What is Mastering?
Simply put, mastering is the last creative process in the recording of your music.
The process entails critical listening, and then making the necessary adjustments to improve, re balance, correct flaws, edit, and restore your music to its fullest potential.
The mastering engineer will use the best equalizers, compressors, and processing gear specifically designed bring out the details and sparkle in your mix.
Your final mixes, taken from several sources, different studios, different engineers, are all reviewed and then put through the mastering process. To date I know of no process that can compensate and bring you a finished and consistent product like a true mastering facility with the proper engineer at the controls.
How Much Does It Cost?
Probably a lot less than you think! We have been in business over 25 years because we price our services at a reasonable rate. Independent music is the backbone of our business!
Go to our contacts page to get in touch and get a quote for your single, album, or whatever you have!
Why use professional mastering services?
A professional mastering facility has several advantages over “doing it yourself”.
We provide “ears behind the gear”. A professional mastering engineer will be able to select from a wide palate of tools to fine tune, restore, and bring your project to it’s fullest potential.
Experience. With hundreds or thousands of projects under the belt, an experienced mastering engineer will know how to squeeze the most out of your music. There is a reason everything you hear on the radio has been brought to a professional mastering facility before it is released, is simply because we can put the final “polish” on the music. As to date, nothing has replaced us yet!
Why not use my software’s “mastering ” plug-ins and do it myself?
While plug ins are fine products, they are not a replacement for the trained ears and the critical environment of a professional mastering facility. Also, most of the processes in these home “mastering” fixes are meant to make your music instantly loud & bright. These adjustments are the equivalent to a sledgehammer vs. a surgeons scalpel for what the needs of most music is. A trained mastering engineer will tailor every move to bring out the best in your music.
What is Audio Restoration?
Audio restoration is the process of removing artifacts and anomalies in order to make a recording clearer. With the help of some wonderful technology from CEDAR and other companies that specialize in restoration, along with careful equalization we can remove noise, buzzes, crackles, hums, we can bring a recording to a much improved state. Audio restoration can be used for both music as well as forensic audio.
What can I do to prepare my mixes for mastering?
How long does it take to master something?
There is no definitive answer, but an average full music CD consisting of approximately 40-50 minutes of music (10-14 songs) usually can be finished in about 4-5 hours. A CD single with a few different versions can usually be finished in an hour or less.
Can you do mastering for vinyl (LP or 12″)?
Yes, but we do not cut lacquers anymore.
What Formats do you accept?
Simply put, mastering is the last creative process in the recording of your music.
The process entails critical listening, and then making the necessary adjustments to improve, re balance, correct flaws, edit, and restore your music to its fullest potential.
The mastering engineer will use the best equalizers, compressors, and processing gear specifically designed bring out the details and sparkle in your mix.
Your final mixes, taken from several sources, different studios, different engineers, are all reviewed and then put through the mastering process. To date I know of no process that can compensate and bring you a finished and consistent product like a true mastering facility with the proper engineer at the controls.
How Much Does It Cost?
Probably a lot less than you think! We have been in business over 25 years because we price our services at a reasonable rate. Independent music is the backbone of our business!
Go to our contacts page to get in touch and get a quote for your single, album, or whatever you have!
Why use professional mastering services?
A professional mastering facility has several advantages over “doing it yourself”.
We provide “ears behind the gear”. A professional mastering engineer will be able to select from a wide palate of tools to fine tune, restore, and bring your project to it’s fullest potential.
Experience. With hundreds or thousands of projects under the belt, an experienced mastering engineer will know how to squeeze the most out of your music. There is a reason everything you hear on the radio has been brought to a professional mastering facility before it is released, is simply because we can put the final “polish” on the music. As to date, nothing has replaced us yet!
Why not use my software’s “mastering ” plug-ins and do it myself?
While plug ins are fine products, they are not a replacement for the trained ears and the critical environment of a professional mastering facility. Also, most of the processes in these home “mastering” fixes are meant to make your music instantly loud & bright. These adjustments are the equivalent to a sledgehammer vs. a surgeons scalpel for what the needs of most music is. A trained mastering engineer will tailor every move to bring out the best in your music.
What is Audio Restoration?
Audio restoration is the process of removing artifacts and anomalies in order to make a recording clearer. With the help of some wonderful technology from CEDAR and other companies that specialize in restoration, along with careful equalization we can remove noise, buzzes, crackles, hums, we can bring a recording to a much improved state. Audio restoration can be used for both music as well as forensic audio.
What can I do to prepare my mixes for mastering?
- When mixing, try to reference your mixes against source material that you are familiar with, like your favorite CDs or streaming music.
- Apply minimal compression (or none at all) to your 2 track mixes. But in the end, hand us your mix the way you like the sound. Feel is always more important than being technically correct!
- Check the levels going to tape, making sure that the peaks of the music are just under your recorders maximum input level. On a digital workstation (D.A.W.) that means just under digital zero. Do not hit up on zero as some recorders have built in digital limiting, and we definitely want to avoid that at all costs!
- On an analog recorder, you may want to experiment on the level input, as some people enjoy the sound of tape saturation. Be sure to play back the first mixes and make sure they have gone to tape sounding the way you had envisioned.
- If you've already tried to master it yourself, or had someone else do it that you weren't happy with, let us know! We want to make it better for you, and it's better if you're honest with us.
- Don’t Rush! Take your time and make sure your mixes are what you want. While mastering can sometimes vastly improve a mix, it can't fix a bad performance or lackluster mix.
- Get References! Please bring some of your favorite CDs, especially ones that you think your music can or should sound like. This will help your mastering engineer understand what you want from your session.
- Ask questions. Don’t be afraid or intimidated by the process. Your mastering engineer is happy to explain the process and show you what he/she is doing.
How long does it take to master something?
There is no definitive answer, but an average full music CD consisting of approximately 40-50 minutes of music (10-14 songs) usually can be finished in about 4-5 hours. A CD single with a few different versions can usually be finished in an hour or less.
Can you do mastering for vinyl (LP or 12″)?
Yes, but we do not cut lacquers anymore.
What Formats do you accept?
- Digital files: Please send .wav or .aiff stereo, or dual mono. These can be sent over the Internet to us with a file service (link to PDF sheet).
- Please do not email files, or send mp3s. Really. If mp3 is the only thing you have, then we need to have a little talk first....
- Please do not dither or sample rate convert your files before sending them. Keep them in the same resolution as your mix.
- Digital files should remain at the sample rate they were recorded at. Stereo interleaved or dual mono are both fine.
- 1/2″ analog reel
- 1/4″ analog reel
- .WAV files (any sample rate)
- .AIF (Aiff) files (any sample rate)
- Sony 1630
- DAT
- Alesis Masterlink
- Other formats can be arranged. Please call for information.