Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaret Luthar
Hi Margaret, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up a band/theatre/music/dance kid – I had aspirations of going to college for musical theatre (or political science, because I have a lot of interests, ha!), but ended up studying Music Industry at Syracuse Unviersity for my B. Music. Full conservatory style music training, on top of classes geared toward the more “business” side of entertainment. That’s where I got my first taste into being on the other side of the glass, and I loved it. I ended up getting my Master’s in Music Technology from NYU after graduating Syracuse…I freelanced, worked some Production Coordinator roles – trying to find an avenue toward putting my technical knowledge to work as well as learn as much as possible…a mentor of mine at the time suggested going to the Banff Centre for the Arts for their audio engineering residency – this was a huge leap in learning more about myself, my goals, what I wanted. From a recording standpoint, my background is mainly in classical and acoustic music production so this is where I initially put most of my focus. Banff opened doors to me in the US (was an engineer at the Aspen Music Festival for a few summers) as well as abroad. I lived abroad in Norway for a few years – getting some more education, along with freelancing. In Norway I was introduced to mastering music – something I hadn’t explored that much prior, but I really enjoyed it! After moving back to the USA I settled in Chicago, where I continued my mastering journey as an engineer at Chicago Mastering Service. This was a hugely important time of my life – I grew a lot as a person, as an engineer, and I learned to cut the lacquer masters used for making vinyl records! From there I spent a few years in Nashville as the Head Mastering Engineer at Welcome to 1979 – and in 2022 moved to LA to be with my now-fiancé, Ian Sefchick, who is also a mastering engineer as well as builder of boutique audio gear! I work as a day hire at National Public Radio as an an audio engineer, and Ian and I together form Dark Sky Mastering, our mastering company. I’m learning a lot more about building electronics, which has expanded my knowledge base so much. I’ve also started exploring recording music again. I like variety, and I’m finally at a point in my life where I can explore everything in earnest!
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I left a lot of the “bad” out of that personal journey story, but everything has a silver lining. I started running about a decade ago to get in shape and increase my confidence – that gave me the strength to get out of a relationship that drained me mentally. I don’t think I would be able to remove myself from that situation without the help of running and my close friends.
Living in Norway was an EXPERIENCE. I had never been an expat before and being exposed to a totally different culture, and other expats from all over, was amazing to experience for a few years. I wish I had become entirely fluent in Norwegian when I lived there, but I learned enough that I can still read/listen to the news in Norwegian, and if I ever had someone to practice with in LA I could probably get going again. Seeing how their healthcare system worked was very eye opening, too. I’m grateful for that roller coaster of a time in my life, on a whole.
Starting over can be hard. There are times when I wish I had maybe stayed somewhere longer, or left somewhere sooner. I struggle with depression at times, but even after a down period there’s the climb back up the hill. I try to be grateful about everything, even if sometimes I sound like a curmudgeon! Any ups and downs help me be a more empathetic person, so I try to look at things in that light versus in the negative – even if that is difficult at times.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Dark Sky Mastering is a team of myself and Ian Sefchick, my fiancé – I have always wanted to have a life partner who is also my business partner, however crazy that sounds. He’s a talented engineer who used to work at Capitol Records.
Mastering music is the last stage of the production process and the first step of manufacturing and distribution. We’re the last set of ears on touch an artist’s music before it heads into the world! Any final tonal adjustments, loudness adjustments, quality control or noise removal that might be needed – that’s on us. I also still cut records, via The Lathe Room (owned by the Mastering Engineer Stephen Marsh), so if you are looking for vinyl we can help you out there too. Or provide you the files needed to duplicate CDs, or even (gasp) cassettes, if you’re into that kind of stuff.
As someone who likes a lot of different music, mastering is fun for me because one day I could be working on a rock record, the next a bluegrass record, the next a film score. There are so many mastering engineers (and mix engineers, and tracking engineers) out there, but I’d like to think that our honesty, willing to be flexible, and desire to make artists feel comfortable and taken care of can help set us apart. I don’t like pretending that what I do is some “dark art” because it isn’t – it’s about having taste and technical know-how. And I think we have those things, in spades.
So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
Honesty, kindness, authenticity. Everyone throws that last word around these days whether or not they mean it, so I hesitate even saying “authenticity.” But I think it’s important. I don’t pretend to know everything – if I don’t know something, I know who to ask and I love to learn, so why lie about it!
Also important – being honest about who you are, what you want, and learning to communicate that effectively to others, and respect others’ time and energy. I try to not expect things from others and be pleasantly surprised when things work out.
But I guess my dog, “Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,” an adorable Chihuahua-Whippet rescue, is truly the most important thing to me 🙂
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.darkskymastering.com
- Instagram: livesfordynamics (me) // magicdeatheye (ian) // darkskymastering (company)
