I wanted to do something a little different to mark the 100th episode, but wasn't sure what. I was wondering about interviewing myself but that seemed a little weird... And then Matt Boudreau from the excellent Working Class Audio podcast invited me back onto his show, and it occurred to me - I could get Matt to interview me, which would be way more fun and get some much more interesting questions ! So here it is. Matt and I talk about all kinds of things including: My background in music, produ...
Jun 20, 2025•1 hr 16 min
Stereo, mono, binaural or surround-sound ? I've worked with this episode's guest in all these formats and more over the many years we've been working together - but which does he prefer, and why ? Richard Durrant describes himself as an "Indie Classical" musician, which I think is a pretty good summary - but doesn't really take into account the fact that he also toured with Sky , worked as an accomplished session musician for many years and has released albums in a brilliantly eclectic variety o...
May 29, 2025•53 min
'Stem mastering' has provoked a ton of debate recently, with people claiming it crosses the line between mixing and mastering, interferes with the artist's intent, and isn't even really mastering at all ! But if that's true, why would Abbey Road , one of the biggest mastering studios in the world, offer a dedicated stem mastering service ?! In this episode I talk to Oli Morgan , who specialises in stem mastering and mixing in mastering in Dolby Atmos at Abbey Road, about all these questions and ...
Mar 31, 2025•1 hr 19 min
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 i...
Oct 29, 2024•52 min
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...
Sep 27, 2024•1 hr 9 min
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 a...
Aug 15, 2024•1 hr 15 min
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 tal...
Jul 17, 2024•1 hr 20 min
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 so...
Jun 19, 2024•1 hr 30 min
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 differe...
Feb 21, 2024•20 min
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...
Dec 19, 2023•54 min
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, an...
Oct 14, 2023•49 min
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...
Aug 06, 2023•49 min
DJs get a lot of flak, especially about loudness. There’s a deep-seated belief that “loud” masters are still a requirement for club music, and that DJs are somehow to blame. But is this fair ? The reality is much more complicated and interesting than the popular cliche that DJs will only play loud masters, and in this episode Ian dives deep into the issue with Joe Caithness, who works as both a DJ and a mastering engineer. Topics include: The reality of DJ-ing The problem with peaks Loudness ? O...
Feb 15, 2023•1 hr 26 min
It’s amazing what mastering can achieve - but it’s also amazing how many things can influence the results we get right from the recording stage. In this episode Ian talks to Mike Senior about how to fix mastering problems at the recording stage, without using a time machine ! Topics include how to avoid: Muddy mids Harsh guitars Sibilance Resonant snares Boomy or hollow vocals Exposed vocals Stereo image issues And many more ! Links Mike has put together a fantastic page of resources for this ep...
Dec 17, 2022•1 hr 14 min
As mastering plugins become more sophisticated and more technical, there’s an interesting trend towards making the interfaces… less so. As well as traditional technical terms and numbered scales, controls labelled with less technical terms like “warmth”, “bite” and “colour” are becoming more common. And some interfaces are just… bizarre ! Is that good ? Or not ? In this episode Jon and I like at some more unconventional plugin user interface designs, and discuss: Why technical interfaces can be ...
Nov 16, 2022•43 min
You’ve probably heard of Eric Sarafin, aka Mixerman, but have you heard what he has to say about mastering ? As always it’s entertaining, potentially controversial but also thought-provoking, so it seemed like a good idea to get him on the show and ask him to explain himself ! We talk about: * Why he thinks if you don’t make money from your music, you shouldn’t pay for mastering * Whether an online mastering service is actually a better option for a musician starting out (gasp) * Eric's favourit...
Jul 07, 2022•56 min
This is huge - Apple have finally started using LUFS for their loudness normalisation, which means all the major streaming services now use the same method to measure loudness ! And perhaps more importantly, they’ve enable Sound Check by default on new devices. As always there are plenty of devilish details to be aware of though, so in this episode we talk in detail about this change, including: * Why it’s so important * How much music online is REALLY normalised anyway ? * Why the answer is sur...
Jun 08, 2022•44 min
In this episode we tackle one of the biggest challenges in modern mastering - the demand for super-loud masters in the dance & EDM genres. Our guest is Luca Pretolesi, and we talk to him in-depth about his approach to mastering for clubs & DJs. Luca’s masters are loud and we're always emphasising the value of balanced dynamics in mastering on this show, so you might think it would be an uncomfortable conversation... or you might be surprised. Some of the topics we cover include: * Why do...
May 10, 2022•58 min
Dolby Atmos has moved the goalposts for loudness, all the way down to -18 LUFS. This was one of the main topics of conversation for this year’s Dynamic Range Day, with the Atmos versions of 5 albums being nominated for the award - and in fact, the overall winner was an Atmos mix & master. In this episode I talk to Nick Rives from Capitol Studios, who mixed the winning album, and we discuss: * Nick's approach to mixing immersive audio * How he got started with Dolby Atmos * Using spatial effe...
Apr 04, 2022•35 min
Apple’s announcement of Dolby Atmos support has caused an explosion of interest in the format - after all, it means almost any iOS user can stream immersive audio, even if they only have a pair of earbuds to listen on. But how does that even work? And for that matter, what is Dolby Atmos, and why should we care? And what about mastering for Atmos? Is it possible, or even necessary? In this episode we talk to Mike Hillier from Metropolis, and producer and mixer Emre Ramazanoglu about all things A...
Mar 01, 2022•1 hr 18 min
Time for another Q&A show! Thanks for all your comments, reviews and questions, please keep them coming. In this episode we tackle: * Are tools like SplitEQ fundamentally changing mastering? * Level automation - before or after the limiter? * Should you make separate masters for broadcast? * Can (and should) we correct absolute phase in mastering? * Do you need a dedicated headphone amp? * What have we changed our minds about in mastering, over the years? See full show notes and links on our...
Dec 18, 2021•36 min
What is non-linear processing, and why does it matter? In this episode we dive deep into the topic with our guest Dan Worrall, and talk about: what non-linear processing is, why it can sound great and when it can sound terrible, and how to know the difference. Along the way, we also discuss * Is reverb non-linear ? And why it’s confusing * How linear processing makes top-down mixing a good idea * The difference between saturation and distortion * …and how to use them creatively * The difference ...
Nov 20, 2021•48 min
The Audio Engineering Society has just released new recommendations for the loudness levels streaming services should distribute their audio at - but they’re not for you and me. Having said that, understanding how they work is a powerful tool for predicting what will happen to your music when it's streamed. In this episode we talk about: * Who the TD1008 guidelines are for * Why they’re needed * How they can make normalization more effective (and more musical) * Why the numbers are slightly diff...
Oct 11, 2021•43 min
We round up a few different “loudness news” topics this episode, including: * Why Spotify have removed their limiter * But when they haven’t * And what it means for the way your music will sound * Plus, how the new loudness normalization options in Reaper might be useful for you * But why you need to be careful with them * What we think of Apple Music’s new lossless streaming feature * And more ! Full show notes and links on our website http://themasteringshow.com/episode-77 Mentioned in this ep...
Jul 17, 2021•42 min
People are interested in mastering for vinyl again - and stereo bass is a big problem, right? You should always mono it to avoid problems? Well actually, no. There are some challenges raised by a very wide stereo image on vinyl, especially in the bass, but as always it’s not as simple as it seems. In this episode we talk to our guest Ian Stewart in-depth about this issue, and dig into some of the juicy detail on the topic, including: * Why stereo bass is a problem on vinyl * Why stereo bass isn'...
Mar 17, 2021•52 min
It’s either the most powerful mastering technique known to man, or it isn’t really mastering at all, depending who you ask. Some people love it, others hate it, and some are mortally offended just by it’s name. Why does stem mastering provoke such passionate debate ? In this episode we dig into the topic to figure out the answers to these and other questions... * What is stem mastering ? * In fact, what really is a stem, anyway ? * Why do some mixers find the idea offensive ? * What are the bene...
Feb 16, 2021•36 min
It’s happening. Spotify are switching to using LUFS for their loudness normalization. If you’re thinking ‘I thought they already used it', that’s understandable - but they didn’t. They will in future though, and in this episode we talk about why the change matters, especially in the short-term. But also about when it doesn’t matter, and why it will hopefully matter even less as time goes on. Topics include: Why we don’t use Spotify What we use instead, and why - and some of the differences How n...
Jan 07, 2021•36 min
Let’s face it, LUFS don’t work. No-one understands them, when you set a load of different songs to -14 LUFS they all sound a different loudness, and they weren’t even developed using music. RMS is just better, right ? These are just some of the objections we’ve been hearing about LUFS recently, and in this episode we investigate them. Is there any truth to these claims and statements ? (Hint - Yes !) Along the way we also cover: * Why loudness is like the weather * How EQ affects loudness, and h...
Nov 07, 2020•42 min
This is so good it just needed it’s own episode. It’s a groundbreaking, unique new way to make music online - and everyone should try it out ! It’s not just bleeps and beats, either - there are plenty of people using it to make fantastic acoustic and sample-based live-looping music as well. I’m talking about Endlesss, the new live-looping-jam-with-friends-online iOS app developed by musician Tim Exile that I mentioned at the end of the last episode - and now it’s going to be available on Mac &am...
Jun 17, 2020•41 min
Real-time remote audio work IS possible - with surprising quality and flexibility ! In this show I’ll describe techniques and strategies to help you mix, master, teach and even record remotely - and even suggest some ways to jam live. Kind of. Amongst other things I’ll describe how to: Stream lossless, low-latency audio to any DAW or browser, for up to 40 people Combine this audio stream with multi-user video chat Screenshare in sync for easier collaboration during mixing, mastering and even rec...
Apr 08, 2020•31 min
