Frequently Asked Questions

It's a sound engineering role that performs a couple of different functions. At its base level, mastering is about finishing the record, getting it done, getting it ready for a label or distribution. There's sometimes a creative side to it, where you can possibly bring about some embellishments to a recording. Most importantly, a technical side, making sure that a recording is best suited for the medium that it's going out on, the audience it’s going out to or the club it’s being played out in.

With traditional mastering, we are working from a stereo mix which is only two channels (left and right). This means that changing the sound of one particular instrument or element without affecting other instruments or elements of the song is usually not possible. If the bass guitar needs to have more low end, doing this in mastering may also cause the bass drum to become too boomy. Mixing is where you have proper isolation and control of each instrument or element and are able to freely control individual instruments or elements of a song by changing their levels, shaping their tone, and adding effects such as reverb and delay if needed. The more happy you are with your mixes, the more happy you will be with the mastering. Don’t rely on the mastering process to make or break the sound of your project. The mastering process should ideally enhance what is already there, and give the songs cohesion so you can listen from start to finish without the urge to adjust the settings or level (aka volume) on your playback system.

The quick answer is to render/bounce 32-bit floating point stereo mix files at the same sample rate as your mixing session, in WAV or AIFF format. Please do not apply any peak-limiting or loudness processing to the mixes so there is ample headroom and dynamic range for useful mastering adjustments and processing. If you have been mixing with a limiter or aggressive dynamics processing on the stereo output/bus it’s often helpful to send versions with and without that processing.

Stem Mastering is a more versatile option of normal mastering. We use a few “stems” (combined tracks such as drums, keyboards, vocals, etc.) of your song to achieve the final master. You can send up to 8 stereo or up to 4 mono and 6 Stereo stems that we will tweak individually to produce the absolute best sounding master. This is the preferred option for artists, engineers, and producers that have gotten their mix as far as they can take it but just need the extra bump to make it perfect.

Here are some different stems you can send us as well as an explanation of some of the adjustments we can make to each track:

1. Drums (for compression and clarity without affecting the rest of the song)
2. Bass (for getting a nice bass tone without affecting the rest of the mix with mud)
3. Guitars (we can roll out the mud in the guitars and bring presence and punch)
4. Vocals (we can get them sitting in the mix perfectly)
5. Keyboards & Synths (Bring them to life or enhance their atmosphere based on their role in the song)
   

You can use any stems you want as long as you upload at least 4 and no more than 8.

We’d be happy to provide you with alternative versions at 50% off the price of a normal master.

If your project is very time-sensitive, contact us and we will make sure it is done on time. In general, we guarantee that your project will be finished in 5 business days, but the goal is 1-3 business days for singles. For albums and EPs, we guarantee your project will be finished in 10 business days, however the goal is 4 business days. If you really need it done quickly, we offer a rush service for an additional $25 per song. With stem mastering, it takes a bit longer, so please allow up to 10 business days maximum turnaround time and hopefully we can surprise you by having it done in 3-5 days.

We offer free revisions on all of the mastering that we do, but you might notice something in your recording or mix that you want to change after we have already mastered your project. In cases like this, we will remaster your music for 50% off after you make the changes on your end. We do our best to avoid this ahead time during the free Mix Review.