...an indispensable resource for anyone working with audio. If you only buy one book on audio, this has to be it - it should be required reading for anyone involved with recording, producing or mastering music."-Sound on Sound magazine"After reading it, you will likely consider this book to be required reading for all audio professionals, regardless of technical background, who are interested in creating better sounding audio. I know that I do." - Jim Kaiser, Journal of the AES, March 2008"I just received my book in the mail. Bob, you did a great job with the 2nd edition. This version does not read as clinical as the first edition making it an easier read. I really like the layout and updated info you put in the book."- Glenn Bucci, Revelation Sound Studio"Aimed at intermediate to advanced users, what sets this book apart is the liberal inclusion of practical tips, and the author's ability to be authoritative without being didactic. Even if you already do mastering, this book will help you do it better."- Craig Anderton (editor of EQ magazine) "I have no reservations when I recommend that every engineer working with audio purchase a copy of Mastering Audio."- Tape Op Magazine, March/April 2008"If you want to know what goes on behind the scenes in recording the music you enjoy; and learn more about digital audio, this comprehensive, insightful, and accessible book is without peer."-Absolute Sound (Oct. 2007) Become a master of audio…This bestselling book has shown thousands of mixing and mastering engineers, musicians, A&R producers how to create great sound. It fully integrates technical with artistic and is idea for students and working professional/ Mastering Audio is you complete reference: don’t leave the studio without it! What is mastering? Mastering it the last creative step when producing a record album or single for disc, home music server, iPod, broadcast or internet delivery. Mastering Audio unravels the technical mysteries that challenge audio engineers daily-in an easy to grasp, holistic manner. Learn new and powerful artictic techniques for sterio and surround sound. To master audio you must become the master of audio Bob Katz played the B flat clarinet from the age of 10, and his lifelong love of sound and music led him to become a professional recording, mixing and mastering engineer, beginning in 1971. Receiving many nominations, three of Bob’s recordings have garnered the prestigious Grammy™ award, and his work has been praised in publications such as Stereo Review, Audio, and Stereophile. Bob has written numerous articles and reviews for audio and computer publications as well as the digido.com website. Katz’s processors and support gear, including patented inventions K-Stereo and K-Surround, are in use at mastering studios worldwide and fill a missing link in mastering and post-production. Bob’s entertaining seminars and workshops around the world grew from his unique ability to simplify complex topics. He runs Digital Domain Studios north of Orlando, Florida, mastering all styles of music for major and independent labels. Read more

Features & Highlights

  • In an easy-to-grasp, holistic manner
  • Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science, Third Edition
  • unravels the technical mysteries that regularly challenge audio engineers. Including practical tips and real world experiences, Bob Katz explains the technical detail of the subject in his informative and humorous style. Completely reorganized to focus on workflow, this third edition details mastering by providing a step-by-step approach to the process. First covering practical techniques and basic theory, this industry classic
  • also addresses advanced theory and practice. The book’s new approach is especially suitable to accompany a one- or two-term course in audio and mastering.
  • Completely rewritten and organized to address changes that will continue to influence the audio world, this third edition includes several new chapters addressing the influence of loudness measurement and assessment and provides explanation of how mastering engineers must integrate loudness measurement and PLR assessment in their mastering techniques.
  • Mastering Audio: The Art and the Science, Third Edition also includes the newest approaches to equalization, monitor response measurement and correction, the psychoacoustics of clipping, an extended discussion of restoration and noise reduction techniques, an extended set of listening examples, and an updated chapter on surround mastering including coverage of Pure Audio BluRay.

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(154)
★★★★
25%
(64)
★★★
15%
(38)
★★
7%
(18)
★
-7%
(-18)

Most Helpful Reviews

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This was a bear to get through.

I respect Bob Katz as an engineer. I respect the vast knowledge that he has in this field. Reading this book was like reading a technical manual for an appliance in Japanese when you don't speak Japanese. I was slowed down by jargon that is so obscure that some of it doesn't even show up on Google. 90% of the information in this book is purely academic and will do nothing to improve your practical skills as a mastering engineer. It's pedantic as heck. This is not a beginner, intermediate or advanced book. This is a book for accomplished mastering engineers that have learned all of the basics already and want to up their game another 5%. If one is looking to learn mastering and has limited time, one should tune into the many informative YouTube channels that deal with this subject and provide real-time / real world demonstrations. They will make much more rapid progress than they will decoding this book one painful page at a time. I'm proud I got through it, but I read and absorbed it only for bragging rights. My college Physics and Medicinal Chemistry textbooks were light reading by comparison. While this third edition has a post 2010 release, and Bob has embraced the digital world, large parts of the book still read like The Boomer's Guide to Mastering Like a Boomer. He obsesses on considerations that your average home producer, mixing in the box with a current audio interface (that's much less prone to jitter than older units) and modern plugins much less prone to artifacting, simply does not need to worry about. I think this book exists for 2 reasons: 1) to demonstrate how smart Bob Katz is and 2) to discourage artists from doing their own mastering or becoming mastering engineers themselves. Bob literally recommends hiring an architect to craft your studio, along with investing in unobtainably expensive speakers and outboard gear. He makes the process seem so inaccessibly complicated and arcane, but the secret he hides is that if the mix is good enough, a single fader move into a Fabfilter limiter and/or a few keystrokes into Izotope Ozone's mastering chain, along with some monitoring plugins will get you a master that's at least 90% as good as what's coming out of mastering houses these days. I speak from experience. My first album was mastered the old fashioned way by a retired former legend in the field, who's name is on numerous popular CD's that I own. It was so full of analogue pops and clicks that it wasn't nearly as good as the clean, in the box master I paid someone else to do for a fraction of the price (I do my own mastering now). I recommend the YouTube channel of Warren Huart. He's one of the best engineers in the world and he's capable of explaining this subject clearly without dumbing it down.
31 people found this helpful
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Audiophiles Should Read This Book!

Ok. The author is a "somebody" in the world of high-end audio. I recognized his name from articles appearing in Stereophile magazine, most recently in the January 2015 issue. He knows more about the recording process than most anyone. He communicates his ideas very well, but, most importantly, he address the most relevant subjects and issues.

This is a great book for an audiophile to read because it examines the details of source origination -- the recording process -- and relates it directly to the playback process. The chapters on mastering are must reading, especially the discussion of loudness, monitor quality, and monitor setup. Oh, and don't forget the chapter on jitter. This term is thrown around in audio equipment analysis as if everyone knows what it is. The discussion is so confusing elsewhere, one might be thinking it has something to do with insects dancing inside a USB cable (jitterbugs). Read what Katz has to say. Very informative.

I loved the book, and will keep it as a reference. Too bad it didn't come with a hard cover, or a better cover. The cover paper is really cheap quality, but I won't subtract a star for that.
16 people found this helpful
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Not worth the money or time, IMHO.

The Good:
The third chapter: "A Day in the Life..." is a very good start on what I expected and hoped for from this book.
Bob Katz (real name?) also has a good handle on the science (sic) of mastering, which essentially would be the engineering side. He knows what mastering engineers do, and he knows what all of the equipment does.
The list of software and hardware (those 10 or so pages) are a handy reference to how some good equipment should function and often, why.

The Bad:
Unfortunately, this is where the book starts to fall short for me. In no particular order of grievance:
The book is more bland exposition of technical jargon than any guide for aspiring Mastering Engineers, or someone looking to master their own music. There is no real talk of what the art behind mastering entails, save the oft-repeated phrase "use your ears". The book is in serious need of an editor - the organization, juxtaposition of opinion and guidelines, and the occasional vernacular should have been stripped and cleaned up.

The Ugly:
Bob is almost certainly harmless and has no bad intentions, but is correspondingly likely clueless to the impression he leaves. He is uber pedantic. More often than not, Bob is quoting himself in the huge font quotes supposed to impart wisdom to the reader. He ultimately comes across as very pleased with himself in a clumsy way. Sorry - but I've seldom seen such an unjustified sense of ego.
11 people found this helpful
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War Is Over If You Want It – The Loudness Wars, That Is

I received a free item to review.

Katz’s ‘greatest hit’ as an author is no-doubt his conception of ‘The Loudness Wars’ - what must have felt like a personal crusade at times to restore headroom, breadth, depth, and clarity to recordings in the face of an industry charging blindly over a cliff of extreme compression, lossy reduction, and pointless volume in the name of me-too-ism - as the author stood athwart a mountain of recording history and common sense yelling ‘Stop!’.

There’s always been something of a generational divide in opinion concerning production values and esthetics. But it would be a mistake for younger readers to prejudge ‘Mastering Audio’ as some dinosaur manifesto on how to replicate the vibe of Sinatra’s 1950’s Capitol recordings (although you could do a lot worse for trying).

That ‘art and the science’ in the subtitle is well-chosen. ‘Mastering Audio’ is both extremely technical and extremely ‘ear-oriented’ (or to use Katz’s term for his chapter on listening exercises, ‘earientation’).

The exercises do not have corresponding audio files – Katz treats readers as aspiring professionals who have access to recordings and can take his instructions and tailor them to particular interests (i.e. ‘compare an mp3 version of a CD with the original recording – practice until you can identify the differences’). What you get out of formulating your own exercise will be so much more lasting than quickly listening to someone’s A/B examples.

There’s not much hand-holding tutorial in ‘Mastering Audio’ – at least in the sense of ‘step-by-step-press-this-then-that’. Yet I would hesitate to call the book ‘advanced’ or only for experienced engineers – and I think Katz would agree.

The book offers a goldmine of essential foundation and many finer points of the mastering craft, taking in the entire post-recording/delivery process whether the end product is physical media or, increasingly, digital files for streaming.

And if your interest lies particularly with iTunes and high resolution audio I would also recommend Katz’s ‘iTunes Music – Mastering High Resolution Audio Delivery’ as supplementary reading to this book.

While there are plenty of gear illustrations (beautifully photographed, by the way, as is the entire book), ‘Mastering Audio’ doesn’t evangelize manufacturers or push trendy tools. The knowledge Katz presents can be applied to any and all serious tools and, more importantly, you’ll understand why and how to evaluate the effectiveness of whatever gear you find yourself using.

The book is organized into three large sections that build upon and cross reference each other as the book progresses (quite a good way to absorb such a vast amount of info):

A preparatory opening describes the professional mastering process from soup to nuts, as well as the skill set engineers are expected to bring to the table. The before-mentioned ‘earientation’ exercises give a realistic ‘level set’ for your own listening discrimination and a benchmark of your current abilities.

The crux of the second section is the variety of equalization and dynamic range manipulation techniques that make up the standard toolkit of mastering engineers. Truth be told, a lot of the information here is not limited to mastering and applies to mixing and even tracking as well. But Katz drills down especially deep on signal processing and manipulation and always provides the ‘mastering angle’. There’s never a sense that he’s rattling off perfunctory tools and techniques to fill space or to avoid being second-guessed.

The third section includes a discussion of monitoring and it’s a lot more than the ‘triangle’, keeping your tweeters at ear level, and other home recording axioms. ‘The Loudness Revolution’ – loudness metering, streaming formats, high resolution audio, and the ramifications to music production and distribution is probably the single biggest takeaway - not just from the third section but arguably the entire latest edition.

Rarely does an appendix provide as much value as in ‘Mastering Audio’ but it’s more than worth your time to dip into ‘The Art of the Album Sequence’, “Radio Processing’, and even ‘Premastering for Vinyl’ among other topics.

If you’re a pro or an aspiring pro you either know Katz’s work first hand or someone you respect recommended it to you. The third edition of ‘Mastering Music’ is most important for the information it includes on high-resolution audio, streaming formats, loudness metering, and the ton of dispelled myths and from-the-trenches wisdom someone of Katz’s stature and experience brings to the table. There are also quite a lot of quotes, mini-interviews, and sidebars from other professionals whom Katz freely acknowledges for their influence.

But even if you make music only for yourself and friends in the privacy of your home – or aspire to upload it - you’re selling yourself (and your listeners) short if you don’t understand at least the fundamentals of what’s presented in ‘Mastering Music’. It really is that important.

There’s so much here the goal should not be to absorb it in a single reading. ‘Mastering Audio’ is a book to be lived with and revisited constantly as your relationship to your craft grows over years. It’s a text to ponder on long flights and long nights, but you’ll also want to keep it at arms length in your workspace – keep a second copy by your bed (and keep a third hidden somewhere because chances are some audio hound will swipe one of your others).
11 people found this helpful
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The best book on mastering just got better, again.

What can I say, this is the 3rd time I have purchased this book and it just keeps getting better and more up to date. Bob is the guru of audio mastering without a doubt, and his technical information is well worth reading for all stripes of audio engineers, not just those with designs on mastering. There are tidbits throughout, so you don't have to read it cover to cover, just open a section and get up to speed quickly.
9 people found this helpful
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Katz knows his stuff... all producers and ...

Katz knows his stuff...all producers and would be mixers out there in DIY or home studios should have this...especially you hip hop dudes...learn about sound and proper mixing so your tracks sound tight, before you pile on the processing in FL or PT...
7 people found this helpful
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Must Read for Audio Engineers

Great information even if you're not doing the mastering yourself. Worthwhile getting even if you have read the previous editions.
7 people found this helpful
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Seriuosly!?!?!?

How do you get to a third edition of a book about pro audio and NOT INCLUDE AUDIO EXAMPLES OF WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT!!!???
Other 2 star reviewer is right. This book needs an editor to get rid of excess flub...this book should be about a third of it's size and then include a DVD with an interview about you and
your work and then three or four audio examples per concept of all the things you talk about in the book...
That would be valuable... Cheers
6 people found this helpful
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This book encompasses 30+ years of solid experience nowhere to be found

Bob's Technical and artistic as well as unselfish expertise, knowledge and wisdom , makes this book a unique and invaluable book that has a depth no other in the field has shared or written. Most mastering engineers would never release their knowledge and years of experience that will eventually vanish and most will never know, realized or learn.

If you are serious about Mastering, this is a must to own and buy. It will move you ahead in time in many aspects about the career and open your mind to what you might learn in 20+ years in the profession. This book encompasses 30+ years of solid experience nowhere to be found.

Simply a fact.
5 people found this helpful
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THE AUTHORITATIVE WRITING regarding the past, present and most importantly future of Mastering Audio

Over the past 10 or so years I have read all three editions and there is always something new and fresh to Bob's writings. I have also read most (if not all) of other writings regarding the subject and feel that Mastering Audio is the clearest and most concise (not short, but as concise as can be) manual offered. Not for the technically faint of heart, but most who pick this up know what they are facing. I personally appreciate the foresight and contributions Bob K has offered the entire audio community from seminars, online class in addition to these great books. Keep them coming...Well done.
4 people found this helpful

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