A quick single electro track for the end of the day and week. A little bit of demasking to open the mids, tube and transformers pushed for some nice vintage colour to fit the old skool electro vibes, multiband Comp on the low end to maintain kick punch in a dense mix, a little lift in the middle range on the sides to give the synths more width. Nice and easy, super warm and lively end result. Lovely way to end a crazy busy week.

In the studio today, some 90's style hardgroove techno. Production was well balanced but the dynamic range was a little high to get to modern loudness levels. So I had to pull every trick out to get the dynamic range down without killing the track. So, some dynamic unmasking via the mastering exciters to get the mid range opened up and out of the way of itself to allow it to take some dynamic range reduction. Then pushing the sound through the pultec with the Redd47 preamp, a little soft clipping from that moved things to the rs124 for some more push, the mu compression when inputs are driven gives a very forgiving type of analog clipping that's very pleasing, then into the multi core for some very fast compression, shaving off some level on each band, slightly overcooking it and then dialing some life back in via the wet dry. Into the Vastaso 2, some nifty dual detector compression pushed into the clipping stage, set to transformer, for some more gentle analog clipping. A little cleanup of the thickened sides with the TKlizer2 and back into the box for final tweaking and limiting. And we got there! -7LUFS (yeah, I know, but that's what clients demand), track sounds like a Nilz master, pumping and banging, but still alive. Worth noting, if you want your track to meet modern loudness, you need to produce it to be capable of getting there. If you leave your mastering engineer with 8, 9, 10db of dynamic needing to be cut off, then you have to accept it will be noticeable in some way. Get your dynamics down, at the track/channel level, to be ready for the engineer to take it up to psycho modern levels clean.

A little electro mastering today. Adding sparkle and snap to the top end, tightening up the lows, pushing up the sides a touch. Lovely.

Mastering some unconventional housey techno today with a very electroacoustic, live sound. Quite woolly lows, with relaxed, loose, swung percussion. Mix balance was good, so this was mainly about tightening up the low end and getting a little more snap and clarity from the percussion to separate it from the reverb a little.

Challenging work, experimental/industrial album with serious bass pressure. Full album to be cut to 1 disc, so everything needs to be very tightly controlled. Reigning in monumental bass without losing weight, softening cutting needle destroying highs without dulling the mix, and pulling in some extreme stereo image effects without losing depth. Blinds are down for this one, any sign of sunlight will spoil the vibe in the room. The tricky stuff is the fun stuff.

Tackling this beast of a post industrial/rhythmic noise album, mastering for a vinyl release. Pulling in and tightening up the sides for the vinyl cut here, keeping the dynamics controlled and gently, dynamically, softening any top end harshness. Beautiful sunny day, filthy dark industrial music, my kind of summer.

Ending the week of mastering with some nice house for a vinyl pre. Getting some rich dynamic heat from the RS124, tightening up the lows with the Multicore, adding some punch so it hits the Vastaso just right. Vastaso in feedback mode working in a similar way to a Fairchild for that lovely NILZ sound, Slappy and Punchy. Such a crazy compressor.

Took the first week off in...forever. And now back to a heavy schedule. Techno techno techno in the mastering room today.

Mastering a bit of techno today. Good solid production. Mainly just adding a little fiz from the valves and refining the width with some mid-side on the TK2. It's a very dense sound so using the Multicore I enhanced the transient punch in each band, which prepared the track for the limiting stages. Something we have to accept in dance music, despite digital gain correction in streaming platforms, electronic music is still fighting the loudness war. -7LUFS or louder is pretty common. Everyone wants their music loud. Well if you want those levels, you can't expect your mastering engineer to do ALL the dynamic reduction. If we are trying to slice out 8, 9 or more dB is dynamic to get your music up to the level you want, there will be compromises. If you want loud you need to produce and mix in a way that allows a loud master. Control your dynamics, EQ away the chaff you don't need, and get into clipping. Clean transient clipping. Channel and bus level. If you want -7LUFS then you should be looking at delivering a pre master to something like -16 LUFS or around there. You can do it pretty clean at the mix level, but it requires technique and knowledge. Luckily these tunes I'm working today are pretty much spot on as premasters. If I got work like this every day, then work would be easy.....but not as a fun.