The 9th Circle Oath
Do no harm.
Serve the track and its potential.
Do not drink Pepsi near the converters.
Mastering is rarely a childhood ambition. It is a passion that progressively grows within a subset of musicians as they explore the sonic world around them. It can be a mystery for decades only to make perfect sense on one particular day. Or it may never make sense. It is elusive and elegant. Simple, yet infinitely complex. Ironically, although no two mastering engineers are likely to approach a recording in exactly the same way, the job description is exactly the same for all of us:
Respect the intention of the artist.
Bring the track to a desirable loudness on its own terms.
Preserve the dynamic range whenever possible.
Correct any unintentional imbalances to the frequency spectrum.
Apply "finishing" touches.
Ensure the relevant meta-data is properly set in the track files.
Optimise the recording to translate across a spectrum of listening environments.
Deliver an appropriate set of artifacts.
I believe every mastering engineer on planet earth would agree with some or all of these responsibilities. However, there is another one that is not very common today:
Provide value and education through direct collaboration.
In-person, attended mastering is all but extinct. Actually, there is a good reason for this. Mastering doesn't readily lend itself to collaboration in the same way other studio work does. The method and madness of the task can be perceived as ridiculous to anyone who spends 99% of there time carving individual tracks in a mix or recording instruments. So it is much easier to simply provide the result and get a thumbs up or thumbs down.
9th Circle Audio was founded on the idea that every artist should have the opportunity to listen closely as their tracks are mastered and participate in any decisions that may come up. They should have the opportunity to learn how it is done and what might carry across to their own workflow. Experience for themselves the difference a high end converter makes or how a little mid-side distortion can enhance the stereo field while smoothing out the spectrum. If we don't teach artists as they grow, the craft of studio mastering could be lost forever.