The idea has been slowly simmering in my head for quite some time. Some of the productions that have taken place at Unreal Studio have been mastered in-house.
Because of this, a pattern started to emerge, slowly but surely. It seemed to be easy. I attribute this -first and foremost- to our excellent monitoring system. Equal parts analytical and inspiring.
I also seem to be able to get how music should sound, depending on the genre. This cloud of instruments that produce the song has a voicing that has been refined through history and reveals its secrets to anybody that pays close enough attention. If you listen to lots of music, you know exactly what I'm talking about.
Hell, even my mixing has so many "top-down" elements to it, that it almost appears like mastering at first. ("Top-down" is a mixing process where your master left-right bus has bulk processing that influences all tracks at once.)
On occasion, people have asked me to only master their album, instead of the usual recording/mixing/producing it. I've gotten so many positive comments for these masters that I decided to provide it as a service. I won't lie, if you're used to doing a whole production for an album, mastering can feel somewhat... boring.
But then again, freed from the shackles of the months of grueling work to produce an album, inspiration can strike fast, and you find creative ways to manipulate a stereo file instead of a multitrack.
When i master an album, i can hear production decisions and put my self in the same situation so to either enhance or move in the same direction, not alter it according to a genre i think that music should fit to.
Thank you,
Alex Ketenjian
