mastering glitch

[Joe Milutis <milutis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Somebody a little while back mentioned an article on microsound and
mastering that was to be posted here soon, but I'm too curious and thinking
about it myself to wait, so I wanted to open up two questions about this
issue, theoretical and practical.  Hopefully the author himself can hop in
on this, as these may be issues he is already exploring in depth.  When I do
listen to readily available glitch works, I am struck by the fact that while
there is the exploration of digital error, it is the digital
mastering--among other things--that takes of the edge of that error, makes
it "listenable" and even ambient.  So it's a simple paradox whereby the
sabotaging of the machine is aestheticized by the machine itself (Live
environments probably make this less possible).  For example, sounds that
result from digital clipping can be remastered so that they are no longer in
the red, but still retain their distressed sonic texture.  Not necessarily a
bad thing, but I'd be interested to know how different artists approach this
theoretically.  And also practically.  Typical mastering techniques are
based on a value system that is perhaps related but most times remote from
glitch, so I'm interested in the techniques that people have developed.  Or
are there trends towards anti-mastering.  Perhaps a completely simplified
question for the masters out there, but hopefully one to start a
conversation. (and not a flame war between pop glitch and punk glitch.)

Joe

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