Fluid Mastering - Interview with mastering engineers

voices and interments tracked into controls rooms never sound good for some reason lol. they bring up some interesting points about pluggin quality. also its interesting they dont mind when theres bus compression on a mix.

one thing that irks me is the seemingly low ceilings, and all the crap in between the listening position and the speakers. also the mains are up to the ceiling, and stuffed in the corner of the room. those are typically no-no's. im guessing they've accounted for it but still, a bit surprising to see in a mastering room. you literally can't see the lower driver on the nearfield speakers. i know consoles and desks are sometimes necessary, and carry a certain look of wealth, but to me they are a hindrance. anything in the line between ears and speakers causes a distortion of the sound, one way or another. this is a problem with analog gear that cant be controlled digitally, and a [problem with a serious lack of tactile digital control surfaces. to me all that gear should be on the back wall or even better, in a closet somewhere, with a single controller that sits on your lap or chair. that seems grossly apparent to me, and im a nobody, with relatively limited experience, so i could be off the mark. some people like eric valantine have gone as far as having their mixing console made from a mesh, as to reduce the console reflections.

i dunno, i used to long for those huge racks full of gear, then i got to work in a room with a big ol rack and desk, and i realized what an acoustic hindrance, and logistical nightmare it was. really, how good are your settings when your 6ft out of the sweet spot, bent over, adjusting that eq? i dunno, a well treated empty room, with speakers and acoustically transparent projector/screen, is what i shoot for these days.

 

The place I learned to master in was located in Nashville, TN. Our speakers were custom and literally went from floor to ceiling and were located in the corners. They sounded awesome and were very easy to master on. Our mastering console was a Neumann that had been completely rebuilt. It was high so we had to use a tall office chair to do the mastering. There was lots of equipment in the room including an A-80 Studer, a Neumann cutting lathe and associated racks and a complete Sony PCM-1630 with two Sony Umatic decks. It was quite a cozy room but sounded GREAT. If the space is designed for what is in it the physical layout should work fine. FWIW