Tony Dawsey, one of the world’s top mastering engineers, has opened his own studio, Phantom Mastering. Prior to Phantom, Tony was a long-time senior Masterdisk mastering engineer with a long list of hit records under his belt. If you’ve ever heard the Jay-Z song “Empire State of Mind” you’ve heard his work. But Tony has mastered for artists in many genres: soul artists Whitney Houston and Al Green
, progressive rock trio Kings’ X, indie rock icons Dinosaur Jr., and jazz artists Ronny Jordan and Urban Knights are among his past clients. The mastering process is somewhat esoteric to most music fans; they may see the credits on LP or CD, but many don’t know what goes into it. As a result, mastering engineers tend to not get a lot of fan mail. But that’s not the case with Tony. He hears from music lovers on a regular basis. “Yeah, I do hear from people who say they like the way my records sound. And it’s a compliment, it makes me feel good, but I realize it’s not just me, it’s a group of people that come together to make the record sound right.”
This is part of Tony’s overall philosophy — that mastering can do “heavy lifting” on your mixes if necessary; but in the best case, mastering provides the “icing on the cake.” When your record gets to Tony, he’s not going to just do “his thing” like some mastering engineers do. He’s going to take that cake you’ve been working on for so long, and he’s going to put the best frosting in the world on it. Tony grew up in Spanish Harlem in New York City. He got a job at Masterdisk in the mail room in 1980. While at Masterdisk, he learned to be a mastering engineer and eventually rose to the top of the industry. Tony is particularly well known for his work in hip-hop, but his first #1, multi-platinum album was a soundtrack — to the Richie Valens biopic “La Bamba” in 1987. Those hip-hop clients come to Tony for his bass. He says, “it’s got to sound good; as tight and punchy as possible. You need that clarity down there. Now a lot of people come to me and say ‘I want that bass that you get in that record’ and they name a particular hip-hop record I mastered. OK, I say. But first, it’s in the mix. I enhance what you’ve already done. That’s the role of mastering.”
Tony is well known for mastering hip-hop classics, but not as many music fans know about his work in different genres like indie rock, progressive rock, jazz, R&B, and all kinds of stuff. In fact, one of his favorite records over the course of his entire career is “Urban Knights,” a jazz record. “That’s my favorite album of all time I’ve worked on,” Tony says. “Maybe it has something to do with it being jazz; it’s upbeat and it puts a smile on my face.” Tony likes to say that here’s nothing secret about his gear — it’s how you use it that counts. “Most of the gear I use can be found in mastering studios all over the world. People get obsessed with gear, but it’s really about your feel for the music, the vibe, your ear, and your experience. Sure, you need great tools, and I have them. But I try to discourage people from getting too knotted up about gear. Listen, use your ears. That’s how you know what’s good.” So if your music needs that extra “something” at the end of the process — whether your music is hip-hop, R&B, jazz, rock or anything in between — Tony Dawsey will make it happen. The studio name might be different, but it’s still that same, amazing, world-class icing.
