Most experienced mastering engineers list their ears as their greatest asset. It is obvious that one needs to hear music to master it properly, but more importantly the mastering engineer’s role is to listen to the client’s brief and use the gear to bring that vision to life.

Since Audio Pro is not an audiological magazine, the crux of this feature will be the gear used in famous mastering studios around the world, rather than an insight into what nestles behind the conchae.

Mastering is a completely separate science from audio recording, which employs specialised gear, different directives and an altogether different type of engineering.

The truth is that even a band of seasoned professionals recorded by the best engineers at a high-end studio can produce an album with cracks, buzzes and imperfections. In the words of Stephen Marcussen: “Every knob in the studio is an opportunity to mess something up.”

In its basic form, mastering uses eq to clean frequencies, making a project clearer and bigger than the original. Compression is used to sonically connect tracks and give the project a uniform texture. Mastering studios need accurate monitoring in an acoustically stable room and carefully selected gear to bring out the best sound possible.  

Digital Domain, Miami, Florida
Bob Katz is a highly respected mastering engineer and equipment designer. His studio, Digital Domain, has seen work from the likes of  Gram Parsons, Foghat and John Mock, and albums from Apple Jazz Records and the Six Degrees record label.

With such a varied scope of artists and musical genres, Digital Domain requires its digital and analog equipment to be of the highest quality and transparent. The studio has a variety of high-end outboard gear including Weiss (EQ1-LP, DS1-MK2, SFC2, DYN-LP), Z-Systems, Waves L2, Sony, TC Electronic 6000, Crane Song (HEDD-192, STC-8, Trakker) and Millenia Media NSEQ

In lieu of printing to analog tape, Katz relies on Crane Song’s HEDD to add analog characteristics to digital signals. For up-sampling and down-sampling, he uses the Weiss SFC2, which processes at 96kHz and adds “a sense of robustness” to digital processing.

The second most important thing to Katz’s ears are his monitors. Digital Domain’s main control houses Lipinski Sound L-707 loudspeakers, designed by Andrew Lipinski, who is recognised by the US National Bureau of Standards for his perfect hearing abilities. The two-way, bi-wired speakers are mounted on 150-pound sand-filled stands and anchored to a concrete slab. Additional JL Audio 12-inch Fathom subwoofers, crossed over at 65Hz, 24dB octave are also in place for LF reproduction. Pass Labs X250 amplifiers power the satellites in the room, while a 100-Watt power amp drives the subs.
www.digido.com

Super Audio Mastering, Devon, UK
Super Audio Mastering’s Simon Heyworth’s main goal is to make sure that the work brought in by a client sounds the best it can possibly sound before it leaves his studio. He admits that sometimes all that is needed to master a beautifully recorded piece of music is one dB of compression, while other projects need further processing to bring out their full potential. “Mastering is not always about fixing things, rather, it is about providing a service and providing a master format for the reproduction factory,” he explains.

Heyworth does not believe that analog gear need always dominate a project. “Last week I had a totally digital project come in very loud,” he explains. “I used very small bits of analog and retained all the levels incorporated in the digital signal path. The feedback from the client was that it was even clearer and the digitisation was gone, making it sound more human.”

Super Audio Mastering is a round building with granite walls decorating the interior. The studio’s control room has a Classics Studer A80 and A820 and a unique Ampex 102 ATR with high flux heads and Aria electronics, all with both half inch and quarter inch replay and recording heads.

While the gear used on each project varies greatly, Heyworth uses a mixture of analog and digital equipment. The centrepiece of the studio is an SPL MMC1 mastering console. DCS ADA, Meitner converters and Pacific Microsonics HDCD are also used for both surround and stereo imaging. He also uses analog equalisers and compressors by Avalon, Manley, Millenia and SSL’s XLogic Superanalogue multichannel compressor.

Digital gear at Super Audio includes outboard and plugins from Weiss, Waves and a fully loaded TC Electronics 6000 multichannel processing platform for adjustments in stereo and surround, with a Sonic Studios HD for DAW mastering.
The control room is also equipped with TDL stereo and M&K surround monitoring to provide an accurate and full range audio response.
www.superaudiomastering.com

Marcussen Mastering, Hollywood
Hollywood’s Marcussen Mastering has a notable client list and head engineer, Stephen Marcussen, has worked with some of the biggest bands and artists in the business, including Johnny Cash, Kiss, Nirvana, Ozzy Osbourne, Paul McCartney, Prince, Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Willie Nelson and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs among many others.   

Marcussen firmly believes that if you can’t hear you can’t work. As such, he feels that state-of-the-art monitoring is key and uses B&W’s Nautilus 802 monitors in a control room designed by George Augspurger. The 802s have twin bass drivers housed in a more narrow and compact cabinet than earlier models, which adds detail and imaging to the sound. Marcussen’s B&Ws are augmented by Velodyne subwoofers and additional Quested two-way, nearfield H108 monitors.

His control room also houses a Maselec MTC 6 surround console, which he uses in conjunction with Maselec eqs. His analog gear also includes outboard from Prism Sound eqs, and Manley and SSL compressors.  

Although he admits to not having had success printing to analog tape, he uses tube eqs and works with eq applied in appropriate places. The studio also has Nuendo, Pro Tools and Sonic Solutions on its in-house workstations.

In addition to mastering for big bands and giant Hollywood movies such as Walk Hard, Marcussen also sees work recorded in project and home studios. In his opinion: “No one can benefit more from a proper mastering studio than a project studio.

“Mastering can help everyone at every level. Sometimes an album is recorded in a studio that is not acoustically treated or it might not have accurate monitoring and I can help the client by letting them hear the music in a controlled environment and translate it to a car stereo or a living room.”
www.marcussenmastering.com

Metropolis Mastering, London
The engineers at Metropolis Mastering have seen some monumental recordings come through their doors. From The Verve’s Urban Hymns to remastering for Elton John and The Smiths, the studio’s client base is an endless list of superstar musicians with loads of chart topping albums and singles. Among its acclaimed engineers is Tim Young, who won a Grammy for the mastering of The Beatles’ Love album. 
Metropolis technical director Chrispin Murray feels that the success of the studio lies partially in the PMC monitors in each room. He explains: “We have had a few sessions where people have come in and said, ‘I didn’t hear that in my recording’ and stopped the session to go back and remix. Also, early ADA converters had something wrong with the DC and we detected and corrected that in our mixes.
“The PMC monitors and our acoustic design have helped us remain a leading studio and in some instances pushed the industry as a whole to another level.”
While the rooms at Metropolis are packed with gear, some common elements between the rooms are Maselec consoles and eqs, Summit eqs and Manley Variable Mu compressors. The studio also relies heavily on Prism’s ADA converters.
“They don’t over flatter everything,” points out Murray. “But they are very clean, open and produce amazingly wide stereo that is brilliant to work with. We also tend to use them as the main clock for the room. The master clock on their DA converters gives you that little bit more.
“Whatever we do we try and put together a little bit more. It is the culmination of these small elements that make the finished product sound that much better.”
Another bit of kit frequently used is the TC Electronics 6000 and Waves L2 Ultramaximizer plugins. “The TC provides great flexibility in surround mixes,” says Murray. “The M6000 features the MD4, a five-band dynamics processor with phase linear reconstruction that can operate in dual mono, stereo and MS modes and has DXP low-level detail enhancement capability.
Another technique that Metropolis still uses is adding echo to the mastering stage. “There are a few clever ways to add echo, especially if someone has compressed something too much,” states Murray. “We have ways of making it more dynamic with a subtle amount of echo. You can’t detect it from the masters, but it helps the finished product.”
Murray has worked hard to ensure that the rooms at Metropolis are comfortable and the studio has an easygoing environment. “Mastering studios were very intimidating 20 years ago. We tried to make Metropolis relaxing and sonically comfortable. We have big monitors with great bandwidth in a realistic environment,” concludes Murray.
metropolis-group.co.uk

West West Side Music, New Windsor, NY
Alan Douches of West West Side Music has been mastering great bands for over 15 years. Not only is he the engineer of choice for American indie and hardcore bands such as The Misfits, Hatebreed, Ted Leo and Sufjan Stevens, Douches has also worked on albums by Fleetwood Mac, Yes and Human League. As such, West West Side is experienced at providing a quick turn around for major labels, while being able to work within the budget constraints of indie labels.

A spokesperson for the studio explains: “In mastering, it has always been our goal to bring the best objective and subjective points-of-view together and create, together with the production team, the very best possible final master.”

Communication is once again stated as the key element to getting a project done properly at West West Side and Douches has assembled a collection of unique gear over the years to address the needs of various projects.

While Douches has a Sonic Solutions, he favours Pro Tools because of the many options it offers. While using Pro Tools, he frequently uses Metric Halo’s SpectraFoo Signal metering analysis software. He also uses the Pendulum Audio PL-2 Analog Peak Limiter and the TC Electronic System 6000 for surround work.
www.westwestsidemusic.com

The Lodge, New York City
Emily Lazar, owner of New York City’s The Lodge mastering studio, has provided mastering for artists including Lou Reed, David Bowie, Sonic Youth, Morrissey and Depeche Mode among others. She prides herself on blending old school techniques with a youthful eye on music and technology.

One of the main attractions of the studio is its Ampex ATR-102 one-track tape machine, one of the few studios in the city to feature analog gear. Her ability to mix technology with music and maintain artistic integrity has helped her and the studio attract international attention and acclaim from the music and film industries.

The Lodge was started in 1997 and the company has since expanded to include offices in Texas, London and Tokyo.
www.thelodge.com