Square Cad: A Mastering Podcast

To work at Sterling Sound you have to be one of the best, and Dave McNair definitely is. Dave has worked on everything from The Jonas Brothers to ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. His career stretches back more than 20 years with time spent at The Hit Factory and Masterdisk, as well as being an accomplished tracking and mixing engineer for artists such as Stevie Ray Vaughan.

Dave spoke with me about how he found himself working at one of the most respected mastering houses in the world, mastering in a 'zen like' state, and how he came to love non-linear digital workstations.

Music: The Icarus Line "Victory Gardens"

Garrett Haines works in the dual roles as Chief Mastering Engineer and owner of Treelady Studios in Pittsburgh, PA as well as a senior contributor for TapeOp magazine. He's mastered Billboard top 10 artists such as Wiz Khalifa, and Flyleaf as well as independent artists from all over the world.

I spoke with Garrett about the role of creativity in mastering, and the importance of knowing your client's needs...even if they don't.

Music: TV On the Radio "Family Tree"

Dangerous Music has a history of releasing high quality, sought after tools for mastering engineers. Their newest product is a dedicated analog insert switcher called the Liaison which claims to satisfy the need for sonically transparent management of analog outboard with lots of flexibility and options.

I spoke with Bob Muller, president of Dangerous, about the genesis of the Liaison and the needs it aims to meet. Bob also shared details about the design philosophy of Chris Muth, chief designer at Dangerous and former technical director of Sterling Sound.

Then I got my hands on the Liaison to see if it delivers on the promise of insert switching that's fast, flexible, and sonically neutral.

Music: Destroyer "A Dangerous Woman, Up to a Point"

Check out the video demonstration of the Liaison's operation at squarecad.net.

Robin Schmidt, mastering engineer at 24-96 Mastering, has worked on thousands of stereo and 5.1 projects since he opened his doors in 2002. Robin and I discuss his mastering of Paul Smith's, solo album 'Margins'. Paul's main band is Maximo Park; he went in a different direction with his solo record and Robin helped facilitate his vision.

Robin alos shares details about his background in mastering, how clients can pleasantly surprise you, and the mechanics of REessing.

Music: Paul Smith "Strange Friction"

Roger Foote has been designing audio gear for decades, almost a lifetime. His P3S compressor has recently been making waves and getting terrific reviews, and the mastering edition version has been showing up in studios all over the world.

I spoke with Roger about his life, the evolution of compressor topologies, and why over-engineering as if lives depend on it is worth the trouble.

Music: Chromeo "Fancy Footwork"

This episode is sponsored by Mercenary Audio. Check out mercenary.com for a great selection tools and unbeatable service and support.

Running a studio takes more than great monitors and loads of plug-ins and outboard, it takes sensible workflows and powerful productivity tools. Nobody wants to spend more time messing with a computer than they do working on music.

That's why Evan Olcott and Matthew Foust started Audiofile Engineering, to create tools they needed to aid music production. Since Audiofile started in 2004 they've released helpful applications for both desktop and mobile platforms, including a batch file processor and an iPhone DDP player for client approvals. I spoke with Ev and Matthew about Audiofile, what it takes to program and support a reliable audio app for OS X, and what the future holds for the convergence between desktop and mobile operating systems.

Music: Nas and MF Doom "New World"

After more than 30 years as a mastering engineer Bob Katz is still a busy man. There is his studio, his K-Stereo ambience recovery processor...oh and that book he wrote.

As the 10 year anniversary of the first edition of Mastering Audio approaches, Bob spoke with me about his career, the legacy and criticisms of his book, and why 5 years is a lifetime in mastering.

Music: Talking Heads "The Book I Read"

Speaker design, the sum crossover design, cabinet/baffle design, and driver placement/design, is staggeringly complex when done well. Danny Richy of GR Research knows all about it too, he's spent the last 16 years building entire product lines for high-end loudspeaker companies including Epiphany, Tyler Acoustics, Usher and many more.

Danny discusses what goes into making a good loudspeaker, why there is no perfect crossover design, and what it was like having a day-long meeting with John Dunlavy.

Music: The New Pornographers "From Blown Speakers"

Is Scott Hull crazy? It's a question worth asking. Hull, the former assistant to Bob Ludwig and chief engineer at Masterdisk, left the storied studio to make his mark as an independent mastering engineer. So why did he purchase Masterdisk in 2008? Isn't it insane to buy a huge mastering studio in this economy?

Maybe not. Under Hull's stewardship Masterdisk is weathering the slowdown in business that shuttered many other huge, stately mastering studios. Recently Hull made news by adding legendary mastering engineer Vlado Meller to the Masterdisk roster. With clients like Madonna, Grizzly Bear, Wavves, and The White Stripes maybe Scott Hull is crazy like a fox.

Hull spoke with Square Cad about his career, his reasons for leaving and eventually returning to Masterdisk, and what the future holds for huge Manhattan mastering studios.

Music: The Bug ft. Warrior Queen "Insane"

When converting sample rates, is it best to use a hardware SRC, and offline SRC application, or to "pitch" at the source rate with one sound card and "catch" at the destination rate with another?

To find out I spoke with Bob Bauman, chief hardware engineer and co-founder of Lynx Studio Technology. Bob has been a hardware and firmware designer for over 25 years and knows how to implement quality conversion.

I also ran some tests of a pitch.catch setup against iZotope's 64-bit SRC and found that, like most things, there are few easy answers when it comes to sample rate conversion.

Music: Pavement "Range Life"