Mastering Engineer Ross Williams

Ross Williams's Mastering Studio

Ross Williams's Mastering Studio is located in the city centre of Adelaide, Australia.

Hardware

• Apple 2020 iMac with 10 CPU cores.
• Cranesong Solaris Digital To Analog Converter.
• Neumann KH-120 Studio Monitors.
• Neumann KH750 DSP Subwoofer.
• Sennheiser HD 650 Studio Headphones (when required).

Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) Software

Ross Williams performs all mastering "in the box" (i.e. entirely using software) using the Bitwig Studio Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) software.

Software

Ross Williams performs mastering using software from the following vendors:

• Audified
• Brainworx
• Cytomic
• Dangerous Music
• DMG Audio
• Elysia
• Eventide Audio
• FabFilter
• iZotope
• Kazrog
• Kush
• Maag
• MAAT
• Mastering The Mix
• MeterPlugs
• Oeksound
• Plugin Alliance
• Polyverse Music
• reFUSE Software
• Rogue Amoeba
• Slate Digital
• Softube
• Solid State Logic
• Sonarworks
• Sonnox
• Soundtheory
• Soundtoys
• Voxengo
• Waves
• Wavesfactory

Studio Frequency Spectrum Response

Ross Williams performs mastering in an acoustically treated studio.

Sonarworks software is used to further flatten the frequency response arriving at the mastering engineer's ears.

Here is the studio's frequency response after the studio's room treatment and before invoking Sonarworks. It is generally good to aim for a maximum deviation from the zero line of 6dB, and this is achieved here across the spectrum with the exception of 70Hz.

Here is the studio's frequency response AFTER Sonarworks software has been applied (according to Sonarworks measurement). As you can see, it's essentially flat from 20KHz right down to about 30Hz, which is close to the limit of human hearing.

This is an excellent frequency response for mastering. We plan to apply further room treatment to the room to remove the pre-Sonarworks bump at 70Hz to increase the room's stability.