Mastering

Our mastering service provides you with a high-quality end product you will be proud to upload and share with your fans. Our hybrid approach of using the ultimate range of digital and analogue tools will ensure we can manipulate the most surgical issues through to the more holistic musicality of your song.


What is Mastering?

While many artists are familiar with the recording and mixing process, many are unsure exactly what a mastering engineer does. Some think we are dark wizards with magical audio spells, and others think we just make it a bit louder and grumble on about sample rates and bit depths until everyone at the party stops talking to us.Essentially, we are the sonic quality control that ensures your tracks get to your audience the way you intended.

So let’s go through some of the basics of what we will do to your track…

Step 1: Listening. 

The first thing we do is listen. Sounds obvious right? But listening critically and objectively is a skill that takes time to develop. We also ask for reference tracks and will do consultations to ensure we know exactly what the artist is trying to achieve.

Step 2: Sonic Corrections.

Once we know where your project is going, then we can begin making corrections to the sound. We use a range of high-quality EQ and Dynamic processors – both analogue and digital – to shape your sound into the signature you are after. We will also do any basic noise reduction that might become necessary after these processes have occurred, such as removing any increased hum or hiss noises.

Step 3: Listen Again.

After you receive your first version of the track, you will have the opportunity to give us feedback and we can make changes for you. The most important thing is that your art is enhanced to your taste.

Step 4: Ordering your Album

Once you’re happy with your tracks, we will make them work together. It’s important to establish a flow and make sure each track smoothly transitions to the next.

Step 5: Exporting and Meta Data

Depending on your preferred final format, we will export your tracks and ready them for distribution. This includes inputting all the correct Meta Data into your files, such as the Track Name, Artist Name and ISRC codes (provided by you). For CD releases, we will export a DDP image to send to your chosen duplicator. For Vinyl or Cassette releases, we will create a file for each side.

 


Mastering Services Available

Mastering for CD, Vinyl and Online Distribution
We will prepare your tracks for the delivery method of choice. We can also recommend a range of distributors to prepare your physical production.
Stereo and Stem MasteringStereo Mastering - Send us your stereo bounce and we will correct the Level, EQ and dynamics, alongside any simple restoration corrections needed.
Stem Mastering - Send us up to 5 stereo stems for level balancing before final stereo mastering.
Note: Stem Mastering is charged at a higher rate.
High quality bounces at WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 and many more…We can easily provide your tracks in any format your require. Please ensure to send us the highest quality files when prepping them for us. We recommend 48kHz 24-bit WAV files as a minimum for all files delivered to us.
Full LUFS checksDifferent online platforms now have different loudness criteria. We will prep your track for whichever service you want to distribute on.
ISRC and Meta Data embeddingWe will embed all the codes and meta data for your tracks to ensure they will be logged properly on your distribution service of choice.
PQ Encoding and DDP image creationThis ensures the track markings and timings of your album are accurate. We can provide the correct export data for your distributor to ensure your final product plays as intended
Audio restoration with Izotope and SonnoxWe use industry standard noise restoration tools to remove any unwanted sounds from your track. Please note that complicated and time consuming removals will incur a fee.


Pricing

Please see our Pricing page for more info.

Comments are closed.