Emerson Mancini
Emerson Mancini is an American mastering engineer based in Los Angeles. He has mastered songs and albums for numerous artists, including Jon Batiste, Camila Cabello, The Chainsmokers, Halsey, Kendrick Lamar, Lizzo, Migos, Paramore, Portugal. The Man, Charlie Puth, Bebe Rexha, and Ed Sheeran. For his engineering work, Mancini has been nominated for seven Grammy Awards, winning Record of the Year for Lizzo's "About Damn Time" and Album of the Year for Batiste's We Are. Additionally, he has worked on film and television soundtracks, including Top Gun: Maverick.
Life and career
Mancini was raised in Long Island, New York, a first-generation American born to Argentine parents. He took an interest in music at an early age, learning piano, flute, and guitar throughout his childhood and schooling. Inspired to pursue music as a career in his teenage years after attending a songwriting workshop, he attended Berklee College of Music and graduated with a Bachelor of Music in 2008.Shortly after graduation, Mancini was hired by fellow mastering engineer Dave Kutch as an assistant at the Mastering Palace in New York, where he worked for seven years. In 2015, he founded Demifugue Mastering, which operates out of Larrabee Sound Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles.
Since 2008, Mancini has worked on over 1,600 releases and 2,500 songs., he does not utilize analog tools for mastering and works entirely in Magix's Sequoia digital audio workstation using audio plug-ins. At the 61st Annual Grammy Awards in 2019, he received his first nomination for Grammy Award for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical|Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical|Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical|Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical for Chromeo's album Head over Heels, At the 2022 ceremony, he received two nominations for his work on Jon Batiste's We Are: Record of the Year for "Freedom" and Album of the Year, winning for the latter. That year, he mastered the soundtrack for the 2022 film Top Gun: Maverick. In 2023, he received four nominations at the 65th Annual Grammy Awards for his work with Lizzo and Kendrick Lamar: two for Record of the Year and two for Album of the Year, and won for "About Damn Time". Writing for Metro Weekly, journalist Hugh McIntyre said that Mancini was "likely the first openly trans person to snag either of the two most prestigious trophies at the Grammys — let alone both of them."
In July 2025, Mancini was signed to the management division of Errant Records, a Canadian independent record label.