Which engineer mastered Taylor Swift’s “august” for its Folklore release?

Randy Merrill mastered Taylor Swift’s “august” for its Folklore release.

Mastering is the final technical stage that prepares a finished recording for distribution across formats. Merrill is credited with mastering “august,” while other engineers handled recording and mixing duties. The song’s production credits also include Swift, Jack Antonoff, and Joe Alwyn, but those roles are separate from the mastering credit.

The recording process involved several locations because Folklore was made remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Swift’s vocals were recorded at Kitty Committee in Los Angeles, while instrumental and other recording work involved studios including Rough Customer in Brooklyn and Long Pond in New York’s Hudson Valley. Jonathan Low mixed the track, and Merrill completed the mastering at Sterling Sound in New York.

These technical credits can be easy to confuse because many names appear in a single song’s liner notes. Laura Sisk is associated with recording Swift’s vocals, and Jonathan Low with mixing, but Randy Merrill is the mastering engineer.