Music Mastering Studio (share your feedback)

Hey everyone. I’ve just finished putting together my mastering studio and would genuinely love some feedback from producers and DJs who’ve worked with mastering engineers or have their own setups.

I went with a hybrid analogue/digital approach. The core of the analogue chain is built around SPL gear (Iron compressor, PQ EQ, Gemini mid-side processor) with a Rupert Neve MBT for transformer saturation and colour. I’m using a Dangerous Music Liaison patch-bay so I can reorder the signal chain depending on what the track needs - EQ before compression, or flip it - which has been really useful.

For monitoring I settled on the Barefoot Footprint 03s as my mains, with Focal Clear MG Pros for headphone checks and a pair of Rurak MR1s for consumer speaker translation checks.

The room is treated with GIK Acoustics panels (absorption + diffusion) which made a huge difference compared to before treatment.

A few things I’m still second-guessing and would love input on:

• Anyone here use Barefoot monitors? Curious how others find them for electronic/dance music specifically
  
  
• Is anyone else running the SPL Iron? How are you using it - as a primary compressor or more for colour?
  
  
• Any tips on getting the most out of a patch-bay for different genres?
  
  

Here’s the full studio page if you want to see the setup: https://orangepolygon.co.uk/audio-mastering-studio/

A free test master to anyone interested: https://orangepolygon.co.uk/free-test-master/