9 posts from 2008

We talk club'n'rock

Dec 31, 2008

When it comes to MASTERING it might be the first and most important step for the artist or label to be finding the right engineer for the job. As product manager and label owner myself i was often selecting the mastering house on the music style i thought they can do best - and that was often a complex choice. Then i got dragged deep into professional mastering myself, attending all sessions, organizing the best vinyl cuts and pressing plants, watching, learning - and finally working as a freelance engineer myself! Now, almost 10 years later, having developed my own studio to a state-of-the-art audiophile analog mastering facility, most of the time i'm mastering and producing club music, like drum&bass, house, nu-jazz, dub, electronica and hiphop, but i find myself more often doing jobs for the more acoustic oriented styles of jazz, folk and rock music. My personal goal is to put the bass back in music and still have a crisp topend and defined mids - you can't do that well with digital code, in the end digital limiting is the death blow - hence my favour for the best analog gear available. I’m constantly experimenting with various hardware and signal/power/digital-cables for a coherent, complementing system and am happy to have assembled some incredibly sounding analog gear as my mastering chain to fit my very demanding criteria of sound that is transparent, detailed & punchy but also warm, organic, 3D’ish & loud ! myspace

MAINFRAME gets VOVOX Purum certification

Nov 19, 2008

VOVOX PURUM CERT

MAINFRAME MASTERING got officially announced as member of the VOVOX PURUM scroll, a label provided to those studios attaining the highest standard of sound transmission using exclusively and consequently VOVOX SOUND CONDUCTORS. It was very unexpected to me to receive this honor, but proud to present it within this photograph. VOVOX is a specialized brand in producing sound conductors / cables at a new, almost esoteric level of approach and claim. so, i must say, they have succeded. This is not your ordinary cable, but an ultra transparent transmitter of signals in between the signal chain, and not only that but providing the same technology to the adapt of digital and power cables. After weeks of extensively testing these entities i came to believe that these are far superior to any other brand i was using before. And no, i'm not getting paid for this, it cost me an awfull lot of money... but very worth it! link

230V pure green electricity - we are powered

Nov 12, 2008

"Ich bin gerad aufgewacht, hab meine Augen aufgemacht , Für einen ersten Schritt ist es nie zu spät , ich habe angefangen, ich hab jetzt Ökostrom, Ich will mein Leben, weil es sonst ein andrer lebt, Es ist nie zu spät ..." the encouraging text of MIA's song ÖKOSTROM is one of many possible expressions of small things we can do to change life for a better. MAINFRAME MASTERING is now powered by a greenpeace recommended provider/producer of green electricity - meaning NO NUCLEAR POWER, insignificant CO2 EMISSIONS and based on 100%RENEWABLE ENERGY RESOURCES. Don't fall for the RECS certificate swindle - please join this movement and get real... what else can you do ? atomausstieg-selber-machen wiki

MILLENNIA NSEQ-2 Class-A equalizer

Sep 24, 2008

MILLENNIA_NSEQ-2

Time for a change, time for new millennia ! The supreme class-a discrete/vacuum tube program equalizer MILLENNIA NSEQ-2 has arrived at my studio to complement the SUMMIT PASSIVE EQP-200B. The so called "twin topology" unit got tubes, but where it really shines is its discrete operational mode. build like a tank to survive every coming new age mastering war, ehm... trend, there's a reason this one has found home in many world-class mastering studios, and that's ( - artificial pause - ) it's SOUND ! Yep, cat's out of the bag ;)) This is a straight "no color" unit, unbelievable transparent and clean but than delivering the biggest bottom, the smoothest angel like hi-end and super solid mids. I needed to change the internal jumper settings of the LAVRY DA10's output to unbalanced (pin2 hot) to match the input section of the NSEQ-2 wich was running pretty hot soundwise - but then... this unit IS running hot - like an atomic pile! link

DAN LAVRY DA10 - hands-on D/A shootout

Sep 11, 2008

D/A shootout

Well, it's been an intense week shooting out the winners of another D/A-converter pre-selection shootout by Mr. Guido Apke. on my table are the newly build DANGEROUS MUSIC DAC-ST converter by Chris Muth, the USB version of my beloved BENCHMARK DAC1 and the latest from DAN LAVRY, the LAVRYBLACK DA10. To my surprise the candidates do come with their own distinct character in sound, even when they all claim to be perfectly neutral by measurement. the DANGEROUS DAC-ST imparts a fantastic clear, dynamic sound while somewhat attenuateing the upper mid-range and cleaning-up the lower mids; this is really excellent for all sorts of brass and metal build instruments with a big WOW! factor, on the downside it can also bring up some sibilance and edginess in vocals. I love the BENCHMARK DAC1 for it's punch and felt neutrality on the almost every style of music. The LAVRY is excellent in sounding deep, wide and warm, the upper midrange sounds very smooth and clean due to less electronic induced distortion. The unit's just a BIG pleasure to listen thru - packed with a feature set you won't miss (switchable mono/stereo, polarity, 1db stepped level) the LAVRYBLACK DA10 definately stays in my studio for fully featured D/A conversion duties ! link

Testimonials

Aug 9, 2008

[i just started collecting recent comments from my clients - more content is coming! i know, i know, should've done this earlier already ;) ]

[..] "chris hat mir gestern die ersten sechs songs unseres neuen albums mitgebracht, die du gemastert hast. als produzent, engineer, sänger, gitarrist, keyboarder und accidently auch noch drummer der scheibe konnte ich die sachen echt nicht mehr hören... ...aber jetzt klingt das ganze ja nach... ...HOLY SHIT - klingt das G-E-I-L!! - hatte gerade echt spaß an dem zeug! das musste ich nur mal loswerden :-)" - Stefan Wendling, Skullboogey

[..] "..du bist echt ein wissenschaftler ;-) dein soundfile klingt wirklich sehr gut (auch wenn ich's nur über meine kopfhörer testen kann) - auf jeden fall macht's einen unterschied! ich danke dir aufrichtig für deinen einsatz. wenn du tracks wirklich schon durch dein setup durchgejagt hast, dann mach hin!!!! wie kann ich das denn wieder gut machen?!?!´danke auch für alle korrekturen, jetzt ist die sache rund!!! " - Lars Bartkuhn

[..] "Fett ists geworden. Habs mal über 3 Anlagen im Laden gehört... Was mir sehr gut gefällt - Ich hab meinen Hallraum noch nie so genau gehört nach dem Mastern !! Kommt wohl durch die analogen Sachen. Bei digitalen Masterings geht der Raum irgendwie immer drauf. Geil ! Der Bassbereich ist auch sehr gut. Schön straff - genau wie de oberen Frequenzen. Nerven nicht und vor allem am Ende, wenn der etwas aufdringlichere Bass noch dazu kommt hatte ich etwas Schiss, das da die Mitten nerven könnten. Is aber nich ! Die Höhen sind auch sehr schön angehoben und nerven noch nicht mal über ne RCF PA. Das will was heissen !" - Shureshotz

[..] "I'm very happy with your mastering ! It souds much better. Thank you for this and I mail you soon for the next song." - Bodylight Soundservice

[..] "...besonders begeistert mich, dass dein master analog und ohne limiter entstanden ist und trotzdem den gleichen pegel hat. zwar sind bei meinem die höhen präsenter, dafür aber auch garstiger. da vertraue ich jetzt deinem ohr. sehr schön. der geht jetzt ohne weiteres so raus, zusammen mit dem kabuki-remix. coole worscht!" Beatkonexion

[..] "i think you did a good job man!:) i found the sound more open with more harmonics...this is nice more kick too,more analog and organic. i was in my studio today and i listened to the tune you mastered...it's really good! so keep doing what you are doing also to the other songs...eheh:) - Mop Mop

[..] "Everyone i have played the master for is happy with it, and says it sounds like a finished record, so i'm happy, too ! being that i can't personally tell anymore... listened to the songs to much" - Tom Freeman

[..] "die cd ist angekommen und auf heavy rotation ;-) der tikiman track ist auch hammer mäßig geworden.. total klasse..." - Philipp Maiburg

[..] "dear frank, thanks for mastering my solo project!" - Raphael Sebbag

[..] "Hallo Frank, vielen Dank für Dein mastering - klingt genau alles richtig so!!!!!!" Scheibenreiter

[..] "Klingt klasse!!!" - Ingo Sänger

Refined Audiometrics EQ + Algorithmix K-Stereo

May 18, 2008

PLPAREQ

K-STEREO

Some new digital tools arrived recently at my place and after some extensive testing with all high-class software contenders i'm happy to announce 2 new tools in the arsenal: the PLPAREQ linear phase digital mastering eq by REFINED AUDIOMETRICS and the new ALGORITHMIX K-STEREO, invented by mastering guru BOB KATZ. The EQ is yet in an undecided battle with the ALGORITHMIX RED EQ, but since i was part of the beta testing of the plpareq some time ago i've some sympathy for this one. Anyway, the quality of both is stunning, leaving everything i know far behind - something that is actually hard to admit as it also kicks some of my former favourites out of the chain. I'm pretty sure that it's way more than the emperors new clothes... that class of eq changed my approach to mastering music quiet a bit ! The K-STEREO itself is not a stereo expander but an ambience refresher, one could say - can be very subtle to conceive but it opens up the dimension and depth of the track that you'll probably only miss when taking it out. It's really cool to regain some of the spaciousness lost when converting from 24/32bit to the 16bit resolution of CD. link

Benchmark ADC1 + DAC1 converters

May 9, 2008

meet the Benchmarks

When it comes to conversion between the analog and digital domain opinions about the best converters available can't be different and controversial enough. Some prefer transparent and clear, being a bit on the cold side, others love colored and warm or euphoric, hence being not exactly neutral to the source. Attributes like flat frequency response, detail, punch and dimensionality are qualities to be considered for sure, but where's the one that has it all ? What is true to almost all converters of a certain class and price-tag is that they deliver an definite quality boost outrunning all stock ware, while still having some character on their own. What i have found to be punchy, clear and honest while not being sterile at at all is the BENCHMARK DAC1 (as monitor controller) and the BENCHMARK ADC1 (as main A/D converter) - world class conversion in a half rack space, build like a tank. Connected completely with VOVOX digital and analog cables they massively deliver and don't loose ! link

Mainframe designs RME mixer skin

Apr 16, 2008

ModernVintage_Skin

Well, sometimes when the ears are bleeding from to much bass it's time to hand the job over to the eyes and re-skin your RME Totalmix interface ;)) Since the last driver version that's exactly possible and well acknowledged by the people knowing the original skin. It's nice to have an environment, be it digital or analog, one feels home and confortable with. So, here it is, the official MAINFRAME MODERNVINTAGE Totalmix skin for the RME Fireface and HDSP. version 1.1 is now available for free ! download win mac