In music production, mastering is the final step in the creative process. But in order to get there, it’s crucial to prepare your music for the ‘master’ to create an extra layer of magic on your creation. So, time for the elusive question. What exactly is mastering and why is it important? To explain more, here’s Darcy Proper; an extremely successful mastering engineer, amassing three Grammy awards and nine nominations for her work. A role model for many within the industry, we were thrilled to have Darcy as part of our Abbey Road Equalise International Women's Day festival, hosting our panel talk on Becoming a Recording and Mixing Engineer.

Creating lo-fi music in the digital realm is all about inducing the flavour of analogue imperfections, tape machine modulations and the colourations caused by worn equipment and mechanical artifacts. From adding more wow and tape flutter effects with our Waves Audio J37 plugin, to adding vintage vinyl noise and crackle with the Abbey Road vinyl plugin, here are a few tricks to add analogue imperfections and that warm nostalgic vibe to your sound.

Want to find out SG Lewis’ go-to audio plugins, or how he created the track ‘One More’ with Nile Rodgers at Abbey Road? In-between Nile’s writing camp at the studios last year, we caught up with the Reading-based alt-pop star and producer who shared his favourite production techniques, go-to plugins and how he creates his signature sidechain effect.