Mastering Overview

What is mastering? Mastering is the stage where the mixed two track master is both artistically enhanced and technically prepared to be sent for manufacture. It is the final technical and creative stage in a project and the last opportunity to fix any technical and artistic shortcomings. A good mastering job will enhance your mix with obvious tangible qualities such as volume, tone and impact. You will also find that it can bring forward many more intangible qualities such as perceived size, space, depth, width , dynamics, bounce, groove, liveliness, drive and sheen. It can add new harmonic content giving warmth, body, musicality and even a sense of "magic". When the audio is passed through the very same analog equipment as many familiar classic recordings, familiarity and even a "classic quality" can be given to a project. On a technical level it can balance out the sound of recordings, made at different studios or from recordings made over extended periods of time. Recordings which had previously sounded very different can be made to be more contiguous and naturally flowing throughout an album. Mastering at Poons Head Mastering is the final opportunity to correct and enhance your recording in both artistic and technical dimensions. Mastering at Poons Head can range from giving your project just the correct amount of subtle and delicate enhancement to the dramatic effect of a complete remix. It is the experienced professional that will know how to achieve the desired result for your project. Rob's fiteen years experience at mastering will give your project what it needs to take it to the next level both technically, and most importantly, musically. Poons Head mastering utilises the best of both analog and digital processing. Analog tube equalisers and compressers from Manley, Tube-Tech and Pultec, with analog tube processing from Telefunken. Solid state analog processing from Trident and Neve. Digital conversion is provided by Lavry Gold, Lavry Black, Digital Audio Denmark, Apogee and Benchmark. Sequoia 10 is the DAW of choice offering features such as ISRC coding and DDP masters. Highest quality digital equalisation and audio restoration, featuring 'Renovator', is provided from the complete Algorithmix suite. Universal Audio powered plug-ins ,Sony and Waves also add to the palette on digital offer. Sample rate conversion is provided by Weiss. The highest quality analog tape machines including 1/4" stereo, 1/4" mono and 1/2" two track- Ampex ATR and Studer - provide tape processing and master playback. Monitoring provided by Duntech Sovereign and Lipinkski speakers through Pass Labs and Threshold Amplification. The dedicated monitoring room is 30' long with 12' ceilings and RPG timber acoustic treatments.

Equipment Used

MONITORING	DUNTECH SOVEREIGN C 6000 MK IV LIPINSKI L707 PASS LABS X2.5 Pre-Amp PASS LABS X600 1200W Mono Block x 2 THRESHOLD SA12 350W Class A Mono Block x 2
RECORDERS › ANALOG	AMPEX ATR 102 1/2" Stereo with Dolby SR STUDER B67 ¼" Stereo STUDER B67 ¼" Mono STUDER B62 ¼" Stereo AMPEX 351 ¼" Mono Tube AMPEX AG 350 ¼" Mono
› DIGITAL	SEQUOIA v10.2 Digital Audio Workstation TASCAM DV-RA1000 192KHz PCM & DSD / CD / DVD Recorder TASCAM DA45 - 24 Bit DAT Recorder x 2 SONY PCM 501 (Apogee mods. filters + digital out) HHB 850 PLUS CD Recorder plus wordclock PLEXTOR CD Recorder
› A/D and D/A CONVERTERS	LAVRY AD122-96MkIII DIGITAL AUDIO DENMARK AX24 (384kHz 8 Channel DA and AD) x 2 LAVRY DA-10 BENCHMARK DAC1 APOGEE DA-16X (192kHz 24 Bit 16 Channel Converter) TASCAM DSD Converters (RA 1000) RME Hammerfall HDSP AES32
SOFTWARE PLUG-INS	ALGORITHMIX LINEAR PHASE PEQ RED ALGORITHMIX LINEAR PHASE PEQ ORANGE ALGORITHMIX RENOVATOR ALGORITHMIX SCRATCHFREE PRO ALGORITHMIX NOISEFREE PRO WEISS SARACON SRC UNIVERSAL AUDIO AUD-1 Ultra Pack x4 (Complete range of all UNIVERSAL AUDIO plug-ins)
COMPRESSOR/LIMITERS	TUBE-TECH SMC-2A Tube Multi-Band Compressor/Limiter Stereo TUBE-TECH LCA 2B Tube Compressor/Limiter Stereo MANLEY VARIABLE-MU Tube Compressor/Limiter Stereo with Mid/Side and T bar mod NEVE 2254/a Compressor/Limiter x 2 GATES STA-LEVEL Tube Vari-mu Compressor x2 FAIRCHILD 666 Tube Compressor
EQUALIZERS	MANLEY MASSIVE PASSIVE Tube EQ Stereo TRIDENT CB 9066 Class A EQ x 2 PULTEC EQP - 1A3 Mono Tube Program EQ x 2 PULTEC MEQ5 Mono Tube EQ TUBE-TECH PE1C Mono Tube Program EQ x 2 TUBE-TECH ME1A Mono Tube Mid EQ x 2
LINE AMPS	TELEFUNKEN V74 Tube x 5 NEVE 1272 x 6
TURNTABLE	LINN SONDEK LP12 + ITOK arm SHELTER 501 moving coil cartridge EAR 834P phono stage