On June 12, Texas Chapter producers and engineers gathered at respected music venue The Heights Theater in Houston's historical Heights District for a deep technical dive with three prominent mastering engineers from around the country. Current Austin, Texas resident Chris Athens, owner of New Jersey's Knack Mastering, Kim Rosen, and owner/chief engineer at Neato Mastering in the San Francisco Bay Area, and Piper Payne joined a panel moderated by Texas Chapter Trustee and mix engineer Tim Palmer to discuss file formats, compression issues, overall level and more. It was great to hear what these pros are seeing, thinking and hearing, and to find the best ways to take full advantage of this important stage of the recording process.
GRAMMY-winning engineer and Chapter P&E Committee chair Tre Nagella shared, "One of the interesting philosophies I heard from the panelists was how they viewed their role in the recording process as, most importantly, quality control. They are the last tastemakers to hear and touch the product, so they're not so much trying to add creativity to the song, but to make sure that everything is as it should be for the final product."
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Also joining the discussion was Gebre Waddell, current Memphis Chapter President and CEO of audio technology company Soundways. Waddell, author of the McGraw-Hill published book, Complete Audio Mastering:Practical Techniques, shared news about the launch of Soundways' new music crediting website, SoundCredit.com. Having first created a cross-platform plug-in to collect credits that uses the DDEX RIN metadata standard, Soundways has now expanded to include an online portal for documenting and publishing recording credits.
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