Interview

1) What would you consider a good mix down or one you’d like to work with, and what kind of a
mix would you be reluctant to work with?

A good mix just feels good, everything has the right impact at the right time. If nothing sound
unintentionally wrong I´m good to go.
Btw… a good mix does not necessarily have to sound good. Ugly sound can be part of the story
told.

2) Tell us a little bit about your background and what inspired you to become a mastering
engineer?

I have been playing around with cassette recorders since the age of 12, tape recording music from
the radio. Besides loving music I also got interrested into the technical aspect of recording sound
which eventually lead to an apprenticeship at PHILIPS Germany. The little money earned during
that time went mostly into building a little home studio, buying synthesizers, an ATARI ST
computer with Cubase and from what I learned at my professional traning I build myself a small
mixing desk. In 1994 I released my fist record under the name Microwave Prince on the legendary
Le Petit Prince label. The whole rest of the 90´s I was making techno music and playing live shows
at RAVE festivals. In the meantime the internet came along which allowed acces to schematic of
all kinds of classic recording equipment. Equalizers and compressors that were way out of a price
range I could afford. Since i got the skills, passion and wanted this stuff so bad, I started building
it. Over the time my music making friends noticed I got all this crazy stuff and got very interested
of coming to my studio with their mixes to make them sound better. That´s how my mastering
thing got started.

3) Any technical tips for aspiring producers on achieving a right balance in the mix?

I think listening volume when mixing is something to pay attention to. What to listen for at what
volume. So some sort of calibrated volume control (can be simple markings on your volume knob)
that correlates to your mixbus VU meters helps a lot.

Find the right speakers to mix on. Test them for a while, don´t just judge them on how they sound.
Mix and let those mixes decide.

4) Do you have a roadmap or a vision of how a track should sound before you start the mastering
process?

The mix should „emotionally“ be as close as possible to where you want it to be. The topend
might be a bit off and the loudness is probably not at target but you should feel the music. Keep in
mind: mastering does not add emotions, but it can reveal them. So it should feel right before
sending it off to mastering.

5) Tell us a little bit about your set up? Do you prefer hardware to software or a combination of the
two? What are your go to tools?
Let me start with my 2 most important tools. These are my speakers, which are ATC SCM 110 and
my room (which has been designed by Thomas Jouanjean of Northward Acoustics). That´s the
foundation, everything else builds on top of that.
I use a mix of hardware and software but can say that the heavy lifting is done by the hardware,
even though some is digital. My main EQ is our inhouse built HDE-450, a 7-band stereo analog
beast. If I need some extra fancyness or if there are problems in the stereofield I have an EQ
capable of mid/side processing. Dynamicwise I have an VCA compressor to keep things under
control before I hit the analog to digital converter. There is also a passive analog EQ with very
broad curves wich I use on occasion if a track needs to be balanced out a bit more. But it´s rare so
I almost forgot to mention it. On the digital side there are the Weiss EQ1 and DS1 processors on
the hardware side and DMG Equlibrium on the software side. I use the Equilibrium mostly for slight
touch up on revisions.

6) Could you briefly explain how mastering differentiates from engineer to engineer and give us a
brief run through of the different schools of thought (if any) and what’s your approach?

I believe the approach of mastering will be mostly influenced by client/project (genre) and the
destination format. Someone who is mastering jazz recordings for vinyl will probably have a
different approach than someone mastering a club banger for digital distribution. Sometimes it
needs to stay original as possible, sometimes it needs to be pushed right to the edge with
candysauce on top it. It´s kind of a Jekyll & Hyde thing :-)

7) What are your thought on online mastering softwares like LANDR?

It´s all about expectation. And since it´s an automated process it can only go so far. How do you
tell LANDR „I like what you did to the bass but can you put a little more spotlight and sparkle on
the vocal. Plus the level is not that important for me on this track so please let it breath and let´s
go with a bit less compression.“
How much control do you need to have over the end result? Thats the question. Is it just a track to
play at the party tonight or is it an album you worked on for 2 years and want it to be perfect.

8) Your favorite piece of outboard gear?

Our HDE-450 Equalizer

9) Could you briefly break down the fundamentals of equalization, compression, limiting and signal
path/flow and tell us how you use these tools in your process?

Equalization de- or increases the the energy of certain areas or spots of the frequency spectrum.
For instance: You can increse the hi frequencies to make track brighter or remove an anoying bass
frequency that´s drawing too much attention to itself or makes the whole mix sound muddy.

I use equalization mainly to make a mix sound a bit bigger and clearer, so all frequencies I want to
hear are coming thru.

Compression and limiting is basically the same thing. limiting is just very strong (hi ratio) and fast
compression.

You might compress/limit for 2 reasons: A) The mix is dynamicly a bit out of control so it´s not that
easy to listen to. You try to push stuff that stick out of the mix and makes you nervious back a bit
and everything runs hopefully a bit smoother then. B) To gain loudness. You push transients and
peaks down to prevent them fom clipping while inceasing the level of the track.

EQ and compression/limiting go hand in hand. And if one the 2 is not 100% right you will probably
overdo the other.

10) You’ve mastered tracks for legendary artists and record labels like Mark Romboy, Stephan
Bodzin, Audio Jack, Rodriguez Jr, Lost and Fond, Systematic Recordings, Bedrock and Herzblut
recordings amongst many others. What are the essentials, both from a mixing and mastering point
of view when working with music for dance floors and large PA systems?

Keep an extra ear on the bass area. somewhere down there is the hidden star of the show. One of
of the essentials is to have monitoring that does not lie or just not show whats going on in the low
end.
If you´ve got that covered you can literaly do what you want to make it big because you are in
control.

11) Do you work closely with the artists/producers and have their continual involvement through
your process?

I like working closely and getting direct feedback. This helps me to get better at what I do and
create better products. Sometimes communication between me and the artist happens only
through label executives or managers…I find this to be very unefficient.

12) Apart from leaving adequate head room, not over compressing signals, controlling transients
and achieving a fair balance with both frequency and stereo image, what else would you advice
producers to look for in their mix before sending it out to be mastered? Are their certain recurring
or common problems that you come across fairly often in terms of the way artists have mixed their
music?

Technically the stuff I get is pretty good and if there are issues then you covered them pretty much
in your question. I wish for more attitude sometimes. Not beeing lazy and use the automation to
ride the levels to max out the emotional impact. A good mix is not "set the faders once and
forget".

13) Could you differentiate your process whilst doing a stem master as opposed to a traditional
one?

Depends on the (3) reason you want to master from stems:

1. There are problems in the track that can be addressed easier when having stems available.
(for example: if the vocals are too sharp or esssy it less damage to strap a desser on the vocal
stem than across the whole mix.

2. People are not happy with their mix and want me help with that. like sending separate Kick
and bass stems to get the low end right. this can help but is a dangerous thing, especially if
its a remote session and the artist is note here with me in the studio…it can go back and forth
a lot…

3. the tracktor stem format. to be honest I did not have a single request for that but it´s
interresting
14) Briefly take us through your favorite EQ’s, Compressors and what you use each for by
differentiating the tonal characteristics or utility of each?

Okay, quick run thru:

HDE-450 EQ mainly for balancing the track frequencywise (think: bass, mids, treble)
HDE-250 EQ mid/side equalization, this more a vibe thing, space and depht
Weiss EQ1 surgical stuff, especially in the low end
SL-4000 compressor, keeping the levels in check or add some glue
Weiss DS1 for clean compression or de-ssing
EQP-2s Wideband EQ for very broad strokes or tilting the mix a bit
some units have switchable transformers build in if some extra color is needed

Thank you for your time Steff,

Thanx for having me