MQA News from Los Angles Audio Show

[BuffaloBill]

The other memorable moment of the day for me occurred at the end of Robert Stuart's seminar on MQA. I'll dig into more details when I have more time but one of the first questions came from a local mastering engineer name Brian Lucey. He runs Magic Garden Mastering, a prominent studio in Los Angeles that has garnered more than few Grammys for his clients. He wanted to know why the MQA versions of his projects don't sound as he wants them to. They aren't the "masters" — in his words.

I reached out to him and he sent me the following email response:

"My concern is telling people that MQA is equal to or better than mastered files I print here. That's a lie.

I do pop and rock and alternative. Loud records, processed a ton. I use the Pacific Microsonics AD and even 24/44.1 that I print here (I like 44.1 for the density) was a bad result after MQA. I can only imagine it's worse with higher math, or maybe it's better, I wouldn't know.

Don't care if Bob Ludwig or Massenberg disagree. I have a lot of Bob's former clients and I don't fancy the Massenberg EQ or his ear.

The math is solid, no doubt, and no pre-ring is great...yet don't lie to people and insult my work and my clients work. A master is what it is. I do not 'authenticate' MQA."