Remote Mastering Services

Q: Tell us about a project you worked on you are especially proud of and why. What was your role?

A: Especially, aforementioned charity project!

Q: What are you working on at the moment?

A: Since Corona hit all artists/bands pretty hard, I got involved in a charity project titled "system(ically) relevant"...The goal was to take a famous song and cover it almost 20 times. Ranging from a jazz to an opera version! I produced and mixed 4 of those songs...all the proceeds will go to the artists/bands involved and (in addition) other struggling musicians...

Q: Analog or digital and why?

A: Of course: both but 80-90% analog and 10-20% digital. Analog because we think it especially can bring depth/width and pleasing "saturation" to the table that digital still cannot.

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

A: Together we´ll work on your songs until you're completely satisfied and happy with the result!

Q: What do you like most about your job?

A: To be able to work on different music (almost) every day. So it definitely NEVER gets boring:-) And: To help up-and-coming bands/artists find their sound and turn their songs from great into amazing!

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

A: Can you make my song sound like "xyz"? If your track sounds anything like "xyz", we´ll definitely try to get as close as possible to your reference. Do we need different masters for CD and streaming? It depends, but normally one great sounding master will suffice. Should we send you stems of our song(s)? Usually, you don't have to and a good stereo mix will do just fine.

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

A: That mastering can eliminate any mixing "mistakes"...and: mastering means just "making things loud" (which, to a certain degree, is true;-) Think about this way: Mastering is, without a doubt, an important phase in the process, but in general we cannot turn a "D-"mix into a "B+"...that´s why we always talk to the client first if we think there's any bigger problems concerning the mix.

Q: What questions do you ask prospective clients?

A: - Do you want to have the loudest track on Spotify or can we just make it sound royal and great?:-) - What do you need the track(s) for (streaming, CD, Vinyl) and do you need a DDP-file?

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

A: Talk to your mastering engineer! Good communication is key!

Q: If you were on a desert island and could take just 5 pieces of gear, what would they be?

A: - Prism Sound converters - Logic Pro to record my ideas - Mojave MA-1000 - Manley Massive Passive - Manley Vari-Mu

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

A: RoyalSoundMastering started in 2007, so we've been doing this for 13 years now! Before that, like so many engineers, I was the lead guitarist in a very unsuccessful rock band:-)) Also I produced and mixed many albums/songs before I "switched" over to (mainly) mastering.

Q: How would you describe your style?

A: I'm a huge fan of tube equipment (e.g. Manley, SPL...). I think the way those units are able to tame "digital harshness" and also add that fairy dust to the highs is just remarkable and, in my book, still not reproducible "in the box".

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

A: I've always loved the "good ole rock n roll" bands! So, to master a new Aerosmith album would reeaaallly be nice!:-))

Q: Can you share one music production tip?

A: Try to record your signals as well as you can. Meaning: Don't focus completely on the mixing process ("fix it in the mix"), but get a decent mic, preamp and interface so anything you record through it will already sound at least "good" if not "great" and you don't have to use 10 plugins later to make your vocal sound "ok"...

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

A: It's pretty diversified. But in general it's somewhere within the pop/rock-world:-) But we've also mastered many folk, jazz or cuban songs/albums, for instance...

Q: What's your strongest skill?

A: My musicianship. As a multi-instrumentalist (Guitars, Keys, Bass and Drums) I usually know what a certain instrument should sound like and what the guitar player, drummer etc wanted to achieve with his/her performance...

Q: What do you bring to a song?

A: First and foremost a new set of ears! I think that anybody who's ever written, recorded and mixed a song, knows that, after listening to it 500 times, you tend to get too "close" to it...so I guess the "distance" of a mastering engineer is usually a good thing:-)

Q: What's your typical work process?

A: When we get a new song, we check if there's any huge problems in the mix that definitely/usually can't be fixed in mastering (i.e. heavy limiting, distortion...). If the mix is in good shape, we either talk to the client to find out if he/she has an idea where the track should end up (soundwise) or we master the song (and sometimes also include alternate versions) and then wait for the artist´s feedback...after that, there's a revision (or more) or we nailed it and everybody is happy!:-)

Q: Tell us about your studio setup.

A: Our main goal is to offer the best outboard equipment available (Manley Massive Passive, Manley Vari-Mu, Chandler Curve Bender, Elysia Alpha Compressor, SPL Iron, Vertigo VSE-2 to name just a few) to (new and independent) bands/artists that sometimes cannot afford the well-established mastering houses out there. So we see ourselves as the "solution" between "mastering your tracks yourself in the box at home" and the big studios:-) Of course we also use all the "usual suspects" like Fabfilter, Izotope, Sonnox, Waves, Plugin-Alliance etc but usually we stay 80-90% in the analog world.

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

A: The great thing is: you can get inspiration from anybody. And, quite frankly, it's often the up-and-coming bands (that's the ones we especially want to help with their songs) that make incredible music. They're raw and not everything is "perfect", but that's exactly what makes it so fascinating...

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

A: In general we specialise in mastering. Sometimes we do mixing jobs as well (mostly when there is a need for stem mastering), but our focus is on treating finished mixes...:-)