Ian Shepherd: Creating Dynamic Mixes & Masters

Ian Shepherd is a British mastering engineer and MD at Mastering Media Ltd. Over the course of his career he has worked on thousands of CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays for all of the major record labels, TV stations and independents, including several number one singles and award-winning albums. He also runs the popular Production Advice website, and hosts The Mastering Show podcast.

He is a fierce critic of the so-called Loudness Wars, and in 2010 founded Dynamic Range Day, an online event intended to raise awareness of the issue.

He has developed several acclaimed mastering plugins with MeterPlugs: Perception AB, which received an AudioMedia Gear Of The Year Award; Dynameter which helps users achieve optimal audio dynamics for their music and the Loudness Penalty website, plugin and Studio desktop application. 

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN ABOUT:

• Common mastering mistakes
• Why a “one size fits all” method doesn’t work in mastering
• Simplifying your mastering chain
• Should you factor in loudness during the mixing stage?
• How to find a good balance of loudness and volume
• What to focus on in order to create consistency between tracks on an album
• Keeping perspective and objectivity when mastering your own music
• What does “translation” really mean? What you need to be listening for
• Making “one master to rule them all”: How does this account for various listening scenarios (eg. non-normalized streaming and/or clubs)?
• Dynamics vs. loudness
• How to know if your tracks have a good dynamic range
• The problem with aiming for “target levels”

To learn more about Ian Shepherd, visit: http://www.productionadvice.co.uk/about

http://www.themasteringshow.com

Plugins mentioned in this episode:

Dynameter - https://meterplugs.idevaffiliate.com/112-3.html

Loudness Penalty - https://meterplugs.idevaffiliate.com/112-5.html

Perception AB - https://meterplugs.idevaffiliate.com/112-2.html

K Meter - https://meterplugs.idevaffiliate.com/112-4.html

LCAST Loudness Meter - https://meterplugs.idevaffiliate.com/112-6.html

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