About Sky Onion Mastering:
Located in North Portland, Sky Onion offers a comfortable, affordable and well-equiped mastering studio to the local music community. Come tour the studio or send me a track for a demo of my mastering. I always offer to master one song for free as a no-risk way to try out my services and see if my mastering is right for you.

Many people also wonder - what exactly is mastering? That's a big question and the answer really depends on the source material and the needs of the artist. Sometimes mastering is about enhancing and coloring a mix to make an otherwise "flat" sounding recording come alive on the speakers. Sometimes it's about maintaining the sonic qualities of a mix while making minor adjustments in the most transparent way possible. I try my hardest to acheive whatever sound the artist is after while subjecting every recording to the highest possible level of quality control.

Another question many people have asked is if I use hardware or software for mastering. The answer is both, but I believe that analog vs digital is not the most important issue. I believe the number one most important mastering tool is the listening environment, and I have a purpose-built acoustically treated listening room featuring extremely accurate speakers and D/A converters. The next most important thing is experience - I have mastered many records and intend to master many more (check my client list page for details). After that, it's all about signal processing and I choose both analog and digital options. Analog provides a level of warmth and pleasing harmonic distortion that is simply not available in the digital domain. Digital, on the other hand, offers precision and transparency that is unmatched in the analog realm. Therefore I use high quality analog AND digital equipment from companies such as Cranesong, ADAM, Universal Audio, Lavry, Apogee, Steinberg, PSP, Izotope and Voxengo, plus some custom I built or modified myself.

Recording & Mixing:
Although I primarily focus on mastering, I also offer recording and mixing services. My recording interface, high quality A/D/A converters and mic preamps are in a portable rack case, so mobile multi-tracking is available. This flexible setup means recording can be done at Sky Onion, your place, or just about anywhere we want to go for a wide variety of sounds. I also love just mixing a record, and I have a nice collection of analog hardware to choose from as an alternative to strictly in-the-box software mixing.

About Gus Elg:
Since 2002 I've been busy at Sky Onion helping a wide variety of musicians make records. I've been involved in rock, electronic, folk, jazz, orchestral and hip-hop projects, and I enjoy listeng to and working with many styles of music. When I'm not in the studio, I can be found repairing audio equipment at Platinum Records, riding around town on my scooter, canoeing, playing bass for Pants Machine or laying down expiremental hip-hop/electronic grooves as Wilding. Contact me via e-mail - (guselg) @ (hotmail dot com) - or phone - 503-679-7359 to discuss your project.