Master & Commander: Q&A with Mike Kalajian
I was engineering and producing for years. Doing that, I had worked with every mastering engineer under the sun. I didn’t really see a correlation between how much money you spent and what the quality was -- I mean, there are guys who are unbelievable who are really expensive and it’s justified, and then there are guys who are a great value. But there are also a lot of outliers. It’s not super correlated. So I was tired of paying a lot of money for people who I thought were going to be really excellent and getting something back that I didn’t feel was really excellent.
I kind of wanted to be the shop that gave you the amenities of a big name studio without having to spend a million dollars or having to go through three people to get to your mastering engineer. I wanted to offer the same attention to detail as a big name studio -- not just in regard to mastering. I wanted to be able to get an email two years after a project was completed and still deliver the requested files, unlike a normal home studio.
Too Much Bass. Not Enough Space.
Consumers have responded to marketing that emphasizes bass response for years, so why would a mix that’s weighted heavily towards low frequencies be of any concern? The answer is headroom, put simply.
Bass eats up headroom, causing the other elements of a track to be stifled under the weight of low-frequency waves. This means that a track that has an overcompensation in the bass is going to sound quieter than a track with a well-balanced bass response. In addition, in regard to bass eating up valuable headroom, there are issues created that go beyond perceived loudness.
Let’s Discuss the D.A.V. Broadhurst Gardens No.3 (BG-3) Mastering Equalizer
One might wonder why such history is relevant to a discussion about a mastering equalizer. Put simply, the time that Hinton spent at Decca Studios is apparent in his products’ design and sonic footprint. For example, Hinton worked for Decca during the inception of stereo audio. Most of his coworkers at the time were ex-Royal Air Force Radio Operators. This was the beginning of audio production becoming an art form as opposed to the science as which it was then regarded. Hinton’s designs fall into a strange place in that regard -- they’re scientifically musical. Or are they musically scientific?
The Broadhurst Gardens No.3, or BG-3, is a low-distortion, electronically balanced parametric mastering equalizer. Physically, the unit is 2U high and fairly lightweight. On the faceplate, the unit sports 18 Grayhill rotary switches for frequency selection, band gain, and output gain. In addition, one will find switches for a high pass filter at -3dB at 28Hz with a slope of 18dB per octave. Frequency band gain is +/- 2.5dB in 0.5 dB steps while output gain is -5dB/+6dB in 1dB steps.
Let's Discuss the Knif Vari Mu II Mastering Compressor
Upon racking the unit, which is no easy task as the box is 4 units high and quite heavy, it is evident that Knif Audio gives the structure surrounding their monstrous electronics the care and attention that it deserves. The metalwork in particular stands out; NASA may be interested in the companyʼs manufacturing methods, as the Vari Mu II most likely could survive re-entry into Earthʼs atmosphere.
Inside the box, the Knif Vari Mu II sports 10 tubes: 4 ECC189 compression tubes, 2 ECC88 and 2 6H30Pi output amplifier tubes, and 2 6AL5 sidechain rectifier tubes. Aiding further to the Vari Mu II’s quest to reach critical mass are Lundahl’s oversized transformers. Together, they provide transparent, musical saturation to program content when the unit is suitably driven.