Why should you master with me?

Hopefully you've come here by a client referral, but if not I'll say this: Quality mastering maximizes your vision, emphasizing the unique voice of the record and balancing immediate impact with timeless sound quality. I do top quality, custom mastering at a price anyone can afford. I began mastering to fill a gap that was not available to an artist in the mid 90s, when top quality work was very expensive, and musician-affordable work lacked the qualities the famous players were getting. I now offer that alternative, bringing over 30 years of serious musicianship and almost as many years of engineering to your music. I'm passionate, talented and competitive, bringing you the highest quality. There's no point in 'good enough' when 'great' takes just a little more effort, but not necessarily more money.

What's the aim?

I will maximize the musicality, and make the adjustments you desire (if any) creating a product that's not only ready for duplication and every possible speaker, but one that completes your vision and gets you fully competitive. If your mixes are close, we'll top them off to your taste. If the mixes need help, we can dig in and push them around.

Is At-A-Distance FTP mastering a wise choice?

Everyone loves to be handed coffee and listen to the sound of top quality monitoring at the mastering studio. It's even better in a room where we can imagine a future as succesful as artist XYZ who mastered there previously. Yet results are about the choices and talent in this moment, and unless you're lucky you personally can't equal the familiarity of your own studio while you're in a mastering room for the first few visits. So you may love the work while at the studio, then want some small changes after listening in your comfort zone. By working at-a-distance you're sure right now that I've done exactly what you want. We can still communicate as if you were here, but you'll be listening there. And with my room in the sub-rural Midwest (just a country mile from Clapton's house) the overhead and rates are always low. If you want to attend a session, by all means come to our 160 yr. old farmhouse and have coffee or dinner, but there is nothing lost by working at a distance, and often it's easier and faster to get the results you're after.

How to begin?

Every job is different and communication is key. Maybe you'd like a fresh ear to critique the mixes. Maybe we'll talk about your dynamics/level goals. Maybe you'll upload a reference track so I can understand the ballpark level and eq you're after. Maybe you'll give some specifics on mix weaknesses that you'd like me to address. Maybe you're ready to go, so we'll choose one track, usually a loud one, and I'll work it a time or two until you approve of the 'sonic template' for the whole record. Once the whole record is processed, maybe you'll like a fresh song order for consideration. (This is unusual input for a mastering engineer but for some has proven very useful.) If we need to revisit some of the tracks I'm always willing to give a couple of freebies. After say two changes per record it's billed by the hour, but this is rare because we've set up the whole record with the sonic template.

General comments:

There's a ballpark for each style that's obvious, the technical side, yet the fine points are what will make you really love the results ... so good communication is essential. Once I understand your specific goals and subtle tastes you'll be happy with the work. Yes I have a signal chain sound or timbre, but that's more about the detail and quality in the path than the actual choices and work. Custom work means exactly that, so no, I dont have one sound. Primarily working by FTP this last decade I've made some great friends in the business. It's not just about the work, it's about the people. The better we communicate the better we can nail this music.

What's Possible?

Great things are possible with quality mastering, sometimes verging on the miraculous (for lesser mixes) ... yet the quality of the mix determines the range of possibilities. Obviously the better the mix, the better the master so mix until you're 100% happy. Please don't mix for hot levels and don't mix for your last MEs habits. Mix for musicality, crank up the volume, enjoy the sounds, and I'll do the rest. Music making is a journey combining a number of quality moments ... enjoy them all.