Inside The Studio: Nordwest Mastering

Jens Buchholtz is the Mastering Engineer in Nordwest Mastering (Germany). Jens has been into audio since 1998, he honed his skills in recording, producing, mixing, live sound engineering, before heavily investing in a new professional mastering service.

Nordwest-Mastering uses selected analog equipment and a wide collection of the best professional software and plug-ins, working in a meticously designed acoustic environment, planned and built by renowned Markus Bertram of MBAkustik, using precise and calibrated full range monitoring.

Hello Jens, can you explain to the audience what is "mastering" and why it is recommended on recordings?
Hi! Thanks for having me in your magazine!

Simply put, mastering is the final creative process in music production. That process includes critical listening to the mix, taking the necessary measures to improve the frequency balance in your mix, correcting flaws (as far as possible), taming resonant/unpleasant frequencies and harshness, making the mix "shine" and raise it to the desired, competitive loudness in a controlled manner, without "sacrificing" the dynamic range more than necessary.

In the end the mastering engineer ensures the final product fits the technical specs of the target medium, be it CD, streaming, vinyl, movie etc.

What is your working process and how do you get the inspiration to master a track?
After receiving a mix from a client, I load it into my workstation, play it back at my common listening level, close my eyes and listen to it from beginning to end. Nothing is more important than the very first impression!

In my mind I take all the notes of what measures I want to apply for mastering that track:
Is it too muffled, is it too bright, are there harsh frequencies, are there resonances in the lower mid range, is the bass/subbass too strong or too weak or undefined, maybe there are too sharp "ssss"-sounds in the vocals, what about the stereo imaging and depth of the sound stage? Do the transients need to be emphasized, does the bassdrum need more punch, does the mix need some compression and if yes, what kind of compression or even some decompression/expanding ...?

At this stage, sometimes I realize the mix has some major flaws. I then make a list of recommendations for the mixer and give him/her the chance to correct it and send me a revised mix. In mastering, the chances of correcting major mix flaws are usually very limited!

After listening to the mix for the first time, I have an idea of how it should sound in the end.

Sometimes customers send me a reference track, so I listen to it and take that also into my consideration.

Next stage is to look at the mix with some analyzing tools to see (and hear) how it´s composed on the technical level: the mid/side arrangement and frequency balance of the elements in the mix for example.

After all that listening and analyzing, it is just using the right tools to get to the "destination sound" I have in my head. Of coure inspiration is a great part, too. Every mastering job is individual and often I play around with different ideas/approaches, no two masterings are the same.

This is what I really love about my job: I´m getting all kinds of mixes from all genres and every job is new and different! It´s always like a "nice surprise" to listen to a new mix from a customer!

I work with analog and digital tools. While digital gives us great and innovative processors and you are absolutely able to master in the digital domain only, I still adore the sound and "that certain something" that analog and tube gear gives us! No mastering in my studio will be digital only, I always use a hybrid approach!

You are a mastering engineer, so you get to work and deliver a final product, ready to be published. What recommendation would you give, from your perspective, to the bands that are just about to record?
Just do what you love to do: record the song with gear as decent as you can afford, mix it to your liking! Maybe you´ll invest in some acoustic treatment of your mixing room, that´s always a good measure! You can´t mix what you can´t hear! Then please make sure you don´t overload your mixing buss! Leave the limiting and loudness to the mastering guy ;-) For any questions regarding your mix, the mastering engineer will be your partner - at least in my studio.

It is known that is is better to master a track or record with a different engineer that the one who records and mixes. Why is that?
Simple: a pair of fresh ears!

As a mixer/producer you´ve heard your mix at least "354 times" and lost most of your objectivity on it. Even if you´ll revisit your mix after weeks or months, you´d never be able to hear it like for the very first time!

Then of course the experience of a mastering engineer, a decent acoustical environment and precise full range monitoring also play an important role.

Some selected videos, mastered by Nordwest-Mastering:











Contact Details

Nordwest-Mastering
nordwest-mastering.de

Cloppenburger Str. 4
28816 Stuhr / Germany

Phone/WhatsApp:
+49-151-22630392

Facebook:
nordwestmastering