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, confidence and client relations * Are loud mixes a problem for mastering engineers ? * What it’s like to...

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 “great” doesn’t have to mean “perfect” * What about great re-masters ? * How to know if you’re...

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 way and the really messy way) How compression can sometimes add dynamics What these...

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 number) but * Why it’s still important and useful to know about anyway * Will mastering to -14 LUFS...

Hello The bad news is there is no regular podcast for you this week. There will not be a new episode until Ian's voice improves but in the meantime we'd like to let you know about two excellent podcast episodes where Ian was a guest for Twenty Thousand Hertz. (that's the good news) The [COMPRESSED] History of Mastering https://www.20k.org/episodes/historyofmastering The Loudness Wars https://www.20k.org/episodes/loudnesswars Dallas from 20K was our guest on episode...

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/episode-66

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 themselves. You don’t have to be an audio blogger or YouTuber to achieve this - in this episode...

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 explanation of what aliasing is and how it relates to audio, with - er… questionable results. Along the...

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 Defacto Sound, and host of the superb Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast. Dallas has a wealth of...

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 * Why this happens * How you can test for it yourself * Why it’s worth doing * How it can help...

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 took Ian several years to read, how to access it's Secret Bonus Content, and why * A book that...

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 more than you expect online - Why you have to be careful with contrast on Spotify - How...

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://themasteringshow.com/episode-59/

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 * Common problems with the mid-range, and what causes them * How to open up cluttered mids in...

…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 the “B” word is at the heart of mastering - in many different ways * Something you should...

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 even try to master one ? * When not to master a crappy mix - and what you can learn * Techniques...

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 frequencies ? * How can you “calibrate” your ears so you’re aiming for the right amount of top ? *...

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 normalization mix-ups * How NOT to test normalisation on Spotify * Where to find YouTube’s actual...

We all want great low end - deep, fat, solid and punchy. But it can be one of the hardest thongs 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, you risk the opposite problem - everything can sound weak, thin and harsh. In this week’s...

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 values when mastering you music for online streaming. But, why it is still useful to know how your...

"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 target for online loudness * Why Ian Kerr decided to make plugins that won’t change your audio -...

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 why) he closed his analogue mastering studio to go mobile * Why he thinks it actually helps him...

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 things like: * A podcast with higher production standards than ours (gasp!) * Career advice...

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 Novelty initiative. Other topics include: * Why Katie got into mastering * Do you need expensive...

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 versus features Full show notes and links on our website http://themasteringshow.com/episode-47/