I’ve been mastering records I’ve mixed for a number of years now.  The first record I mastered was Born On by the Portland, OR band Time Farmer.  By the time I was done mixing this one, I felt like we were so close to having the exact sound I wanted that I thought it would be worth mastering this one myself.  Everyone was happy, and to this day it’s one of my favorite sounding records I’ve worked on.  The next one I mastered was Golden Dragon by the Philly band Downtown Harvest.  Same thing here – we were very happy with the sound, so I went for it – again, another favorite.  And on I went, slowly taking up mastering on my own while carefully observing all the great mastering engineers I’ve worked with, like Jeff Lipton at Peerless Mastering in Boston,  Nathan James at The Vault here in NYC and Nick Blagona at Metalworks in Toronto.

More recently, I have begun to take on clients for whom I am only mastering. It was only after a number of years mastering records I had mixed that I felt I was ready to take this step, as the experience has allowed me to study mastering more, gather some critical tools, and to develop a method that gets me the results that I and my clients are looking for.  At this point I’m not only happy to be offering mastering, I’m totally enjoying it! I think one of the most rewarding things about mastering is that I know we are making the final decisions about the record – this is what is going out into the world.

A cutting lathe. This is why the call it "cutting a record."

In the past, mixers and mastering engineers were completely different animals.  The job of the mastering engineer was to take a tape and  transform it into a master disc from which the vinyl releases would be manufactured.  This required the use of a lathe, a specialized machine that cut the master.  It’s no wonder that mastering was its own field.  Today, however, we are more often than not going from digital files to digital files.  For better or worse, anyone with basic audio software and a disc burner can make a master.  Of course, this doesn’t mean that anyone with the capability of making a master has the capability of making a good sounding master, but it does mean that more experienced engineers can begin to take on the role of mastering using much of the gear that they already own.

So, my methods for mastering will vary according to what the project seems to require, but in general I am mastering out of Pro Tools HD, sending out to hardware with the Cranesong HEDD 192 converter, often hitting my API 2500 compressor when appropriate, and using a few key plugins within Pro Tools, including the Sonnox Inflator, the PSP Neon Linear Phase EQ and the Massey 2007 Mastering Limiter.  I’m learning that the API 2500 can be a very neutral box, with such a low ratio as 1.5:1 and ultra fast release times, just getting those needles to bob every so slightly allows the box to add a coherance and punch to mixes without imparting too much of that sound.  The HEDD’s tape and tube emulation has proven indespensible, especially when needing to add warmth and depth to crispy digital mixes.

One thing that I seem to do a bit differently is that I am really relying upon the addition of harmonics to achieve apparent loudness and excitement.  As when I mix, I try to take a layered and cascading approach to adding harmonic richness.  Getting a little bit of harmonic complexity out of each stage in the chain can result in a very lively master that doesn’t sound squashed.  And I’m entirely committed to learning how to get the masters to really come alive without being overly concerned with the so-called “loudness wars.”  I aim to get the masteres “up there” but to retain enough dynamic range that they are stll engaging and don’t tire out the ears.  For me, adding harmonic complexity seems to be the key to achieving these results.

Finally, one of the most imporant additions to my studio for mastering is the new Antelope Isochrone OCXV master clock.  It’s hard to explain how key this piece of kit is to feeling as if I can truly make the best calls regarding producing a final product.  Both the ability to hear into the music in order to make the best choices about processing and the overall increased accuracy in the digital stream that becomes the masters themselves are essential to my work at this point.  It’s my humble opinion that the Antelope clocks are going to start finding their way into a majority of mastering studios.

So, there we have it: I’m officially out of the closet as a mastering engineer!

Posted in Mastering, My Tools