“Putting one compressor before another is something that was going on long before it got a fancy name that made it sound like a ‘technique’,” says Joel Hamilton, one of the four NYC engineers we asked to weigh in on the subject.

“But the idea that you can kind of mine different things out of the same signal by chaining devices with different tones or time constants is totally valid.”

Simply defined, Serial Processing is the use of two (or more) similar effects on the same audio track. Most often, you’ll encounter the term as it refers to compression, EQ, and de-essing.

In addition to Hamilton [Tom Waits, Elvis Costello, Dub Trio], we talked to producer/engineer John Agnello [Sonic Youth, Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile] as well mastering engineers Randy Merrill and Scott Hull of Masterdisk, about their approach.

WHY DO IT?

“It’s like using shellac,” Hamilton continued. “You can’t buy a bucket of shellac, pour the whole thing out on your tabletop and expect it to turn out extra-glossy. But, by applying it in a dozen tiny layers, one on top of the other, you can bring the surface to a really high shine.”

“Much the same way, you can’t compress 20db with a Neve 33609 and expect it to sound like several devices each pulling back a few db.”

All of our panelists agreed – sometimes, spreading the work across more than one unit leads to better results:

“It’s well-known that in general, the shorter the signal path the better the sound quality,” said Scott Hull of Masterdisk [Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, The Ramones].

“That’s true, and I’ll never use more gear than what’s needed to achieve the goal. But you can’t always get what you need from one device. What you may need is the complex interaction between two.”

“I would probably never choose to put two of the same compressors or EQs inline on the same track, but I will often use two different-sounding but similar types of processors if the combined result is better than without.”

When we boiled it down for this article, it became clear that our panelists consistently cited three basic reasons for stacking their effects: Tone, Tweak Points, and Time.

TONE

“There are some pieces of gear that just have a great character and I’ll use them when that character is needed,” mastering engineer Scott Hull said.

“What might confuse engineers that use primarily digital processing, is that an analog EQ isn’t always an EQ. And an analog compressor isn’t always a compressor. Running through my compressors with no gain reduction sometimes produces very favorable results from a tone or color standpoint.”

Producer/engineer John Agnello agreed:

“I believe that when you’re in the analog world, different pieces of gear do sound different from each other, even if you’re just passing signal through them. You can patch into a Pultec and it’ll sound completely different than an API 560 before you even do anything. Sometimes you don’t want to do a ton of EQ, but you want the sound of that piece of gear.”

TWEAKABILITY

“With a Pultec,” Agnello continued, “you might just add a little bit of low end or a little bit of top-end, and still get the sound you need from it. But you may still  want to sculpt it more, so you might go into an API 560 after that and notch out or notch in a bunch of frequencies.”

“So there’s the sound quality of each piece of gear, and then there’s also the practical factor of having access to all the frequencies you want to get to. You may want the sound of a Pultec but the flexibility of a graphic EQ.”

“I’ll do that a lot on snares and vocals. I’ll usually go through a 560, and then at the end of my chain I’ll have a nice fat Pultec, or maybe a Daking, just to give it a little size on the back end – just to take that sound and make it sound 10 percent bigger at the very end.”

Hamilton had similar thoughts: “There’s a difference between boosting 3k on a Neve 1084 and boosting 3k on an SSL EQ. On an SSL, I know that frequency is going to hurt me a little. The same way, I might want to boost 8khz on a Pultec instead. So that way you can end up with a few EQs on the same source pretty quickly.”

Merrill had similar points to make: “I use multiple EQ’s in series a lot. The curve shapes and phase responses of each of my EQ’s is different. I’ve found that in some cases, several small, incremental adjustments across multiple EQ’s gets me the sound I’m looking for, as opposed to adding more EQ on one unit in the same range. Other times this isn’t the case, and I’ll do a lot of EQ with one unit. It always depends on the mix, but I’d say more often than not, I’m using multiple EQ’s.”

TIME

With compressors, there’s another crucial factor: attack and release times.

"...you can’t always get what you need from one device."

“When it comes to the ‘how’ part,” said Hull, “ I find it’s simply a matter of putting the compressors with longer attack times first in the chain and faster attack compressors and limiters later in the chain. This isn’t brain surgery.”

That kind of stacking was the first thought to come to mind for Agnello and Hamilton as well:

“As far as time constants, you could put on a very slow, low-ratio compressor first, and send that into a fast limiter that’s catching just the top of the peaks,” said Hamilton.

“That can make it feel like the track is plowing through molasses to get to the limiter. With that approach, you can take something that’s very lightweight and stringy, like an arpeggiated nylon-string guitar, and get some real heft out of it. It’s almost like adding a sense of inertia; some real weight in a mix.”

“It can help get rid of that really unencumbered and pointalistic sound that people associate with a straight up Pro Tools mix, where you have all these really spikey transients. For me, it could be a slower, gushier compressor first, like a Collins 26-1U, followed by a Neve 33609 set to a really fast attack and release.”

Agnello had a similar approach on electric guitars:

“A lot of times I’ll go with a tube compressor and put a solid state compressor on the back end, or vice versa, depending on what sounds I’m going for. If I’m having trouble getting a guitar to sit in a mix, I might put it through an LA-2A to give it a big tube action, but at the end put it through an 1176 and compress the sh*t out of it, to make it really like a brickwall.”

Of course, there are times when the opposite approach can work. When tracking an especially dynamic vocal or bass part, it can be advantageous to set up a compressor with a fast release time first in the chain. A busy and dynamic part can wreak havoc on a slowly responding compressor, allowing some peaks to go by uncompressed, while low-level parts of the performance wind up quieter still, buried in the trough of the compressor’s lazy recovery.

The classic example here would be taming a dynamic vocal with a quick tap from a fast-recovering 1176 before allowing it to pass through an LA-2A or Sta-Level set to deliver more consistent compression.

NEED FOR SPEED

Sometimes, two fast dynamic devices in a row can be handy:

According to Agnello: “If you have some nasty “S”s, sometimes one de-esser won’t do it. You’d have to hit it so hard that it’ll catch too much, giving you a lisping effect. I might give the S’s a little nudge with one de-esser, then really go for the kill with a second, trying to take out as much as I can. I like to think of it as setting up with one and knocking it down with the other.”

“I almost never use two compressors,” added mastering engineer Randy Merrill, “but I often use two limiters in series. I find at times that one particular limiter can only sound good up to a certain point. Once I get there, I’ll rely on another, different limiter to get me closer to the result I’m looking for.”

SETTING IT TO STUN

Unlike our mastering engineers Hull and Merrill, our mixers (Agnello and Hamilton and myself) felt that while stacking compressors can lead to greater transparency, that isn’t always the goal. One or more compressors in a mixer’s chain could very well be set to “stun”, ruthlessly lobbing more than a dozen db off an unsuspecting sound source.

Serial compression can still help in these cases as well. Feeding our “character compressor” a signal that’s already been cut down to a manageable dynamic range can ensure that our hardest-working box delivers an even and predictable effect, rather than jumping around in color and responsiveness due to an erratic signal.

EVERYTHING ELSE

Shane Stoneback discussed sending his plug-in reverbs to a real live chamber in our recent Cults interview. Hamilton is also a long-time proponent of searching for new sounds by stacking ambient effects:

“In general, I really love reverbs layered up. I might have six reverbs on a mix,” he said. “I could be using a spring that doesn’t even go to the main mix – it could be there just to feed a plate reverb.”

“I guess what I’m looking for is a kind of ‘custom complexity’. If the album was tracked in hotels and bedrooms, I might want to create a unifying, Motown-ish kind of signature reverb that ties everything together – you know, where everything kind of lives in this one really unique space.”

For his part, Agnello remembers a time before multi-parameter reverbs. The earliest versions of these chains of time-based effects were patched in by guys like him, using a tape-slap delay to feed a plate reverb.

“Nowadays, the pre-delays are built-in,” he said. If you have an Eventide, you can just pull up anything you want – a flange into a plate – whatever.  Of course you can explore as much as you want. The only thing holding you back there is how much gear you have at your disposal and how much time you want to spend f*ing around.”

And Agnello has spent a lot of time doing just that:

“While working on my second Dinosaur Jr. record [Without A Sound] at Electric Lady, J [Masics] would want me to put one piece of gear after another on his guitar to hear what it would sound like. ‘Put something else on it, let’s see what that does. Ok, now something else’. We’d end up with these chains of like 5 boxes in a row. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it would be ridiculous.”

“But there would be those times where it would be amazing – all of a sudden the guitar was really jumping out of the mix. We just kept listening and trying until it sounded good. I don’t think we called it anything. We were just experimenting.”

Hamilton had similar feelings about attaching terms to the things we do instinctively:

“I think the name ‘Serial EQing’ only came about because of the proliferation of internet ding-dongs talking about Parallel EQing,” he said, as I tried to avoid looking sheepishly at my feet.

“But I guess we’re stuck with the term as much as we’re stuck with anonymous internet punditry.”

As long as that’s true, we’ll be here, hoping to undo the damage by bringing a bit of clarity to all the chatter.

Now go get in tune with your instincts, and start some experiments of your own.

Justin Colletti is a Brooklyn-based producer/engineer who works with uncommon artists, and a journalist who writes about music and how we make it. Visit him at www.justincolletti.com.

Justin Nozuka (here with band) has been recording at Germano with producer Steve Jordan, and Dave O'Donnell engineering.

Starting at Germano Studios downtown…50 Cent has been writing and recording new material with Araab Muzik producing and Ky Miller engineering, Ne-Yo was in writing and recording with Swizz Beatz producing and Moses Gallart engineering, and Justin Nozuka recorded basic tracks with Steve Jordan producing and Dave O’Donnell engineering – all in Studio 1.

In Studio 2, will.i.am continues to record new material which he’s self-producing and engineering, and Oriane recently recorded vocals with Walter Afanasieff producing and Jason Agel engineering.

Nearby at The Lodge, Mastering Engineers Emily Lazar, Joe LaPorta and Heba Kadry have been busy working on Björk‘s epic multimedia release, Biophilia, due out this Fall. The music for Biophilia – featuring a 10-song album and 10 musical iPad apps themed after each song’s scientific subject matter – was mastered at the Lodge in March by Lazar and LaPorta alongside Björk and her longtime engineer/producer Damian Taylor.

Bjork's new album, "Biophilia," was mastered at The Lodge by Emily Lazar and Joe LaPorta alongside Björk and engineer/producer Damian Taylor.

Other recent releases mastered at The Lodge include Chris Taylor’s CANT LP, Morgan Page’s new album, In The Air, Ronnie Vannuci’s (of the Killers) solo debut Big Talk – produced by Joe Chiccarelli and mixed by Alan Moulder – the new Boy & Bear album – also produced by Chiccarelli – and Large Professor’s latest for Fat Beats Records.

The Lodge also mastered Ronnie Spector’s tribute cover of Amy Winehouse’s Back to Black – produced by Richard Gottehrer – Surfer Blood’s cover of Nirvana’s “Territorial Pissings” for SPIN’s Nevermind compilation, new releases by Zechs Marquise (band formed by Marcel Rodriguez Lopez from the Mars Volta), and Junior Mance, and the new Wooden Ships album – produced by Phil Manley of Trans Am.

Over in the East Village at Flux Studios, Todd Whitelock mixed an upcoming album by jazz saxophonist and flautist Kenny Garrett in the Revolution Room. Garrett – who was a member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and Miles Davis’ band – will release his upcoming album via Mack Avenue Records.

And down in SoHo, The Magic Shop has been going steady…Shooter Jennings tracked for his upcoming album with engineer Brandon Mason, assisted by Brian Thorn, Burning Spear tracked and mixed for their upcoming album with Thorn engineering, assisted by Kabir Hermon, and Tom Schick was in mixing for She and Him’s upcoming Merge album.

Other recent sessions in the Magic Shop’s unique Studio A include: The American Secrets tracking and mixing songs for upcoming freecreditscore.com commercials with producer Neil McClellan (The Lodge Music creative director) and engineers Ted Young and Colin Thibadeau; The Gaslight Anthem tracking an iTunes exclusive live session with producer Jason Marcucci, and engineers Ted Young and Mike Judeh; and tracking sessions for new albums by Elliot Sharp (producer Joe Mardin/ engineer Ted Young), Lee Feldman (engineer Ted Young), Ben Carroll (producer Adam Levy / engineer Brian Thorn), The Virgins (engineer Emery Dobyns) and The Universal Thump (engineer Kabir Hermon).

The Virgins tracked new material for their upcoming Atlantic release with producer/engineer Emery Dobyns at The Magic Shop.

Meanwhile in the Magic Shop’s Blue Room, Warren Russell-Smith has been doing restoration work for the second season of Boardwalk Empire. Recent mastering sessions at the Magic Shop include albums for Rockstar Games, Anna Volgelzang, Warpaint, Nightplane (mastered by Russel-Smith) and Nâ Hawa Doumbia, Vic Varney and Pretty Good Dance Moves (mastered by Jessica Thompson).

At another studio down in SoHo – Serious Business Music – producer/engineer Travis Harrison has had a steady stream of bands in to appear on his BreakThru Radio show. In the last month, “Serious Business on BTR” has featured performances and interviews (by Harrison) with A Million Years, Fort Lean, Les Sans Culottes, El Jezel and Quiet Loudly.

Harrison has also been working on a number of album projects, including an album with a new band called The Cosmos – formed by Dougy Payne and Andy Dunlop from Travis, and Cinjun Tate from Remy Zero – a solo 7” with Doug Gillard from Guided By Voices, and a record with Rocketship Park for Serious Business Records.

In Park Slope at Seaside Lounge Recording, engineer/producer/musician Josh Clark mixed a record by Nashville native Luke Roberts, The Iron Gates at Throop and Newport, to be released by Thrill Jockey Records in 2012. Initial tracking sessions for the record went down at The Beach House in Nashville and Atlantic Sound in Brooklyn (with “Seaside Lounge” rounding out the coastal recording theme.)

On the West Side at Stratosphere, Japanese electro-rock band The Telephones tracked their new album in Studio A with producer/engineer Alex Newport, recording everything to tape on the studio’s Studer 2″.

The Telephones in Stratosphere Studio A. Photo by Yuki Shingai.

Also at Stratosphere…Ice T booked an afternoon of vocals and filming for upcoming documentary Something From Nothing: The Art of Rap. Stratosphere’s own Adam Tilzer engineered. Aaron Neville returned to record vocals with producer Matthew Ferraro and engineer Geoff Sanoff.

Daniel Merriweather was back for sessions with Dave McCracken, Amanda Ghost and engineer Chris Shaw, Florence + the Machine was in with engineer Andros Rodriguez, and Nathan Larson (A Camp, Shudder To Think) tracked and mixed music for an upcoming film, Tiger Eyes, with Geoff Sanoff engineering.

Up at Carriage House Recording in Stamford, cellist Dave Eggar (Evanescense, Coldplay) and his band Deoro finished mixes for their upcoming record in Studio A with engineer/mixer Brendan Muldowney, and art-pop songstress Rachael Sage tracked basics for her upcoming release with engineer John Shyloski.

Back in town, at Sear Sound, NYC denizen Donald Fagen tracked in Studio A on the 8038 Neve with Michael Leonhart producing and Charlie Martinez engineering for Warner Bros. Records. eONE Music was in Studio C, reportedly “classisizing” Frank Zappa songs for a new release. In this process, Zappa’s original songs were rescored for classical orchestral instruments and tracked on Sear Sound’s custom Avalon/Sear console in sessions produced by Susan Del Giorno with GRAMMY-winning engineer Silas Brown.

Producer/engineer Gary Maurer also checked into Sear to track an ensemble of 22 musicians for his upcoming HEM album in Studio C. He will reportedly return to Sear Sound shortly to mix a 24 song double album.

Red Hot Chili Peppers' tenth studio album "I'm With You" comes out August 30. Produced by Rick Rubin, Engineered by Greg Fidelman and Andrew Scheps out in LA; Mastered by Vlado Meller at Masterdisk

Further west at Masterdisk, Scott Hull mastered Sting’s three-CD box set, Sting 25 Years, featuring remixes and a previously unreleased live concert DVD with 10 tracks recorded live in NYC, produced by Rob Mathes. Also at Masterdisk, Vlado Meller mastered a Julio Iglesias two-disc “Greatest Hits” set, with songs re-recorded and re-mixed by Alberto Sanchez, the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, I’m With You, and the Jane’s Addiction single “Irresistible Force,” and upcoming album, The Great Escape Artist.

Andy VanDette recently mastered the Spiderman Turn Off The Dark cast album and albums by Blessthefall, The Static Jacks and Barefoot Truth, and Ellen Fitton remastered Debbie Harry’s Koo Koo, and Jellybean’s Wotupski.

Premier Studios in Times Square hosted Demi Lovato working on a project for Disney Pictures – a song produced by Sandy Vee, with piano overdubs played by Mikkel Eriksen from Stargate. The session was engineered by Sam Giannelli. Will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas produced tracks for Lil Wayne, working with engineer Mike Cadahia with Kevin Geigel assisting. DefJam artist Ace Hood, produced by DJ Khaled, was at Premier recording vocals and mixing an upcoming release with engineer Ben Diehl.

Atlantic artist Wiz Khalifa recorded vocals, with engineer Josiah Hendler, EMI Artist MoZella was in with producer Scyience, mixing with engineer Anthony Daniel, and Scyience was also in with Epic artist Alice Smith, mixing an upcoming release with an engineer by the name of Push Buttons.

Over at Avatar Studios, strings were recorded in Studio A for the upcoming Lou Reed/Metallica album with producer Hal Willner and engineer Greg Fidelman, assisted by Bob Mallory. NYC/Ireland rockers Suddyn recorded their single in Studio G on the SSL 4000G+ with producer David Kahne, engineer Roy Hendrickson and assistant Tyler Hartman. The Brooklyn Youth Chorus was in Studio A recording with producer Bryce Dessner, of The National and Clogs, and engineer Lawson White, assisted by Aki Nishimura.

Music for the upcoming film, A Late Quartet, was also recorded in Studio A with producer Alan Bise and engineer Bruce Egre. The cast albums for People in the Picture (producers Mike Stoller and Steven Epstein, engineer Todd Whitelock) and A Minister’s Wife (producer Tommy Krasker, engineer Bart Migal) were also recorded at Avatar.

And we know there’s so much more going on out there! If you’d like to be featured in “Session Buzz,” please submit your studio news to submissions@sonicscoop.com.

The event provides an opportunity to meet the latest addition to the Masterdisk team, veteran engineer Vlado Meller, have a drink, and experience his suite (bring your favorite CD!). Meller’s sessions since joining Masterdisk include the new Red Hot Chili Peppers and Jane’s Addiction singles, the Jackie Evancho PBS Special “Dream With Me” (in stereo and 5.1 surround) plus several more as-yet unannounced projects.

Full Coordinates:
When: Wednesday, June 29, 5 to 9 p.m.
Where: The Masterdisk Studios at 545 W45th St., 5th Floor (between 10th & 11th)
RSVP: rsvp@masterdisk.com

Vinyl lovers...RSVP now for the May 4 evening event!

Now, TVD and Masterdisk are offering a tour of Masterdisk’s NYC facilities and hands-on workshop for record lovers on Wednesday, May 4 from 6:30-8:30.

This is not a technical master class (no technical knowledge or aspirations needed) but a cool opportunity for those with an interest in hearing what a vinyl master sounds like, and the process by which a recording gets onto vinyl.

This is a free workshop but there limited spots left on the tour so RSVP now!

Matt Agoglia in his (and Howie Weinberg's former) mastering suite at Masterdisk

In his place, Scott has promoted engineer Matt Agoglia to the position of Senior Engineer.

Agoglia — who served as Weinberg’s right-hand man for three years at Masterdisk while building his own mastering clientele — is now taking over Weinberg’s mastering suite, and will continue mastering records using the same gear that he and Howie have been using for years, a rig used to master classic records by The White Stripes, The Clash, Wilco, Nirvana, U2, Public Enemy, Pixies, Sonic Youth and many more.

This mastering suite is located within the Times Square Recording Company space, formerly Scott Hull Mastering (prior to Hull acquiring Masterdisk in ’08). This space also encompasses writing/production rooms for Kyle Kelso, Mikel Rouse and Jeff McErlain, and a secondary production environment for producer/engineer Dave O’Donnell.

As always, Masterdisk headquarters — housing Hull and the rest of the Masterdisk team — is at 545 W 45^th Street.

“The Times Square space is a really cool group of mixers and songwriters and artists, grouped together there with Matt’s mastering studio,” says Hull. “Even though, with Howie leaving, this could have been a good time to shut it down and consolidate, I really wanted to maintain this environment — there’s chemistry and potential collaborations there with those guys and Masterdisk and myself, and I’m not sure that’s all been fully explored and realized yet.

“Mastering is not just mastering anymore,” he continues. “Half of the time we find ourselves being mix consultants, with clients sending us material that needs to be re-mixed. It used to be very rare for the mastering engineer to suggest that a mixer or the client to take another look at their mix, but it is coming up more and more. The pro stuff is still great, but that first step down to semi-pro is a big one!

“So we get a lot of people asking us to recommend mixers to help them get a better sound out of their recordings. From a business standpoint, it would make a lot of sense, ultimately, to have a group of likeminded people to share opportunities when they come up.”

About the departure, and the promotion, Hull said, “Of course we’re sorry to see Howie go, but this is part of how the mastering business has always worked. No one stays at any one place forever. Young engineers work with senior guys, and learn the finer points of the craft. When spots open up, the younger engineers step up to move the torch forward.

“I started my career as Bob Ludwig’s assistant. And when Bob left Masterdisk for Maine I was promoted to Chief Engineer in his old room. Matt’s a very good engineer, and his clients have been very happy with his projects over the past few years. I have total faith that as more people get to know his mastering style, he’ll be very successful here.”

Recent records Matt has worked on include Gorillaz’ Plastic Beach, Spoon’s Transference, Wavves’ King of the Beach, and Rogue Wave’s Permalight.

Speaking of young mastering engineers working their way up, Masterdisk continues with its Masterdisk Indie program that Hull launched just over a year ago. “Of my first round of indie guys, several of them are now doing regular work,” says Hull. “Graham Goldman, for example, has done a few metal projects that have gotten some nice attention. And a couple of the other guys have been bringing in bands from the Brooklyn indie rock scene.”

As for his own schedule of mastering projects, Hull mentions a couple of recent 5.1 surround releases, including Sting’s just released “Live in Berlin” concert DVD. He mastered Sting’s Symphonicities album for vinyl and CD and then the concert DVD with stereo and 5.1 mixes, both with arrangements and production by Rob Mathes. He’s also been working on 5.1 mixes of Dave Matthews Band concert recordings.

“We’re finally getting serious about surround – we did a few more surround projects this year, and we’re adding some gear and finishing our surround rig over the next month or so,” he reports.

“I was talking about surround back in 1999! But the reason I’m putting a little more effort into it now is that I think Blu-ray is going to stick around for awhile. I work with a lot of contemporary composers and people who might be pushing the envelope in different realms and I have this sense that — from a creative standpoint – someone’s going to do something cool with this, and I don’t want to be too far away from it when that happens!”

For more on Masterdisk, visit www.masterdisk.com. And to book Matt for your next session, contact Erin Hungerford at erin@masterdisk.com. Matt can be reached at matt@masterdisk.com. Congrats Matt!

Pictured with Scott Hull (left) are Jeff Reeves and Alex DeTurk, both Masterdisk Indie engineers who work in Hull's suite.

MIDTOWN WEST, MANHATTAN: Scott Hull officially launched his new venture, Masterdisk Indie, this week. The acclaimed mastering engineer — who came up at Masterdisk, later opened Scott Hull Mastering, and returned to Masterdisk as its owner in ’08 — has a major agenda in rolling out this new “indie” mastering program: 1) to service independent musicians, 2) to mentor up-and-coming mastering engineers, and 3) to adapt the NYC music institution for a bright and busy tomorrow.

Masterdisk’s crew of senior mastering engineers includes Scott Hull (Steeley Dan, John Mayer, Panic At The Disco), Howie Weinberg (U2, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins), Andy Van Dette (Rush, Deep Purple, Skillet), Tony Dawsey (Nine Inch Nails, Jay-Z, DMX) and Randy Merrill (Seether, Danielia Cotton, Surface Wound). With Masterdisk Indie, a younger wave of engineers — all of whom are experienced engineers and many of whom have advanced through the ranks at Masterdisk — will take on projects at a reduced rate.

“From my perspective, there’s a lot of mastering work coming from independent musicians,” says Hull. “Many of these bands and solo artists need quality mastering, but are choosing quick-fix and cheap mastering with generally poor results. Our indie engineers can draw on the knowledge of about 100 years of mastering experience collectively. And our senior engineers are experienced in all genres of music, there is always someone to get a second opinion from.”

The engineering roster coming up under the senior staff at Masterdisk includes Jeff Reeves, Graham Goldman, Matt Shane, Marcos Sueiro Bal, Alex DeTurk, Matt Agoglia and Tim Boyce.

“In this batch of indie engineers, there’s one that’s a web/IT specialist, one with a sound design and synthesis background, one that has spent most of his professional life restoring and archiving very delicate historic recordings, an engineer with extensive video and sound for picture background, one that has experience managing bands and engineers, a couple pro mixers and a mastering engineer that is ‘moving up’ from a smaller market,” Hull describes. “And, all with a passion for mastering.  This widens Masterdisk’s base of knowledge. It’s a lot more than just letting the kids use the gear after hours.  We have weekly team meetings, discuss solutions to their issues of sales and mastering, and focus on how to offer first quality service at very competitive rates.”

OK, sounds legit, right? Now get a load of the pricing…

Masterdisk Indie will master a sample track for free; then it’s $50 per song and $650 an album. Skeptics can simply upload their free sample track to MasterdiskIndie.com, and judge for themselves if this process is worth their money.

MENTORING IN THE AGE OF ISOLATION

The new “Indie” division at Masterdisk is going to provide a much-needed training ground for the golden ears of tomorrow.

Andy VanDette (left) with Masterdisk Indie engineer Matt Shane.

Of course, the Indie service makes great business sense, as it accommodates more clients in a growing market and utilizes the existing studios and equipment during all hours of the day and weekend. But, what Hull refers to as the “less obvious” goal of Masterdisk Indie, is “the synthesis that can happen between the more experienced engineers and the younger engineers: team building, new ideas and services, engineers with very different experiences learning from each other.”

The mentorship aspect of Masterdisk Indie is huge, as more often in this day and age, engineer/producers work in solo operations for better or worse. And, as large mastering facilities, like Sony, have closed, more and more one-man-shops have cropped up. In interview earlier this year, Hull explained why he thinks this phenomenon may be problematic.

“There really isn’t any stepping stone studio that I can think of at this point in mastering,” said Hull. “If you want to be a mastering engineer, you either buy the gear and figure out how to use it in your own space, or you come here [or one of the other few mastering facilities in town] and do an apprenticeship. I’m suspecting that as mastering progresses, the individual self-taught engineers will have some issues dealing with new technologies and even older technologies, because they just won’t have all the skills. They’ll fall short in one aspect or another.

“That’s one of the things that made Masterdisk and Sterling and Bernie Grundman and Precision, etc…successful — it was their ability to adapt very quickly to new technologies and new formats. They could set an experienced technical staff to a task and say, figure out how we’re going to do this, and then how we’re going to make money doing this.”

And now, how to adapt once more? How do you accommodate a potentially high-volume of indie artist clients at extremely competitive prices, all within Masterdisk’s already full-time mastering schedule? “I had to develop strategies for sharing the room and sharing the calendar,” Hull explains. “Creative use of the schedule creates some opportunities for the indie engineers, who are under the constant supervisions and scrutiny of me and my other senior engineers.  We are not renting our studios out to outside engineers — all of these engineers are Masterdisk team members and have the same support as all of our engineers.”

It’s business development, plain and simple. Masterdisk Indie is the future. “Some of these younger engineers will become the next generation of full-card engineers at Masterdisk,” Hull acknowledges. “And, now, these younger engineers are not too ‘big’ to work with any local and indie band project. They can give very personal attention to smaller projects.”

And we don’t have to tell you that today’s up-and-coming artists in NYC are tomorrow’s big stars. And that could be tomorrow, as in the day after today, the way that buzz races through the indie music blogosphere…Check ‘em out at www.masterdiskindie.com.