Matador shows us how to master techno in-the-box

Irish producer and DJ Matador, real name Gavin Lynch, is one of the most respected names in modern techno. He also has a studio so packed full of hardware we’re surprised there’s room to move. Despite this though, when mastering his tracks for the club, he’s all about plugins.

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After mixing the track, Gavin records the stems through his Neve desk and records the stems into Logic, then bounces the entire track as a 24-bit wave file. Gavin’s mastering chain begins with Logic’s built-in MultiMeter spectral analyser to get as accurate an idea of the track’s frequency content as possible.

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Next Gavin calls in Sonalksis SV-315 Mk2 Compressor with a fast Attack and low Ratio to tame the signal’s peaks slightly. “It’s a case of spreading out a lot of the work I find,” Gavin reveals. “Instead of getting one compressor or limiter to push something 6dB I’m spreading it across four or six units doing 1dB each.”

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Another Sonalksis classic, the SV-517 Mk2 EQ, is brought in to make sure there are no unwanted sub frequencies in the low-end. The effects’ high-pass filter is set to 32Hz with an 18dB slope. This is followed by Waves L3-LL Ultramaximizer which limits the signal at 0dB.

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Waves Kramer Tape is called in to give the track a warm analogue tone, and finally Logic’s own Adaptive Limiter brickwall limits the signal. “Logic’s built-in limiters look slightly rubbish but they sound great and have a nice slap to them. It’s all about what happens before them as well,” Gavin notes.