Like many behind-the-glass gladiators, Atlanta, GA-based mastering engineer Colin Leonard got his start as a musician. Beginning with piano, he moved on to drums and as a high school freshman graduated to guitar. He studied classical guitar at California’s University of the Pacific before earning an audio engineering degree from Full Sail in 1998. A three-time GRAMMY winner, Leonard has become the go-to engineer for major artists including Bad Bunny, Beyoncé, and Paul McCartney.
In 2012, he launched his commercial mastering service SING Mastering. “I’d started mastering my band right after I graduated from Full Sail,” Leonard recalls. “We’d recorded a demo on two-inch tape and mixed it on an SSL 9000. I should’ve realized then that mastering was my thing, but I had such a lack of equipment—I was using Sony’s Sound Forge—that I didn’t. Then I started to produce music for underground rappers and began to write theme music for TV shows. We’re still in our original location.”
Leonard often confers with mix engineers before they send him their files. The network he’s built has proven indispensable. “Part of what’s important about what I do is the relationships I have with the mix engineers,” he explains. “That’s a big part of my success. Having experience through the whole production process allows me to have conversations on the same level with everyone."
Among the biggest challenges he encounters is when a recording is crowded with plugins. “Certain types of distortion, such as clipping from too many plugins, are frustrating,” he observes. “It’s not there for an artistic reason. It’s there because they put three clippers on it to make it loud and now, they’ve listened to it a thousand times and don’t want to change it. Distortion can be cool when it’s done in a way that enhances the recording. But often it degrades it, which is rarely the mixer’s fault. Don’t listen to the rough too much because you’ll expect to hear it that way every time."
“Another challenge is always trying to make sure that the feel of the music isn’t compromised,” he continues. “That’s the biggest thing I hear that goes wrong. People don’t focus on the feel of the project as much as they should. It’s important for the dynamic impact of elements like drums to stay intact.”
Gear is crucial to any engineer. But to Leonard, he prizes his in-built equipment highest. “My ears and my EQ are the most important tools I have,” he asserts. “It’s amazing how the right decisions at half a dB in the right places make all the difference. There are producers I work with often and they’ll see me adjust half a dB and they don’t hear it. But then they listen to the before and after and [they hear] that all those things added up to a big difference in the final product.”
Recently Leonard has been busy with projects including Jack Harlow’s Monica as well as records with reggaeton artist J Balvin and rapper Meek Mill. Work on his two-year project to migrate his studio onto his home property is also underway. Lastly, he urges aspiring engineers to trust their ears above any gear or visual tools such as meters.
Contact singmastering.com, Instagram @colin_m_leonard
