Jett Galindo (Barbra Streisand, Weezer)
Jett Galindo works as a mastering engineer at The Bakery in Culver City, LA. She began her engineering career in the world-renowned Avatar Studios in New York before joining The Mastering Lab in 2013. Credits include Barbra Streisand, Haley Reinhart, Weezer, and the La La Land OST. Outside of mastering, Jett is a contributing writer to Soundgirls, an organization for women working in the audio engineering field.
Tell us about your current studio setup.
The Bakery is equipped with a hybrid setup that combines the best of both the digital and analog worlds. We use SADiE from Prism Sound for our mastering DAW, while we have AVID Pro Tools Ultimate as our playback DAW. For our analog console, the heart of our signal chain is our center console which comprises JCF Audio DACs and our tube and solid-state line amps that were purpose-built from the ground up according to the time-tested Mastering Lab schematics.
I also typically reach for our Manley Massive Passive Mastering EQ for transparent tonal balance adjustments in the analog realm.
For monitoring, we use ATC SCM150's for our stereo and surround mastering work.
As for plugins, our studio has a wide array in our arsenal (UAD, iZotope, Fabfilter, Softube, Nugen Audio, to name a few). This might be an unconventional choice for a go-to plugin, but I am a massive proponent of RX for any necessary surgical QC in the mastering stage.
We also cut vinyl masters in-house, all done at half-speed using our custom-modded Neumann VMS 70 lathe with the SX-74 cutterhead. Our lathe is powered by a DSP-based platform designed by Eric Boulanger.
Having mastered so many songs over the past few years, how do you stay fresh and excited about mastering music every day?
The work itself keeps you excited and attuned to music and its ever-changing trends! Through mastering, I've had the privilege of working with so many talented artists, producers, and engineers from a wide range of backgrounds and genres that I couldn't help but stay inspired.
As a music lover, becoming a mastering engineer makes me feel lucky in that sense.
However, I do find time to enjoy quiet moments. I think that's equally important. It's not only a good opportunity to rest the ears, but it also allows you to stop and savor the journey - and the music - as it happens.
What advice do you have for aspiring mastering engineers looking to get a break in the industry?
Start mastering now! Don't feel like you have to wait until you have the 'perfect' set of tools and listening environment. I highly recommend the iZotope LEARN portal for learning resources on mastering to get you started (I regularly contribute mastering articles on the LEARN portal).
And don't just master your own music. Seek out opportunities to collaborate with creators in your community and master their music. A big part of training to be a better mastering engineer is to enhance your problem-solving skills, and you get to do that by challenging yourself to bring the best out of other people's music.
Besides sharpening your mastering and critical listening skills, you'll also get better at navigating the client feedback process. This is an equally valuable skill set to have and one you can only improve on by collaborating with others.
All this gets you the added perk of 'word of mouth.' A big chunk of a mastering engineer's success in the industry relies on happy artists eagerly sharing their recommendation of your mastering work to their wider community of creators.