Today we’d like to introduce you to Tom Waltz.
Hi Tom, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I started teaching guitar at the local music store in Akron Ohio at the age of 15 and had learned guitar by ear.
Around that same time, I started to experiment with analog open reel 4-track multi-track recording in the basement of his parent’s house that started my adventures and serious interest in audio production and recording.
Around 1986, I moved to Boston Massachusetts to pursue a career and study music and audio production at Berklee College of Music. I went there for 8 straight semesters graduating in 2 and a half years.
Upon graduation in 1988/89, I took out a small loan to buy an 8-track open reel multi-track recorder, mixing console, and a pair of NS10 speakers. I opened an analog multi-track and MIDI recording studio and ran it from an apartment that I was living in.
The apartment was set up perfect because it had an extra bedroom (that I used for a control room) that had a window that out looked into the living room, which I used for the live recording room.
The first project that I recorded of a local band in that studio/apartment received major airplay on WBCN in Boston, and rock radio stations in L. A., which increase the studios exposure.
In 1990, I continued producing and recording and moved into a commercial space in what grew to be a 6000 square-foot, multi-room facility consisting of two large recording/mixing studios, as well as a mastering studio and CD duplication company.
Since moving to the commercial space, my engineering and production work has featured on critically acclaimed and top-selling albums, and have been nominated for and won numerous awards and accolades over the years including Grammy and Juno Awards Nominations, Billboard Charting, Boston Music Awards, and Phoenix Music Awards. I have also written and taught the curriculum for several college programs and courses.
Around 2008, I moved into Mastering full-time, which I love.
Since the pandemic in early 2020, I moved pretty much to mastering solely online and have been lucky to work with many great artists from around the world, which still continues through this day.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Yes, and no. Being a workaholic, I’m always trying to put my best work out there, upgrading and changing with the times, and trying to predict, follow, and ride the next wave.
How music is recorded and distributed has completely changed from when I had started.
With the right moves and determination, now anyone can record a single or album in their own home with a computer and a mic and then have it distributed online, worldwide, quickly, with the power to reach a large audience.
Using the right networking skills artists can also shoot their own video, which has a chance to go viral, so things have changed drastically from when I started.
New music styles have also emerged like, bass-heavy EDM and Hip Hop, and all the variations, so you have to be exposed to the latest, most current stuff.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Recorded music has to sound its very best on a professional sonic level. Nowadays, with the way music technology has changed, more and more recordings are being made and mixed in rooms that do not offer optimal acoustics and therefore can sound tonally unbalanced.
Good-sounding recordings and albums can be made in professional studios or semi-pro home studios. But to make those recordings sound great and to compete in today’s market, there is no substitute for using an experienced professional mastering engineer to prepare the final product for replication, broadcasting, and distribution.
It is important with regard to the music’s specific genre that the masters translate well when played on every playback system and that the master’s sound is tonally balanced, equalized, leveled, and sequenced with continuity in mind.
In mastering, it is very important that attention be paid to every detail.
What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
Don’t take anything for granted, and always put your best effort into every project. You have to prove yourself every day. and on every project.
Pricing:
- Mastering for a Single = $60
- Mastering for a Couple Songs = $55 each
- Mastering for 3 to 9 Songs = $50 each
- 10 to 14 song Album Mastering – $495
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.waltzmastering.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/waltzmastering/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/waltzmastering/
