The Mastering Engineer
A lifetime spent deciding how records should sound — and why the best mastering is the kind you never notice.
We spent an afternoon in a studio that smells of warm valves and old tape, talking with an engineer who has cut some of the most beloved records in the room's collection.
What makes a great-sounding record?
Restraint, mostly. The temptation is always to do more — more level, more brightness, more of whatever is fashionable. The records that last are the ones where someone had the confidence to leave the music alone.
Can listeners really hear the difference between pressings?
On a good day, on a good system, yes — but not in the way people think. It is rarely a dramatic difference. It is a sense of ease, of the music breathing. You do not hear it so much as stop being distracted from the music.
What do you listen to at home?
Whatever I did not master. When it is your own work, you only hear the compromises. At home I want to be a listener again, not an engineer.