Legendary Mastering Engineer Bob Ludwig on Radiohead, Nigel and In Rainbows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoCYNPqPsEw
Bob Ludwig, who has mastered the majority of Radiohead’s records, touched on In Rainbows and the band’s process around 45 minutes into this interview.
“This is a very loud record, but it was designed to be that way. This is a record where every distortion, just like Beck Morning Phase, every distortion you hear on there has been carefully thought about. The Beck Morning Phase record, we had done clean mixes of some of those songs. And then when we came out with it, some stereophile people thought it must be from an mp3 because of this and that. [on record label interference] Every Radiohead record, we just keep working on it until Nigel's happy. It's funny because - I don't think it's telling things out of school - some of these records sound nothing like the mix. You'll be surprised at what some of the mixes sound like, but they're all malleable. What I ended up with is what he was imagining. So sometimes these records go quickly. Sometimes they take a very long time, it's very interesting how it goes. But it's never put out until he's like, "That's it."
Ludwig also mentions that his mastering studio, Gateway Mastering, does not have interns because the risk of news leaking is too great. I find it interesting that he explicitly touches upon this first when being asked about Radiohead. Seems to once again confirm Nigel’s secretiveness.