Analog mastering is one of the best secrets of high-end mixing engineers now. Since most everything is mixed in the digital realm, top studios will do something called analog mastering. This is where the digital version is put back to an analog signal in order to be mastered through analog processors, though many times it is also recorded to an two-track machine to acheive the fatness that analog tape gives to the album. It also takes the brittleness away from all digital recordings, and can even out the low end giving the low frequencies that rich analog sound.

Though Layback mastering can cost a bit more than basic digital mastering, since it takes additional time and there are other costs for the analog tape, but for serious projects, it can be the end step in achieving the best sound quality for the record. Since digital recordings can feel more brittle to a lot of listeners because regardless of how loud the sound gets, digital gives you flat reproduction. Analog tape, however, saturates as the volume increases in level, so high-ends are rounded instead of clipping, which turns into a warm, fat signal as the harmonics are balanced out. This is much more nice to listen to. Furthermore, an increased input signal will result in a exaggerated difference. As the highs soften up first, this means that as the signal increases, the highs will naturally soften up, creating a less harsh, nicer sound. This is the beauty of the Layback mastering process.

There are many mastering studios around the United States that have the tools to do analog mastering, however, it also requires you have an engineer with the track record to get the best end product possible with the studio. I have worked with a few recording studios and one of the most impressive is www.stevethomasmastering.com. He is a top analog mastering engineer, yet he also has done 1000s of albums as a mixing engineer as well. In addition, his results is similar to some of the most expensive mastering studios in the United States. If you already have someone you are using there’s nothing wrong with that. But, I would certainly to check him out.