The Dark Art of Mastering: Finishing, Not Fixing

For years, mastering was treated almost like a secret society.

Tracks disappeared into mysterious rooms full of expensive equipment and came back louder, wider, shinier – somehow "better".

Producers talked about mastering engineers in almost mythical terms.

"Don't worry, mastering will fix it."

"Wait until it's mastered."

I heard those lines a lot. I probably said them too.

Abbey Road, 1993–96

I started at EMI, Abbey Road, where Nick Webb used to master.

All the Beeswax releases were done there.

The mastering engineers worked three weeks on, three weeks off – to give their ears and minds a rest.

Going there was a treat in itself, which soon became the norm.

We'd have lunch in the canteen, not really registering where we were or who could walk in.

Back then, mastering was simply a process we were told needed to be done. To make the record sound good everywhere. So we did it.

And here's the honest part – I sat through years of those sessions and still couldn't tell you exactly what they were doing. Only that it worked in the clubs.

The rooms were amazing. The systems were superb. I didn't know the sound of a room like that well enough to judge what was changing.

So I didn't pay too much attention.

Simon at The Exchange

"Simon at The Exchange" was what I read so many times in the run-out groove of records I loved. Mastering royalty.

From 2011 to 2016, the early Deli releases went there, mastered at the Exchange.

Somewhere in those years, mastering stopped being a process and became an art to me.

Because it's not about making it louder. It's not about pushing the track into places it shouldn't go.

It's about hearing the track for what it is – and making sure that picture and feel is kept, and actually enhanced, for the listener.

When people started saying they could master their own tracks, my instant reaction was simple: this takes years.

To hand someone your work – days, weeks, sometimes years of it – for twenty minutes of decisions is a big responsibility.

They have to know, completely, what they're doing.

The equipment plays its part. The sound running through the gear gives the music a certain finished quality.

But the real skill is knowing where everything should sit and feel – on that first listen.

Then the Algorithms Arrived

Online mastering became a thing. Algorithms that put your track into an even, balanced place.

I tested them when they first appeared. I was never happy with the results.

Balanced, yes. But they missed the point of what the tracks were doing.

The one exception for me was Aria Mastering – an automated online service, but running through real analogue hardware, controlled by a robot arm.

Because of that hardware, it captured the sound of a finished master in a way the pure algorithms didn't.

The trial system made it work. I'd run a minute of the main section, get a feel for the finished sound from a few options, and if something needed changing my end, amend and go again.

You can get fantastic results from Aria. But expect plenty of back and forth before the final version.

On a budget – and there were times budget was very much a thing for me – that's the route I'd take. It's enough to put your track in the right place.

If you can afford a mastering engineer, and you love what they do, do that.

Curve Pusher

The search for the right place, the right ears, went on for years.

Then three tracks I mixed for a release on Gudu came back sounding stunning. I instantly asked where they'd been mastered.

Curve Pusher, in Hastings.

What I hear in their masters: everything just sits where it should, in a solid, balanced, quality-sounding way. Smooth, but punchy. The low end hits perfectly and the weight is held exactly as it should be.

Nothing pushed anywhere it shouldn't be. The track heard for what it is, and enhanced.

These have all been digital masters so far – they cut for vinyl too, but I haven't needed that yet.

Only last week another three masters came back. Perfect for me, and for the artist.

If anyone asks me for a mastering recommendation now, that's where I send them. After all these years, I have a place I'm 100% confident in again.

Preparing a Pre-Master

A few things I do before anything leaves my studio:

• I aim for around -6dB peaks – leaving the engineer room to work.

  
  

• I check what every plugin on my 2 bus is actually doing. If it's giving the mix sauce – colour, glue – it stays.

  
  

• If a bus compressor, limiter or EQ is part of the sound, I leave it in. The mix is the mix.

  
  

• The only hard rule: room to adjust, no overloading distortion. If that's true, it's ready to go.

Final Thought

Looking back, the dark art turned out not to be dark at all.

It was experience.

Experience in the room.

Experience listening.

Experience making small decisions that add up over time.

And sometimes, after you’ve spent weeks or months living inside a track, another set of experienced ears is exactly what it needs.

Not to fix it.

Just to finish it.