Hello, I'm Nicky, doing a little self-promotion for my Mastering Services with hopefully some added usefulness as a side dish.

https://thefatmastering.com
Prices start from £45 per/track.

As a professional mastering engineer of 18 years, I founded The Fat Mastering in 2010, a state of the art facility based in Yorkshire (UK) designed and built from the ground up with one purpose, Mastering.

Equally at home with major and independent artists, I simply love to work with people who are passionate about getting the very best out of their music. The main genres I focus on are Electronic, so anything from House, Pop, Techno, HipHop, Trance, EDM etc... is where I shine.

Past work includes releases on all major labels, Universal Music, Warner Music, Sony BMG and the big Dance labels including Anjunadeep, Spinnin', Toolroom, Defected, MOS and loads more.

Here's a video of me in action Mastering a single from start to finish:

Any questions about my services, mastering in general or the above video, I'd love to chat!

 

A list of credits?

 

https://www.masteringcredits.com/profile/Nicky Howard

Here's my profile on Mastering Credits, mostly work from 2021 listed at the mo however I plan on getting back-catalog work added once I get the chance.

 

Alright. Will check 'em out

 

Hi!, Nicky! I watched your video with great interest. My question may not be the most common one. Can you share your experience with vinyl mastering? And what can you say about vinyl mastering of very specific music like various genres of noise (harsh) or drone ambient, which require a certain understanding, in my opinion. Have you worked with similar material? Perhaps you have had experience with genres close to this (industrial techno, eBm).
P.S. I'm your 7'th subscriber)

 

What LUFS/RMS you use for clubs??

 

Target Levels for EDM
Club land is still the wild west when it comes to loudness unfortunately. For example, Richie Hawtin’s “From my mind to yours” (2015) seems to hover around -10 LUFS per track, Claude Van Stroke on Dirty Bird is a whopping - 6 LUFS per track, and Deadmau5’s seminal track “Strobe” is a surprisingly conservative -12 LUFS. -16 LUFS should still be your final target though, and have the DJs level match via gain on the mixer in the club.

Remember, Loudness normalisation does not replace mixing and mastering. It will not fix frequency issues or balance issues – a weak mix will remain weak, and over-compressed, brick-wall-limited audio will simply be turned down.

https://www.macprovideo.com/article...dards-relate-to-edm-and-club-music-production

 

Hi, I have indeed worked with similar genres for vinyl mastering! The thing that the more "experimental" side of Techno tends to be is well more experimental, in that often the creative flow can give way to things getting a little wild. Vinyl is the one medium that doesn't play nicely with the unexpected, for instance, if you've sudden crazy spikes of energy (especially in the lows and highs) this can cause a real headache for whoever's tasked with cutting or pressing the record. If you plan on doing a vinyl record in these genres a decent Mastering Engineer (who knows the end destination) will double-check your Mix for any potential problem before even starting any Mastering and way before the record heads off to be cut/pressed.

 

I don't aim for any specific LUFS for Clubs, Streaming, CD or anywhere! There's no "magic number" for loudness that will just sound great, there never has been. Each Mix I receive is differnt, some feel right a little hotter and grittier than others, some lend themselves more towards keeping the sound open, music is wonderfully subjective.

Loudness Normalisation (when active as it mostly is now) means that records on Streaming platforms are on an even playing field, it's not the one's at -14LUFS Exactly that sound great, it's the one's that have been well produced, mixed and mastered even if they're a few LUFS louder.

For Club Play it's the same thing, any DJ should be able to match records in level, this is literally what the gain and faders on a DJ-Mixer are for. If the song's been well produced, mixed and mastered and placed at a final level that's right for the individual Mix it's going to sound amazing on a large PA. If you instead aim for a specific number then you may get lucky, chances are you'll be too hot or less likely you'll have missed a trick and are not hot enough.

 

The loudness war is still there... i get tracks off djs /producers & they are maxxed out [6 LUFS+] & people saying the wav picture looks small on soundcloud but if the volume & weight is there.. i tend to go for 11 LUFS

 

The nice thing about TV stations, radio stations and in the film industry is that they set clear guidelines.

Recommendation R 128 of the EBU is a technical set of rules that redefines the sound control of radio and television programs. It has been partially used by public and private television broadcasters in Germany since August 31, 2012; in other countries it was introduced earlier.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EBU_R_128

 

Absolutely! The music industry and particularly Streaming Services are starting to catch up, albeit a little slow on the uptake.

This quote from Wiki sums it up nicely:

So in essence you're no longer punished if you want to be a little more dynamic in your approach, yet you can still smash it if you like the sound it creates. Sounds like a win-win to me.