The Mastering Show
The Mastering Show is a podcast dedicated to all aspects of audio mastering. It covers techniques, tools, and workflows for mastering engineers and musicians who want to improve their own masters. The show offers practical advice and insights for both beginners and professionals in the audio industry. Each episode explores different topics related to mastering, from technical details to creative decisions.
Episodes
The Mastering Show #112 - When louder is easier ?!
As much as I love dynamics, in some ways mastering loud is easier. So what do I mean by that, and what does it mean for the loudness of your masters ?In this episode I explore the benefits of loudness, including:Why "more dynamic" isn't always betterThe benefits of loud mastersThe effect louder masters have on the soundThe challenges of achieving loud resultsShould you master loud ?My recommendati
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 answer - but it may not be that simple !There are actually several things I think are better addressed in the master rather than the mixing stage, and in this episode I dig into exactly what they are, and why I say that.Talking about th
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 most ? Expertise, experience, or credits ?In this episode I talk about my own opinions and reasoning, talking about:Why credits can be a complete red herring, especially onlineThe problem with credits even if they are reliableHow I go
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 clicks, thumps, hiss, amp buzz, distortion and many more. Ideally they’d all be fixed in the mix, but sometimes it’s not possible or they get missed – or maybe the best tools for the task aren’t available.In this episode I talk to Mike
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 loudness range is actually something you might want to pay attention to, as well.Topics include:What is the Loudness Range ?How is it different to Dynamic Range ?What even IS Dynamic Range, anyway ?Why did I say that LRA wasn't helpful
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, or allowing fans to order copies on demand.So how does this work, and what does it mean ? How do you get the best quality results, and minimise the risk of getting something back that you're not happy with ?Mastering for vinyl is
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 releases regularly hit -6 or even -4 LUFS and are peaking well above zero; every other post you see on social media is about a new limiter or clipping strategy…As the creator of Dynamic Range Day and Loudness Penalty, I should probab
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 for Best Song.In this episode I talk about what he discovered, and what my reaction is – and along the way, I talk about:The highest (and lowest !) LUFS measurements of the Best Song nomineesHow I feel about thatWhat these songs soun
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 dream, and is mastering a necessary part of the process ?Chris SD from Sync Songwriter is an expert in this topic – just in the last year they've had artists get songs placed in the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning movie "Anora", fo
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 creative considerations, when mastering ?Questions like:When the client wants songs to sound differentWhen to use mid-side processing (or not)Transient shaping - hardware or software ?How much distortion ?When is unbalanced EQ
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 the audio to sound great on both a huge PA and crappy earbuds, or via any data-encoded stream, when we don't have any control over those playback systems or streaming platforms ?The answer to this paradox is deceptively simple - and
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 itself and needs no introduction ! So when I heard Emre Ramazanoglu talking on the Working Class Audio podcast about re-mixing and mastering many of Brian's classic albums for Dolby Atmos, my ears immediately pricked up. I just couldn'
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... And then Matt Boudreau from the excellent Working Class Audio podcast invited me back onto his show, and it occurred to me - I could get Matt to interview me, which would be way more fun and get some much more interesting question
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 which does he prefer, and why ?Richard Durrant describes himself as an "Indie Classical" musician, which I think is a pretty good summary - but doesn't really take into account the fact that he also toured with Sky, worked as an accompl
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 isn't even really mastering at all !But if that's true, why would Abbey Road, one of the biggest mastering studios in the world, offer a dedicated stem mastering service ?!In this episode I talk to Oli Morgan, who specialises in ste
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 worked with the Beatles, David Bowie, Elton John and Supertramp amongst so many others, so I was delighted when he agreed to join me for this episode !There were so many things we could have talked about it was hard to know where to
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 about how to use it, and wild new claims about how amazing it sounds. Except it doesn’t.At least – not all the time, and not for all material.In this episode Joe Caithness and I dig deep into the details and talk about:* What cli
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 LUFSSo that’s how loud we should be making our masters, right ?Well…It certainly might seem that way, but in reality it’s a bit more complicated than that. This is only one of the interesting results that Ian Stewart presented in his latest blog post for iZoTope, and in this episode I asked him back on
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 advice is always limited and second-hand. So for this episode I decided to talk to a genuine expert on the topic - Scott Hull from Masterdisk - and really get into the details. Scott’s knowledge and experience of cutting vinyl is eno
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 beneficial.Nick Di Lorenzo is one of them - he says that loudness is important regularly on his YouTube channel. So in this episode I invited him on to explore that idea in more detail, and really get into the nuances of the topic. Do you
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 perfect balance""Just master everything to -14"...but they can't all be right !In fact, none of them are, and even more importantly, they may not even be talking about the same thing. And the differences are really important. So in this
The Mastering Show # 91 - Mixing and mastering music for the movies with Alan Meyerson
It’s virtually impossible that you haven’t heard music of some kind mixed by Alan Meyerson by this point - he’s one of the most prolific and successful film score mixers in the business.
And luckily for us, he’s also super-generous and open about the information he shares, including his perspectives on mixing and ‘mastering’ music for the movies. So in this episode we dig deep into all the detail
The Mastering Show #90 - Inter-sample peaks and True Peak limiting - the devilish details
Everyone is talking about inter-sample peaks and True Peak limiters - or in fact it’s more accurate to say they’re arguing about whether ISPs are audible or not, and whether True Peak limiters sound bad !
In this episode I’m joined by Alexey Lukin, iZotope’s “godfather of RX”, to talk in detail about exactly what ISPs are and why they’re so confusing - including:
* How are inter-sample peaks me
The Mastering Show #89 - Sonic Fundamentals for Podcasters with Matt Boudreau
If you’re not already listening to Matt Boudreau’s fantastic podcast Working Class Audio, you need to start now !
Matt is a highly respected mixing and mastering engineer who has recently moved into working in Dolby Atmos, where he’s already picked up some seriously impressive credits - oh, and also produces one of the top Audio podcasts around.
Which is why if I try to think of anyone better to
The Mastering Show #88 - Do DJs REALLY want loud masters ?
DJs get a lot of flak, especially about loudness. There’s a deep-seated belief that “loud” masters are still a requirement for club music, and that DJs are somehow to blame. But is this fair ? The reality is much more complicated and interesting than the popular cliche that DJs will only play loud masters, and in this episode Ian dives deep into the issue with Joe Caithness, who works as both a DJ
The Mastering Show #87 - Fix mastering problems - in the recording !
It’s amazing what mastering can achieve - but it’s also amazing how many things can influence the results we get right from the recording stage.In this episode Ian talks to Mike Senior about how to fix mastering problems at the recording stage, without using a time machine ! Topics include how to avoid: Muddy mids Harsh guitars Sibilance Resonant snares Boomy or hollow vocals
The Mastering Show #86 - Mastering plugins - technical versus creative
As mastering plugins become more sophisticated and more technical, there’s an interesting trend towards making the interfaces… less so. As well as traditional technical terms and numbered scales, controls labelled with less technical terms like “warmth”, “bite” and “colour” are becoming more common. And some interfaces are just… bizarre ! Is that good ? Or not ? In this episode Jon and I like at s
The Mastering Show #85 - Mixerman versus Mastering
You’ve probably heard of Eric Sarafin, aka Mixerman, but have you heard what he has to say about mastering ?As always it’s entertaining, potentially controversial but also thought-provoking, so it seemed like a good idea to get him on the show and ask him to explain himself ! We talk about: * Why he thinks if you don’t make money from your music, you shouldn’t pay for mastering * Whether an online
The Mastering Show #84 - Apple switch to LUFS and enable Sound Check by default
This is huge - Apple have finally started using LUFS for their loudness normalisation, which means all the major streaming services now use the same method to measure loudness !
And perhaps more importantly, they’ve enable Sound Check by default on new devices. As always there are plenty of devilish details to be aware of though, so in this episode we talk in detail about this change, including:
The Mastering Show #83 - Mastering for clubs & DJs with Luca Pretolesi
In this episode we tackle one of the biggest challenges in modern mastering - the demand for super-loud masters in the dance & EDM genres.
Our guest is Luca Pretolesi, and we talk to him in-depth about his approach to mastering for clubs & DJs. Luca’s masters are loud and we're always emphasising the value of balanced dynamics in mastering on this show, so you might think it would be an uncomfor
The Mastering Show #82 - Dynamics in Dolby Atmos - Nick Rives Interview
Dolby Atmos has moved the goalposts for loudness, all the way down to -18 LUFS. This was one of the main topics of conversation for this year’s Dynamic Range Day, with the Atmos versions of 5 albums being nominated for the award - and in fact, the overall winner was an Atmos mix & master. In this episode I talk to Nick Rives from Capitol Studios, who mixed the winning album, and we discuss: *
The Mastering Show #81 - Dolby Atmos Mastering
Apple’s announcement of Dolby Atmos support has caused an explosion of interest in the format - after all, it means almost any iOS user can stream immersive audio, even if they only have a pair of earbuds to listen on. But how does that even work? And for that matter, what is Dolby Atmos, and why should we care? And what about mastering for Atmos? Is it possible, or even necessary? In th
The Mastering Show #80 - You Asked, We Answered (or tried to!)
Time for another Q&A show! Thanks for all your comments, reviews and questions, please keep them coming.
In this episode we tackle:
* Are tools like SplitEQ fundamentally changing mastering?
* Level automation - before or after the limiter?
* Should you make separate masters for broadcast?
* Can (and should) we correct absolute phase in mastering?
* Do you need a dedicated headphone amp?
The Mastering Show #79 - Dan Worrall on non-linear processing
What is non-linear processing, and why does it matter?
In this episode we dive deep into the topic with our guest Dan Worrall, and talk about: what non-linear processing is, why it can sound great and when it can sound terrible, and how to know the difference. Along the way, we also discuss
* Is reverb non-linear ? And why it’s confusing
* How linear processing makes top-down mixing a good idea
The Mastering Show #78 - These guidelines are NOT for you
The Audio Engineering Society has just released new recommendations for the loudness levels streaming services should distribute their audio at - but they’re not for you and me.
Having said that, understanding how they work is a powerful tool for predicting what will happen to your music when it's streamed. In this episode we talk about:
* Who the TD1008 guidelines are for
* Why they’re neede
The Mastering Show #77 - Spotify disable their limiter (and other loudness news)
We round up a few different “loudness news” topics this episode, including:
* Why Spotify have removed their limiter
* But when they haven’t
* And what it means for the way your music will sound
* Plus, how the new loudness normalization options in Reaper might be useful for you
* But why you need to be careful with them
* What we think of Apple Music’s new lossless streaming feature
* And
The Mastering Show #76 - Is stereo bass a problem on vinyl ?
People are interested in mastering for vinyl again - and stereo bass is a big problem, right? You should always mono it to avoid problems? Well actually, no. There are some challenges raised by a very wide stereo image on vinyl, especially in the bass, but as always it’s not as simple as it seems.
In this episode we talk to our guest Ian Stewart in-depth about this issue, and dig into some of the
The Mastering Show # 75 - Stem Mastering - or is it?
It’s either the most powerful mastering technique known to man, or it isn’t really mastering at all, depending who you ask. Some people love it, others hate it, and some are mortally offended just by it’s name.
Why does stem mastering provoke such passionate debate ? In this episode we dig into the topic to figure out the answers to these and other questions...
* What is stem mastering ?
* In
The Mastering Show #74 - Spotify begins the move to LUFS Normalization. So What?
It’s happening. Spotify are switching to using LUFS for their loudness normalization. If you’re thinking ‘I thought they already used it', that’s understandable - but they didn’t.
They will in future though, and in this episode we talk about why the change matters, especially in the short-term. But also about when it doesn’t matter, and why it will hopefully matter even less as time goes on.
Top
The Mastering Show #73 - Are you having a LUF ?
Let’s face it, LUFS don’t work.
No-one understands them, when you set a load of different songs to -14 LUFS they all sound a different loudness, and they weren’t even developed using music. RMS is just better, right ?
These are just some of the objections we’ve been hearing about LUFS recently, and in this episode we investigate them. Is there any truth to these claims and statements ? (Hint -
The Mastering Show #72 - Off-topic but SO good !
This is so good it just needed it’s own episode.
It’s a groundbreaking, unique new way to make music online - and everyone should try it out ! It’s not just bleeps and beats, either - there are plenty of people using it to make fantastic acoustic and sample-based live-looping music as well.
I’m talking about Endlesss, the new live-looping-jam-with-friends-online iOS app developed by musician Tim
The Mastering Show #71 - Remote audio - mixing, mastering and more
Real-time remote audio work IS possible - with surprising quality and flexibility ! In this show I’ll describe techniques and strategies to help you mix, master, teach and even record remotely - and even suggest some ways to jam live. Kind of. Amongst other things I’ll describe how to:
Stream lossless, low-latency audio to any DAW or browser, for up to 40 people
Combine this audio stream
The Mastering Show #70 - Mastering Billie Eilish - Loudness versus Art
Our guest this episode is LA mastering engineer John Greenham who just won a Grammy for his work on Billie Eilish’s album. We talk to him about how he came to work with Billie, and dig into his work on the album in depth, discussing topics including:
* John’s mastering chain and philosophy
* Whether “Xanny” is the loudest song ever
* How to get RMS levels above zero (!)
* Loudness, confidenc
The Mastering Show #69 - Good versus GREAT mastering
We talk on this show about making a master sound great all the time - but what does that mean ? How can you tell the difference between a good or a great master, or whether you’re doing great work yourself, or not ? In this episode we discuss all these questions, plus:
* Is it even possible to tell a good or a great master ? If not, why not ?
* Is it about great sound, or great work ?
* Why “g
The Mastering Show #68 - Restoring Dynamics
I often get asked if it’s possible to restore dynamics to a heavily limited, clipped or compressed source, to achieve a more dynamic master. The answer is… it’s complicated ! So in this episode we do our best to answer the question. Topics include:
Why you shouldn’t do this
When you might have to do this
When doing this is a bad idea
How to do it (the simple way, the complicated w
The Mastering Show #67 - Minus 14 LUFS - or NOT ?
People are talking about minus 14 LUFS loudness more and more these days, but why ? What does this number mean, where does it come from, and why should you care ?
In this episode we answer all these questions and more, including:
* Which streaming services are using -14 LUFS
* Why Spotify aren’t using -14 LUFS, and why it matters
* Why you shouldn’t use minus 14 LUFS as a target (or any numbe
The Mastering Show #66 - Good Questions
Time for another Q&A episode ! As always you’ve been asking great questions, so in this episode we discuss:
* Why Ian talks too much
* How dynamic is too dynamic ?
* Fade-outs - before or after compression ?
* How has the loudness war changed production and arrangement styles ?
* Mastering for gaming streams (like Twitch TV)
* Mastering in different genres
http://themasteringshow.com/episo
The Mastering Show #65 - Making money from mastering
Can you make money from mastering ? And if so, how ? If you’re already charging people for your work, how can you be more effective and productive ?
Our guest in this episode is Graham Cochrane from the Recording Revolution website, which has been so successful that he’s started helping other people use some of the same ideas and strategies to get them started making money in the audio business t
The Mastering Show #64 - Aliasing - is it digital audio's Achilles Heel ?
There’s been lots of buzz and discussion about aliasing online recently, and lots of confusion, too.
Is it a flaw in the whole idea of digital audio ? Does it explain why analogue modelling plugins can never sound exactly like the real thing ? Or is it just inaudible mathematical theorising ?
In this episode we try to answer all these questions, plus Ian attempts to give an easy visual explanati
The Mastering Show #63 - Mastering (and mixing) for broadcast - with Dallas Taylor
Usually on the show we’re talking about mastering music for CD, download and streaming, but there’s another important final destination for the audio we work on - broadcast.
And the difference with broadcast audio is - there are standards. Having said that, there often isn’t a dedicated mastering stage !
In this episode we dig into the whole fascinating topic with our guest Dallas Taylor from D
The Mastering Show #62 - How to master audio that SURVIVES streaming
Everything gets streamed these days, and almost all streaming platforms use lossy data encoding: mp3, AAC, OGG etc (OMG!)
And these lossy codecs do a pretty remarkable result of preserving the quality, considering they strip out anywhere between 60-90% of the original data. But it’s not perfect - far from it ! In this show we talk about:
* How your audio can be damaged by lossy data encoding
The Mastering Show # 61 - Learn without listening
You might argue that reading about audio is like dancing about architecture. Or something. But you’d be wrong! In these days of podcasts and YouTube it’s easy to forget how many great books there are about audio, and what a fantastic resource they are for getting inspiration, ideas and learning new topics and techniques. in this show we share some of our favourites, including:
* The book that to
The Mastering Show #60 - The loudness technique you need to start using TODAY
This show is short & sweet - but essential listening if you’re interested in getting better results with online loudness - and balanced, musical dynamics for your masters.
In this episode Ian describes:
- How he increased playback loudness on Spotify by 3.3 dB for a song by reducing it’s overall loudness by 1.5 dB, and why it sounded better afterwards
- What to do if your song gets turned down
The Mastering Show #59 - More questions answered (Q&A 6)
It’s been a while since we had a Q&A episode, so - here it is ! In this show we discuss:
* Can a spectrum analyser make up for poor monitoring ?
* Is allowing peak levels up to -0.1 wrong ?
* Do speaker isolation pads work ?
* Handling client payment issues
* What to do when songs overlap (segued)
* Do dynamic masters sound worse on a PA ?
Full show notes on the website
http://themastering
The Mastering Show # 58 - Mud or magic ? Managing the mids
We’ve all heard it - “the music is in the mid-range”. But what does that mean, exactly ? And if it’s true, is there anything we can do about it in mastering ?
We’ve talked about bass and high frequencies, but in this show we dive into the muddy, murky mess that is (often) the mid-range, and talk about how crucial it is for a great-sounding master.
Including:
* How the mids help us hear bass
The Mastering Show #57 - With great power…
…comes great responsibility. And mastering engineers need to accept that.
If you take on the challenge of mastering someone’s music, you also accept a huge amount of responsibility for that music, and In this episode we tackle the question - what are the responsibilities of a mastering engineer - and even the ethics ?
Including:
* Should a mastering engineer have a “signature sound” ?
* Why t
The Mastering Show #56 - Mastering Crappy Mixes
It’s a question we get all the time: what do you do when the mixes you receive are more… “challenged" than you might ideally like ? How much can you fix in mastering if you really need to, and how much should you do ? In this show we cover a range of strategies for dealing with some of the toughest challenges when you’re mastering tricky mixes, including:
* What is a crappy mix ?
* Should we ev
The Mastering Show #55 - How Bright Is Too Bright?
Everyone wants that glorious, sweet, silky-smooth top end in their masters - but how do you get it ? How do you stop things sounding harsh, tinny and brittle ? And even if the high frequencies do sound gorgeous, how hard should you push them ? In this show we’re talking about treble, and our topics include:
* What is “Newton’s 3rd law” of EQ ?
* How do room acoustics affect how you hear high freq
The Mastering Show #54 - When Normalization Goes Wrong
As you know, we think normalization is a Good Thing. But many people disagree. And often that’s because it’s not perfect yet - not by a long shot. In this episode we explain some of the quirks, bugs and problems of normalization in action, and how they can cause unexpected results when you’re trying to optimise your music for listening online.
Along the way we discuss:
* Four really normal norm
The Mastering Show #53 - Fear Of Bass
We all want great low end - deep, fat, solid and punchy. But it can be one of the hardest things to get right - especially knowing how much of it is needed. Too much bass can sound boomy, flabby, muddy or dull.
And as a result, it’s easy to be scared of bass. It’s easier to be cautious and avoid all those possible problems, right ? Well, maybe. Except if the low end isn’t working in your master,
The Mastering Show #52 - DON'T aim for LUFS targets online
All the online streaming services play music back at roughly -14 LUFS, so that’s the level we should aim for when we’re mastering, right ? Wrong.
That may sound strange, given how much we’ve talked about online loudness over the years - but we’re serious. In this show we dive deeper into one of the points we discussed in the last show: why you shouldn't be aiming for specific integrated LUFS valu
The Mastering Show #51 - What IS the Loudness Penalty?
"How loud will my music sound online ?" It’s the question everyone is asking these days, and the answer has always been “it depends”. Until now.
In this episode Ian Kerr from MeterPlugs talks about the new tool he has been developing with Ian Shepherd to answer this question. It’s a website called Loudness Penalty, and it’s free !
Along the way we also discuss
* Why -14 LUFS isn’t the right ta
The Mastering Show # 50 - Mastering on Headphones ?!
You can’t master on headphones, right ? Well, let’s see…
This year’s Dynamic Range Day Award-winner broke all the streaming records in it’s first week, debuted at Number 1 in the Billboard chart and... it was mastered on headphones.
In this episode we talk to Glenn Schick, the engineer who mastered KOD by J Cole about his decision to become a “mobile” mastering engineer, including:
* How (and
The Mastering Show #49 - Great Audio Podcasts
As well as running our own show, we’re huge fans of other podcasts too, and in this show we take a little time to wander off-topic and recommend some of our favourite audio-related shows. We each choose four podcasts, and suggest great episodes of each to get started with. If you listen to all the episodes we recommend, you’ll get to hear hours of useful, interesting and amusing content, including
The Mastering Show # 48 - How to become a mastering engineer
Our guest in this episode is Katie Tavini, who shares the inspiring story of how she got into mastering. It’s something we’re asked all the time, and Katie is a great example of one way to start in the industry, in a time when internships and junior positions are becoming less and less accessible. She also talks about the great network of engineers she’s discovered through Red Bull’s Normal Not No
The Mastering Show #47 - What’s the best DAW for mastering ?
It’s a question we get asked regularly, and our answer may surprise you. To answer the question, we put together a “shopping list” for the ultimate DAW, and then discuss which of the applications is the best fit, and why.
Topics include:
* Which DAW sounds best ?
* What does that mean ?
* Do all digital EQs sound the same ?
* What’s a DDP file ?
* Pro mastering applications
* Workflow versu
The Mastering Show #46 - Answering questions again (QnA 5)
Another chance for us to catch up with some of the questions you’ve been asking us. In this episode we talk about:
* Bass - where does it start, where does it begin ?
* How to use an analyser to assess EQ balance
* When NOT to use an analyser to balance EQ and
* What to do instead
* Adding saturation in mastering - should you do this, and if so, how ?
* The most difficult projects we’ve eac
The Mastering Show #45 - Jonathan Wyner
Many of you will already know Jonathan from iZotope's excellent educational videos on mastering - he's also an experienced producer and recording engineer, head engineer at M-Works mastering (www.m-works.com), a lecturer at Berklee and has written a book on mastering. In this interview we talk about many different aspects of his career, including:
* The delights (and perils) of analogue tape
* Re-
The Mastering Show #44 - Loudness Units 101
LUFS… WTF ?!?
(And why aiming for -14 isn’t the right answer for online loudness)
We talk about loudness all the time on this show, but how do you actually measure it ? How big is a “loudness unit”, and why are there three different kinds ? What does LUFS stand for, anyway ? How do you loudness match two files using LUFS measurements, and what free software can you use to get started ?
In this
The Mastering Show #43 - The Christmas Episode
Something a bit different to celebrate the festive season this week - we invited a group of cool audio guests to join us on the show, and asked each of them to bring a “gift” to fill an imaginary "Christmas Stocking” for you. So, you get a pile of cool, interesting and funny little treats to keep you amused in the run-up to christmas - or, just to amuse you, if you don’t celebrate it !
There are
The Mastering Show #42 - Man versus machine - automated mastering
Can robots really master our music ? Kenny Gioia set up poll on Facebook to see, asking people to choose between six different masters of the same song - three by humans (John Longley, an anonymous engineer from Sterling Sound and Steven Slate) and three by machines (LANDR, Aria and iZoTope Ozone).
The great thing is, the test was blind, and loudness matched - so no-one knew which master they we
The Mastering Show #41 - The problem with loudness normalization - and TIDAL’s solution
This is huge. There’s a problem with loudness normalization, and TIDAL asked Eelco Grimm to find a solution for them. What he found in his research was unexpected and exciting.
Eelco has been involved with loudness measurement and the LUFS standard from the very beginning, and in this show we also talk a little about his story and how it involves:
* Technology versus emotion in music
* The ori
The Mastering Show #40 - Your Questions Answered - Live
A Q&A episode with a twist - we recorded it live, with questions arriving all the time we were recording.
We’ve added them all to the list for future episodes - here are the ones we had time to tackle this time:
* How has mastering changed over Ian's career, and where is it going next ?
* Is there somewhere out there with reference tracks for mixing and mastering ?
* Are there any tips for avoi
The Mastering Show #39 - Digital Gain Staging: what’s the point ?
Gain staging used to be a crucial consideration for analogue recording and mixing - but you’ll hear plenty of people saying it doesn’t really matter, in a modern digital audio workstation. And they have a (floating) point.
But you’ll also hear lots of other people, me included, saying it IS important to understand what gain staging is and how it works, even in a digital environment.
So who’s rig
The Mastering Show # 38 - If you can't hear it, does it really matter ?
If something is technically wrong but inaudible, is that a problem ? When is it OK to break the rules ? What is “audibility”, anyway ?
Topics include:
* If everyone else is listening is listening on earbuds and phones, why shouldn’t we ?
* If music is art, it’s just a matter of taste - so how can anything be wrong ?
* Ear training - how do you learn to listen ?
* Are the answers to any of these
The Mastering Show #37 - Does Gear Matter?
Gear: does it matter ? And if so, how much ?
And if gear DOES matter, does it define your sound ? And how ? In this episode we’re joined by Mike Hillier to talk about the significance of gear in mastering.
Topics include:
* Is a wide selection of gear essential to success in mastering (and mixing) ?
* What are the “essential” pieces of gear we just couldn’t live without ?
* If two pieces of gear
The Mastering Show #36 - Compression versus compression (and sponges)
In which Ian probably goes too far with his analogy explaining compression using sponges. And in which Jon describes the concept of “sloppage headroom” and inter-sample peaks, and in which we also discuss:
* Why lossy data compression doesn’t affect dynamics, except
* When it does. And
* Why dynamic compression doesn’t affect lossy compression quality, except
* When it does. Plus
* mp3 or AAC ?
The Mastering Show #35 - Even More Questions Answered
You asked questions. We answered them. Or tried to, at least! Featuring another mind-mangling guest appearance by Ian Stewart - although he’s not the one to blame for any confusion :-)
Questions include:
* What are LUFS loudness units, and are there any guidelines for using them ?
* What is the K-System, and how does it relate to LUFS ?
* Should you always use low and high-cut filters while maste
The Mastering Show #34 - What ARE dynamics ?
Dynamics. I talk about them ALL the time. “This song has great dynamics”... “make sure you keep plenty of dynamics”... “your music NEEDS balanced dynamics”… but what actually ARE they ?
Just like everything else we talk about on this show, dynamics are more complicated than they might seem at first glance. For example, there are at least two different types ! In this show we unpick the topic and
The Mastering Show #33 - Before Mastering
How should I prepare for mastering to get the best results ? It’s one of the things we get asked most often, and it often seems like the answers are really straightforward. But then you record a 50-minute podcast answering the question and realise maybe it’s not quite as simple as it seems, once you get into the details...
(And even if you’re planning to master your own music, keep listening - al
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