Fullersound was founded in Miami in 1986 by Michael Fuller, and in a few short years established itself as South Florida’s leading mastering facility. Both Michael and his brother Rod, who joined him in the business a year later, had spent years as engineers in the area, and their first facility was located on-site at Criteria Studios, where much of what passed through that fabled facility was mastered by the Fullers.
This year, Fullersound moved to a new, dedicated space. The company offers a comprehensive range of mastering, editing, sequencing and processing services, including analog and digital processing for CD, cassette and vinyl mastering; PQ and ISRC coding for all formats including 1630, DDP Exabyte and PMCD; sound restoration with Sonic Solutions’ NoNoise system; and CD, CD-R and cassette replication.
The facility’s client list goes a long way in explaining its success, says Michael Fuller. It’s become a home to a wide variety of musical cultures and genres-from rock to hip hop to dance to Latin to country-and over the years Michael has mastered hits for Rod Stewart (including the classic single “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”), the Bee Gees, Eric Clapton, Andy Gibb, Seven Mary Three and Julio Iglesias. Rod has worked with an equally diverse array, including Yngwie Malmsteen, INOJ, 2 Live Crew, 69 Boyz, Frankie Negron, Salsa Kids and Roberto Carlos.
In addition, Fullersound’s South Florida location has been at the center of the explosion of music coming from Latin America and the Caribbean. Artists such as Ivy Queen, Strings, Sergio Vargas, Noelia, Chayanne, Shakira, MDO, Christian Castro and Disque Debs (Guadeloupe label) have kept the studio involved with this fast-growing area, even as work continues with a broad range of other acts, including Florida-based artists like Trick Daddy, Crease, Sister Hazel, the Bellamy Brothers and others. Fullersound also recently remastered the re-release of the classic Dirty Dancing soundtrack, which Michael Fuller first mastered in 1987.
Fullersound’s facility is comfortable, intimate and completely state-of-the-art, with a diverse collection of high-end digital and analog signal processors, Neve digital DTC mastering and Cybersonics analog MC-2000E consoles, and Dynaudio Acoustics M-3 monitors. The studio also boasts a private lounge and dining area for clients.
Mastering is as much a passion as a profession at Fullersound. “Collectively, we have over 32 years at the art of mastering records between us,” says Michael Fuller. “This has never been a part-time job for us. This is all we do. Sometimes mastering is a gentle enhancement of what clients bring us; sometimes it is a major improvement. And sometimes it is major surgery. Whatever the need is, we do our best to make it all it can be. The bottom line is, we put our name on it every day.”
