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-Please send lossless audio. WAV, AIFF, ideally. No MP3 or AAC or other lossy formats! If the *only* files you have are lossy formats, I'll still do my best to make them sound great, however. But this is far from the ideal. -Sample rate should be at the session sample rate. No need to sample rate convert. I will downsample as needed. -24 bit or greater bit depth, please. If all you have is 16 bit, that's not the end of the world. -Please specify at the outset if you will need different versions (higher resolution, etc.) This is usually not a problem, and my policy isn't to charge extra for different versions, unless some very left field thing is needed. (This hasn't happened yet!) -Likewise, if you're looking to release digital (cd/streaming) and vinyl versions, let me know. I usually approach them slightly differently. But most of the time I don't have a need to charge extra for these variations. (Cassettes can be made from either version. The cd/streaming version is what most people make cassettes from, and I've never had a complaint in that regard.) -Please don't send mixes that have been limited (or heavily compressed) simply to "make them loud". This ties my hands in terms of being able to do many things, including eq, dynamic processing, etc. Please only send mixes that have master buss effects that are *essential* to the sound of the music. I can make things loud if needed! -On that note, "louder" isn't always better. It's a myth that louder sounds better on the radio. And likewise, above a certain level, streaming services simply turn down louder masters anyhow. So, making things louder just for the sake of louder can end up robbing your tracks of dynamics. -Additionally, I don't require any "headroom" (like sending mixes at -6 db peak, or whatever) but please don't send mixes that peak right up at 0db - or worse, contain clipping. (Unless clipping is a thing you consciously did for the sound of the music in a creative sense. Please let me know if that is the case and your creative choice!) -Please make sure your tracks start and - perhaps more importantly - end cleanly. Listen carefully for extraneous noises in the fade/decay of the songs, for example, and strive to remove them in your mixes. I can do a lot in terms of cleaning this stuff up, but it does create more work that takes my attention away from the actual sonics of the master. -Listen carefully for other noises like clicks, pops, breath plosives (thumps on "p" or "b" sounds, for example) and other things like hiss, hum, electrical buzzes and so on. Non-musical sounds, in other words. Strive to clean those things up in your mixes (or if you're recording, strive to get rid of them at the source!) Hiss and hum, other noises, too, can be very disruptive in a sustaining decay at the end of a song, or in a quiet break in the middle of a track, too. I can do a lot to reduce these sounds, but the needed processing/sonic manipulation can come at a tonal cost sometimes. And, like mentioned above, takes my attention away from working on the actual sound of the master overall. -Include in your email the actual song titles, song order, album title and artis/band name. While you'll input this information when you upload your music for digital distribution, it can be very helpful when pressing CDs and making other files for other methods of distribution. -Send notes for things like track spacing, sonic ideals like how bright/warm/etc you'd like to have the album and songs to be perceived, how loud you'd like the overall album to be (see above regarding this as well) and concepts for songs that should perhaps appear slightly louder or softer than the others. To that end, I do pay attention to how some songs "want" to be louder or softer in context of the others, but your ideas and feedback are welcome! -Regarding track spacing, if crossfades are needed between songs, please understand that for digital formats (cd/streaming, etc) individual songs will have to start/end somewhere in the crossfade. This applies in a few ways. Playing individual songs, whether on CD or on streaming, means some kind of abrupt start or end where the track starts or ends in the crossfade. And some streaming services (and even many MP3/digital player devices or apps) cannot play an album "gapless." Which means your carefully crafted crossfades likely will be interrupted by a brief pause. (I've made several albums of my own with complicated crossfades - I know this from personal experience!) But don't let that stop you creatively. Just know the caveats. -If you have any questions, please email and ask! |
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Too long, read anyway: What is Mastering? It's the final step in the process of examining the single/ep/album before release and evaluating if anything can or should be done to improve it for as wide an audience and diverse of playback systems as possible. It can be target-platform dependent. Depending on the material and the release formats, sometimes different approaches may be needed to best fulfill those outlets. It is the job of a responsible mastering engineer to understand the details this all entails, to keep up with changing technologies, and to be attuned and attentive to the artist's needs and desires as well. Mastering can encompass something as simple as a bit of judicious gain and/or EQ (or to know when *nothing* is needed for a particular mix!) to creative solutions to make, for example, a number of songs work as a whole listening experience, while also maintaining the individual character of each mix. Years and years of experience is honestly the only way to get to that point of ability. (It is NOT about adding a smiley-face EQ and a brickwall limiter and calling it a day. Unless it IS! But...) It's a chance to get feedback about the mix(es) and possibly correct something that should be corrected at the mix stage as opposed to "fixing" it in mastering. Being required to send only mixes you're absolutely "happy with" is totally ridiculous. There are too many factors to know exactly how your mix will translate through a mastering chain... so: Yes, I do take mix revisions with no extra charge - within reason, of course. It's the final stage of your project - the budget shouldn't come with surprises! (Many mastering places don't, or severely restrict the number of them at least, and I do not understand why. Isn't the goal the best release possible? Some even only accept mixes with the caveat that they "assume the client is happy with their mixes." Well now, how is the client actually supposed to know that, really?) If need be, you'll find I'm quite generous in this regard. If you hear something after I put my ears on it that you'd like to change, go for it! I do it all the time. Happy to. Let's not cut any corners. It's also the time when the spacing between songs, cleaning up of the starts and ends, and so on (the "sequencing") can really come together. Something that is sometimes overlooked when putting together a set of songs into something bigger. It's knowing the finer details about bit depth, sample rate, dither, dynamic range and many other factors including a whole host of other things that look like jargon/mumbojumbo when typed in a post like this. (...LUFS? What the heck are LUFS? (Email me - I'll answer any qustions like this as promptly as possible!)) There are many myths and misunderstandings surrounding audio and delivery formats. Anyone with a computer (or even a bunch of analog gear - that's another topic altogether) can call themselves a "mastering engineer". Even *great* recording engineers can hang out their shingle on this, with sometimes mixed results. But would you trust someone with a hydraulic jack, a socket wrench set, and a youtube video watchlist to fix something detailed and complicated with your car? Or someone who dabbles in it but hasn't made it one of their main focuses for, well, maybe almost three decades? Years and years of deep listening and an ever-growing knowledge base of audio, psychoacoustics, and playback systems and formats can and do make a lot of difference. Never mind the whole "AI/automated/online mastering" scam. You get what you pay for. Believe me, I test them. This is why I not only master at an affordable rate, but at a *flat* rate. It's the final step in your process, your release of your art. You should be absolutely *thrilled* to let it out into the world. Consider me to be a part of your team bringing your project and vision to fruition! |
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