Bernie Becker, Dale Becker
Company: Bernie Becker Mastering
Clientele: Neil Diamond, Donna Summer, Katy Perry
Contact: http://berniebecker.com
Father and son mastering team, Bernie and Dale Becker, have a combined 40-plus years of experience. Bernie got into the business in 1977 as a live sound recording engineer. In 1985 his family relocated to Los Angeles, where he segued into mixing and ultimately mastering. Dale grew up in and around the business and ran his dad’s studio for four years in Burbank until they moved to their current location in Pasadena. Many of their clients are independent artists and lately Beckers broken into gospel, notably a project for Ricky Dillard and J.J. Hairston.
What are the top three ways to trim costs when beginning the project?
• Artists sometimes impose a deadline that’s arbitrary and then push their team to get things done in a quick and careless fashion. So mixes arrive to us with a lot of problems. It ends up taking two to three times longer.
• Artists often land TV or film work and they’re given a deadline. They’ll rush to make it, submit the music and then they don’t hear anything for three months. Sometimes people plan their deadlines way too quickly and then things take longer and cost more.
• If clients involve mastering engineers earlier, maybe before they even begin their mix, we can preempt potential problems. Most guys are open to that. If they’re not, maybe consider if they’re right for you.
What are the top three most valuable pieces of mastering advice?
• Meet with a few mastering engineers and see which you connect with musically and personally. Mastering is very personal.
• Have two or three sets of monitors: in the studio, in the car or headphones. There’s so much value in listening to what you’re doing outside of the working environment.
• Send us both a processed and unprocessed mix so we can hear what you’ve been hearing.
What are the top three things that are possible in mastering that weren’t possible a decade ago?
• With digital delivery, you can make last-minute changes. Although I like to minimize them because that can divert focus from the project.
• We can recall a mix easily now and make small changes.
• We’ve made tremendous progress in how we can make something sound great and loud.
What are three ways a mastering engineer can enhance his relationship with the mixer?
• Having a conversation with a mixer rather than presenting them with a list of delivery criteria is always preferred. This helps you learn how they work and allows you to share your observations.
• One way that we honor people is how we pay them. If you have to save for another month to pay a mixer what they’re worth, that’s what you should do.
• If you both have time, let a mixer hear the final master and make some comments. Maybe they’ll offer some good suggestions.
What are the best/worst aspects about the relationship with mixers? Has it improved?
We understand each other better now. But many times there are several mixers involved in delivering a project. The more that mixers and mastering engineers can communicate on an overall project-level, the less that mixes will show up 4 dB hotter than others.
