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Dan Smith [DKS]
As a young teenager experimenting with 4 track tape recorders in the nineties, I quickly discovered the stark difference between my creations and commercially released tracks. The quest to understand the elusive 'perfect sound' has inadvertently turned into a lifelong passion and career. Today, with nearly 30 years spent in music studios, I take great pride in guiding new artists toward musical excellence.
I’ve been entrenched in recording studios since I was 12 and had released over 20 breakbeat and house records by the time I was 22 but nothing could prepare me for the world of audio mastering.
My journey into mastering was a wild ride I never planned on. In fewer than 18 months, I went from being a product manager at a small breakbeat vinyl distributor to co-owning one of the world's top mastering studios. It’s a crazy origin story, but probably one for another day.
For the past 15 years I’ve been a professional mastering engineer, although the term 'professional' sometimes feels like an overstatement. Mastering can be a bit of a dark art and ’professional’ isn’t always the best option, sometimes you have to get your hands dirty. In any case, since 2008 and for the sins of my grandfather, I’ve been a professional mastering engineer.
In this time, projects I've worked on have collectively amassed an obscene number of streams across all platforms—around 85 billion at time of writing. My mastering credits span a wide array of songs and albums, from popular hits to underground classics.
Mastering audio is a mind-bendingly complex yet surprisingly simple task. Bruce Lee's philosophy of being like water is the only way to survive and thrive. You have to adapt daily to the ever-shifting demands of different artists. Because of this, my mastering techniques vary wildly depending on what's needed. It's not about my sound; it's about your sound shining in its most glorious light. Like Bruce Lee’s water, I’m here to fill your musical vessel, whatever shape it takes 🤙
THE MASTERING STUDIOS
A nose around the studios I’ve worked in over the years…
Studio 1
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Fluid South
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2021 - present
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Studio 1 〰️ Fluid South 〰️ 2021 - present 〰️
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In 2021 Fluid Mastering expanded their operation to two locations in the UK. Fluid SOUTH based in deepest darkest Surrey Hills, run by Tim Debney and Fluid WEST, based in the UK’s spiritual home for music, Bristol, run by Nick Watson.
Born from the same DNA as the studio in London, each room is an evolution and a finely tuned improvement on the original room.
Fluid SOUTH, which is the room I work in, has been exceptionally designed into a boutique analog mastering studio, reminiscent of the vibey recording studios throughout the seventies.
The heart of the room is the SPL DMC Mastering console. Signal flows are easily switchable, with two parallel slots it means every song can have a tailor made signal flow based on what the song needs. Multiple gain stages pre and post the analog kit open up a whole new world of texture and tone.
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Monitoring
PMC BB5-XBDA Passive Monitors
PMC 226 Nearfield Monitors
Bryston ampsOutboard
SPL DMC Mastering Console
Prism Maselec MEA-2 Stereo EQ
Manley Massive Passive Stereo EQ
SPL PQ Parametric EQ
Shadowhills Mastering Compressor
Rupert Neve Designs – Portico II Master Buss Processor
Cartec Tonal Harmonic Compressor
Weiss DS-1Converters
Prism Dream ADA-8XRSoftware & Workstations
SADiE 6
Ableton Live 11
Steinberg Cubase 12
Izotope Ozone 11 Advanced
Izotope RX Advanced - Audio restoration software
Steinberg Wavelab
Plug In suites by Plugin Alliance, Fabfilter, Waves, Softube and more… -
Mastering
We’ve had a lot of very cool artists through the door in the short time we have been here, including:
Sugababes, S Club 7, Human League, Nik Kershaw, Heaven 17, Lighthouse Family, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Hackney Colliery Band, Mystery Skulls, Catching Flies, Kumarion, Airglo, Skellytn, Protohype, Opiuo, Shpongle, Mr. Bill, Manic Focus, Defunk, Charlotte Devaney and many more…
Studio 1
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Fluid Mastering - London
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2015 - 2021
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Studio 1 〰️ Fluid Mastering - London 〰️ 2015 - 2021 〰️
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Fluid Mastering’s main mastering studio.
Started in 2006 by Tim Debney and Nick Watson, both from the world famous Townhouse Studio engineers, Fluid Mastering London consisted of 5 post-production studios in Ravenscourt Park, London.Despite the hyper competitive nature of mastering, Finyl Tweek and Fluid Mastering often helped each other out when something inevitably went wrong with the vinyl cutting. We would lend each other cutting pins, lacquers, or using each other’s studios when something was up with our own lathe.
In 2015 when I left Finyl Tweek, my first call was to Tim to see if there was space for me to work and I’m very thankful to say I’ve been working there ever since. I’ve been to a lot of the Class A studios in the country, this was by far one of the best sounding rooms out there, run by two of the best engineers in the business.
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Monitoring
PMC BB5-XBDA Passive Monitors
PMC 226 Nearfield Monitors
Bryston ampsOutboard
Prism Maselec MEA-2 Stereo EQ
Manley Massive Passive Stereo EQ
Prism Maselec MLA-2 Stereo Compressor
Rupert Neve Designs – Portico II Master Buss Processor
Thermionic Culture – Culture Vulture mastering PLUS
Dolby Model 740 Spectral Processor
Weiss DS-1
TC Electronic Systems 6000Converters
Prism Dream ADA-8XRVinyl Cutting
Neumann VMS80 Cutting latheSoftware & Workstations
SADiE 6
Cedar Re-Touch and De-Click
Cedar Cambridge
Steinberg Wavelab
Further Plug InsPlayback
Sony PCM 7010 Timecode DAT Machine
Sony R700 DATMachine HHB & Sony CD Playback Machines
Studer A810 ¼” Tape Machine
Studer A80 ½” Tape Machine -
Mastering
Artists I mastered in this room included:
UB40, 10cc, Dusty Springfield, Free, Level 42, Boyzone, Rod Stewart, BB King, Fats Domino, The Supremes, Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Ayers, Conducta, Culprate, KOAN Sound, Opiuo, salute, Skope, Skrillex, Slushii, Migos & Marshmello, Zed’s Dead, Soda Island, Stumbleine, Chali 2na & The Funk Hunters, Sorrow and many more…Lacquer Cutting
I made the most of having access to a VMS80 and cut a shed load of records at this studio.Some of the artists I cut records for here included:
Stereophonics, Nirvana, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Run The Jewels, Shpongle, Daft Punk, Bob Vylan and many more…Arcadia - Metamorphosis
Still a personal favourite, I had the great pleasure of mastering all of the soundtracks for the Arcadia Spectacular shows.If you haven’t heard or seen the shows, imagine a cyberpunk cirque du soleil. It really is a sight to behold.
Compilation Mastering
I didn’t even realise there was a chart for compilation albums, but when I found out, I also found out that I had mastered around 60% of the albums in the Top 100. This was the case for a period of about 18 months to 2 years.Some of the single artist compilations, mostly from “The Essential…” range made it into the Top 10 of the UK album chart.
Studio 3
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Finyl Tweek
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2008 - 2015
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Studio 3 〰️ Finyl Tweek 〰️ 2008 - 2015 〰️
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During the reign of Heathmans Mastering, this studio was used for recording and mastering DJ mixes and CD compilations. The only outboard kit originally in this room was the Weiss DS-1 and the Weiss EQ-1. I got to know these two units very well. When Heathmans shut down and Finyl Tweek opened, we added a few analog units with multiple patching options for additional stem mastering and mixing options. This room is where I cut my teeth in audio mastering, working here for 6 years.
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Monitoring
PMC MB2 Passive Monitors
Bryston amps
Genelec 1092A Active SubwooferOutboard
Weiss DS-1
Weiss EQ-1
Summit Audio DCL-200 Dual Tube Compressor / Limiter
BSS DPR-402 Dual Compressor / Limiter
Masalec MEA-2
Converters
Motu 828 mk 3 Audio Interface
Focusrite Blue 260 D/A ConverterDJ Equipment
Pioneer DVJ-1000 x 2
Pioneer CDJ-1000 x 2
Pioneer SVM-1000
Technics 1210 x 2
Synths & Instruments
Korg MS-2000
Korg Electribe
Tanglewood Rebel 6A Bass
Line6 Bass Pod
Shitty old Strat replica -
Mastering
Artists & labels I mastered in this room included:
Sister Bliss, Moby, Erol Alkan, Daniel Avery, Ghost Culture, Maribou State, Bent, Slacker, Domino Records, DFA Records, Inspected Records, Sizzla, Krafty Kuts, Freestylers, Freq Nasty and many more…
Remixing & Production
I did a lot of remix work under the monikers “Finyl Tweek DJs”, “I Said No” & “DKS” in this room, including remixes for: Faithless, Moby, Sister Bliss, Slacker, Fink, Franz Ferdinand, Sizzla amongst others.