I have been all about the ultra-crisp mastering sound, but now today — when I was working on my new music — it was choking out the bass notes of the piano. I couldn't hear a lot of the detail, so now I have a new version of mastering — the cloud version — which is gentler and more detailed in high-bass and midrange, but still just as loud. Perhaps slightly more bass, and a little less edge, so maybe ever so slightly less abruptly loud. The air has more room to breathe also. That's another term for top end of the high range.
With the way these are written, they need the warm bass overtones — some resonance there. They need to be able to reach through to make it a comfortable place, like soft pillows. It was a cold world when I compared the mix to the master for the first time today. So, I reduced the restrictiveness of the compression in affected ranges, and the way they released, giving much more detail and warmth.
I'm really bringing this all up, because I'm going to be mastering all future tracks from this studio with these new "Cloud" settings. I can still use the "Ultra Crisp" settings if it comes up. These settings are the starting point, in a template that I use. There's more tuning after that. As I was writing this, it started to sound like I just open the preset and click save. No, I listen and tune certain areas — listening was actually how I found this new sound anyway. As you expect, these always sound great and distortion free, clear as a bell on any stereo. Equal in loudness to any other song on the radio, in fact they are carefully limited for broadcast, even the peaks between samples. Will never exceed 0, meaning they will never distort! They go right up the tippy edge of that area though, the edge of destruction. 🌪️
