# The Mastering Show #110 - What makes a REAL mastering engineer ?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-mastering-show-1105611/the-mastering-show-110-what-makes-a-real-mastering-engineer
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-mastering-show-1105611/the-mastering-show-110-what-makes-a-real-mastering-engineer.md
Podcast: [The Mastering Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-mastering-show-1105611)
Published: 2026-06-30T16:15:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.themasteringshow.com
Audio file: https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/940fc6fe-6811-4092-9c38-ccc2db78a329.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-mastering-show-1105611/episodes/the-mastering-show-110-what-makes-a-real-mastering-engineer
Duration seconds: 2463

## Resource

I'm seeing several different discussions online about what makes a "real" mastering engineer – and some of them are getting pretty heated ! So what really matters the most ? Expertise, experience, or credits ? In this episode I talk about my own opinions and reasoning, talking about: Why credits can be a complete red herring, especially online The problem with credits even if they are reliable How I got great results with (almost) zero experience When years of experience might not be an advantage The power (and problems) of trial and error When expertise becomes a super-power Links and more episodes here: www.themasteringshow.com/episode-110 Mentioned in this episode: Learn to master ! Click HERE to see Ian's courses and mastering resources Leapwing Find out more about Leapwing's plugins Tools For Ian's mastering plugins, click HERE

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## Transcript

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