New York - GRAMMY Professional Development Series: “In the Studio –The Art of the Craft” #4 (Boston)

GRAMMY Professional Development Series:  In the Studio – The Art of the Craft

On Wednesday, March 30th, we gathered in one of Boston’s premiere mastering studios, M Works (www.m-works.com), for the fourth installment in a series of events presented in actual recording studios. This event featured Chief Mastering Engineer, Berklee School of Music professor and M Works Mastering President, Jonathan Wyner, producer, Mike Denneen from Q Division and special guest, the legendary three-time GRAMMY winner George Massenburg.

In this intimate setting, Jonathan explained that mastering is the final step in production and the first step in distribution. He provided an insightful look into his mastering process by sharing with  the attendees that when projects arrive in his hands, before any mastering is attempted, he reviews several aspects of the project – sequencing, where the project was recorded, metadata, formats and levels, just to name a few.  George approaches his projects differently.  He prefers to know nothing about it before he begins his process.

Mike and George both shared with the crowd their roles as a producer during the mastering process. It was great to hear about the work from their perspective and to see how a producer enhances the overall creation of music on many levels.

Mike introduced us to Joe Guese, a member of The Click Five (TC5), a power pop rock band from Boston who he is currently working with.  We listened to TC5’s track entitled “Fever for Shakin”.  George allowed us to look into his work on the track “Suzie” by Ashelin, a youthful all sister band from the East Coast of Canada. 

Under Jonathan’s guidance, we witnessed a hands-on demonstration while he shared his decision-making process in the art of mastering.  He discussed the interaction between artist, producer and the mastering stage and both the differences and similarities when working on each song.