Golden Ears: Realising The Dream Of The Artist

Golden Ears: Realising The Dream Of The Artist 18 Aug 2017 --

Sarah Register & Mandy Parnell On The Importance Of Mastering And How They've Developed Their Ear While even the most casual listener has probably heard the term mastering' thrown around, few people have a grasp on what the process really entails. Ultimately, mastering is the final step in the post-production process of completing a record, but even for a lot of musicians, things are still hazy about exactly what that constitutes. As experts in the field Sarah Register and Mandy Parnell tell it, that haziness is part of what makes the process so special. Register and Parnell have a combined experience of almost fifty years between them. Their insight into mastering reveals that, like any art form, it can take many shapes and sizes and will be distinctly different for each record - just as every album is a completely different piece of art.

Subjectivity is built directly into mastering, a huge part of which is essentially very careful listening. Think of mastering as the knife that smoothes frosting over a cake, filling in holes and evening out the space between songs until everything is equal and well-balanced. Without mastering, the volume levels on tracks can be wildly variant, and the sequencing of songs on an album might not have the right feel. One of the biggest things a mastering engineer brings to the table, though, is an outside perspective that the creators of the project might be too close to access. Unlike some of the more technical steps in the engineering process, there's a decidedly therapeutic element to mastering.

Our job is to try to realize the dream of the artist

- Mandy Parnell

Some artists need this process to let go in a sense, Parnell said, a London-based mastering engineer with over three decades of experience, including founding and running her own independent studio, Black Saloon. With some projects, the artistic teams might have been in the studio for as long as four years. The idea is that we bring a neutral set of ears to the table and a huge experience with lots of different styles of music, but psychology along with that experience. Really, our job is to try to realize the dream of the artist.

Mandy Parnell, Mastering Engineer, in her London studio.

Sarah Register has been working as a mastering engineer in New York City since 2001, including a long stint at The Lodge and another at the Mastering Palace before founding her own company, Sarah Register Mastering. She acknowledges that many people find what she does to have a mysterious quality. To some artists, mastering is this mysterious thing that people have told them they have to do, otherwise the record isn't a record,' Register said. Essentially mastering can put you in a position to approach anything that's not yet done. It's your final opportunity to take the project from where it is to wherever it needs to go. Part of my job is to dig into the psychology of where things are at now, who has the creative say, and what needs to be done. So there's a little initial therapy that happens to figure out what's necessary.

Sarah Register, at work in her NYC mastering studio. (Photo: Shervin Lainez.)

After getting the psychology behind a record down, both Parnell and Register note that their primary artistic desire as mastering engineers is to enhance the creative direction the artist is already going toward, remaining a neutral or flat force in the process. I'm very much of the ethos that the less I do, the better, Parnell said. A lot of the clients I work with like that ethos; I will try to transfer the music and keep the integrity of what they've already got. If I feel there are issues, we might discuss it with them. So at that point we're checking for phase, sibilance, or things like whether the sub-bass is too much. But if I'm going to change something, I really consider why I might do that, rather than just transferring flat. If there are problems with the mixes, or more intensive doctoring that needs to be done to the audio files, then mastering can drastically change how an album sounds in its final state. But both of these engineers indicate that their role is typically much more subtle.

There's a real conscience in knowing when to do very little

- Sarah Register

You don't want to just slap EQ or compression on to call it mastered' if it already sounds the way it needs to, Register said, echoing Parnell's ethos of less is more. While sometimes mastering can call for a big change that takes the material from its initial vibe to something completely different, in other circumstances it can be nearly nothing, the lightest kiss, very minimal. And of course, often somewhere in between. But there's a real conscience in knowing when to do very little.

Sarah Register. (Photo: Shervin Lainez.)

The technical process for mastering files begins with transferring them from the artist's hard drive into a mastering engineer's Digital Audio Workstation - both Register and Parnell cite Sequoia as their current DAW of choice - and from there, engineers help determine sequencing, EQ levels, and optimization for playback across a variety of formats, including the new wild west that is streaming services.

Though she works in Sequoia now, Register has used three different DAWs during her sixteen year tenure as an engineer. Currently my digital audio workstation is Sequoia, by a company called Magix, she said. I've moved through three main mastering DAWs during my career - starting with the classic Sonic Solutions, which I loved and stuck with for around twelve years, then on to Pyramix for the next few, and most recently Sequoia. Sequoia was a very conscious choice that I feel great about - it's a wonderful tool for the way that I

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