Mastering for discerning clients

By Rainer Gembalczyk, mastering engineer at Sienna Digital

Listening to music should be purely about experiencing the vibe of the recording, and my job as mastering engineer is to put the finishing touches on recordings with this goal in mind. Mastering is about passion for sound, emotions, and art, coupled with the ability to use the finest technology available to create a finished product that the listener will enjoy without distraction from technical flaws. It is about honoring the aesthetic presentation envisioned by the artist and using tasteful and appropriate adjustments with state-of-the-art mastering gear, to bring out the best qualities and ensure consistent flow throughout an album. Some projects need only small adjustments, while others require significant changes and I am comfortable with both approaches.

Mastering requires a thorough understanding of what constitutes "good sound", earned by decades of listening to the best recordings in each musical genre on state-of-the-art playback systems. It takes the experience of knowing what it will sound like on lesser quality systems or car stereos and headphones, as well as various delivery platforms like radio, downloads, and streaming. Mastering also requires a thorough understanding of the delivery formats associated with a project, from a CD master in DDP format or a Vinyl master in high-resolution WAVE format to the numerous formats associated with digital distribution, like WAVE, APPLE Digital Masters (formerly MFiT), FLAC, MP3, Audible, and others.

Establishing close communication with clients is a crucial part of the mastering process. To determine how satisfied they are with their mixes and where they want to take the project sonically, and subsequently to discuss the mastering results, that's the key to a successful project. Building long-lasting relationship is my goal and many of my clients have been mastering with me for over two decades. In recent years the internet has allowed me to reach out to an even wider clientele, which now includes projects from all parts of the US and countries like England, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Switzerland, Brazil, and India.

Over the years I have collected the gear that allows me to approach a project in the most organic way. From mastering-grade tube and solid state analog gear by Millennia/Forssell, DW Fearn, Focusrite ISA, API, Manley, Tube Tech, to state-of-the-art digital tools from Weiss, Dave Hill, Lavry, Antelope, TC Electronics, SPL, Fabfilter, DMG, Tone Proper, Izotope, TDR, Newfangled Audio, Metric Halo, Schwabe Digital, Weiss, Brainworx and many others, I will use whatever is most suited for a project. Monitoring is on Paradigm Studio Series and Amphion monitors, powered by Bryston amps, a system that translates exceptionally well to the vast variety of playback environments.

From Rock to Jazz to Blues to Celtic to Funk to Grunge to Classical to EDM to New Age to Rap to Atmospheric to Spoken Word to House to Electronica to Bluegrass, over the past 30 years I have mastered across all genres. The count of mastered projects is now well over 5,000. Please scroll down to view a partial discography of albums that I have mastered.

Sienna Digital is on Apple's list of Apple Digital Masters (formerly Mastered for iTunes) approved providers.

Special "Free Sample Master"

New clients sometimes ask, "Can I hear some projects that you have mastered," and while I can point them to my extensive discography, I have an even better offer. The contribution that mastering can make to a recording can only truly be evaluated when the mastering engineer works on your recordings, it cannot be judged by listening to another artist's release because you won't know how much mastering contributed to the end result. To give you an opportunity to try out my mastering, I am offering a free mastering sample of one of your songs. A mastering sample will be treated with the same attention and dedication as regular projects because the intention is to win you over as a new client! Please click here to send me an e-mail so that we can talk about your project and the track to be mastered.