The Challenge: much of the album was very simply arranged – singer, acoustic guitar, occasionally some light drums. This was washed with a fairly strong reverb. However, on a handful of tracks, a small string ensemble had been added, mixed very wide, and liberally doused in the same reverb. On headphones, it sounded lush and wide, but on a standard stereo system, the wide strings overwhelmed the mix, drowning the vocals. It was the kind of issue that one would hope would be fixed in the mix and not the mastering stage, but the project was beyond the mix stage and couldn’t go back, so it was up to the mastering process to deal with it.
