Somehow the work of mastering other mixes was becoming a great way to learn a lot aspects of what mastering really was. Thanks to the rise of new breed of tools called software plugins I managed to quickly pick up the extra technical skills. Not unlike many other mastering engineers I’m also a engineer in the field of electronics and digital techniques.

Next step was to start mastering demo’s for friends who even got noticed by the A&R people from labels. And ending up doing sessions for commercial releases. From singles, 12″ to EP and later on whole albums. I even managed to get a deal for becoming the preferred mastering engineers for several people. From there my career kept on growing and I have the privilege to learn new things every day.

As long as I can remember I always liked music. Playing organ and piano as a kid and later on getting into keyboards, synthesizers. Hooking it up to the Atari ST and explore the world of sampling. The fascination with music and tech sticked and will last forever.

It’s the biggest challenge to try and get the best out of the mixes for clients. Constantly raising the bar and stay in touch with the newest technical developments. Not being about loudness or technical perfection but making a song work as it was intended by the people who created it.
Music is art and emotion.

Since I’ve started to master with plugins only I don’t have the typical stance that for mastering you need analog hardware. But after having tried out and working myself with various analog compressors and EQ’s I do believe they still are a vital part of the toolbox I couldn’t do without. The main reasons for this because there is analog hardware out there that simply cannot be emulated (yet) and has unique characteristics for processing audio. Another thing would be that while you are working with analog hardware you notice that it’s designed with that particular function in mind. So the workflow and ease of use contribute greatly to getting good results fast. The digital counterparts often are designed by techheads that aren’t always fully aware of the usability and musical aspects. So often the digital emulations based on existing hardware are quite easy to use in comparison.
The development cycle of analog hardware is rather long so there is not much new stuff coming out so keeping up with developments is fairly easy. Still the last few years there has been an increase in hybrid hardware that uses a mix between analog components and digital techniques which is interesting.

Working in a hybrid format enables you to work with the best of both worlds. There are most certainly plugins that have a certain appeal that analog hardware has as well. Like phase neutral EQ are very useful in daily life. The analog counterpart would be incredible expensive and never deliver the same quality. The digital domain has a much shorter development span so the changes that are going there are much faster. This means you actively have to keep up with technical developments and cherry pick from that. There are a lot of plugins that in my opinion simply don’t meet the requirements for mastering at a professional level. Separating the wheat from the chaff takes it time but is rewarding in the end.

Any serious masterer will make sure to use decent if not brilliant speakers. If you need to make small adjustments to the audio you need to hear what you are doing. Downside of that is that often the costs will increase exponentially with better quality. Of course those speakers only perform like intended in an environment that is acoustically fit.
Picking out those speakers is about as personal as it gets and taking your time is advisable. I chose the Kii Three because they are well know in audiophile circles as most lineair speakers out there and has one of the best price performance ratings in that price range. Two Scanspeak Maxima subwoofers are used also because I needed to be able to monitor the lower frequencies better as well have a bigger sound pressure for the room they are used in at higher levels. The frequencies go well under what human ears can hear.