Tag Archives for " mastering "
- in Production by Bobby Owsinski
Half-Speed Mastering Makes A Return
Back in the vinyl days, the ultimate in quality came from a process known as half-speed mastering. This is where the playback speed of the tape and disk cutting lathe are slowed down by half to cut the lacquer master in order to improve the sound quality. This unusual process disappeared for quite a long […]
Continue readingVocalist Darlene Koldenhoven, UMG And New Ownership, And Mastering On The Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest today on the podcast is Grammy-winning vocalist Darlene Koldenhoven, who’s appeared before a staggering 1.5 billion worldwide viewing audience on PBS as the soloist in Yanni, Live at the Acropolis, coached musicians and singers in the war-torn jungles of Sierra Leone, and sang on hundreds of recordings for films and major recording artists. Darlene is classically trained […]
Continue readingVinyl Mastering Legend Ron McMaster On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest on the Podcast this week is Ron McMaster, who recently retired from Capitol Records Mastering after 38 years with the company. During that time he specialized in cutting vinyl and mastered a wide variety of genres and artists that include everyone from Frank Sinatra to George Harrison, Radiohead, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Brainworx bx_masterdesk Mastering Plugin
In a perfect world, we’d all like our projects mastered by one of the A-list mastering houses, but budgets being what they are, that’s not always possible. If that’s the case, self-mastering is the only alternative. That said, tere are a lot of mastering tools on the market these days and most of them are […]
Continue reading- in Book Excerpt , Engineering by Bobby Owsinski
Celebrating The Influence Of Mastering Engineer Doug Sax
It’s hard to underestimate the influence that engineer Doug Sax had on the business of mastering. He was one of the first independent mastering engineers and literally defined the art when he opened his world-famous Mastering Lab in Hollywood in 1967. Sadly, Doug passed away in 2015, but his magic remains a big part of […]
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How A Vinyl Record Is Pressed
There’s so much attention given to vinyl these days that I though it might be a good idea to cover exactly what goes into actually pressing a record. It’s actually a primitive process by today’s standards, and it’s pretty amazing that they sound as good as they do. Here’s an excerpt from the 4rth edition […]
Continue readingMastering Engineer John Greenham On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
My guest on this week’s podcast is Mastering engineer John Greenham, who has won 3 Grammy’s and been nominated for 6 others. His client list includes work for Katy Perry, Mary J Blige, Ice Cube, Jennifer Lopez, Sam Smith and many more. We spoke at length about mastering via phone from his studio in in […]
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New Music Gear Monday: Eventide Elevate Mastering Plugin
Today’s mastering tools are better and better, but can also be much more complicated than the average engineer wants to deal with. That’s why some plugins are becoming smarter in how they operate thanks to incorporating artificial intelligence, and a perfect example is the Elevate mastering plugin developed by Newfangled Audio and distributed by Eventide. […]
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Oasis Mastering’s Gene Grimaldi On Mastering “In The Box”
Oasis Mastering’s chief engineer Gene Grimaldi has a list of blockbuster clients that include Lady Gaga, Jennifer Lopez, Ellie Goulding, Carly Rae Jepsen, Lana Del Ray, Nicki Minaj, and many more. In this excerpt from The Mastering Engineer’s Handbook 4th Edition, Gene describes some of his techniques for mastering “in-the-box.” Bobby Owsinski: “How has mastering changed […]
Continue readingMastering Engineer Pete Doell On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Mastering engineer Pete Doell was on the podcast a couple of years ago, but he has a brand new room at Aftermaster in Hollywood so I thought it would interesting to talk to him about how he put it together. We talked about gear, acoustics, and dealing with a room that he couldn’t change much […]
Continue readingNew Music Gear Monday: Soundways Core Production Bundle
Unless you’ve had many years of experience mixing, it’s pretty easy to be befuddled by a mix. Instruments or vocals that are too loud or quiet, harsh midrange, and low frequencies that are out of whack are just some of the continual problems that mixers continually battle against. The new Soundways Core Production Bundle goes […]
Continue readingNew Music Gear Monday: IK Multimedia Lurssen Mastering Console
There’s nothing like the ears and expertise of a mastering engineer to finish off a project, but when that’s just not in the budget, you have to do it yourself. It’s true that a ton of mastering tools are on the market, and many of them do the job very well, but none are as […]
Continue readingMastering Engineer Gavin Lurssen On My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Gavin Lurssen started as a protege of the great mastering engineer Doug Sax (the very first indie mastering guy) but quickly forged his own way and sound, first at the famed Mastering Lab, then at his own Lurssen Mastering in Hollywood. Along the way he’s mastered projects for everyone from Foo Fighters, Queens of the […]
Continue readingMastering Engineer Gene Grimaldi On Episode #133 Of My Inner Circle Podcast
Most mastering engineers start in recording before they transition into mastering, but Gene Grimaldi took a different route, beginning his career at Sony’s New Jersey CD pressing plant instead. But Los Angeles called and Gene’s mastering journey began at the venerable Future Disc, from there eventually working his way up to chief engineer at Oasis Mastering. […]
Continue readingMastering Engineer Colin Leonard On Episode #123 Of My Inner Circle Podcast
Colin Leonard is one of the hottest mastering engineers going, and he’s so busy that he can’t get to all the work he’s offered. So he’s created a new online automated mastering process called Aria that uses his analog signal path to the do the job. That’s right, it’s online automated analog mastering! On podcast […]
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