Equipment

We choose equipment based on whether it can get us better results or not. For many years this meant using a hybrid analog/digital setup with high-end analog equipment. Over the years this has been replaced by a fully digital workflow, completely in-the-box, since it gives us the best results. We found that using analog equipment forced us to lock in the sound too early in the process, made it harder to collaborate within projects and put too much focus on the tools. It also affected the sound and changed things like transients, stereo cues and overall clarity in ways that weren’t always controllable.

Our mastering setup nowadays is fairly minimalistic when it comes to hardware. All the fun stuff happens in the box. We use some of the usual plugins from DMG, TDR, FabFilter and others, and a big part of our setup is based on custom DSP that we have developed ourselves. This includes our monitor controller, the advanced version of Check Your Master, our main compressor, saturators, transient enhancers and other custom made solutions.

We have evolved our setup to be able to handle all kinds of mixes in all kinds of genres. Some mixes need very gentle, transparent processing, while others need intense processing with more character. We think that any processing added to a mix during mastering should be fully intentional with as few unwanted artifacts as possible. Our current setup lets us do that with a quality that wasn’t possible with a more old-school setup 10 years ago. It also allows both of us to be deeply involved in every project, utilizing our individual skills and strengths and taking full advantage of our combined 40+ years of experience.

In a nutshell, our whole process and mastering chain is customized to support the music.

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