The Butler Mastering - Audio & Music Mastering Specialists
Norton Street, Leichhardt, Sydney - +61 403 435 686
Mastering Credits / Clients;
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EMI Music
The International Swingers [ex; The Sex Pistols, Blondie, Eurythmics, Honeydippers, The Cult & The Ramones]
FAKER
Papa Vs Pretty
Melody Black [former Candy Harlots, Killing Time & Jerk]
Liquid Music US
Speedtwinn [former Supernaut front-man]
Suite 110 [Australian Idol Finalists]
The Casio Brothers [So You Think You Can Dance]
The Art [Azaria]
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Other Mastering Clients include... The Sonic Factory, Camden, Silverback Records, VTribe, Von Rocker, Turning Studios, 400KW, Celebrity Death Club, Birdsmouth, Bluetongue Blues, Earthbound, Hein Cooper, Leanne Russo, A Shot of Scarlet, Lunia, Neon Strip, The Hounds, Justine Eltakchi, Moz Troniquz, Dilhan Perara, NeoStereo, Ramos, Tim Eldridge, Alan Blackshaw Blues, Chris Melotti, Victor Mercader, Bingo Steve & The Magic Markers, Ben Birt, Liam Gale, Sig & Lee, Mystical [Nepal], Exeter Blues, Vindan, Rocksoup, Setec Music, Mugshot Records, Alazay Entertainment, Insomnia Management... plus many, many more...
.
Live Production Credits;
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Kylie Minogue
Battles
The Presets
Scissor Sisters
Sneaky Sound System
Gyroscope
The Crystal Method
Paul Kelly
Richie & The Creeps [ex Tumbleweed]
British India
+ many more...
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Secondhand Serenade [Live To Air Mix]
The Sundance Kids [Live To Air Mix]
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Other;
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Broadcast Engineer for Austereo, inc;
2Day FM & TripleM On-Air Processor Programming – “That Radio Sound”
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System & Acoustic Design for 100’s of the largest venues in Australia & Asia [multiple projects over $1mil] plus
Over 2,000 designs for smaller venues, studios and events
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Server Engineer for Hewlett Packard [a decade ago]
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Studio name:
The Butler Mastering
Answered by:
Paul Butler Tayar
What’s the studio set up you have there equipment-wise?
The studio focus is squarely set on the monitoring environment and the signal chain. Based around equipment from Lipinski Sound, Dangerous Music, Crane Song and local legend Peach Audio, the room has been painstakingly “tuned” to achieve a world class listening environment. As far as processing, there are products from Crane Song, API Audio, Millennia Media and Shadow Hills on the analogue side and Magix Sequoia with PSP Audio and Algorithmix plugs in DAW land. I am a real gearslut though so the processing side [away from my staples] does change quite frequently.
Any tips for artists entering a studio for the first time?
I see a lot of work coming through that is clipped in an attempt to make it louder. I really encourage all my clients to really watch out for this. In tracking, use 24 bit recording and stay well away from those red lights. In mixing, leave some space at the louder side of things and mix to how you want it to sound, not to make it loud. A 24 bit recording has over 40dB of headroom compared to 16 bit, so you have plenty of room to play with. If you’re throwing a compressor over the mix bus just for the sake of loudness, leave it off, turn your monitors up and let your mastering engineer make the decisions at a later stage. Saying that, if you really do like the sound of a dynamic processor over your mix, then by all means throw it on, but only if it is for the sound in a creative sense. If you’re not sure, print a mix with the processor, and then without and bring both to your mastering session.
Which notable artists have worked at the studio?
I’ve personally worked with plenty of “big names” in the past, in many different areas of the audio industry. In the current studio as it stands, we’ve had a massive group of Indie bands coming through. Lots of online work from the US, Italy, Belgium and even Cuba, through to DVD audio work for some of the “So You Think You Can Dance” crew and some of the ex Idol guys. We’ve also been working with a great little studio in Pyrmont [Suite 110] that have some amazing artists coming through, they are well worth checking out.
Studio name:
The Butler Mastering
Answered by:
Paul Butler Tayar
What’s the studio set up you have there equipment-wise?
The studio focus is squarely set on the monitoring environment and the signal chain. Based around equipment from Lipinski Sound, Dangerous Music, Crane Song and local legend Peach Audio, the room has been painstakingly “tuned” to achieve a world class listening environment. As far as processing, there are products from Crane Song, API Audio, Millennia Media and Shadow Hills on the analogue side and Magix Sequoia with PSP Audio and Algorithmix plugs in DAW land. I am a real gearslut though so the processing side [away from my staples] does change quite frequently.
Any tips for artists entering a studio for the first time?
I see a lot of work coming through that is clipped in an attempt to make it louder. I really encourage all my clients to really watch out for this. In tracking, use 24 bit recording and stay well away from those red lights. In mixing, leave some space at the louder side of things and mix to how you want it to sound, not to make it loud. A 24 bit recording has over 40dB of headroom compared to 16 bit, so you have plenty of room to play with. If you’re throwing a compressor over the mix bus just for the sake of loudness, leave it off, turn your monitors up and let your mastering engineer make the decisions at a later stage. Saying that, if you really do like the sound of a dynamic processor over your mix, then by all means throw it on, but only if it is for the sound in a creative sense. If you’re not sure, print a mix with the processor, and then without and bring both to your mastering session.
Which notable artists have worked at the studio?
I’ve personally worked with plenty of “big names” in the past, in many different areas of the audio industry. In the current studio as it stands, we’ve had a massive group of Indie bands coming through. Lots of online work from the US, Italy and even Cuba, through to DVD audio work for some of the “So You Think You Can Dance” crew and some of the ex Idol guys. We’ve also been working with a great little studio in Pyrmont [Suite 110] that have some amazing artists coming through, they are well worth checking out.
Who do you have on staff and what’s their background in the industry?
The studio is mostly me, but we have a couple assistants that come in through the week. I’ve always been involved in mastering but to pay the bills in the earlier years I worked training audio and designing systems for Jands [and still do on a consulting basis], listening to and testing the Event Opals for Rode and for Austereo as a Broadcast Engineer for a couple years up in Brisvegas. They’ve all given me great experience in other spaces of audio that ultimately relate to mastering and all have some wonderful [and very talented] people working for them.
Analogue vs digital – discuss.
There is a plethora of equally bad analogue and digital equipment out there, and concurrently there is also some great equipment in each domain. It’s not so much of an issue today as to how the product is achieving the process, everything should be judged on the final result... the sound of course, but also the ergonomics of use. Having a device that has great controls can make a big difference in your personal results, who wants to worry about sub-par controls [or menus] when you need to be expressive. Saying that I guess there is still a slight disparency between the 2, in my experience digital gear can be better for the transparent side of things whilst having a nice analogue pallet of colours is always nice.
Can bands bring in their own engineer or do they have to solely use a house engineer?
We welcome other engineers to be a part of the mastering process, we will have someone overseeing the operation but this can be strictly a system support role if you so choose.
We’re an impoverished indie band – do you offer any deals for acts in our situation?
Definitely! We always have time for indie bands, I’ve worked hard to keep a fixed pricing structure for the indie crew so everyone knows where they stand. We also offer a free listening session so you can bring in your music, listen to it on our systems and discuss what could be done to improve the project.
What’s the access to the studio like with regards to parking, flat load, etc?
There’s ample parking in the adjacent side streets, we also have a visitor parking pass to keep those parking cops off your back.
Working in the studio can be arduous and we’ll need a break – what are the amenities in the local area?
There are a few too many distractions far too close to the studio, some pretty cool pubs, bars and cafes. We also have a nice courtyard to chill out in away from it all, with a barbeque and pool table on order it’ll be a nice place to spend some time.
What are your contact details?
Best contact is through our website, the-butler.com, or you can call me directly on 0403 435 686 if you want to have a chat about your next project.
