Word on gear

Specialized Mastering uses professional equipment that ideally suits the mastering process. Some gear is state-of-the-art, some is classic. It is chosen based upon its sonic performance, aesthetic, and functional merits. It is all proven gear that gets the right results.

A partial gear list:

MASTERING -

• Avalon AD2055 pure class A mastering EQ
• Manley Massive Passive tube, stereo program equalizer (transformer & transformerless operation)
• Millennia TCL-2 Twincom tube/solid-state compressor modified with Telefunken & Mullard tube retrofit
• Dbx 160 SL Compressor & Limiter - features the outstanding Blackmer decilinear VCA
• Z Systems Audio ZQ3 digital EQ 40-bit floating-point implementation, with stereo & MS operation
• Cranesong STC-8 compressor/limiter
• NTI EQ3 “air band” equalizer
• Waves L2 Ultramaximizer
• Mytek Stereo 96 digital converters
• Apogee PSX-100 24 bit/ 96 kHz D/A & A/D converter
• TC Electronic M5000 fully loaded with MD2 and ATAC remote
• Custom MS shuffler
• Valley Audio Dynamap 730
• dbx Quauntum multiband dynamics & equalizer
• Aphex Dominator
• Waves Plug-ins
• SPL Spectralizer
• Algorithmix DeNoiser, Declick/Descratch restoration tools
  

MONITORING -

• B&W 801 Matrix III reference monitors
• AKG K270 headphones
• Lucid DA9624 digital to analog converter
• Bryston 4B amplification
• Bryston preamp
• Canare wiring
• Isolated electrical service
• Pinguin Pro loudness/VU/spectrum/phase meter

EDITING -

• SADiE Disk Editor with:
• SADiE Mastering Limiter
• SADiE Graphical EQ
• SADiE Hi-Dither 96K noise shape dithering
• Apogee UV-22 dithering
• POW-r dithering & noise shaping

RECORDERS -

• Sony APR 5002 1/2"& 1/4" format analog master recorder
• Plextor & Yamaha CD-R master recorders
• Exabyte 8500 DDP master recorder
• Panasonic SV3800 DAT recorder
• Sony A-6 DAT recorder
• Sony CD-RW 33 CD recorder
• Parasound CDP 1000 CD player
• Nakamichi DR-2 cassette deck
• Tascam 112 cassette deck
• Music Hall MMF 2.1 turntable with Goldenring cartridge & Bryston preamp
• Steinberg Wavelab w/ LynxOne 24/96 audio I/O
• Z-Systems digital detangler audio router