Delivering the Masters

 



Today I delivered the master recordings to the record label for the new album with Laszlo Gardony and I.  This is the first album in a two-album series, and will be released in early summer 2022.  Part 2 of this album series will be released in 2023.  

Delivering masters is always a big event. It's the culmination of the recording sessions themselves, the mixing process which is sometimes known as post production, and the final mastering.  It's the culmination of months of difficult work. It also involves submission of the final cover art and cover layout. That's also significant work, but of a different variety.

Delivering the masters to the record label is almost a cause for celebration because all of the work that has taken months to complete is finally done. Not only done, but it's the start of the final step which is the actual album release. It's also one of those rare times where I feel like I've actually gotten something done. Sometimes it seems that the completion of an album project is the only sign of progress I ever get.

When I was a child, my uncle was part owner of a record label. He was also a fine musician and songwriter in his own right. I've been fascinated with music and records and everything to do with music and records since I could walk. I used to ask him about the recording process when I was a child. I'm sure I had endless questions for him.  Once I asked what happens to the recording session tapes when an album is finished.  I was probably around seven or eight years old at this time.  He explained to me that when you're signed to a label it's often the artist's responsibility to deliver the final masters for an album to the label.  I used to worry about that step of the process rather extensively.  I would literally lie awake at night and wonder what happens if the master recordings get lost or damaged on their way to the label.  Back when everything was done on tape you would have the final master and then a copy of that would be made which was known as the safety master. You hoped that you never needed the safety.  It was down one generation from the original master and didn't sound as good.  But it was there in case something did happen to the master.  Amazing that this is something about which I used to lose sleep as a child.  

Now this process is accomplished digitally.  The process of delivering masters is no longer FedExing multiple reels of tape to the record label and being in a mild panic until you know they arrived safely. The current process of delivering masters to the record label is uploading files.  All the master recordings are output to digital masters which are uploaded to the record label's server.  Not only is this safer than the old method of shipping reels of tape, but of course there is no audio degradation because digital recordings have none of the limitations and problems of analog tape.

Even though the process of delivering masters has changed so dramatically over the years, I still feel that it is a cause for celebration because it's the culmination of all that work and it's the beginning of the actual record release.  It's a time for exhalation.  However, the feeling of euphoria is short-lived.  Because once a project is finished, you're on to the next one. Often on the same day.  Which is true today because after I delivered the masters to the label, I resumed work on the upcoming album project with my partner Carl Clements.  And there will come a time in the near future where those masters are delivered to the label.  I'll have that fleeting feeling of accomplishment and relief. Then I'll start or resume work on the next record project.

And so goes the life cycle of a record album's recording process.

-kk

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