Mastering Articles
This is where I write about mastering. The gear, the technique, the decisions behind the work. Some of it is practical. Some of it is what I needed to get down.
The Big Crunch Transformer Box | The Nerd Edition
Brooks Harlan and Shawna Potter built me a passive box that switches between a Telefunken, a UTC, and a Neve/St. Ives at matched level. Here is what each one actually does.
Monitoring and Acoustics in a Mastering Studio
People ask which piece of gear makes the biggest difference. The honest answer is the room. If what reaches your ears is colored, every decision you make is colored too.
The Otari MTR-10 in Mastering: Tape, Provenance, and the Music That Yearns for It
A professional two-track tape machine from The Hit Factory, with confirmed Otari delivery records, mystery modifications, and the philosophy behind when tape earns its place in a master.
The History of the ITI Audio MEP-130 Parametric Mastering EQ Modules
The story of ITI Audio, the 1972 paper that named the parametric EQ, a console that went under in Baltimore Harbor, and the unpotted MEP-130 demo pair, serials 001 and 002, that I found on Craigslist for $100.