Balancing Act Mastering engineer Jett Galindo on building an inclusive industry, and the art of a finely tuned mix.
By
Darry Madden
June 5, 2023
Jett Galindo
Roxette, the Bangles, Bananarama, Heart.
In the Philippines of her youth, Jett Galindo B.M. '12 was awash in the sounds of a vibrant pop cover-band culture, one that extended straight into her home.
My childhood was pop music, Galindo says. Her mother and father had a business training and managing these cover bands, and young Jett was tasked with keeping her parents up on the trends and new songs on MTV.
Her path to becoming a mastering engineer began here, but included a few more stops along the way, because inside this pop music kid was also a tinkerer, a techie, and a classical soprano.
When she was 19, Galindo's choral group toured the U.S., and it was on this tour that she met a Berklee alumnus who connected her with the college. At Berklee, where she majored in music production and engineering, a professor introduced her to the legendary engineer Doug Sax. He ran L.A.'s Mastering Lab, the first independent mastering studio (opened in 1967) and helped shape the sound of a tremendous amount of pop music in the '70s and '80s, including Pink Floyd, the Doors, and the Rolling Stones.
Mastering is essentially trying to make your music loud. That sounds simple enough, but it's very hard.
- Jett Galindo
Sax, whom Galindo cites as her mentor, died only two years after she arrived in Los Angeles to work with him. She stayed in L.A. and is now at the Bakery as one of its three mastering engineers.
Mastering, for those who don't know the finer points of this often misunderstood part of the musical puzzle, is the final step in audio post-production. Its goal is to balance the stereo mix and ensure that the track sounds its best across all media formats.
Mastering is essentially trying to make your music loud, says Galindo. That sounds simple enough, but it's very hard because you also don't want to make your music loud at the expense of its integrity. There is a tendency for people to just keep pushing the volume, but then you end up distorting it. Your music ends up brittle and saturated. It's really a fine balancing act.
As is so much in life, as Galindo can attest. In addition to her main job, she continues to perform in chorales, cuts vinyl at the Bakery, and is active in several nonprofits, including Women in Vinyl and SoundGirls, both of which represent women in audio. This representation is a cause that's close to her heart.
There's still work to be done in getting women into this field. There's really no reason for it to be that less than 5 percent of the engineers engineering the Billboard Hot 100 are women, she says, adding, Organizations like SoundGirls are very important-it's important that women feel that we should lift each other up.
For Galindo, this belief extends to all underrepresented voices in the arts.
I've been getting a lot of work from demographic groups that never had mastering services available to them before. The Philippines, I believe, still doesn't have an independent, standalone mastering facility. It was only recently that pop music in the Philippines became properly mastered on a standard basis.
When she was a kid, she says, the question in the Philippine music industry was: Why doesn't the music in our country sound like the Top 40s?
The answer, she says, comes down to how the music is engineered: A big part of that is making sure that your music sounds competitive when played against other music on a playlist, and making sure the frequency response of the music is within the same tonal balance curves as the Top 40s or a specific genre, she says. And a big part of that is mastering.
This article appeared in the spring/summer 2023 issue of Berklee Today.
Related Categories
Berklee Today
News
Most Popular
Image by Libby Danforth
Viral TikTok Song If I Were a Fish Is a Joyous Call for Acceptance Berklee alum Corrine Savage, who performs as corook, wrote the song with their partner as a way to cope with feeling unaccepted by society for being different.
Latest
Charlie Rosen 12 won his second Tony Award for Best Orchestrations, this one for Some Like It Hot.
Image by Nessie Nankivell
Three Alumni from Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory Win Tony Awards Conservatory alumni Ben Simpson and Mike Mosallam won for Best Revival of a Musical, while College alum Charlie Rosen '12 won his second Tony for Best Orchestrations.
Susan Rogers
Searching for a Song's Emotional Arc
Corinne Savage B.M. '17 performs as corook.
Image by Libby Danforth
After a TikTok Hit, corook Gets Serious (Sort Of) The humor and sincerity of if i were a fish struck a chord with alum Corinne Savages listeners. Their new EP proves it was anything but a one-off.
Read All
Subscribe The latest sounds, stories, and ideas, sent to your inbox weekly.
Most recent headlines
09/12/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced that it has been named an IDC Innovator in the IDC Innovators: ...
09/11/2024
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced three new members of its executive team. Tara Bryant joins as Chi...
13/09/2024
By Bailey Pennick
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival is having a front-row seat for the bright future of independent filmmaking. ...
13/09/2024
SNS is excited to preview the latest features coming to the award-winning EVO Suite. Be among the first to test drive these workflow innovations at IBC2024, and...
13/09/2024
Spotify is committed to bringing the best listening experience to all our users, and that includes parents and families. That's why we've introduced a p...
13/09/2024
As fans patiently await their favorite artists' new album releases, the anti...
13/09/2024
What I've always loved about his films is that incredible warmth and that incredible imagination, cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, BSC, GSC says of dire...
13/09/2024
SALT LAKE CITY, Sept. 12, 2024 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:LHX) has received a...
13/09/2024
Rendering of L3Harris Tranche 2 Tracking (T2TRK) imagery for the Space Developme...
13/09/2024
Last month, L3Harris delivered the third U.S. Air Force EA-37B Compass Call Cross Deck aircraft integrated with sophisticated electromagnetic attack (EA) miss...
13/09/2024
Targeted at low-to-mid tier productions, the new products set new standards for ...
13/09/2024
The next generation products will enhance the Densit Modular Platform with unma...
13/09/2024
Revolution in Storage: EditShare Reveals Game-Changing New Line Up at IBC 2024
More power, more speed, more flexibility, more capacity, more security, more co...
13/09/2024
AMSTERDAM Calrec Audio has unveiled its compact Argo M audio console, ImPulseV cloud audio mixing solution and True Control 2.0 at IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16....
13/09/2024
A study of how the media and broadcast industry feels about artificial intelligence (AI) has revealed most media and broadcast companies view its adoption as a ...
13/09/2024
AMSTERDAM AI-driven digital asset management system (DAM) Starchive announced at IBC 2024 a collaboration with Seagate that fully integrates its toolset with Se...
13/09/2024
AMSTERDAM DPA Microphones has introduced its 2061 Miniature Omnidirectional Microphone for applications ranging from broadcast studios and ENG to theaters, even...
13/09/2024
Rodney Alejandro Named Dean of Professional Writing and Music Technology Alejandro, Berklees current Songwriting Department chair and an alumnus of the colleg...
13/09/2024
The presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump was watched by 67.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen....
13/09/2024
Brightcove introduced the Brightcove AI Suite, which uses AI to provide content creation, audience growth and engagement and increased revenue generation....
13/09/2024
Warner Bros. Discovery and Charter Communications said the reached a new multi-y...
13/09/2024
The History Channel's History This Week podcast returns for a fifth season on September 16....
13/09/2024
NEW YORK The ABC News Presidential Debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump drew an estimated audience of 67.1 million view...
13/09/2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. In response to Donald Trump's call for ABC stations to lose their broadcast licenses, Federal Communications Commission chairwoman Jessica ...
13/09/2024
IRVINE, Calif. Teradek will launch its new Prism 877 4K HEVC encoder/decoder cards at the IBC 2024, Sept. 13-16, at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center....
13/09/2024
ATLANTA The Georgia Association of Broadcasters honored nine station employees at the early stage of their broadcast career as members of its first-ever class o...
13/09/2024
MONTREAL Grass Valley and broadcast equipment supply and service company ES Broadcast have inked a strategic partnership agreement that continues and expands a ...
13/09/2024
NEWARK, N.J. Panasonic Connect has announced the new AK-UCX100 4K studio camera and two new 4K multi-purpose cameras. In addition, the company said it will exte...
13/09/2024
OTTAWA, Canada Ross Video has launched Ultricore Tally, a full-featured, versatile tally control and management solution and will showcase it at IBC 2024, Sept....
13/09/2024
Both appointees join the company following extensive careers in the industry
By Matthew Corrigan
Published: September 13, 2024
Both appointees join the co...
13/09/2024
Hollyland Elevates Wireless Communications for Large-Scale Film and TV Productio...
13/09/2024
Blackmagic Design Announces Blackmagic PYXIS Monitor!
Brie Clayton September 12, 2024
0 Comments
New cinematic monitoring solution for Blackmagic PYXI...
13/09/2024
Sculpting Reimagined: Maxon Releases ZBrush for iPad
Brie Clayton September 13, 2024
0 Comments
Take the power of ZBrush on the go with reimagined UI,...
13/09/2024
WCVB Spotlights Berklee Institute for Accessible Arts Education The institutes ABLE summer camp program was featured in the 5 for Good segment.
By
Daniel Pe...
13/09/2024
13 Sep 2024
VEON General Counsel Omiyinka Doris Named Among Top 15 Legal Leader...
13/09/2024
Sky Studios Elstree opens Sky Up Academy to inspire 10,000 students a year to pu...
13/09/2024
Countering the autonomous aerial threat In an interview, Martin Woywod, Product Manager Counter-UAS (CUAS) Systems, Rohde & Schwarz , talks about the need for...
13/09/2024
Amsterdam September 13, 2024
WDR Relies on Riedel Backbone for Remote Production of UEFA Euro 2024The German regional public broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfu...
13/09/2024
Amsterdam September 13, 2024
Riedel Expands Its Range of NSA Network Stream AdaptersRiedel Communications today announced the launch of two new additions to i...
13/09/2024
Amsterdam September 13, 2024
Riedel Communications Launches Virtual SmartPanel at IBC2024At IBC2024, Riedel Communications announced the launch of its ground...
13/09/2024
Amsterdam September 13, 2024
Riedel Unveils Revolutionary SAME Smart Audio & Mixing Engine at IBC2024Riedel SAME Delivers Ultra-Low-Latency Audio Processing ...
13/09/2024
Back to All News
Netflix Greenlights Love Untangled': A Nostalgic Korean Y...
13/09/2024
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sept. 13, 2024 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) is pleased to announ...
13/09/2024
Photo credit: GETTY IMAGES
Press release - 13 September 2024 09:50
Eutelsat ...
13/09/2024
Photo credit: AdobeStock_305149408- nuchao
Press release - 13 September 2024...
13/09/2024
Today, Apple Maps on the web is available in public beta, allowing users around the world to access Maps directly from their browser.1...
13/09/2024
Apple and Major League Baseball (MLB) today announced the September game schedule for Friday Night Baseball, a weekly doubleheader available to Apple TV+ subs...
13/09/2024
Starting with iOS 18.1, developers will be able to offer NFC contactless transactions using the Secure Element from within their own apps on iPhone, separate fr...
13/09/2024
Starting tomorrow, September 13, at 5 a.m. PDT, customers can pre-order Apple's powerful new iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro models on apple.com/uk and in the r...
Balancing Act Mastering engineer Jett Galindo on building an inclusive industry, and the art of a finely tuned mix.
