We’re excited to officially announce Ruxandra Dedu as Junior Mastering Engineer at Montano Mastering. Over the past six months, Ruxi has worked closely alongside Kristian Montano as assistant engineer, contributing to sessions while developing her mastering workflow through hands-on studio experience and mentorship. Originally joining us from London’s renowned Dean St. Studios, Ruxi brings experience in recording engineering, post-production, Dolby Atmos mixing, and sound des

KEY POINTS Streaming platforms don’t change your master - they only adjust playback level: Spotify and Apple Music measure integrated LUFS and turn playback up or down to hit a target. They do not remaster, compress, or alter your file. -14 LUFS is a playback target, not a mastering target: Spotify normalizes to about -14 LUFS and Apple Music closer to -16 LUFS - but mastering to those numbers often sacrifices the density and energy modern productions rely on. Two songs can

Key Points Loudness is Perceptual: Loudness isn't just about volume; it’s a mix of physical sound pressure and how your brain interprets factors like pitch and duration. The Decibel (dB): We use decibels to measure sound intensity. Because the scale is logarithmic, a 10 dB increase usually sounds about twice as loud to the human ear. LUFS vs. Raw Volume: LUFS (Loudness Units Full Scale) is the industry standard because it measures how loud a song feels , whereas older met