A Brief History...

Paul Abbott started his musical life as a guitarist at age eight, eventually gravitating to solo instrumental acoustic guitar performance and composition while in college at the University of San Diego. While there, he met singer-songwriter Randi Driscoll. They wrote music, performed and recorded together from 1990-1997.

During that time, Paul was featured in Guitar Player and Guitar World magazines as an up-and-coming talent on the national acoustic guitar scene. After several years of performing and recording around San Diego, San Francisco and New York, Paul decided to focus on his interest in audio engineering.

His experiences in different recording studios  — ranging from "humble" to world-class — made Paul realize the sonic consistency missing from his recordings compared with major label work. After a fortuitous encounter attending a mastering session, he realized this was the missing piece of the audio puzzle he’d been searching for.

Paul began mastering in 1998, and in 2000 officially launched ZenMastering as the facility he always wished existed: an affordable, accessible mastering studio offering world-class quality.

In 2002 Paul was featured in Music Connection magazine’s “Masters of Mastering” series, and that same year he began writing audio articles based on his experiences as a mastering engineer, publishing in EQ, Tape Op, and Sound on Sound magazines. In 2003 he became a voting member of the Audio Engineering Society.

Since opening ZenMastering in 2000, Paul has had the good fortune of working with clients in over 30 states in America and 17 countries around the world!

Notable mastering work Paul has done includes...

• Hootie & the Blowfish drummer Jim Sonefeld

• R.E.M. bassist Mike Mills’ cover of the Big Star classic Jesus Christ

• Award-winning Australian singer-songwriter Bridget Pross

• English punk/power-pop trio OneDayLife

• So. Cal. roots/reggae band Tribal Seeds