12k Mastering is an independent boutique analogue mastering studio (Apple Digital Masters certified) run by artist Taylor Deupree. Deupree is the founder of the 12k label and is based in a rural area north of New York City. Started in 1997, 12k has pioneered a form of experimental ambient music involving delicate hybrids of digital technology, acoustic instrumentation and the embrace of nature and imperfection. Although Deupree’s music tends to look inward, he is a prolific collaborator, having worked with the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Sylvian, Stephan Mathieu, Stephen Vitiello, Marcus Fischer, S. Carey, Christopher Willits, Kenneth Kirschner, Frank Bretschneider, Richard Chartier, Tetsu Inoue and others.

Taylor has been recording and producing electro-acoustic music for over 25 years and brings an intense passion and knowledge of the form to his work as a mastering engineer. While he specializes in avant-garde, ambient, and other forms of serious electronic composition, his discography since the early 90s has spanned the worlds of techno and hybrid genre-bending sounds and his mastering has included genres spanning from folk to indie rock, dub, modern classical and more.

Taylor has also spent over two decades as a commercial graphic designer and photographer and experiences a synesthetic connection between the visual cues of image production and audio mastering. Colors, frequencies, light, shadow and final production preparation parallel each other in the visual and sound worlds. He is very technically savvy but artistically minded and brings this unique perspective to working with details and manipulating subtleties often called for in mastering.

“Deupree has been honing his signature ‘microsound’ style, which incorporates a wide variety of acoustic and electronic sources, for over 20 years. Hardware and modular synthesizers, electric piano, acoustic guitar, percussion, tape loops, guitar pedals, and field recordings have all found a place in his oeuvre.”