Throughout a 15 year career as a mastering engineer in New York City, Full Sail Recording Arts grad Joe Lambert has worked on numerous projects with a diverse array of artists ranging from hip-hop superstars Kanye West and Wyclef Jean to indie giants Bright Eyes and Animal Collective. But a recent move proved to be one Joe’s most significant endeavors yet.

“I’d built up my client base at studios like Classic Sound and Trutone Mastering Labs in Manhattan, but the music scene there has gotten dramatically smaller and more expensive over the years,” Joe explains. “I really wanted to have my own place, where I’m able to give clients world-class attention without raising the costs or cutting corners in any way.”

After two months of construction, Joe Lambert Mastering Studios opened its doors in Brooklyn in August and has seen a good amount of traffic since. “It was a daunting task to get things up and running, for sure. This place was just a shell and now it’s a beautiful room – it took a lot of money and it caused a lot of stress, but I knew that I had the work,” Joe continues. “I also knew that all of the musicians had moved to Brooklyn, and that this is where the music scene of New York City is now. It made more sense for me to be here – my clients love it, and I’m very happy to be here, too.”

The final step in audio post-production, the mastering process is an art form in and of itself, aided in no small part by the combination of Joe’s collection of analog and digital gear and his experienced ears. And while today’s technological resources allow Joe to operate remotely with clients all over the world, he’s still a big fan of working directly with the artist.

“Some engineers I know seem to do 80 percent of their work unattended, but I prefer to have clients here with me because I’m comfortable working with people,” he notes. “It can be bands, a producer, an engineer, or all of the above. There’s no better way to find out things about the project and it’s also fun to meet the people. That is why you get into working in this stuff in the first place – it’s supposed to be fun.”

Since relocating, Joe’s been busy, working on the forthcoming Animal Collective album and a Red Hot label compilation featuring the likes of Cat Power, Arcade Fire, and The National.

“Certain engineers get comfortable in just one genre and seem to stick with it,” he says. “I just like to work on good music. Working in the city, I was exposed to a lot of good hip -hop and rap, and I’ve played in bands all my life so I know a lot of people in the world of rock. And I was also exposed to a lot of great jazz and classical artists when I worked at Classic Sound.

“I’ve always felt fortunate to work with a lot of different types of artists. To me, the genre doesn’t matter – if I just do what I want, which is really listen to the music and react and try not to give it a specific sound, I’m good,” he explains. “I’m never trying to put my stamp on it. This is ultimately a service industry, and our job is to make people sound better and make their product sound magical. You need a certain sense of humility when your job is to make others sound good, because it’s not about yourself. If you do that well, you’ll succeed and get your credit where it’s due.”