“Recently I worked on 'In Your Eyes' by The Weeknd, analyzing Dave Kutch's master. Kutch is more aggressive than most A-list mastering engineers. Where others might add 1dB here and there, Kutch really goes for it with 3-4dB boosts. That might not sound like much, but in the mastering world, it's substantial.”

“Instead, I started asking: which limiter makes the singer sound their best? Which one makes their performance feel stronger?” - I explore how thinking differently about my mastering decisions has improved my work.

“Going through these various options also dialled in the perfect colour and tone for the record using only limiters. This meant I needed minimal EQ to get the tonal balance right. The less EQ you can get away with, the better—less phase shift and less transient distortion.”