Today I'm Having a GAS™with Chris Gehringer, senior mastering engineer at Sterling Sound *Full Podcast with loads more insight here:* ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bt3m7nfHc1g.html More on Chris Gehringer here: sterling-sound.com/engineer/chris-gehringer
People should feel aware on why he does "so little" and not try to justify spending all their money on useless stuff. This is the difference of a guy who can actually listen perfectly because he spent all his money on his room/monitoring and the gear addicted local studio dude that still spend all his money on rare vintage analog miracle magic wand.
His explanation of limiting being "softer" is actually him describing how limiters don't augment transients due to typically having extremely short attack times - which is the opposite of soft. "Run it through some analogue stuff to kinda like.. fill in some gaps or whatever", "I'll just turn every knob until that's moved into the right place", comparing "what he does in mastering anyway" to "clicking every button in photoshop" .... what??? There is so much transparent gain reduction, excitement, and ultimately overall loudness to be had in properly using compression in a mastering chain - aside from "musical movement", even just in reducing volume automation to be done pre-limiting. If you're working on hiphop and pop records like this guy does where tracks are coming in pre-slammed, I'm sure you can probably get away with running an EQ and a limiter - but when you're working on records with normal dynamics (not only short-term but even section to section), telling me you're just going to smash it all into a ceiling and "turn every knob"... not sure I'd call this "mastering music more effectively".
perfectly mixed pop records are just what we see of him. in another interview he broke down an everyday work for him which is just an average mixed indie track (extremely dynamic btw), and he does the exact same process (eq + limit) and he said client loved it. I think he is big because he stays loyal to one process and adapts it to any necessity
Very interesting and new way of working, as for me limiters have always been off-limits essentially. Compressors are fine to use in moderation, but I've always thought limiters are hardly worth checking out in terms of settings because they are all essentially trying to do the same thing. Then again, I do have a favourite limiter, which I haven't used for years since I don't personally have it, it's the Flux Audio Pure Limiter. Really invisible limiter that still smacks well
