Audio Media - September 2008 - (Page 60) ELECTRIC MASTERING > Mandy also came through The Exchange, didn’t she? She started there a week before me, so our journey through mastering has been parallel from the copy room onwards. She decided to go freelance a couple of years ago so she could diversify into recording as well as mastering. What’s the history of Electric Mastering? Pete [Hutchison] owns the Peacefrog label, which started in , and runs it with Phil Vernol who’s the Studio Manager here. Pete was an Exchange client and is a fairly serious audiophile, and a couple of years ago decided to build his own high end mastering room. To begin with he did the mastering himself with “I was sitting with Pete the other day comparing going through one bit of equipment to another and he said, “Do you think one day we’ll just come in here and know it’s all absolutely right?” and I said, “If we do, that’s the day I retire.”” good results, but when he heard Mandy had left The Exchange he invited her to work in his room. Then they approached me, and after a bit of chatting and a few drinks I started at the end of February this year. For me it was a vote of confidence in the company – because it’s quite new it feels like we’re building it up which is worth doing. So you do the Peacefrog label work here, how about other clients? We deal with the majors, and also independent labels, artists, and producers. Mandy’s doing a lot of major French label work at the moment, and [other work] ebbs and flows: it feels like you do a couple of weeks of a lot of indie people or [self-funded] unsigned bands and then you seem to do major work for Virgin, Island, Warners, or whoever else. Even after ½ years it’s still a challenge, every mix is different – I listen to stuff I’ve done in my car, listen at home, then come back and listen to it again in here and [maybe] try a slightly different signal path. I was sitting with Pete the other day comparing going through one bit of equipment to another and he said, “Do you think one day we’ll just come in here and know it’s all absolutely right?” and I said, “If we do, that’s the day I retire.” How about the ‘L’ word, ‘loudness’ – do you inform customers about the pros and cons? Yes I do, but you have to do it carefully. I wouldn’t want to preach to anyone that any particular approach is right but I think you make the client aware of what the difference is between a fairly good level with dynamic range and something that’s completely pushed and squashed. A producer client of mine [put it well when] he said, “Every album feels like we’re tiptoeing round the edge of a volcano”, but I’m also providing a service so if they want it to be the loudest possible thing I endeavour to do that and somehow keep it sounding beautiful within those constraints. I like the limiter in the Weiss DS which doesn’t seem to compromise the energy of the track, and although I go through the Manley SLAM! quite a lot because I think it has nice sound I don’t do much in the way of compression and limiting with it, I use it more as part of my gain structure. “I had an SPL PQ EQ at The Exchange that I used a lot and liked very much – even on tiny tweaks it has an assertive, confident sound to it. Here I use it and the Sontec equally, and together they make beautiful music.” What are some of your other gear favourites here? I had an SPL PQ EQ at The Exchange that I used a lot and liked very much – even on tiny tweaks it has an assertive, confident sound to it. Here I use it and the Sontec equally, and together they make beautiful music. How much vinyl work do you do? About . Majors are doing quite a lot of ”, they’re definitely back and very popular, and small labels are also doing ” and ” singles. Album cuts have gone down, but there’s still a fair few. You did a direct-to-vinyl recording recently, I believe? Yes, I’d talked about it with Tim from Transgressive Records probably two or three years ago. We finally got round to it once I was here, and the three people in the band The Young Knives came in with a small drum kit, acoustic guitar, and bass with bass amp. We set up two Royer ribbon microphones in the Blumlein arrangement right in the middle of them at the back of the room through vintage Neve mic preamps into our 60 AUDIO MEDIA SEPTEMBER 2008 http://www.sonic-distribution.com http://www.sonic-distribution.com
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