Mastering in the Digital Domain

Various Artists

(13 min / 1h48)

Idania Valencia

  • Mastering

Brought to you from Sterling Sound in New Jersey, this series is led by mastering engineer Idania Valencia!

For her MWTM debut, Idania gives a comprehensive walkthrough of her philosophy, workflow, and techniques. Demonstrating her expertise on six different projects, she conveys how to efficiently use a handful of plug-ins to consistently achieve results on par with high-end analog chains. Using Sequoia as her DAW of choice, Valencia opens up sessions containing the mixes received and her final masters of records by Fiji Blue, James Arthur, Lucrezia, Moyka, Francis Karel, and The Maine ft. Taking Back Sunday & Charlotte Sands.

She takes you through every software insert of her signal chains, thoroughly explaining why she used certain tools and settings based on the source material. In every case, Idania bypasses plug-ins to reveal subtle enhancements, and she compares the audio received with her masters. Furthermore, she covers pertinent aspects of the job that include sample rate conversion, bit depth, monitoring, and translation. Valencia speaks at length about DSP level normalisation, penalisation triggers, and how to make the most of streaming platform algorithms – fascinating information and essential knowledge for any mixing or mastering engineer!

Subtitles in English, Spanish, Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, French


Idania Valencia

About Idania Valencia

Idania Valencia is a mastering engineer from Mexico City. Her passion for music began as a young teenager when she started playing the piano and writing songs. This led her to pursue a degree in music composition at Academia de Musica Fermatta. She was strongly advised by her parents to study composition only under the condition that she also undertook music production and engineering as a backup plan. Over time, Idania became more drawn to the areas of production and engineering. She eventually...

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