Best Mastering Engineer!


Who do you say?


Rob G..

Denny Purcell was tops while he was here.

A 777 Subject.

1.)A 777 Subject says:

Quote:

Denny Purcell was tops while he was here.

-A 777 Subject.


2.)Bruce Swedien says:

Quote:

Armando.....

There's nothing to say about Bernie Grundman other than "Beernie is the very best at what he does!!!" "There is no one else even close to Bernie when it comes to mastering!!!"

-Bruce Swedien


















I say Bob Ludwig is the best.


Rob G..

Who is fastest to master?
Who masters the loudest?
Isn't that what it means? The best?



Kalli

Ask yourself who's your favourite guitarist. Oh sorry, and in what style? Some guitarists are great at one style, or are really known for one style, and other excel at several.

Then ask 20 music afficianatos and see how many different answers you get.

In other words, once you get to a certain level, there is no real answer to your question other than personal preference!

With all due respect to Bruce Swedian (who is mentioned in a later post), some mix engineers are very loyal to one mastering engineer because they have had great and consistent work done for them. They may have even started with them. But if their main guy was unavailable, became sick or passed away, they would soon enought find another great one.

I have always loved the work that Randy Kling from Disk Mastering has done for me he is in Nashville so i am looking for someone here in ca


steve

Well, I'm probably one of the fastest, though that's not much to be proud of, and it has made me virually unable to take very much time with a project. I pretty regularly get stuff where I only have an hour or two to work on it before it goes to mastering (stamper making) - sometimes minutes for singles. Though, to toot my horn a little, I've mastered rush promos and the like that the artists, a&r and I have liked better than the $ big name $ mixed/mastered final version. I am the same way tracking and mixing (which I don't do much of anymore) - working fast maintains/creates momentum and excitement. Best? - not me, I don't have the attention span for it! What was I just talking about, anyway? Loudest? No, I try to give the customer what I think they need, not what they think they want - though this will sometimes bite you in the butt.

The guy who fukks up the mixes the least.
(And this is a joke fellas so don't get your panties in bunch).

Greg Calbi.

What's the best flavor of ice cream?

Strictly a matter of taste.

JT

On a more serious note than my last post, we get quite a few masters done by GS's Jerry Tubb and Brad Blackwood. I've personally used Dave Collins when he was at A&M and Bob Ohlsson through a record company. I'd put these guys up against any Grundmann, Sterling, etc. (which we also get). Though, in a Special Edition ME Celebrity Deathmatch - I'd probably put my money on DC.

In my experience, if something is mastered by a guy (or girl) that makes his (or her) living from mastering, you can pretty much bet it will be good - otherwise they wouldn't be making a living. And no, I don't put myself or want to be in this category - too much stress. I came to the conclusion the other day that I really don't care that much about conventional music, I handle audio and data as a profession. I QC a couple thousand titles a year. I do "mastering" work on a hundred or so.

I try to at least skip through anything that comes from a real mastering house. If it's a style of music that I like (which is rare), I'll listen to the whole thing. And like the kid's say: "it's all good" (well, mostly). And therein is also the rub, you really can't judge just the mastering. My motto is "I'd rather hear a bad recording of good music, than a good recording of bad music" (good/bad being subjective for the most part, but not always). Okay, that's it - carry on!

If you made it this far, I like chocolate.

Doug Sax is up there too.


A 777 Subject.

Glen Meadows is another person who's work I highly respect.

Rob G..

there are plenty of guys here who can do justice to a project. no need for "the best" imo

my vote goes for chris blair, at abbey road who did some awesome radiohead records that sound good and translate very well in any equipment...

as well as emily lazar, great work on a recent david bowie record...

bernie grundman of course...

here in brazil my vote goes to ricardo garcia at magic master...

but i agree the best one is the one that does less harm....

Buzz Buzz, thanks! I nominate, among others, Bob Ludwig, Paul Stubblebine, Bernie Grundman, Doug Sax. But behind every successful mastering engineer there has to be a great mixing engineer... the only way you can sort of "isolate" a mastering engineer's work is to listen to many many many examples of his or her work and then you can take an average, because on the average they may receive only average mixes.

Anyway, I always say, "Every Tom, Dick and Harry is named Bob!"

BK

Brian Gardner is my favourite.

i know everyone talks about Bernie Grundman but what about Tom Coyne? man, that guy worked on nearly every classic hip-hop LP to come out of NY in the '90s. from what i know he's still staying busy too. i always liked his work... any thoughts?

In R'n'B style ...Tom Coyne is a genius !

I've worked with just about everyone sans Mr. Katz and Bob Ludwig but Bob Olhsson makes everything better for me. But hey, it ain't a competition!heh
Each person has a distinct approach and style. Based on that and
availability it shouldn't be too hard to find the right person for your project.

I nominate myself for most mediocre. There are precicely 327 who are better than me and 327 who are worse. Please contact me if you are new to mastering with a sample of your work. How it is will determine in which direction I point my sniper rifle.

Scott Hull has always done it for me

My vote has got to go to Brian "Big Bass" Gardner.

I have had some pretty good results from Dave Glasser at Airshow, Boulder CO...

very easy guy to work with, my mixes end up sounding very nice with Dave

George Marino anyone? Hello...


My vote goes "it depends on the project"...

I've had Blackwood master some stuff and think he's an amazing talent. Far better than a lot of other guys I've worked with.

Now if I were doing a bass heavy club banga'/club anthem project, I'd probably call Brian G.

If I were doing something else, who knows. If it were Brittney Spears, I'd probably call George M.

Def dependant on the project, but

Calibi is my pick.

but everyone thats mentioned is special, it really depends on the music.

Chris 'vinyl' Blair.... RIP


ruudman

Ken Love

Bob Katz

Doug Sax

Glenn Meadows

Hank Williams

Dave Glasser

Bernie Grundman

Brad Blackwood

Bob Ludwig

To name a few of the "good ones"

yeaa...Big Bass is super

3)THANKS BRUCE. Crap. We did A LOT of records together


BigBassBrian