Mastering

What is mastering?

Mastering is the technical and artistic process of balancing, equalizing and enhancing, analogue or digital mediums (CD or ½” tape for instance) so that the finished product will have attained maximum musicality and competitiveness in the open music market. Our mastering studio is creative, technically and acoustically perfect, since the master that is made will be the template for thousands of CDs, DVDs and records produced for commercial release. Working in a controlled listening environment can offer a new perspective. Educated, fresh, and "in touch with the market place" ears are an essential asset.

The Mastering process:

Mastering is the finishing creative step in making a record, all final sound judgments are done at this stage. You are very welcome to attend the mastering session. If you won't be attending, you may post us your mixes (on a Data CD-R or Data DVD for example) with all production notes & or upload them to our secure FTP server. Using the FTP server is obviously far quicker & our preferred choice, on the whole it's safer & more 'green' than the post too.
 
It's good practice to take references (i.e. CD-R, DAT, Cassette, or DVD-R) home, so that the music can be played in familiar surroundings. Please listen to the references because if any problems are found then we will fit in the revision session as soon as possible. Projects may often require approval by producers, artists, record company execs, and engineers, it helps to consolidate revision notes saving studio time. Once everything sounds great the project moves onto the final stage at the pressing plant.

Accepted formats to master from:

CD Audio, Data DVD, Data CD (as a .wav .mp3 or .aif), DAT tape, mini disk, Cassette, ¼ or ½ inch analogue tape or vinyl.

Preferred format to master from:

If you have the ability to bring in your 'mixes' on either data CD or a digital storage device (such as a mobile hard drive or flash memory stick) then please do. It's best if you save or export/render the finished mix/s in real time at the same sample rate your project is set to at 24 bit resolution, for example, 44.1 kHz sample rate at 24 bit resolution in stereo (interleaved). Please carefully listen over to all mixes before sending them off, encase there are any pops or clicks present in your mix incurred by your sequencer/digital audio workstation.