The Audio Engineering Society at Indiana University invited mastering Engineer Adam Grover to come give a masterclass in mastering techniques and general information on mastering to the Audio Engineering and Sound Production students in the new Georgina Joshi Recording Studio. Adam is a mastering engineer and manager for Ted Jensen and Justin Shturtz at Sterling Sound in New York City. This spring, Sterling Sound will be opening a new mastering facility in East Nashville, TN; and Adam will be overseeing the management of the new studio.
Adam's presentation included basic information of the duties of a mastering engineer in today's music projects which included: communication with the mixing engineer to request remixes or stems, vocal ups, vocal downs, implementing EQ curves and compression techniques on the mixes, adhering to loudness standards of different media release formats, and creating DDP files and final master CD's to send to the distributer. He also provided all the attendees with a handout listing requirements for mastering that are included in a contract between the producer and mastering engineer. The discussion culminated with Adam talking through his typical mastering processes, showing screenshots of plug-in and outboard gear settings, and audio examples of tracks he has mastered and are now released, as well as his processes on 2 IU students' tracks Adam agreed to master for demonstration.
After the masterclass in the studio, Adam graciously continued answering questions and further discussed his industry experience with students at Mother Bear's Pizza. AES at IU would like to thank Adam Grover for his time, and mastering knowledge presented to the Audio Engineering and Sound Production students during this masterclass.
