Recording, Mixing and Mastering Since 1997
Mastering Rates -
$50 per song. We'll master one of your songs for free and send you a sample so you can hear what the final will sound like. If you do the project here, you'd pay for it. If you choose to go elsewhere, there's no charge.
What Is Mastering?
Mastering is the final stage of the creative process before your music is ready to be distributed to the public. It is an art form to itself. On the technical side, mastering can include a combination of equalization, frequency dependent dynamics control, compression, limiting and stereo field spatialization (among other things) to help make your mixes be all they can be. It's the icing on the cake, if you will.
Maximization of overall volume is another part of the mastering process. While this is obviously important, it shouldn't be at the expense of sacrificing the sound and integrity of the mix you've likely labored over for many hours. A good master should still sound like your mix...but MORE of your mix. If that makes sense. In the case of an album, a good master should also be sonically uniform and cohesive, not just a collection of songs.
How And What Do I Submit For Mastering?
Your final mixes should be submitted for mastering in their full resolution format as WAV or AIFF files. For example, if your project was recorded at 24 bit/44,100khz, that's what you'd submit. You wouldn't submit an MP3 for mastering because this is a compressed (not full resolution) file format that doesn't actually contain all of the music's original data. Acceptable formats are: 16 or 24 bit resolution with sampling rates of 44100khz up to 96,000khz in WAV or AIFF file format. DAT and 1/4" tape reels can also be transferred and mastered.
Be careful of submitting final mixes that are too loud or overly compressed as there may be little to no benefit in trying to master overly hot mixes. Ideally, the level should average around -0- on your DAW stereo mix meter, give or take. If a mix is too hot or compressed we'll let you know and make suggestions for remedying it.
Your final mix files can either be uploaded via the internet (contact for details), mailed or brought in person.
How Do I Know You're The Mastering Guy For The Job?
Picking a mastering engineer is similar to picking the recording studio you tracked at. While you can certainly get a good quality recording at many different recording studios, the experience itself may vary greatly. Recording studio decisions are usually made not only based on a studio or engineers track record and sound quality but also on the vibe of the studio, gear and the connection with the engineer, among other things. In the case of mastering, sessions are often unattended by the client (you) and as such you're biggest deciding factor is likely to be simply the mastering quality and price.
So, in that regard, we'll master one of your tracks for free and send you back a sample so that you can better decide if you have the right guy for your music.
Mp3 Example of Recent Mastering Project:
MIKE ROZE
We've Got To Get You A Woman"
UNMASTERED
"We've Got To Get You A Woman"
MASTERED
"I'd never been really happy with the results I'd gotten elsewhere. And I've used some pretty good mastering houses.
I use Kevin now..."
Gold Record Award winning engineer
"Beautiful Pain"
UNMASTERED
"Beautiful Pain"
MASTERED
This is a country pop tune from the forthcoming motion picture "Rock Story" featuring Eric Roberts, Joyce DeWitt, Gilbert Gottfried, Dominique Swain and more. I mastered songs for the movie and soundtrack.