Glenn Meadows
Company: Mayfield Mastering
Clientele: Shania Twain, Taylor Swift, The Oak Ridge Boys
Contact: mayfieldmastering.com
Active since the ‘70s, Glenn Meadows has an impressive list of credits that encompasses country, pop, soul and rock, with artists as diverse as Jimmy Buffet, Isaac Hayes, Shania Twain and Steely Dan. Around 2010, a friend put Meadows in touch with John Mayfield at Nashville-based Mayfield Mastering. His new boss agreed to make a substantial investment in a cutting-edge mastering room. A label Meadows had worked for gave him all of their mastering gear, which they no longer needed. Things have been smooth for Meadows ever since.
What are some of the biggest challenges facing emerging mastering engineers, aside from budgets?
The lack of experience with different types or quality levels of recording. Many engineers don’t have a deep appreciation for what high-quality music should sound like. They’re so used to the earbud-era that they don’t have an understanding of what high-fidelity music is or can be. A lot of that experience comes from recording vinyl. If you look at the top-notch mastering engineers, they all have extensive backgrounds in vinyl. We understand what dynamics are.
What have been your favorite technical developments over the past few years?
The advent of higher-quality plug-ins allows us to make subtle but dramatic improvements, sonically. And we’re getting some people interested in doing surround audio released on either DVD or Blu-ray disc. There’s a company in Norway called 2L. They’ve won several Grammys for surround sound. They release Blu-ray audio 5.1, 7.1 and [even] 9.1. The recordings are unbelievable. They release this stuff at 192K, 24-bit. [They can do this because] a Blu-ray dual-layer disc can store 50 gigabytes of data.
What are common problems you see in mixes?
Over-compression, over-limiting, lack of low and top end. These have been problems for a long time. That’s one of the reasons why mastering is so important: because it gives a second set of ears in an entirely different room an opportunity to make corrections. If the biggest problems are frequency balance due to monitoring in the original studio, those are easily correctable. You have to figure out what clients thought they were hearing and dial-in that inverse curve. All of a sudden things start to work again. Most mix engineers are more than willing to make changes to help get a better product.
What are the best ways for artists to save money when it comes time to master?
Artists can be nitpicky. Consumers aren’t. A lot of time and money are spent making decisions like “Do I want to do two-tenths of a dB or three-tenths EQ at 10K?” Those are unbelievably subtle changes. I’ve spent hours doing those types of micro-tweaks. Two months later you can play both versions for the artist and they won’t be able to tell the difference. Also, make sure your mix is where you want it. I offer clients a free test-track. They can send me a mix and I’ll return a master to give them an idea what it might sound like mastered so they can see if they’re on the right path.
How is mastering for vinyl different from mastering for CD or iTunes?
With my mastering, I try to maintain as much of the dynamics as possible. The idea is that a lot of this stuff will go to vinyl. Most mixes don’t come in at 44K. They come in at 48 or 96. We master at the sample rate they provide. The last step is to down-convert to 44K, 16-bit if it’s for CD, 24-bit if it’s for iTunes. If a client is going to go to vinyl, we’ll do another set that doesn’t have as much of the overall finished mastering squeeze applied.
What are the unique challenges of mastering for television?
You have to be careful about your overall levels. You have to match the standards. If you don’t, clients can reject it. Federal laws have generated specific specs you have to follow. There are new metering specs you need to have in your workstation so you can accumulate what your average level over the entire program is and you have to stay within those numbers.
Final thoughts?
If you try to master for yourself, you’re like someone who represents himself in a criminal trial: you’ll have a fool for a client. Typically at the end of a project there’s no money left. That’s probably one of the most important parts, because it gives you that extra set of ears and a whole different approach to your product.
For those of you who’d prefer to do it yourself, check out: musicconnection.com/industry-tips-diy-mastering.
