Stephen Marsh
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I met Stephen Marsh (pronounced Stefan) in 1998 while he was working at Sony Music Studios in Santa Monica CA and I was still a recording artist. Sony closed this location in 2001 and after serving a 5 year tenure as Chief Mastering Engineer at Threshold Music & Sound, Stephen founded his own facility at the historic Radio Recorders in Hollywood CA. He has multiple gold and platinum albums to his credit and has worked with a variety of artists including Los Lobos, Mudvayne, Keb' Mo', Elvis Costello, Ginuwine, Incubus, The Pharcyde, etc. He also has scores of soundtracks, compilations, remasters and restorations under his belt. Read interview here.
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Recent Playlist
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1. Project Parallel "Android Parlour Tricks"
2. Big Punisher "Capital Punishment"
3. Elliott Smith "Figure 8"
4. Grand Champeen "Battle Cry For Help"
5. The Ramones "Hey! Ho! Let's Go: The Anthology"
6. Alice Cooper "The Live And Crimes of Alice Cooper"
7. Lupe Fiasco "Food & Liquor"
8. Oasis "Stop the Clocks"
9. Rufus "Rags to Rufus"
10. Mogwai "Happy Songs For Happy People"
11. Big Audio Dynamite "Super Hits"
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 Hola! As usual, I'm running behind but I don't think too many of you were holding your breath. Ha ha.
We just finished digitizing our entire 3000 (and counting) CD music library (all legally purchased, thank you). Spanning many genres and generations from the Reverend Gary Davis to Reverend Horton Heat, the Geto Boys to Grant Lee Buffalo (I could go on and on), it's good to have them readily available for reference.
Our .com site is going through an update and the e-zine archives are "live" (albeit the graphics are still under construction). Sayonara Google Groups! Let me know if you see anything that sucks (ie misspellings, broken links, my attitude, etc).
Music Biz News: The scheduled royalty increase for small webcasters has been temporarily delayed thanks to mounting pressure from musicians, legislators and the fledgling internet radio community. For the sake of variety and creativity, let's hope it stays that way. Contact your legislators and let them know how you feel.
Another one bites the dust: Sony Music Studios located in the historic NYC neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen will be closing sometime in August. RIP. I'm sure all of the talented staff will find better, more profitable homes elsewhere. Perhaps this month's interviewee and former Sony mastering engineer Stephen Marsh has an opening available?
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Community
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 If you're like me, the moment someone mentions the word "community" I start wondering what they're selling. I'll leave the reasons for this to a psychotherapist but recently I've been doing a lot of thinking about what this word really means.
When I was in bands, we always looked at other musicians and songwriters as competition. I think it's a natural instinct... animals competing for resources. I've encountered this attitude in every job I've ever held and engineering is no different. While I certainly believe healthy competition is good for any industry, I also think being territorial is counterproductive. Afterall, it's a small world and what's good for the goose is typically good for the gander. Some of the most successful cats I know (whether they're engineers or musicians) actually share information, refer each other work, and view their colleagues as allies. They are not preoccupied with anyone else's business but their own.
Now before we all grab hands and sing "Kumbaya", let me make it clear that every industry has it's share of unsavory and self-serving characters. Being their friends is not what I'm suggesting. I'm merely pointing out that $10-a-song mastering engineers don't scare me anymore than the ridiculousness that guys like Stephen Marcussen should be sleeplessly worried about me. I have no problem sending artists to my "competitors" because I trust musicians to make their own determination about the "who, what, when and where." Not everybody needs or can afford Ted Jensen's level of expertise, experience, gear, and room. I also happen to think that the guy who's charging $10 a song today, might very well be the Ted Jensen of tomorrow (ok, the odds aren't good, but it's possible). Everybody has to start somewhere and things are always changing.
This leads me to this month's interview, which I'm happy to say is with fellow mastering engineer Stephen Marsh. He is incredibly talented, experienced, and successful and certainly unthreatened by me (I haven't won any awards, have no platinum/gold albums on my wall, and apprenticed under no one). I'm psyched that he was interested and encouraged that he didn't dismiss me as a predatory hack (at least that I know of, ha ha).
I hate "morals to stories", but If you view everyone as competition, think you have nothing new to learn, and don't want to have anything to do with anybody, don't be surprised if everybody treats you in kind. Of course, I haven't always conducted myself this way... but I'm learning and humbled by others who do. -h.
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What can I expect from mastering?
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 This may seem obvious, but we can't turn an apple into an orange.
If your mix is good, expect the master to be better. Just keep in mind that a good engineer also knows when to stay out of the way, so sometimes the differences may not be that dramatic. If your mix is less than perfect, the mastering engineer should point out the imperfections and suggest solutions before he touches one knob (this is often political and some artists/mixers don't really want to hear about it). If the master sounds worse than the mix, you've got the wrong person for the job. This is why I always suggest getting a test master... even if you have to pay for it, that way there's no unpleasant surprises.
Also, don't expect to add frequencies or instruments that aren't there (ie, the commercial track you're using as a reference has an 808 kick and Moog bass but your track features the sampled sound of a "wet-paper-bag-catching-a-stool-sample" for a kick drum and a banjo holding down the bass line.)
Most of all, remember that mastering, while highly technical, is also subjective. A lot of human decisions need to be made that rely on our hearing, experience and personal taste. If this wasn't true, computer algorithms could do our job while we sip Mai Tais on a beach in Fiji. The day that happens, you know where I'll be.
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