The Mastering Show

As much as I love dynamics, in some ways mastering loud is easier. So what do I mean by that, and what does it mean for the loudness of your masters ?

In this episode I explore the benefits of loudness, including:

• Why "more dynamic" isn't always better
• The benefits of loud masters
• The effect louder masters have on the sound
• The challenges of achieving loud results
• Should you master loud ?
• My recommendation

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

I hear this question all the time - would it be better to fix this in the mix, or in the master ?

It’s a fascinating question, and you may think you already know my answer - but it may not be that simple !

There are actually several things I think are better addressed in the master rather than the mixing stage, and in this episode I dig into exactly what they are, and why I say that.

Talking about things like:

• What I never do on the mix bus
• What I always do in the mix buss
• And why it could be risky not to
• Do mixes need to be perfect ?
• Choices that are best made at the mastering stage
• What you should never leave for mastering

The questions you should always ask if you’re thinking of fixing something in the master

Links and more episodes here:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-110

Mentioned in this episode:

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

I'm seeing several different discussions online about what makes a "real" mastering engineer – and some of them are getting pretty heated !

So what really matters the most ? Expertise, experience, or credits ?

In this episode I talk about my own opinions and reasoning, talking about:

• Why credits can be a complete red herring, especially online
• The problem with credits even if they are reliable
• How I got great results with (almost) zero experience
• When years of experience might not be an advantage
• The power (and problems) of trial and error
• When expertise becomes a super-power

Links and more episodes here:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-110

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Audio repair and restoration has always been a huge part of mastering – and not only for re-mastering vintage material.

Even modern recordings can have problems like clicks, thumps, hiss, amp buzz, distortion and many more. Ideally they’d all be fixed in the mix, but sometimes it’s not possible or they get missed – or maybe the best tools for the task aren’t available.

In this episode I talk to Mike & Alexey from iZotope about my personal favourite piece of software for this kind of task, and many more - iZotope RX.

Version 12 of RX has just been released, with many new features and improvements. We talk about this and much more during the episode including:

• Why I love RX and have been using it since 2011
• My favourite features
• Some “secret weapon” strategies
• The toughest challenges for restoration
• How using the “wrong” feature can sometimes be helpful

Links and more episodes here:

https://www.themasteringshow.com/episode-109

Mentioned in this episode:

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

I used to say that the Loudness Range (LRA) measurement wasn't really useful when mastering - but recently I changed my mind. In this episode I explain why, and how loudness range is actually something you might want to pay attention to, as well.

Topics include:

• What is the Loudness Range ?
• How is it different to Dynamic Range ?
• What even IS Dynamic Range, anyway ?
• Why did I say that LRA wasn't helpful ?
• How I changed my mind, and why
• How LRA could be useful for you

Links and more episodes here:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-108

Mentioned in this episode:

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

More and more people are choosing to get vinyl copies of their music made one at a time, rather than having hundreds of copies pressed at once. Or in very small batches, or allowing fans to order copies on demand.

So how does this work, and what does it mean ? How do you get the best quality results, and minimise the risk of getting something back that you're not happy with ?

Mastering for vinyl is a whole different ball-game, as I discussed in detail with Scott Hull in Episode 94. So in this show, Joe Caithness and I dig into the topic in detail, discussing:

• What is a "lathe cut" or "dubplate"
• How are they made, and how are they different to traditionally pressed vinyl ?
• Do you always need to have your music mastered by a dedicated vinyl cutting engineer ?
• How do you get the specs for the audio you should supply ? And
• Why this can be trickier than it sounds
• Do you really need to mono the bass on vinyl ? And what about phase ?

Links and more episodes here:

https://www.themasteringshow.com/episode-107

Mentioned in this episode:

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

I see it every day: “The Loudness Wars are over - loud won. Get over it”

And it’s easy to see why. The average mainstream release hits -8 LUFS integrated or more; club releases regularly hit -6 or even -4 LUFS and are peaking well above zero; every other post you see on social media is about a new limiter or clipping strategy…

As the creator of Dynamic Range Day and Loudness Penalty, I should probably just give up and get my hat, right ?

Maybe….

But maybe not.

In this episode I dig into the evidence in 2026, and try to decide whether dynamics really are dead or not, looking at:

• The LUFS of the biggest recent releases
• Why no-one hears it
• Are mixes built too loud to be dynamic ?
• Why music fans don’t care (which could be good news) - and who does
• What do we do about it ?
• Reasons to be optimistic about dynamics in 2026

Links and more episodes here:

https://www.themasteringshow.com/episode-106

Mentioned in this episode:

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

It was the Grammys this week - you can't have missed it !

And somewhere along the way I saw an article by Ian Vargo assessing the loudness and dynamics of the nominees for Best Song.

In this episode I talk about what he discovered, and what my reaction is – and along the way, I talk about:

• The highest (and lowest !) LUFS measurements of the Best Song nominees
• How I feel about that
• What these songs sound like with more dynamics
• What difference does it make ?
• Is loudness really "part of the aesthetic" ?
• And what really does make a difference ?

Links and more episodes here:

https://www.themasteringshow.com/episode-105

Mentioned in this episode:

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Getting your music "synced" for licensing in TV, movies or ads can be an amazing opportunity for indie musicians to make money and gain exposure. But is it just a pipe dream, and is mastering a necessary part of the process ?

Chris SD from Sync Songwriter is an expert in this topic – just in the last year they've had artists get songs placed in the soundtrack for the Oscar-winning movie "Anora", for example! And this episode I talk to him about this whole topic, including:

• What sync licensing is
• Why song supervisors might be interested in hearing your music
• How people normally submit their music for possible sync opportunities
• A better way that you can connect with them to improve the odds of getting your music taken on for use in film, TV and adverts
• Which types of songs and artists are most likely to be taken on and
• The role mastering and audio production play in this process

And lastly we talk about the free Sync Songwriter Music Supervisor Panel that he's put together to help you find out more about all this - which is taking place this January. For more details, click here – if you decide to give it a try, you'll be helping support The Mastering Show at the same time.

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

This started out as a Q&A episode, but one way or another there turned out to be a real theme to many of the questions, namely - how do you choose between technical and creative considerations, when mastering ?

Questions like:

• When the client wants songs to sound different
• When to use mid-side processing (or not)
• Transient shaping - hardware or software ?
• How much distortion ?
• When is unbalanced EQ am artistic choice ?
• What to do when the "correct" thing to do goes against the emotion of the song

Take a listen and find out how these questions all connect !

Full links on our website:

https://www.themasteringshow.com/episode-103

Mentioned in this episode:

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Translation is one of the main goals of mastering - make the music sound great on any platform, and any delivery format.

But how is that possible ? How can we optimise the audio to sound great on both a huge PA and crappy earbuds, or via any data-encoded stream, when we don't have any control over those playback systems or streaming platforms ?

The answer to this paradox is deceptively simple - and powerful. In this episode I explain the common misconception of what 'translation' is; what the term really means to me, and share three simple suggestions to help you get your music to translate - on any playback system.

Full links on our website:

www.https://www.themasteringshow.com/episode-102

Mentioned in this episode:

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Mastering

Click HERE to work with Ian

Brian Eno is probably the musician, producer and artist who has had the single biggest influence on my music taste and enjoyment over the years. His work speaks for itself and needs no introduction !

So when I heard Emre Ramazanoglu talking on the Working Class Audio podcast about re-mixing and mastering many of Brian's classic albums for Dolby Atmos, my ears immediately pricked up. I just couldn't miss the chance to talk to him in more detail about working with Brian - and the amazing detective work that it involved.

So in this episode Emre and I take a deep dive into this fascinating subject, talking about things like:

• "Audio archeology" – the challenges of mixing Eno's older material, and the unexpected solutions Emre found
• How mixing for Eno is different from Emre's usual workflow, even with brand new releases
• The lessons Emre learned - and why this might be what makes Eno such a great producer
• New immersive strategies Emre developed specifically for these albums...
• ...and how they're helping his stereo mixing as well !

Full links on our website:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-101

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

I wanted to do something a little different to mark the 100th episode, but wasn't sure what. I was wondering about interviewing myself but that seemed a little weird...

And then Matt Boudreau from the excellent Working Class Audio podcast invited me back onto his show, and it occurred to me - I could get Matt to interview me, which would be way more fun and get some much more interesting questions !

So here it is. Matt and I talk about all kinds of things including:

• My background in music, production and music technology
• How I got my start as a mastering engineer
• The responsibilities of the mastering engineer (and the mistake that nearly cost me my job)
• My first mastering chain, and how it inspired my Perception AB plugin
• How I feel about being 'The Loudness Guy'
• Hardware versus 'in-the-box' mastering
• Why mastering matters

And loads more !

Full links on our website:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-100

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Stereo, mono, binaural or surround-sound ?

I've worked with this episode's guest in all these formats and more over the many years we've been working together - but which does he prefer, and why ?

Richard Durrant describes himself as an "Indie Classical" musician, which I think is a pretty good summary - but doesn't really take into account the fact that he also toured with Sky, worked as an accomplished session musician for many years and has released albums in a brilliantly eclectic variety of other genres and styles over the years.

In this conversation we talk about:

• Why Richard records in an "acoustic igloo" (and what that is)
• Mic techniques for guitar and dealing with "wolf notes" on stringed instruments
• Real spaces versus digital reverb
• Touring (and performing) with a bicycle
• Performing Bach's cello suites on Banjo and Ukulele - how and why

Full links on our website:

www.themasteringshow.com/episode-99

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

'Stem mastering' has provoked a ton of debate recently, with people claiming it crosses the line between mixing and mastering, interferes with the artist's intent, and isn't even really mastering at all !

But if that's true, why would Abbey Road, one of the biggest mastering studios in the world, offer a dedicated stem mastering service ?!

In this episode I talk to Oli Morgan, who specialises in stem mastering and mixing in mastering in Dolby Atmos at Abbey Road, about all these questions and more. We talk about:

• How he got started in mastering (and what that has in common with me)
• His perspective on stem mastering – when and how it can be helpful
• How (and why) stem mastering is a key element for working in Immersive Audio and Dolby Atmos
• What we can learn about dynamics from working in Dolby Atmos
• Why the 'pressure sound' may not be all about heavy limiting
• How we might be able to have our cake and eat it in the quest to balance loudness and dynamics

Full links on our website:

www.https://www.themasteringshow.com/episode-98

Mentioned in this episode:

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

The term “legend” gets thrown all the time in audio production circles, but my guest this episode really deserves it.

I’m sure you already know this but Ken Scott has worked with the Beatles, David Bowie, Elton John and Supertramp amongst so many others, so I was delighted when he agreed to join me for this episode !

There were so many things we could have talked about it was hard to know where to start, but here are just a few of the topics we covered:

* Why Abbey Road trained their engineers in mastering before they were ever allowed to engineer a recording session

* The value of mentors - and being thrown in at the deep end

* Mixing in sections (instead of using automation)

* When limited resources are a Good Thing

* Re-mixing Ziggy Stardust in Dolby Atmos (with added drum samples…!)

* …and how the new mix translates to stereo

Full show notes on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-97

Mentioned in this episode:

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

We’ve been using “soft clipping" in mastering for over 20 years at this point, but it suddenly feels as if it’s all anyone is talking about ! New plugins, new suggestions about how to use it, and wild new claims about how amazing it sounds.

Except it doesn’t.

At least – not all the time, and not for all material.

In this episode Joe Caithness and I dig deep into the details and talk about:

* What clipping is, and what it isn’t

* The crucial differences between hard and soft clipping

* What makes a great clipping plugin (and why comparing them is a nightmare)

* Some of our favourite clipping plugins and how we use them

* The kinds of material that work best with clipping, and what type to use

* The golden rule to follow if you want to experiment with clipping yourself

Full show notes and links on our website:

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-96

Mentioned in this episode:

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

The Billboard Top 50 global singles from the first half of 2024 have an average loudness of -8.3 LUFS

So that’s how loud we should be making our masters, right ?

Well…

It certainly might seem that way, but in reality it’s a bit more complicated than that. This is only one of the interesting results that Ian Stewart presented in his latest blog post for iZoTope, and in this episode I asked him back on to really dig into some of the details and nuance.

Plus I also wanted to talk to him about the amazing plug-in that got invented during the last episode he was on ! (Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it 😛)

During the show we talk about:

* What that -8 LUFS average result REALLY means, and how much attention you should pay to it

* Who the most successful artist in the Top 50 is, and the loudness statistics of their music

* The problem with the title iZotope chose for the post

* All the other results, trends and biases in the data

* Basslane Pro, the plug-in Ian worked with Tone Projects to develop, why it’s unique - and how The Mastering Show helped it happen !

Full show notes on our site

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-95

Mentioned in this episode:

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

People are always asking me about mastering for vinyl, and I’m happy to try and help based on the experience I have. I don’t actually cut vinyl myself though, so that advice is always limited and second-hand.

So for this episode I decided to talk to a genuine expert on the topic - Scott Hull from Masterdisk - and really get into the details.

Scott’s knowledge and experience of cutting vinyl is enormous, as you’ll hear, and I took full advantage of that in this episode ! Some of the things we talked about include:

The 4 stages of vinyl production, and why each is important

How making assumptions about vinyl mastering can backfire

Why choosing which plant is going to press the records is crucial

The crucial role of the lathe - and it’s setup

The myth of duration on vinyl - why “20 minutes per side” isn’t a hard and fast rule

Why less limiting allows you to cut louder on vinyl

What is the magic of vinyl ?

Full show notes and links on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-94

Mentioned in this episode:

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins

I’m always arguing for balanced dynamics rather than loudness for it’s own sake, but some people have a different opinion - high loudness is important, and even beneficial.

Nick Di Lorenzo is one of them - he says that loudness is important regularly on his YouTube channel. So in this episode I invited him on to explore that idea in more detail, and really get into the nuances of the topic. Do you need to be mastering loud ? Topics include:

* The practicalities of loudness

* What makes things sound loud anyway ?

* Record labels versus loudness

* Why loudness IS important

* Why LUFS don’t matter, and

* The difference between loudness and LUFS

Full show notes on our website

https://themasteringshow.com/episode-93

Mentioned in this episode:

Tools

For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

Learn to master !

Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources

Leapwing

Find out more about Leapwing's plugins