Who is your favourite mastering engineer?

[Numanoid]

Unlike producers, mastering engineers get little notice.

But no doubt they play a virtal role.

I have very many records mastered via Porky's or Nimbus, from the UK in the 80's/90s.

In Scandinavia, the Cutting Room in Stockholm, run by Björn Engelmann is a force.

What other forgotten "mastering" stars are out there?

[do_androids_dream]

That's an interesting question because.. How do you know what the original mix sounded like? How do you measure 'favorite' if you have no way of knowing what they actually did?

[Numanoid]

That's an interesting question because.. How do you know what the original mix sounded like? How do you measure 'favorite' if you have no way of knowing what they actually did?

So you are saying that mastering is a bit like the emperors clothes then

Remind me: Why is it needed in the first place?

[ariston]

Mastering evolved as a necessary step in preparing audio recordings for public consumption. Mastering engineers had to make sure that all tracks were levelled, for example. Mastering was especially difficult for vinyl, as too many highs and/or lows could cause distortion, and, in extreme cases, cause the needle to jump out of the groove. I think (don't quote me on this) that mastering became an art form because of vinyl - the advent of the digital age has made '"mastering" less of an art, as digital is much more forgiving than analogue.

[Numanoid]

Mastering was especially difficult for vinyl, as too many highs and/or lows could cause distortion

Volume dynamics is not so prevalent in popular music, but very prevalent in classical music.

I would think mastering a country track, versus mastering a drum and bass track for example, would be quite different.

For example, many drum and bass tracks can sound dull on regular headphones, but if in a club with a decent sound system, it comes to life. A country track on the other hand would not be played in such a venue.

[ariston]

I'm not talking about dynamics... I'm talking about too much high or low frequency content. Bass rumbles, especially in stereo, used to cause tremendous problems. Hissy sibilants or those well-loved high-resonant sweeps and feedback did as well. Additionally, the outer grooves of a record were more forgiving than the inner ones, so mastering engineers had to take that into account as well.

Your question was: why is it needed in the first place? My answer in a nutshell: it used to be really needed due to numerous technical pitfalls, nowadays, not so much.

[Numanoid]

Additionally, the outer grooves of a record were more forgiving than the inner ones, so mastering engineers had to take that into account as well.

An interesting point I hadn't considered, that the mechanical playback medium like a vinyl record player would dictate the mastering process.

Maybe not so strange then that many old albums have been remastered in the digital age.

[do_androids_dream]

That's an interesting question because.. How do you know what the original mix sounded like? How do you measure 'favorite' if you have no way of knowing what they actually did?

So you are saying that mastering is a bit like the emperors clothes then

Remind me: Why is it needed in the first place?

No, not at all.. I'm saying that, in the main, mastering is a technical process that really isn't creative enough to warrant a kind of 'who's your favourite' approach in my view.

As an ME myself, from an ARTIST point of view, the most important factor could well be 'ease to work with and realise the desired outcome'. As in, 'who's your favourite ME to work with?'. From a consumer point of view I think it would be extremely difficult to develop a favourite mastering engineer based on sound alone as an ME's role is pretty darn transparent in the main.

[Numanoid]

From a consumer point of view I think it would be extremely difficult to develop a favourite mastering engineer based on sound alone as an ME's role is pretty darn transparent in the main.

Hence my cheeky quip about emperors clothes

[jancivil]

I think the 'need' for a mastering engineer for digital product seems like more of a thing here, in a forum that basically works to push plugins and there are so many plugins perceived to be absolutely necessary (like wags' thread in effects) for such a purpose. And most if not all of it can be done in the mix, I would think

For my 'official' catalog, I hired a mastering engineer 0 times. Now, at one time I imagined that I would manufacture CDs, and for that I'll have had it mastered, although I'm not real sure why anymore.

For records, with grooves, I know that pronounced lows was a problem. That's all been talked about, I have nothing to add. But I'm not sure why a digital product needs this step, except for vagaries such as 'gluing' and there is an expectation many have that their final render from their DAW isn't loud enough or 'present' enough, isn't like what they hear on the radio and the dark art of mastering is the remedy.

[Jafo]

That's an interesting question because.. How do you know what the original mix sounded like?

Excellent point! I don't know if a re-release of an album really counts, say from vinyl to digital, but maybe a re-re-release to sound contemporary (or loud, or due to a lousy job the first time, as in Metallica's St. Anger) does. But at least we can get a sense of the ME's taste -- or maybe the suits' attempt at taste. We can also listen to multiple examples from the same ME, preferably across different songs, albums and genres. But yeah, it's still kind of a guess.

[do_androids_dream]

For records, with grooves, I know that pronounced lows was a problem.

For vinyl you simply have to make sure that frequencies up to around 150 Hz or so are in mono. You also have to make sure that anything 'out of phase' is only perhaps momentary (or just try to eliminate it altogether).

I mastered a double vinyl OST (that may or may not see the light of day - long time back now and it hasn't been released). Every single track had stereo effects on everything. It was quite a challenge to get everything playing nice in the correlation meter.

[dark water]

Bob Katz.
Excellent level of experience and writes clearly about his insights/views.

[Heathcliff]

My "favourite" mastering engineer is whoever "mastered" (=butchered) Florcence and the Machine's "Ceremonials".
I'd like to meet him/her. In a dark alley.

[do_androids_dream]

My "favourite" mastering engineer is whoever "mastered" (=butchered) Florcence and the Machine's "Ceremonials".
I'd like to meet him/her. In a dark alley.

It might have been butchered at the mix level - you never know..