Hall of Mirrors of Sound

We are still working in studio on our latest recording, the first we've ever done in a professional studio.  We are in the middle of "mastering" 11 tracks.  It has gone well, but there have been surprises.  Basically when you "master" a track, you increase the overall volume of everything.  The highs are higher, the lows are lower, the mids are more mid!

Sounds simple, and if you have a good mix, everything kind of falls into place.  Then again, little things have huge effects, so suddenly a bass guitar can become big and boomy, or cymbals can become high and tinny.  One element can become sort of "unruly," and suddenly swamp everything else.

The other interesting twist: how do you listen to the results?  There are lots and lots of options, and each has their unique quirks and brings out different elements of a tune.  

Do you listen in the studio on $3,000 speakers?  Do you listen on a cheap kitchen stereo system? Do you listen on the great home stereo in the living-room?  Do you listen on an  old Walkman with good headphones?  Do you listen on the shiny new iPod with those really crappy ear-buds, or those pretty crappy headphones, or with those really nice headphones?

Plus there's the car stereo with the big bottom end.  How does it all sound when you crank it?

The goal is to kind of have a set of tunes that can live in each of those environments without sacrificing dynamics and volume.  This is tricky, and "infinitely subjective."  So we are still in the hall of mirrors, slogging through the process.  We have made great progress, getting close, but not there yet.