digital & analog audio mastering
Austin / Cedar Park · Texas · USA
Biography
Total Sonic Media's mastering engineer, Steven
Berson, began his love of all things audio at an early
age.
Raised in the suburbs of Maryland by musical parents (his father is an
accomplished pianist favoring Chopin Nocturnes, his mother was a
vocalist and member of the Annapolis Chorale), he started his
musical education with piano lessons at the age of 7, and at age 10
began playing alto saxophone in his school's ensembles. At age 15
he took up the electric bass guitar, studying the instrument with
guitarist Richard Shaw, and performing with a number of rock bands
as well as in his school’s jazz ensemble. It was at this point, under the
guidance of his older brother, he began recording his friends and his
own musical efforts, overdubbing while bouncing tracks from a
cassette deck to a 2-track reel to reel to enable primitive
multitracking.
In 1985 he decided to seriously pursue his musical
passions, and enrolled in Boston’s renowned
Berklee College of Music, where he studied both
performances and composition.
Outside of the school he studied West African derived percussion and
rhythm with master drummer Nurudafina Pili Abena, performed regularly
in Boston clubs with his own group, The Bohemian Angels, and recorded
solo and ensemble projects frequently on his own 4-track and at area
studios.
After graduating from Berklee in 1989 with a Bachelors of Music degree,
in order to form the funk-punk/world-beat band False Face Society with a
number of other former Berklee students, he relocated to Baltimore,
Maryland. It was here in 1992 that he started working as an assistant at
Multimedia Productions, a recording, mastering and duplication facility. It
was also here that his interest in mastering began while learning the
intricacies of audio engineering from Multimedia's president Erik
Steensen and chief engineer Michael Cochran. Multimedia was the first
studio in the area to offer a brand new technology - digital audio editing
and pre-mastering using the Digidesign Sound Designer II workstation,
and Steve quickly gravitated to focusing on using this and other tools to
enhance completed mixes and to create cohesive albums. While at
Multimedia Steve gained his initial mastering experiences, with credits for
releases by DJ Equalizer, Jag, W.O.D. and AIM Records among others.
After Multimedia closed in 1994 Steve opened his own home based
studio, The SAWroom, centered around what was initially a 486-60 PC
running S.A.W., the first PC native Digital Audio Workstation software
capable of recording and editing multiple tracks at once. At The
SAWroom Steve did recording, digital editing and pre-mastering for
numerous projects, including releases by Under The Noise, Octopus,
Short Bus Records and the American Holocaust Project.
While living in Baltimore Steve performed regularly as a solo multi-
instrumentalist under the name Acoustitronics, and as a bassist and
cellist with Jo Connor, The Delicate Prey, U-Nation, Chris Cochrane’s Suck
Pretty, The Michael Raitzyk Jazz Orchestra, Charm City Klezmer, SAW,
Sansaclue and 3 Pigs Cafe. During this period he also worked part time
for Budda Amplification, assembling tube guitar amps under the direct
supervision of “tone guru”/amp designer Jeff Bober.
In 1997 Steve relocated to New York City to pursue the
greater potentials it offered for those interested in cre-
ative music.
After a short stint as a pro-audio gear salesman at Manny’s Music he
was hired in 1998 as a production assistant for Europadisk, a unique
facility that provided CD pressing, vinyl record pressing, and graphic
design and audio mastering studios under a single roof. He was
quickly promoted to become the Production Manager for the entire
vinyl record department, for which he supervised the scheduling and
quality control of all product made. During this time Steve learned
the inner workings of the processes for manufacturing both optical
discs and vinyl records - knowledge that has become invaluable to
him when mastering for these formats today.
In 2002 Steve left Europadisk to form the first version of his own
company, Total Sonic Media, providing CD-R duplication and audio
mastering services for numerous independent artists and labels.
Credits during this time include mastering of releases for Al Duvall,
Substantial, Drilann Entertainment, U4RIA, Floxy Bee, Christian
Pincock Quintet, Goduar, and Mark Dresser. Other credits during
this period include composing and recording the soundtrack for
Michelle Cutler's short film “Funeral,” and mixing for Erik
Friedlander’s score for the PBS documentary series “The Kingdom of
David.”
In 2004 Steve was hired back by Europadisk to replace
the long time mastering engineer, who had moved on to
work at another facility. At this point Steve studied the
art of vinyl record mastering directly from Europadisk's
Benefitting from Jim Shelton’s ability to communicate his 30 years of
experience mastering records for the likes of Telarc, Strictly Rhythm and
RCA's Red Seal labels, Steve was then able to quickly pick up on the
intricacies of the Direct Metal Mastering system. Direct Metal Mastering
(aka “DMM”), where a specially designed lathe uses a diamond stylus to
cut the grooves into copper covered steel plates (instead of the usual
sapphire stylus cutting into lacquer), was the final improvement in vinyl
mastering technology introduced by Neumann & Teldec, and Europadisk
was the last studio in North America to offer DMM to the public.
Steve under took the task of upgrading Europadisk’s mastering studio
himself, installing a SAWStudio workstation there that allowed him to cut
vinyl record masters directly from hi-res digital 24bit/96kHz sources, and
aquiring the Rupert Neve designed Medici analog mastering equalizer
and Lavry digital audio converters he uses to this day.
Personal high points to Steve's work at Europadisk includes nearly all of
the AV8 Records releases of 2004 & 2005 (remixes on vinyl only of a literal
who’s who of past and present hip-hop stars including artists like
Notorious BIG, Nas, Jay-Z, Ciara, Lil’ Jon, Snoop Dog, Fat Man Scoop, and
Kanye West); the vinyl and CD single for Martha Wash’s “You Lift Me Up”,
avant-jazz legend Henry Threadgill's Zooid release “Pop, Start The Tape,
Stop”, the vinyl for Yellow #5's “Demon Crossing”, releases on Signature
Sounds for Erin McKeowan & Josh Ritter; painstakingly reproduced
reissues for the Japanese market of Wayne Wonder, The Wiseguys and
Naughty by Nature issued by Eon Music; CD's for Jose Castellar's “The
Man From San Juan” (featuring jazz legends Cachao, Roy Campbell & John
Tchichai), underground Brooklyn rapper “Shake-A-Vel”, the LP for drone-
rock heavies “Om”, and the vinyl for the special edition 4-LP set of the Foo
Fighters “In Your Honor.”
After Europadisk closed permanently in 2005,
Steve made the decision to reopen Total
Sonic Media. The focus of the business was
firmly reset to provide the highest quality of
audio mastering possible, but at rates that
would make it affordable to the budgets of
independent musicians.
He carefully gathered the finest analog and digital mastering
tools he could find (including several items aquired from the
auction of Europadisk's gear, such as the unique Sony/MCI
JH110-M 1/4" & 1/2" analog reel playback deck), and refined
numerous acoustic treatments for his room to create an
extremely accurate listening environment. After months of
these preparations he opened the doors of his studio in
Greenpoint, Brooklyn to the public in March 2006. Since then
he has mastered for numerous releases from the likes of
Daptone Records, Lustre Kings Productions, Bernie Worrell,
Erik Friedlander, Ljova, and hundreds of others.
In June 2014, after 17 years of being a resident
of New York City, Steve relocated to the
Austin, Texas area and opened a new studio
for Total Sonic Media there in October 2014.
This move allowed to Steve to further refine his studio’s facilities,
improving the acoustic accuracy in comparison to his previous
studio, adding a Sterling Modular desk as the centerpiece for
improved workflow, upgrading digital audio converters with the
excellent Mergis Anubis to compliment TSM’s Lavry Blue and
Apogee converters, and adding an Avalon AD2055 class A
equalizer, a Barry Porter Designs custom stereo equalizer, and a
Vintage Designs CL1mk2 and SPL Kultube Premium
compressor/enhancer to his arsenal of analog processors.
Since the move Steve has continued to service clients from all
over the world, as well as added credits from artists working in
Austin’s excellent local music scene, such as Dan Dyer, Andy
Nolte, MidCentury, Omar Bowing, Western Youth, Icons of
Industry, Mike Donello, Deann Rene, Joanna Ramirez, Ed Kliman,
Anthony Garcia, Andy Macintyre, Jason Harrell, The Derrick Davis
Band, and Brownout.
Steve mastered for
Steve has remained an active musician throughout this time.
From 1999-2009 he performed as cellist with alternative string
quartet Invert (with whom he has toured the USA and released
three CD's), in 2006-2007 he toured the West Coast and Europe
as cellist with Rebecca Moore, from 2008-2012 performed
numerous shows with the 20-piece This Ambitious Orchestra,
and performed as cellist from 2011- 2013 with Red Bedlam. He
also produced two albums (released in 2009 and 2014) of spoken
word over electronic-beats in collaboration with poet Messiah-el
Bey as Warlock Asylum, with whom he performed on electric
bass and electric cello at live shows from 2011 - 2014 as well.
photo by Jade Ng, Brooklyn NY 2013