Once upon a time in 1994, I released the first Color Theory album, Sketches in Grey. Despite its hideous production quality, two hits (relatively speaking) emerged: “Never Realized” and “Snowing.” To be fair, I recorded the album in my one-bedroom apartment on a 486 DX computer running Windows 3.1. My audio interface was a Roland RAP-10 sound card, with internal reverb and chorus effects, capable of playing back 4 tracks simultaneously. My “monitors” were Boston Acoustics bookshelf speakers, and mixing took place over a single weekend through a Mackie 1202 into a rented DAT machine.
Todd Sanders recording bass for Sketches in Grey
Back then, I didn’t know what mastering was, but I knew I needed it. I somehow got hooked up with a jazz drummer/engineer who rented out four hours in a pro facility to master my album, from midnight to 4 a.m. when rates were lowest. I remember him attempting to turn down a vibraphone solo by cutting the midrange out of an entire song (“Something Here”), and boosting every track at 12 KHz to give my vocal the same “air” as Sting.
By 1999, I was mastering other peoples’ music full-time. The original pressing of the album sold out, so I added bonus tracks and remastered it myself. While the result is truer to the source material, I was scared to get my hands dirty, and I had a blind spot when it came to hearing problems in my own mixes.
Fast forward to 2011: I spent the entire summer remastering my back catalog, and I dare say the song sounds better than ever! If I haven’t “mastered” it by now, I never will.
Here is the original master of “Snowing,” followed by the 1999 remaster, ending with the new 2011 remaster. Better?
If you like what you hear, the full song is available for free download for one week only.
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