Category Archives: Production Advice

Dynamic Range Day Competition 2013 Announced

So, the top prize in the 2013 Dynamic Range Day competition is… an SSL Buss Compressor. Wait, what ?!? The prize in a competititon intended to raise awareness of the loudness wars is… a compressor ? Exactly the kind of ...

Even Green Day sound better with more dynamics

Whether or not you agree that 24/96 audio sounds better, there’s no doubt that the lossless downloads offered by sites like HDtracks.com will sound better than the same songs as mp3s from Amazon. But that advantage has just ramp...

When should you use dither ?

I’ll keep this short and sweet. It’s prompted by a discussion today in the Home Mastering Masterclass Facebook group, asking when to dither, and why. [Update: I've made a video demonstrating what dither noise is, and how i...

Win a free place on the Home Mastering Masterclass Course

The competition is closed, thanks for all the entries ! The winners were Adam Cox, Helen Worrall And Robert Tacey. The next Home Mastering Masterclass course starts this Friday, the 14th September – and you could win a free plac...

It’s back !

I first launched the Home Mastering Masterclass four months ago. I had no idea back then how popular it would be, or how much fun ! And there’s been so much interest, I’ve decided to run it again, sooner than I originall...

Are these the best live concert DVDs ever ?

I just had an email from Caitlynn asking what my favourite live recordings were, especially DVDs. As I typed my reply, I thought “what a great list” and decided to share it with you. So, here it is ! For me, a great live...

Why Great Mastering STILL Starts at the Source

This is a guest post by Björgvin Benediktsson from the Audio Issues website. Every part of the audio production process is connected to every other. If you do each part well, the end result will turn out great. But if you screw ...

CNET’s Top 10 reasons why music is compressed – NOT

This post is a reply to an article on CNET by Steve Guttenberg, claiming to list the “Top 10 reasons why music is compressed”. Frankly, Steve should know better. The article was brought to my attention by Bobby Owsinski...

Mastering – it’s not What, it’s not How, it’s WHY that matters

I’ve been mastering professionally for over 16 years, now, but I’m still learning all the time – and right now is no exception. Two weeks ago I launched my first ever online course – the Home Mastering Master...

Analogue versus digital summing – the view from here

There’s been some interesting discussion recently about the merits (or not !) of analogue summing – for example over at the Recording Revolution site. Make sure you read all the comments ! For once I’m not going ...