Platinum Certified Mastering

Q: What advice do you have for a customer looking to hire a provider like you?

A: When I was mixing, I worked with mastering engineers in a variety of price ranges. I rarely had results I loved with ones that cost in the $50/song and under range, and when I did have good results it took a lot of back and forth. I came into mastering wanting to do better work than that, and so quickly started charging more than that. If you can't afford to work with someone who is closer to the $100+/song mark like I am, then take your time with the mastering process! Don't be afraid to go back and forth with your mastering engineer until you have the results you want. There are a few records I mixed where to this day where I still regret that we didn't do more revisions with the cheaper mastering engineer that the client hired. An additional revision or two could have saved those projects and helped them find a wider audience. In music—as in life—be nice, be professional, but also don't stop until you get what you really want and deserve in music and in life.

Q: What was your career path? How long have you been doing this?

A: I've been messing around with audio since I repossessed my dad's neglected 4-track cassette recorder when I was 13 years old. I never looked back. I've been at it for almost 30 years now, and making a living at it for at least 20 years, arguably longer than that. I switched to mastering exclusively more than a decade ago and have been fortunate to master gold and platinum selling projects, while also continuing to work with artists at the beginning of their careers.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: My style is to realize your style. That said, I have my own biases. I tend to like things to sound full and rich and warm... but without losing any clarity or articulation. I like music to sound immersive and impactful. I want to be able to crawl up into of a song and live inside of it. I hope you do too!

Q: What other musicians or music production professionals inspire you?

A: I'm inspired by any musician who is a master of their craft... however niche and individual that craft may be. Even more importantly, I'm inspired by musicians who can connect with listeners on a deep emotional level. And, I'm inspired by unique and intersting sounds. When it comes to other mastering engineers, I hav had the privilege of studying under one of my favorite mastering engineers on the planet: Joe Lambert. My other two favorite mastering engineers are Greg Calbi and Bob Ludwig.

Q: Describe the most common type of work you do for your clients.

A: I spend all of my studio time either mastering, or coaching mix clients. My goal is to help make my clients' mixes sound as good as they intended them to sound... only better.

Q: Which artist would you like to work with and why?

A: YOU. Why? Because you spent this long reading my interview. Wow. We'd probably get along. Thanks for reading!

Q: What type of music do you usually work on?

A: A lot of indie pop, indie rock, intelligent hip hop and electronic music.

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: Making your record sound like you meant for it to sound. Only better.

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: Relentless optimism, determination, and understanding of the artist's vision.

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: Every master starts off with me getting in tune with the client's tastes, preferences and vision, often by listening to 3 or more of their favorite-sounding records. This helps give me a general sense for their tastes in loudness, brightness, low end, depth, width, clarity, richness and so on. From there, I start by *LISTENING AND EVALUATING* before moving a single knob. Too many people start by fiddling and applying standardized processing. I start by figuring out what the track needs in order to realize the artist's, mixer's and producer's visions for it. Then, I do whatever it takes to realize that goal, whether it means barely touching a thing, or turning all the knobs around backwards until they break. I do this with all the obvious tools: EQ, compression, saturation, limiting, and when needed, stereo field enhancement, dynamic EQ, multiband compression, mid-side processing and so on.

Q: What questions do customers most commonly ask you? What's your answer?

A: Back in my live sound days, it would have been: "Do you REALLY know what all this buttons do?" The real answer was "yes", but I'd usually try to think of something clever. I'm not as clever as I used to be, sadly. :) Today? It's probably: "OMG, the master sounds AMAZING, what did you do?" And the answer is pretty simple: "You know: Compression, EQ, Level, Taste. All the normal stuff." There really are no special tools in mastering. Just attention and a special mindset.

Q: What's the biggest misconception about what you do?

A: I get asked about "mixing and mastering" people's songs a lot around here. Word to the wise: If the same person is "mixing and mastering" a track, then they aren't mastering it in my book. To me, "mastering" is having an independent 3rd party do a final quality control pass on your mix, to take it to the next level, AND help identify issues that the mixer may not have been able to in their room and speaker environment.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: What records are you really loving the sound and feel of lately? What are the things you feel like you need the most help with in this mix, if any?

Q: Is there anyone on SoundBetter you know and would recommend to your clients?

A: Hm, maybe! I'll have to have a look around here in more detail.

Q: What's your 'promise' to your clients?

A: I have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. We are only "done" with the master if you are thrilled with the results. This means that I have an unlimited revisions policy. 90% of the time we don't have to do any. But it's nice to know the option is there!

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: Working with people, working with music, and working with audio. Making the OK stuff sound better than it should, and keeping the amazing stuff from getting ruined by too much fiddling!

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Too many! Try here: http://justincolletti.com/free-resources-for-musicians-producers-and-audio-engineers/