Friction costs money#
A large part of what decides my income as a mastering engineer is how efficiently I work. I'm not rushing the skilled part. I'm removing everything around it. When a session arrives I drop it into Reaper and press one shortcut: the plugins are loaded, the regions are laid out on sequential tracks, markers, render matrix, track and region naming... I can start work within two seconds of unzipping the files.
Rendering works the same way, from stored markers with automatic naming. Selecting time ranges by hand and typing seventeen file names, then doing it all again when the client wants it half a dB louder, is amateur. If the DAW doesn't support this, you are using the wrong DAW for the job.
The same applies with plugins. Opening and closing dozens of plugin windows every time I moved to another track was friction I put up with for years, so I built Dogma: one window for the whole chain that follows the track you're on. It was like going from digging a hole with a shovel to digging it with an excavator.
Notes and recall#
It helps to keep session notes. A stem album with radio edits, extended versions and three revisions of one track gets confusing fast, and if the wrong version goes to the cutting room, you could end up paying for the new lacquer.
Recallability, offline rendering, multiple instances and fast switching between tracks are core requirements for me, and they're why I work fully in the box. Taking a break and coming back with fresh ears, often the next day, is a normal part of getting a consistent result.
Knowing a few tools well#
A few versatile plugins you know deeply beats a big collection, for speed and for creativity. Standard digital EQ and compressor interfaces are usually faster to work with than skeuomorphic ones, so I don't see "workflow" as a justification for analogue-style plugins.
Working from the keyboard#
Professionals tend to use key bindings, not menus. A Stream Deck seems redundant to me when your keyboard is already a bank of programmable buttons. A keyboard-driven operating system with a tiling window manager, can nearly eliminate the mouse. I don't like playing automation in on knobs and faders; I insert points and draw notes with mouse and keyboard. The MIDI controller I bought for mastering plugins hasn't really been used in years. Hardware sequencers are the exception: moving the sketching and jamming onto hardware with minimal screens helps keep the inspiration that staring at a monitor all day can kill.
What you touch all day#
The keyboard and mouse are the mixing console of today, so spending a few hundred on them is justified. I would rather spend on what I touch than on audiophile gear.
A traditional keyboard forces your wrists into ulnar deviation, pronation and extension, and ignores that your fingers are different lengths. Split, tented, contoured keyboards can fix much of that. I had repeated carpal tunnel flare-ups from years of writing and coding by hand, and the Kinesis Advantage 360 solved those issues.
If you cannot touch type, you will struggle with such a keyboard initially.
A vertical mouse helps you avoid pronating your forearm.
An expensive ergonomic chair is an overrated purchase because you should stand up as much as you sit down.
Getting up every thirty minutes#
Sitting all day harms your cardiovascular health. According to interventional studies, exercise improves hearing ability. So buying an expensive chair and sitting in it all day is not the best strategy for an audio engineer. Dehydration makes hearing worse too, and concentration tends to drop over a long session.
So I use a standalone hardware timer, not my phone, set to about thirty minutes. When it goes off, I stand up, drink water, and do push-ups, dips or whatever exercise I can. The programming community knows all about Pomodoro, GTD and ergonomic keyboards; the audio community mostly ignores them.
My desk is pretty much the most fundamental element in my studio, and a height-adjustable one is probably the best thing for ergonomics. The point is to alternate, because fixed standing can be as bad as fixed sitting. Beer crates are a free way to bodge a standing desk.
I made a free course on building a standing desk.
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Tools and courses
References
- 01
Marklin, R. W., Simoneau, G. G. & Monroe, J. F. (1999). Wrist and forearm posture from typing on split and vertically inclined computer keyboards. Human Factors, 41(4), 559–569.
In 90 experienced office workers, correctly set-up split keyboards reduced average wrist ulnar deviation from about 12 degrees on a conventional keyboard to within 5 degrees of neutral.
Supports: What you touch all day - 02
Biswas, A., Oh, P. I., Faulkner, G. E. et al. (2015). Sedentary time and its association with risk for disease incidence, mortality, and hospitalization in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Annals of Internal Medicine, 162(2), 123–132.
A meta-analysis of mainly prospective cohort studies found that more sedentary time was associated with higher cardiovascular disease incidence and mortality, independent of physical activity.
Supports: Getting up every thirty minutes - 03
Cristell, M., Hutchinson, K. M. & Alessio, H. M. (1998). Effects of exercise training on hearing ability. Scandinavian Audiology, 27(4), 219–224.
In 17 young adults of moderately low fitness, eight weeks of cycling training was followed by better pure-tone thresholds at 2 and 3 kHz and smaller temporary threshold shifts after noise exposure.
Supports: Getting up every thirty minutes - 04
Smith, P., Ma, H., Glazier, R. H. et al. (2018). The relationship between occupational standing and sitting and incident heart disease over a 12-year period in Ontario, Canada. American Journal of Epidemiology, 187(1), 27–33.
In a 12-year cohort of 7,320 Ontario workers, occupations involving mainly standing were associated with about twice the risk of heart disease of occupations involving mainly sitting.
Supports: Getting up every thirty minutes