Tony Cousins

[Silver Sonya]

I really admire this guy and would love to know how he works.

He's really obviously in love with sound. There's a consistent --- I'm searching for the right word here --- refinement to his work that I greatly appreciate.

If I ever get time, I'm going to interview him for Tape Op or something.

- c

[phild]

Hi,

I've never worked with Tony Cousins but I have been to Metropolis Studios a few years back.

Leif Mases of Prism Sound/Maselec who co-conducted the tour with (ex) Metropolis technical director John Goldstraw was instrumental with how the the mastering systems there work and sound. There are a few mastering rooms in use there. Similarly equipped. Tons of custom Maselec equipment including custom transfer consoles, a number of Sontec EQ's, Some Manley, some Summit. Prism converters, Sadie workstations and PMC loudspeakers. Y'know... the good stuff. The rooms were big, had windows and sounded a lot better than a majority of places I've visited.

Honestly, I have no idea how Tony or the other guys there work the gear but there is a lot of experience and he's obviously doing something right for people to notice?

I find the UK engineers and the North American engineers really hear and process quite differently. Speaking to him might be very informative in this regard.

[Teddy Ray]

speaking of that, I love this video.

Metropolis Mastering | Cut your tracks live to vinyl at Metropolis

[Silver Sonya]

Originally Posted by phild

Hi,

I've never worked with Tony Cousins but I have been to Metropolis Studios a few years back.

Leif Mases of Prism Sound/Maselec who co-conducted the tour with (ex) Metropolis technical director John Goldstraw was instrumental with how the the mastering systems there work and sound. There are a few mastering rooms in use there. Similarly equipped. Tons of custom Maselec equipment including custom transfer consoles, a number of Sontec EQ's, Some Manley, some Summit. Prism converters, Sadie workstations and PMC loudspeakers. Y'know... the good stuff. The rooms were big, had windows and sounded a lot better than a majority of places I've visited.

Honestly, I have no idea how Tony or the other guys there work the gear but there is a lot of experience and he's obviously doing something right for people to notice?

I find the UK engineers and the North American engineers really hear and process quite differently. Speaking to him might be very informative in this regard.

Thanks for this post!

I'd be really intimidated to meet him. He's one of my idols, for sure.

I think he's brilliant.

Everything he touches becomes big, balanced and musical.

- c

[Table Of Tone]

It's a funny thing to say because I'm a UK guy, but I pretty much always prefer what comes out of Sterling over Metropolis.
I think I prefer US mastering engineers on the whole!

Or maybe it's the mixes?
I've had some great sounding mixes come in from the US.

[SpikeD]

I've worked with Tony a bunch of times though, admittedly, not recently. I've always found him very conscientious and meticulous.

The gear list above is pretty accurate but with the omission of a TC6000 which he used for limiting though you've probably noticed he's definitely not a loudness for loudness sake kinda guy. His room's also got an hardware L2.

One mix that I took in on digital, he laid back to half inch before mastering which was very effective.

I agree that there's differences in approach between UK and US MEs but I think it's not a case of better or worse but about choosing the right approach and person project by project.

[Stardelta]

Originally Posted by Table Of Tone

It's a funny thing to say because I'm a UK guy, but I pretty much always prefer what comes out of Sterling over Metropolis.
I think I prefer US mastering engineers on the whole!

I'm pretty sure they're owned by the same people.

[henge]

Originally Posted by phild

I find the UK engineers and the North American engineers really hear and process quite differently.

Are there any concrete differences you hear Phil?

[Joe_caithness]

Not that it's totally directly relevant, but UK and US dance music couldn't differ much more in a sonic context, completely sweeping statement I know, but it's very obvious when we take there sounds and add lots of bass every few years!

I think that has A LOT to do with Jamaican soundsystem culture. As well as lots of various cultural and sonic influences.

Something I am very turned on by!

Although I think mobile phone and tiny speaker culture has made this relevant.

[Table Of Tone]

Originally Posted by Stardelta

I'm pretty sure they're owned by the same people.

I know that was indeed the case a few years ago!

[bkuijt]

Originally Posted by Silver Sonya

I really admire this guy and would love to know how he works.

He's really obviously in love with sound. There's a consistent --- I'm searching for the right word here --- refinement to his work that I greatly appreciate.

If I ever get time, I'm going to interview him for Tape Op or something.

- c

Tony has made an everlasting impression on me. I've been around on
various sessions several years ago that really changed my life and made
me want to dive in completely.
His attention and focus on the musical qualities of a project is amazing.
He really enjoys the music, probably more than sound.
The technicalities of mastering really seem non-existent, ask him a technical
question and you'll get an answer about making music.

bests,

[davehall6162]

Hey Silver, did you ever try sending him something of yours to master? Ive been considering it with a couple of projects im working on atm.

iMastering - Tony Cousins

[toolskid]

Tony is great and a pleasure to work with. Very very musical and sensitive to the track!

[Clervaux]

...did a two day session with Tony a little while back. a somewhat tricky one: 2 CDs of rare and unreleased material for the anniversary box-set of Spiritualized's "Ladies And Gentleman We're Floating In Space." in many places we'd edited and mixed together multiple versions of the same track - sometimes abruptly, sometimes (gulp) lovingly crossfaded! - each with it's own PQ. the idea was to give people a real sense of the progress of the record over 2 years of demos and working mixes. a new listening experience rather than a laborious archive. it's a tricky master because you've got completely different frequencies and sonic qualities overlapping or butting up right next to each other.

the mastering team at Met were understandably quite confused by the brief in the days running up to the session. on the first morning however, Tony was straight into it after a quick rundown of the concept and the requirements. implacably calm and very easy to spend two fairly long days of attentive listening with, he pulled together the disparate elements expertly - at times offering insightful advice but never pushy. Interestingly, he was using some small KRKs (can't remember which ones) as nearfields, as you can see in this clip which includes more information about the gear used at Met:

YouTube - Mastering - Metropolis Engineers Explain All

[Silver Sonya]

The new David Sylvian disc is mastered by Tony and sounds amazing. Listening now.

Very challenging music, which is refreshing.

- c

[Jesse Graffam]

Originally Posted by Joe_caithness

I think that has A LOT to do with Jamaican soundsystem culture. As well as lots of various cultural and sonic influences.

Ironically perhaps, the genres that Drum & Bass encapsulates are mostly progressing toward progressively worse & generally more harsh mastering. Even for the "lighter" styled sub-genres. Some of it's unfortunately even caused or made worse by commercial mastering engineers. There's some bad D&B mastering out there these days.

It's not totally the case. Some of it's becoming higher quality than say, 10 years ago's top quality. thumbsup

[streetbeats]

Jesse

As someone who's been closely involved in that scene since 1994/95, I'd tend to agree with what you say. There are far too many people mastering d&b who seemingly tend to aim for a more mainstream pop sound and in most cases that's certainly not what's needed.

Back on topic, kinda... I've never been in a session with Tony but have had the pleasure of being in plenty with Stu Hawkes at Metropolis. Stu has mastered some of my favourite d&b of all time.

[huejahfink]

A friend of mine who recently got signed to one of the more famous DnB labels sent me one of the recent masters from (--I'd better not say--) and I couldn't believe how coarsely pushed the top end was. Also, the sub had been rolled off too early, by which I mean that the low notes of the bassline were considerably quieter than the higher notes in the bass.
A real shame I thought - and a total surprise from an engineer who I thought would not go there. My guess was that the label told them 'make it as loud as you can' and so they just went ahead and made huge sacrifices to get there.
(ps. It wasn't metropolis)

[streetbeats]

Originally Posted by huejahfink

A friend of mine who recently got signed to one of the more famous DnB labels sent me one of the recent masters from (--I'd better not say--) and I couldn't believe how coarsely pushed the top end was. Also, the sub had been rolled off too early, by which I mean that the low notes of the bassline were considerably quieter than the higher notes in the bass.
A real shame I thought - and a total surprise from an engineer who I thought would not go there. My guess was that the label told them 'make it as loud as you can' and so they just went ahead and made huge sacrifices to get there.
(ps. It wasn't metropolis)

Sigh....your guess is probably quite on the money. Levels in dancefloor oriented d&b have been silly for a good few years now.

[huejahfink]

Ps, is that the same Streetbeets who put out the Truper 10"s?

If so, thumbsupthumbsup

[streetbeats]

Yes, all that early photek stuff, though that was just before my time there.
Streetbeats was born out of Vinyl Distribution (the company), hence the VDL cat numbers on some of those early releases..

Big ups for that we are the prophets track btw, the video is hilarious!