Producing, Mixing and Mastering – Making music sound „good“

** LINK to online meeting room **

In a conversation with producers and mastering/sound engineers we look forward to discussing different approaches to sound engineering and putting the finishing touches on a piece of music.

What parts of this process can musicians do themselves, and at which point would collaboration with an engineer be recommended? At which point in a music career does working with a producer or an engineer make sense? And what is the difference between producing, mixing and mastering exactly? What type of budgets need to be planned for?

What are different approaches to sound? How do musicians communicate and collaborate with producers or engineers to develop a vision of a sound? How to talk about sound? And how then to translate a sonic imagination into music? How are they taking creative decisions together? What are different approaches to the collaborative process?

What does good sound mean in different contexts? And also in different media – like is the mastering for vinyl and streaming the same? What's the difference if a track is to be played in a club, on a home stereo or phone headphones?

We look forward to discussing with:

Queer Ear Mastering - Tara Transitory and Nguyễn Baly started Queer Ear Mastering in Berlin out of the necessity to create a safer space for female and queer artists to get their music mastered, though they are not exclusive and everyone is welcome. With a combined experience of over two decades working with sound in music, contemporary art, performing arts, audio post-production and television, they provide not just technical support but dramaturgical advice from a variety of perspectives.  Their expertise covers a wide variety of styles and they have mastered for artists such as Audrey Chen, Lucrecia Dalt, Sarah Farina, Odete and Poisonous Relationship aka Jamie Crewe amongst others.

Julia Borelli is a Berlin-based engineer from Brazil. Having spent her childhood and teenage years exploring different instruments, music has always been her passion. Graduate from Point Blank London and SAE Institute Berlin, Julia has worked in well-renowned studios, such as the Grammy award-winning PostModernMastering, and JRS Recording Studio. Now Riverside resident, she runs and co-owns Nadoki Studios, a music studio mainly focused on mixing and mastering, where she’s worked with a variety of artists like Richie Hawtin, Anyma, Mind Against, Soel, Princess Century, and Lie Ning. On the side, she’s also producing and DJ-ing on the Dance Pop duo BORELLI.

Spoke is a non-binary independent music producer and sound engineer based in Berlin, Germany. They graduated with a M.Sc. in Audio Communication and Technology, at Technical University Berlin. Over the past 10 years, they have been working as an independent music producer and beatmaker on numerous productions with a wide range of both independent and label artists, producing numerous hip hop and ambient pop vinyl EPs, mixtapes, singles and video releases. They have gathered extensive professional experience as a technical manager for sound, light and video in event (Ableton LOOP Summit), theater (Rimini Protokoll) and media production. In 2018, Spoke founded SLOMO STUDIO and has shifted their focus on freelancing as a producer and recording engineer. The Studio offers the services recording, production and mixing. The Studio aims at offering an encouraging studio environment for female* and gender-non-conforming artists, producers and engineers.

Moderation:

Maya Postepski is a Canadian producer, multi-instrumentalist, prolific remix artist and DJ from Toronto, currently based in Berlin. Best known as drummer of the electronic group Austra (Domino), in 2012 Postepski co-wrote and produced the highly acclaimed, Juno nominated cult album TRST with Robert Alfons as TR/ST. The duo reunited to release their highly anticipated third album, The Destroyer Part I and Part II in 2019.

Postepski performs solo under the title Princess Century. She released her second full-length LP, Progress, with Paper Bag Records in 2015. Her third solo album Surrender will be released in 2021. It was written and recorded at two polarizing geographic locations - the snowy Narva Artist Residency on the border between Estonia and Russia, and the Sahara Desert, bordering Morocco and Algeria. The first single + music video, Cosmic Minivan, was released on Halloween 2020. She is also performing live with Peaches and Emel Mathlouthi.