paul fox - head mastering engineer
Paul "the" Fox, Has been in mastering since 1996 and since the year 2003 decided to take purely to mastering as his speciality. twelve years on he is owner and manager of this successful mastering studio which dedicates it's efforts to the thriving Melbourne independent music scene. He has mastered well over 1200 records to date and has a huge collection of very happy artists with great records which he can claim his expert sound-print on. He is most pleased to be able to offer his services to Melbourne's local musicians who may otherwise find good mastering out of reach and budget.
Below is a transcript of an interview where Paul talks about his career so far, and why he started mastering for independent artists back in 1997:
What is your musical background?
"Becoming fascinated in sound and music, that was my survival in school. Then I was lucky enough to be accepted into the Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Music Technology at La Trobe University (Bundoora) in 1993. So during that time and onwards I was also involved in many live and recording bands as the drummer, bass player, guitarist, brass player, and/or songwriter and engineer. There was a brass concert band, a New Orleans jazz band Miss Pitch and the Melodic Minors, an African drum ensemble, a blues/rock outfit Slack Mammoth, a sludge art-grunge arrangement Paintstripper, an indie rock gig Big Cat Safari, the metal blast-mungers Rogue Trader, the stoner "spirit-rock" fuzz festers El'garsonorogio, and the snooze-pop glory of Major Chord. My main instrument being traps (drums). However, interestingly, we've turned some corners over the past five years which has seen me getting on the floor, acoustic with eastern instruments and chanting to the gods..! Must be something to do with just too much rock'n roll (if that's at all possible!)!."
What is your engineering background?
"I completed the bachelor degree in 1996 and jumped straight into mastering, as well as continuing with other fields of audio production, as its important to try and understand how every part of the production chain affects the end result. So there's been about fifteen years professional experience in mastering now and twenty-plus years in other aspects of sound production for music, film and theatre. However, by necessity, since around 2003, it's been solid, dedicated, pure mastering! All the better for you..and me!"
What inspired you to do mastering?
"My interest has always been in supporting the 'real' music culture that exists beyond the pop culture radar. The bands and engineers around me when I started were in need of mastering that was at their level of production and expense. Available at the time was either ‘my mate with a computer' or the high end mastering suites that were out of reach unless you had good financial support - and even within that there was the old 'engineer-with-an-attitude' syndrome, which often happened to jeopardise what you had in mind for your project. So you sort of had to put up with whatever you got from them or, if you could, get some friend of a friend to do some random job and hope for the best. Basically there was quality lacking at either end. There was a need for someone who could deliver the band's unique sound, polished and mastered, disregarding the default ‘clean American top end' and the bit-crunching ‘pop push' of popularised modern mastering philosophy.
So this facility was established with the essentials and run from a spare room in my house in 1997. Two years later I relocated to Bakehouse Lane in North Fitzroy, which is our current place of operation. A decade and a half on and things have really come a long way. The mastering chain has been developed and is sounding tops, and I have the pleasure of mastering consecutive releases from heaps of different Australian artists. Each job still gives the opportunity for unique engagement of judgement, intuition and acquired skills. There's certainly no straight lines in audio production!"
What do you find enjoyable about mastering?
"I enjoy supplying the community with good and cost-effective mastering. People used to not bother because it was too expensive, so their recordings would suffer. And mastering itself is great in it's simplicity - you usually just work on the stereo mix and do what you can to make it sound it's best. The satisfaction is in the great benefit that can be given to the mixes. And still I get, after sending off nearly every job, ecstatic responses regarding the effectiveness of the mastering on the music.
Personally I find doing mastering to be a good, concentrated meditation. In between tracks I can chat to the clients and it is always a very relaxed atmosphere. I enjoy the company of the clients actually."
Artists impression by Andrew Wills..(Fox's snout is not quite that long..):
"Becoming fascinated in sound and music, that was my survival in school. Then I was lucky enough to be accepted into the Bachelor of Arts in Contemporary Music Technology at La Trobe University (Bundoora) in 1993. So during that time and onwards I was also involved in many live and recording bands as the drummer, bass player, guitarist, brass player, and/or songwriter and engineer. There was a brass concert band, a New Orleans jazz band Miss Pitch and the Melodic Minors, an African drum ensemble, a blues/rock outfit Slack Mammoth, a sludge art-grunge arrangement Paintstripper, an indie rock gig Big Cat Safari, the metal blast-mungers Rogue Trader, the stoner "spirit-rock" fuzz festers El'garsonorogio, and the snooze-pop glory of Major Chord. My main instrument being traps (drums). However, interestingly, we've turned some corners over the past five years which has seen me getting on the floor, acoustic with eastern instruments and chanting to the gods..! Must be something to do with just too much rock'n roll (if that's at all possible!)!."
What is your engineering background?
"I completed the bachelor degree in 1996 and jumped straight into mastering, as well as continuing with other fields of audio production, as its important to try and understand how every part of the production chain affects the end result. So there's been about fifteen years professional experience in mastering now and twenty-plus years in other aspects of sound production for music, film and theatre. However, by necessity, since around 2003, it's been solid, dedicated, pure mastering! All the better for you..and me!"
What inspired you to do mastering?
"My interest has always been in supporting the 'real' music culture that exists beyond the pop culture radar. The bands and engineers around me when I started were in need of mastering that was at their level of production and expense. Available at the time was either ‘my mate with a computer' or the high end mastering suites that were out of reach unless you had good financial support - and even within that there was the old 'engineer-with-an-attitude' syndrome, which often happened to jeopardise what you had in mind for your project. So you sort of had to put up with whatever you got from them or, if you could, get some friend of a friend to do some random job and hope for the best. Basically there was quality lacking at either end. There was a need for someone who could deliver the band's unique sound, polished and mastered, disregarding the default ‘clean American top end' and the bit-crunching ‘pop push' of popularised modern mastering philosophy.
So this facility was established with the essentials and run from a spare room in my house in 1997. Two years later I relocated to Bakehouse Lane in North Fitzroy, which is our current place of operation. A decade and a half on and things have really come a long way. The mastering chain has been developed and is sounding tops, and I have the pleasure of mastering consecutive releases from heaps of different Australian artists. Each job still gives the opportunity for unique engagement of judgement, intuition and acquired skills. There's certainly no straight lines in audio production!"
What do you find enjoyable about mastering?
"I enjoy supplying the community with good and cost-effective mastering. People used to not bother because it was too expensive, so their recordings would suffer. And mastering itself is great in it's simplicity - you usually just work on the stereo mix and do what you can to make it sound it's best. The satisfaction is in the great benefit that can be given to the mixes. And still I get, after sending off nearly every job, ecstatic responses regarding the effectiveness of the mastering on the music.
Personally I find doing mastering to be a good, concentrated meditation. In between tracks I can chat to the clients and it is always a very relaxed atmosphere. I enjoy the company of the clients actually."
Artists impression by Andrew Wills..(Fox's snout is not quite that long..):
