"I didn't even mean to become a mastering engineer," laughs 满帆 grad Brad Blackwood.

这句话可能会让认识他的人感到吃惊, 因为布拉德是Euphonic Masters的老板, a Memphis-based studio that's mastered new releases by acts ranging from Allison Krauss to Mammoth WVH as well as Dolby Atmos remixes of classic albums like Fleetwood Mac's 谣言 和王子的 钻石和珍珠. And while he never intended to be the guy who puts the final touches on an album release, his lifelong fascination with music and how music's fidelity can increase its emotional impact meant that the mastering suite was almost certainly where he was destined to wind up.

"I'm not one of these people that grew up playing instruments or grew up with parents who played instruments,布拉德说。, 在玛丽湖长大的人, 佛罗里达, 在奥兰多附近. “我听到很多人说, 当他们讲述自己的故事时, 他们有如此丰富的音乐背景. 我丰富的音乐背景使我热爱音乐. 当黑乌鸦乐队的第二张唱片南方和声与乐友] came out, I remember listening to that and thinking, 'This is what I want to do with my life. I want to be a part of the process that makes stuff that affects people the way this affects me,因为那张唱片真的对我影响很大."

意料之中的是, for a kid in the Orlando area with a desire to be part of the team that makes albums, 布拉德很早就盯上了"全速航行.

“这是我见过的最酷的东西,布拉德说。 of his reaction to seeing 满帆's facilities after taking a campus tour. “我以前从来没有进过真正的工作室, 所以看到John Storyk的设计[满帆 Studio A], 有了这个大型游戏机... 我是说，真是太棒了. 我当时想，‘这就是我(高中毕业后)必须要做的事情。.'"

After a short detour to a traditional school in Alabama ("I was honestly just kind of miserable there,他笑着说。), 他回到佛罗里达，在满帆学习录音艺术. 布拉德以全班第三名的成绩毕业, 他曾在当地一家主题公园做过一段时间的影视工作, he worked with 满帆's Career Development department to land an interview at Ardent Studios, 传奇的孟菲斯设施，在那里大明星的经典专辑, ZZ Top, 还有许多其他的记录.

“我想在一个做现场录音的摇滚工作室工作,布拉德在谈到他决定在殷切谋求一个职位时说. “我想要吉他、扩音器和麦克风. I wanted to work at a multi-room facility that was a real, established place... 一个有历史的地方. 当我看到的时候 领导齐柏林三号 那里的氛围很混合，非常适合我，我喜欢那里."

和大多数录音室的初级角色一样, 布拉德早期的工作并不完全等同于混音 领导齐柏林三号.

“我是夜间值班的，”他解释说. ”“五点钟, 他们锁上了前门, and [I] would sit in a little office by the back door listening for somebody to ring the bell, 像保安一样行事, 只是让人们进出, 接听电话, 制作咖啡, 清理工作室, 诸如此类的事情."

在他开始工作后不久, 虽然, Ardent purchased one of the first Studio Audio Disk Editor (SADiE) digital audio workstations that was available. For a studio with such a long and illustrious history of analog recording, the arrival of a new digital editing system was greeted with a healthy dose of skepticism by most of Ardent's crew – except for Brad.

“当他们拿到SADiE的时候，我告诉我的妻子‘我要把那个盒子拿走. 我要成为编辑大师.’我就是这么做的，”他笑着说. “基本上, 只要他们需要编辑的时候, 他们只会打电话给我说‘嘿, 你能来做一下双轨音乐吗?' So I got to work with some really cool bands and got some cool credits early on, 只是因为我在做数字编辑，而当时很少有人这么做.

“最后，‘嘿，你能编辑这个吗?变成了“嘿，你能做点情商吗??或者“嘿，你能刻录一张参考CD吗??随着时间的推移, it just sort of evolved into me turning out stuff that was basically fully mastered records. 所以这一切都自然而然地发生了, 一旦我这么做了, 我说, “这是有史以来最伟大的事情.'"

After seven years at Ardent, Brad headed out on his own and started Euphonic Masters in 2003.

"It was an act of faith,他说 of the decision to launch his own company. "I was fairly convinced that the only reason I had some regular clients was because of the Ardent Studios name, 但我非常渴望经营自己的商店所带来的自由, 所以我抓住了这个机会. 我不知道会不会有人跟踪我, 但据我所知, (我在殷杰公司的)每一个客户都这么做了."

多年来, Euphonic处理过各种各样的客户, 从蓝草和另类摇滚到重金属和经典放克. This genre agnosticism has helped Brad grow Euphonic into one of the leading mastering studios in the U.S. 一路走来，他也赢得了不少奖项, like the first Master of Mastering Pensado Award and multiple Grammy nominations, 包括一张最佳专辑, 他对艾莉森·克劳斯的研究获得了非古典奖 & 联合车站的 纸飞机.

“我就是喜欢音乐，各种各样的音乐，”他说. "There’s something about helping an artist who has spent countless hours perfecting a specific playing or singing style in order to share their art with others that really resonates with me, and I get excited about it whether it’s acoustic bluegrass or heavy metal."

但是，他说:“获奖已经是过去的事了. 现实是, 我专注于下一个项目, 下一个机会是做一些能打动别人的事情.给布拉德, that next "something" is the possibilities that come with the latest advances in spatial audio, 尤其是杜比全景声. Having mastered the Atmos versions of classic titles from artists like Fleetwood Mac, Brad was excited to get to work on the spatial audio version of Prince's 钻石和珍珠 2023年豪华版再版专辑.

"Usually when somebody remixes something, I'm like, 'Yeah, it's not going to be as good.但是克里斯·詹姆斯，那个混音Atmos版本的人 钻石和珍珠着迷于此，这真是太神奇了. 它比原来的专辑好. And the mastering is probably more critical now than ever before with the introduction of Atmos, 因为现在不用担心两个演讲者, 通常会有十几个演讲者参与其中."

虽然这些新技术会带来挑战, 对布莱德, dealing with those inevitable complications is worth it for the heightened emotional impact.

"It's incredible what you can do if you're willing to spend the time and put the work into it,他说. "I [love mastering] because my background is not as a performer, but as a listener. I've always been a hi-fi geek and I grew up listening to the overall presentation [of an album] rather than the individual parts. 掌握，这才是真正的意义所在. 很明显, details are a very important part – you want to catch things that you can fix, 就像小的点击或弹出之类的，但总的来说, 这是关于如何影响听众? 我们所做的一切都是为了这个. 我们如何影响听众?"

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