ABSTRACT
It is important to consider the journey the audio signal takes through processing. In mastering this is referred to as the transfer path, because in the early days of what would become the mastering engineer’s role, the transfer engineer took audio from recorded tape and ‘transferred’ it by cutting to a lacquer. When engineers started to enhance this transition with processing between, the mastering engineer was born. In this chapter, digital and analogue domains are considered as are the implications for the signal path when transferring from one domain to the other. Exploration of metering loudness to maintain signal quality throughout the chain is evaluated. Adherence to digital clocking protocols to negate any jitter and achieve the most effective resolution for the system is discussed. Also using upsampling to our advantage to achieve the most accurate processing during the transfer print. These principles are given context with explanations of the practical setup of a transfer path, as is practical monitoring path setup in a DAW to correctly observe pathing outcomes.
