Randy Merrill – Mastering Workshop #11

After arriving relatively late to the world of mastering, Randy Merrill is a shining example of what is possible when you dedicate yourself fully to your craft. Now one of the world’s most highly-regarded engineers, he has contributed to a plethora of Grammy-winning albums by artists such as Taylor Swift, Silk Sonic, Harry Styles, Adele, Mark Ronson, and more.

A maverick at mastering in the digital domain, Randy invites us into his studio at Sterling Sound to demonstrate his process in microscopic detail. In this 8-part series, he walks through a cross-section of his work featuring first-class artists such as Silk Sonic, Conan Gray, Porter Robinson, and more. He reflects on how his approach varies from song to song and offers lengthy A/B examples to boot. You will learn how Randy employs multi-stage limiting to achieve competitive loudness and tone shaping, and how he uses object-based processing in Sequoia to create targeted adjustments to the songs’ dynamics and spectral balance.

As the series comes to a close, Randy steps away from the console to reveal his ‘four tenets’ of success, offering sage wisdom to engineers of all ages and experience levels on what it takes to make it.