The Mastering Show

The term “legend” gets thrown all the time in audio production circles, but my guest this episode really deserves it.

I’m sure you already know this but Ken Scott has worked with the Beatles, David Bowie, Elton John and Supertramp amongst so many others, so I was delighted when he agreed to join me for this episode !

There were so many things we could have talked about it was hard to know where to start, but here are just a few of the topics we covered:

* Why Abbey Road trained their engineers in mastering before they were ever allowed to engineer a recording session

* The value of mentors - and being thrown in at the deep end

* Mixing in sections (instead of using automation)

* When limited resources are a Good Thing

* Re-mixing Ziggy Stardust in Dolby Atmos (with added drum samples…!)

* …and how the new mix translates to stereo

Full show notes on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-97

We’ve been using “soft clipping" in mastering for over 20 years at this point, but it suddenly feels as if it’s all anyone is talking about ! New plugins, new suggestions about how to use it, and wild new claims about how amazing it sounds.

Except it doesn’t.

At least – not all the time, and not for all material.

In this episode Joe Caithness and I dig deep into the details and talk about:

* What clipping is, and what it isn’t

* The crucial differences between hard and soft clipping

* What makes a great clipping plugin (and why comparing them is a nightmare)

* Some of our favourite clipping plugins and how we use them

* The kinds of material that work best with clipping, and what type to use

* The golden rule to follow if you want to experiment with clipping yourself

Full show notes and links on our website:

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-96

The Billboard Top 50 global singles from the first half of 2024 have an average loudness of -8.3 LUFS

So that’s how loud we should be making our masters, right ?

Well…

It certainly might seem that way, but in reality it’s a bit more complicated than that. This is only one of the interesting results that Ian Stewart presented in his latest blog post for iZoTope, and in this episode I asked him back on to really dig into some of the details and nuance.

Plus I also wanted to talk to him about the amazing plug-in that got invented during the last episode he was on ! (Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it 😛)

During the show we talk about:

* What that -8 LUFS average result REALLY means, and how much attention you should pay to it

* Who the most successful artist in the Top 50 is, and the loudness statistics of their music

* The problem with the title iZotope chose for the post

* All the other results, trends and biases in the data

* Basslane Pro, the plug-in Ian worked with Tone Projects to develop, why it’s unique - and how The Mastering Show helped it happen !

Full show notes on our site

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-95

2 cool things (and a special offer!) by Ian Shepherd

People are always asking me about mastering for vinyl, and I’m happy to try and help based on the experience I have. I don’t actually cut vinyl myself though, so that advice is always limited and second-hand.

So for this episode I decided to talk to a genuine expert on the topic - Scott Hull from Masterdisk - and really get into the details.

Scott’s knowledge and experience of cutting vinyl is enormous, as you’ll hear, and I took full advantage of that in this episode ! Some of the things we talked about include:

The 4 stages of vinyl production, and why each is important

How making assumptions about vinyl mastering can backfire

Why choosing which plant is going to press the records is crucial

The crucial role of the lathe - and it’s setup

The myth of duration on vinyl - why “20 minutes per side” isn’t a hard and fast rule

Why less limiting allows you to cut louder on vinyl

What is the magic of vinyl ?

Full show notes and links on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-94

I’m always arguing for balanced dynamics rather than loudness for it’s own sake, but some people have a different opinion - high loudness is important, and even beneficial.

Nick Di Lorenzo is one of them - he says that loudness is important regularly on his YouTube channel. So in this episode I invited him on to explore that idea in more detail, and really get into the nuances of the topic. Do you need to be mastering loud ? Topics include:

* The practicalities of loudness

* What makes things sound loud anyway ?

* Record labels versus loudness

* Why loudness IS important

* Why LUFS don’t matter, and

* The difference between loudness and LUFS

Full show notes on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-93

You can't go a day without someone telling you how loud your music should be, these days.

"Everything has to be -8 LUFS"

"EDM has to be -6 LUFS or louder"

"-11 is the perfect balance"

"Just master everything to -14"

...but they can't all be right !

In fact, none of them are, and even more importantly, they may not even be talking about the same thing. And the differences are really important. So in this episode I try explain really clearly and concisely:

The 3 different types of LUFS

The difference between them

Why it’s crucial to know which type you’re talking about

Why mastering to integrated targets makes no sense

When -14 LUFS isn’t loud enough – and why ?

Why it’s not about ‘how loud’, it’s about how you make it loud

Why integrated LUFS values are the result, not the goal of mastering

Full show notes on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-92

It’s virtually impossible that you haven’t heard music of some kind mixed by Alan Meyerson by this point - he’s one of the most prolific and successful film score mixers in the business.

And luckily for us, he’s also super-generous and open about the information he shares, including his perspectives on mixing and ‘mastering’ music for the movies. So in this episode we dig deep into all the details, including topics like:

* Is there really such a thing as ‘mastering’ for film ?

* What needs to be delivered, and what is the process ?

* How loud does it need to be - are there any standards ?

* When does Alan deliver mixes in Atmos, and why ?

* How he uses the centre channel and surround channels

* Why you might want to use saturation or pitch-shifting (!) in a movie score mix

Show notes

http://themasteringshow.com/episode-91

Everyone is talking about inter-sample peaks and True Peak limiters - or in fact it’s more accurate to say they’re arguing about whether ISPs are audible or not, and whether True Peak limiters sound bad !

In this episode I’m joined by Alexey Lukin, iZotope’s “godfather of RX”, to talk in detail about exactly what ISPs are and why they’re so confusing - including:

* How are inter-sample peaks measured, and why do you see different results with different meters ?

* What are DSP overshoot peaks, and how are they different ?

* What does over-sampling have to do with all this, and why is it important ?

* Do True Peak limiters really sound bad, and how should we test them ?

* Why will they NOT prevent lossy decoder clipping, sometimes ? And

* What the hell are we supposed to do about all this ?!?

If you’re not already listening to Matt Boudreau’s fantastic podcast Working Class Audio, you need to start now !

Matt is a highly respected mixing and mastering engineer who has recently moved into working in Dolby Atmos, where he’s already picked up some seriously impressive credits - oh, and also produces one of the top Audio podcasts around.

Which is why if I try to think of anyone better to learn the fundamentals of good audio for podcasting and journalism from… well, I can’t. And the great news is that Matt has put together a new “PodClass” course to help people with just that.

In this episode we talk about the course and what inspired it, but also plenty of other great stuff, including

Making the move from pro musician to audio engineer

Getting started in Atmos - workflow, dynamics and more

Work-Life balance - is it better to be a lark, or a night-owl ?

The secret advantages of running your own podcast...

…and the crucial importance of great audio (And what it has to do with COVID lockdowns !)

Enjoy - and if you want to try Matt’s course, make sure to use the discount code TMS to get a 30% discount and help support The Mastering Show at the same time !