The Mastering Show

The Mastering Show #111 - Fix it in the master ?!

I hear this question all the time - would it be better to fix this in the mix, or in the master ? It’s a fascinating question, and you may think you already know my answ

The Mastering Show #110 - What makes a REAL mastering engineer ?

I'm seeing several different discussions online about what makes a "real" mastering engineer – and some of them are getting pretty heated ! So what really matters the mo

The Mastering Show #109 - Audio repair & fixing faults

Audio repair and restoration has always been a huge part of mastering – and not only for re-mastering vintage material. Even modern recordings can have problems like cli

The Mastering Show #108 - Why I was wrong about Loudness Range

I used to say that the Loudness Range (LRA) measurement wasn't really useful when mastering - but recently I changed my mind. In this episode I explain why, and how loudn

The Mastering Show #107 - Mastering for 1-Off Vinyl (and short runs)

More and more people are choosing to get vinyl copies of their music made one at a time, rather than having hundreds of copies pressed at once. Or in very small batches,

The Mastering Show #106 - Are dynamics dead ?!

I see it every day: “The Loudness Wars are over - loud won. Get over it” And it’s easy to see why. The average mainstream release hits -8 LUFS integrated or more; club r

The Mastering Show #105 - Loudness at the Grammys: is there REALLY a secret sauce ?

It was the Grammys this week - you can't have missed it ! And somewhere along the way I saw an article by Ian Vargo assessing the loudness and dynamics of the nominees f

The Mastering Show #104 - Mastering for Sync ? What, Why and How

Getting your music "synced" for licensing in TV, movies or ads can be an amazing opportunity for indie musicians to make money and gain exposure. But is it just a pipe dr

The Mastering Show #103 – Technical versus Creative Mastering (Q&A)

This started out as a Q&A episode, but one way or another there turned out to be a real theme to many of the questions, namely - how do you choose between technical and c

The Mastering Show #102 - What IS 'translation' in mastering ?

Translation is one of the main goals of mastering - make the music sound great on any platform, and any delivery format. But how is that possible ? How can we optimise t

The Mastering Show #101 - Mixing and mastering Brian Eno - with Emre Ramazanoglu

Brian Eno is probably the musician, producer and artist who has had the single biggest influence on my music taste and enjoyment over the years. His work speaks for itsel

The Mastering Show #100 - Matt Boudreau from Working Class Audio interviews... me !

I wanted to do something a little different to mark the 100th episode, but wasn't sure what. I was wondering about interviewing myself but that seemed a little weird...

The Mastering Show #99 - Recording, mixing and mastering acoustic guitar (with Richard Durrant)

Stereo, mono, binaural or surround-sound ? I've worked with this episode's guest in all these formats and more over the many years we've been working together - but whic

The Mastering Show #98 - Stem mastering, Dynamics and Dolby Atmos at Abbey Road (with Oli Morgan)

'Stem mastering' has provoked a ton of debate recently, with people claiming it crosses the line between mixing and mastering, interferes with the artist's intent, and is

The Mastering Show #97 - Should you learn mastering FIRST ?! (with Ken Scott)

The term “legend” gets thrown all the time in audio production circles, but my guest this episode really deserves it. I’m sure you already know this but Ken Scott has w

The Mastering Show #96 - Flippin' Clippin' !

We’ve been using “soft clipping" in mastering for over 20 years at this point, but it suddenly feels as if it’s all anyone is talking about ! New plugins, new suggestions

The Mastering Show #95 - Loudness trends in 2024: should you follow them ? with Ian Stewart

The Billboard Top 50 global singles from the first half of 2024 have an average loudness of -8.3 LUFS So that’s how loud we should be making our masters, right ? Well…

The Mastering Show #94 -The truth about vinyl (with Scott Hull)

People are always asking me about mastering for vinyl, and I’m happy to try and help based on the experience I have. I don’t actually cut vinyl myself though, so that adv

The Mastering Show #93 - Do you NEED to be mastering loud ?

I’m always arguing for balanced dynamics rather than loudness for it’s own sake, but some people have a different opinion - high loudness is important, and even beneficia

The Mastering Show #92 - These are not the LUFS you are looking for

You can't go a day without someone telling you how loud your music should be, these days. "Everything has to be -8 LUFS" "EDM has to be -6 LUFS or louder" "-11 is the