The question of sheen/gloss/polish/air/sparkle came up in Kevin's thread, and I figured I might have a go at it here. Assume that you've got a process like this:

Arrange -> Record -> Mix -> Master -> MAGIC!

• Arrange: create a musical setting that highlights the ideas of the song.
• Record: capture a clean and accurate recording. In pre-digital days, this meant getting a high enough signal-to-noise ratio. Post digital, it means recording without clipping, so the tracks can later be mixed without adding artifacts.
• Mix: Adjust the tracks so each part is clear, relative to their importance, and will play back well on a variety of devices. What needs to be heard, and what is important changes over the course of the song. Ways of achieving this can involve something as simple as adjusting the volume to adding complex effects chains.
• Master: Adjust the EQ, compression and reverb so the songs sound like the belong together, preferably by using expensive analog gear too expensive for hobbyists.

I assume that the process of mastering goes something like:

• Listen to it with ears and a brain that's had years of experience.
• Perform focused multi-band EQ adjustments.
• Add final compression and reverb to unify the songs.

So there's a lot going on in mastering. But for the purpose of this thread, the question is: what is sheen, and where does it come from?

Complete lack of mud

Only slightly tongue in cheek.

Bud

Achieving true air and sheen to your mixes is the next step to truly pro results.

Janice and Bud are correct in saying complete lack of mud, and IMHO that is probably the most difficult thing to achieve!! Well I find it difficult anyway .
The above link may help, I've just read it and linked to it myself for future reference.

hope this helps a bit

Alyn

The process is :

Arrange -> Record -> Mix -> Master


When done properly, the mastering is the final stage. We could argue of the exact Webster's definition of "mastering" for days...whether it can be done to a single song or if it refers to a group of songs..... but essentially it means to finish the process of recording and mixing. EQ, reverb, and compression tend to be the foundation of any good mastering job.

There's no "magic" in the process or after the process but the process when done correctly is "magical".

The sheen, the sparkly, the air will all be there as will the thump, richness and fatness. When I refer to mastering an individual song, I speak of it as small "m" mastering. And, if you recall many of my conversation posts on this, I don't use the word "mastering" very often when referring to this process. I use "polish" as the word.

Ya know, I think I was using the term "sheen" incorrectly -- it looks like it is actually a "technical" term in mixing -- a high-end "sheen". I guess my thoughts on that JB song I posted over in the other thread had to do with the unmistakable "presence" that the song had (which, unfortunately, you can't really hear in the youtube video as well as I hear it on the wav file).

Now that I cleared that up with another wishy-washy word (ha, ha), I think you get that from great songs, tight arrangements, excellent players, excellent equipment, excellent room, great mixing and great mastering. I don't think there is one magic bullet -- but great mixing and mastering can probably bring out the best qualities of what happened during recording.

Plus I think the analog recording of JB's early albums contributed to that also.

Interesting thing popped in my inbox this morning.



His new process:

IMO reverb is a last resort in Mastering .. usually you are trying to re-reverb a song with reverb in the mix .. so 'unifying the songs' can be problematic this way.
Also, IMO, when I hear 'sheen', 'sparkle' and 'air' I think of the two aspects pointed out below as concerns how it relates to mastering, along with a clean mix (as mentioned above; no mud!). Used prudently they add life to cymbals, vocals, guitars (especially acoustic) and the mix in general. They help things sound more 'live' as opposed to a narrowed bandwidth recording.

/ducking before the puritan firing squad starts

I guess the question I was trying to ask what specifically is sheen. I ran across this in a Sound on Sound article which aaid:

So although people use this term in various ways, in the audio mastering sense, this seems to refer to a brightness the mix has, often achieved by correctly applying an EQ boost.

Does that sound right?

I've always took it to mean this. Probably not done with only EQ boost though.
Sheen, Gloss and Air, to me, imply upper frequencies.
Warmth implies certain mids
etc.

It's kind of a basic definition, but these would be assumed by me when hearing the terms. Warmth also has to do with even VS odd harmonics in my eyes, but even these carry over to the other definitions.. even harmonics, while pleasant, mix in with the other even harmonics more .. again, this is all just my take on how I hear things.

Thanks for clarifying that.