Whatever mastering comparison | Oasis Recording Information

On this page you will find a comparison by Tom S of the mastered version of Whatever (from the original Creation CD single) and the un-mastered version on the safety copy of the Definitely Maybe master tapes. The aim is to offer a more technical insight into how the mastering process shaped the sound of the track, and to show the difference in dynamic range (or ‘crest factor’) between some of the different versions currently available. Huge thanks to NoelsOasis of the excellent Supernova Heights Oasis forum for providing the source material, and to Tom S for the analysis that follows.

Here is the dynamic range data (calculated by the TT DR Meter) for the unmastered version of Whatever on the safety masters, compared to the mastered version on the original Creation CD single.

Whatever (Un-mastered mix on Safety Copy of Masters)

Peak value: -1.27 dB

Average RMS signal level: -13.66 dB

Dynamic Range: 10 dB

Whatever (Mastered version on Creation CD single)

Peak value: -0.05 dB

Average RMS signal level: -5.98 dB

Dynamic Range: 4 dB

Tom’s notes on the mastering…

The version on the UK CD single and Time Flies are digitally identical! Perfect sync, they cancel perfectly in a null test.

The version on Time Flies is identical to that on the original CD single

Unmastered compared to the mastered…

Waveform of CD single (top) versus un-mastered mix on safety copy of masters (bottom)

Waveform of CD single (top, DR4) versus un-mastered mix on safety copy of masters (bottom, DR10)

I’ve aligned the tracks form the intro. As you’ll see, the unmastered version is actually longer. The edit is at 4.25 on the unmastered track; 20 seconds is cut out.

Here’s a close up on part of the intro…

Comparison between the intro of the mastered (top) and unmastered versions (bottom)

And, with the official mastering reduced by -5.5 db…

Zoomed intros, with official master (top) reduced by 5 dB to match unmastered version (bottom)

And zoomed out a bit…

A zoomed-out view of the level-matched waveforms of the mastered (top) and unmastered versions (bottom)

In addition to being more heavily compressed, the mastered version definitely has a lot more high end. The duration difference between the two versions is because of the untrimmed intro / outro, but also because approximately 20 seconds is cut out at 4.25 (on the unmastered version). It seems likely that the version on Time Flies was just cloned from a CD, presumably because they didn’t have anything else to hand.

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