Studio 301: Leon Zervos

23 November 2009

Leon Zervos is back in Australia after a twenty year hiatus, which involved working in Sterling Studios, the worlds best mastering studio. Studio 301 welcomes his return.

In layman's terms, what is mastering?

Mastering is the last creative step in making a record. It's when you take the raw mixes and enhance them, so that they are as good as they possibly can be. This is basically how you want the mix to sound forever. So the last step is quite an important one and it’s very important when mastering an album.

An album is a collection of different songs, and now more than ever albums are typically produced and recorded by a host of different people, so that leaves the overall mix sounds to vary greatly from one mix to another.

A mastering engineer will assess the different sounds and know how to approach each and every mix, so that when the album is complete it all sounds like it belongs together. Mastering is a thought process perfected by years of professional, practical application. When mastering engineers listen to a mix, they pretty much know right away how it needs to sound and how to achieve this.

You worked at Sterling Sound. What was your favourite project to work on?

Working at Sterling Sound was a wonderful experience. Sterling was great at developing groundbreaking ideas and setting standards for mastering, but it started at Absolute Audio. Absolute Audio was a great studio in midtown NYC. My client list there included bands like Aerosmith, The Black Crowes, *NSYNC, and many groundbreaking rap acts like Mobb Deep, The Wu Tang Clan and Big Pun. I even mastered The Macarena, which stayed at number one on the Billboard charts for 14 weeks.

I eventually moved to Masterdisk. Masterdisk was in the ‘hells kitchen’ district of Manhattan. There I mastered Maroon 5, Santana, Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Whitney Houston and many more.

At Sterling I worked with Avril Lavigne, Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Muse, Dream Theater and more .

Was there a lot of label pressure regarding the finished sound for a lot of those artists?

Labels release deadlines are very important, so we know what we are in for, especially when we are working on a big release. So, yes there is pressure and we do our best at getting everything out on time. These days it’s a little easier as most masters get delivered electronically. A few years ago for most major releases we would have a huge parts order, for example we would have to run masters of the main LP, the clean LP, the US sequence, the Japanese sequence, the European sequence, the promos, the singles, etc. - so actually running all of these would take some time.

As far as the sound goes, labels will use me because they are familiar with how I master, so the finished sound is pretty much as they would expect, and if they wanted something revised that is part of the service we offer.

What is the difference between mastering something like, *NSYNC, and something like Powderfinger or Keith Urban?

For me the main difference is knowing the music you’re working on. Every style of music has a “sound”, and you have to stick within the parameters of that sound. Getting to know as much about music and all the different styles of music that exist is very important. Listen to lots of music and research that style from the roots up.

So, for example, if you are working on a country project you should know a little about the music’s history and how the music has typically sounded on past releases. At the same time listen to the artist’s direction and be respectful to the mixes supplied.

What were your thoughts when 5.1 came in? Is it harder to master for that format?

When 5.1 came in we all thought it was going to change everything we do. We thought that every album would be stereo and surround. This was not the case. I guess it became very expensive for record companies to write that expense into the mixing and mastering budget. I did quite a lot of surround in the beginning, like Alanis Morisette, Collective Soul, Deep Purple, Willie Nelson, Beastie Boys, Sum 41 etc. But sadly the format has not survived that well, with only a few projects coming out now.

My most recent in surround is the latest Muse album, which sounds outstanding, I’m quite proud of that one. Surround is a listening experience that most people don’t have much time for. You have to sit down and take all the music in, and today’s world only gives us enough time to listen in a transient way, like in the car or with earplugs. I enjoy surround projects, they are not harder or easier than stereo, just different.

What are the main differences between the overseas studios and local ones?

Overseas studios usually get associated with a style of music, and this applies more to the engineers themselves. In the United States, engineers and music gets more pigeon holed, whereas in Australia engineers tend to have a broader field to work with. As far as the quality of the studios and the equipment used, this really varies from studio to studio, and from engineer to engineer. Some engineers like lots of toys, some like a basic set up. This is the same here as in overseas studios.

Are there particular courses you can do for mastering? What advice would you give someone wanting to get into this sort of work?

The best way to learn about mastering is on the job. But before you get into mastering, a solid knowledge of audio is essential. I had done a Diploma in Audio Engineering at SAE, and when I joined EMI I spent time as a studio assistant, so with all this and my musical background, the move into mastering was easy for me. Don’t just buy a computer mastering program, and think, “oh, this is easy “ because there is a little more to it than that. If you are really interested in mastering, try to get an internship at a mastering studio, and learn as much as you can. If you are keen and good you might get asked to join the team.

Know the fundamentals of music, recording, and have people skills and you are on your way.