Frequently Asked Questions
Please reach out via the "Contact" form if you cannot find an answer to your question. We are "human" after all and we thrive on human interactions!
I send you a pre-mastering checklist so that we are totally clear about your requirements. The checklist is essential to capture information about your project and to cut down on email/phone communications. Only when I have received the checklist back from you I will then be able to start working with you. Of course the checklist is only the first step, I will be communicating with you throughout the work, to ensure that our expectations are aligned!
I offer a very personal service to my clients. This means I need to get to know your project, your needs, your aspirations and finally your budget, before I am able to quote you. I will however give you an introductory offer, as I hope to have you coming back to me in future and be one of my "regular clients". I don't believe in fast volume business when it's about music as an art form, as there is no space for the personal, human touch artists crave!
I offer special rates to unsigned acts/artists, students and independent labels. I want to support new music and smaller businesses.
Depending on the package you choose you will have a minimum of 1 revision of the work. It is important to understand what a "revision" means:
- A revision is tweaking of a master that has been supplied back to you
- A revision is based on the same stereo mixdown file you supplied as your final mix which is not going to change
- A revision often means finding a compromise between the artist's vision for the track vs. the expertise of the mastering engineer
Working with a different stereo mixdown file, supplied after the mastering work has been performed based on your file submission, constitutes a new "mastering job". This will be charged as a complete new mastering job.
Professional audio mastering requires the best audio quality from your final mix. I require, as a minimum, a WAV file at 44.1kHz 24-bit audio resolution.
Please make sure you supply your final mix according to the strict guidelines below:
1) Without any dithering applied. This is because I will apply dithering to your master(s) when I bounce your file(s) as the last stage of audio production.
2) Your mix needs to be at least -6db or more in the negative decibel scale. Why is this important? Because the more headroom I have to work with, the more I can make your mastered track(s) stand out without compromising on dynamics and without compressing too hard and pushing the meter out of Mother Earth's orbit to compete with industry guidelines.
3) Please leave enough space at the beginning of each track and at the end. This allows me to get any fades done properly, or cross-fades from one track to another.
4) Please remove any effects on your Master Bus before you bounce the track(s) out.
You can send a temporary mix (WAV file at 44.1kHz 24-bit with no dithering) as long as I am made aware upfront that this is not your final mix. I can review it and coach you accordingly, so that you know how to enhance/correct that mix and head towards your final mix.
We can discuss and come up with a solution that is aligned to our collective expectations. At times, you may want to remaster a previous project and you may not be in a position to access that project anymore. For example: you may have a CD quality mix or master that was supplied to you by a recording studio or sound engineer. They may no longer have your project backed up and accessible again. I can facilitate a remaster for you which will beat the previous attempt. We just have to agree on what is best for you!
Certainly! That is my preferred way to get your track(s) aligned with the sound you would like to achieve in your master(s). You can supply an MP3 or a link to a Youtube video, so that I can compare it against your final mix. Occasionally, I have to refer a client back to their mixing stage, whether they self-produced their music or worked with a sound engineer. If I feel that the mix in itself is not good enough to become a "contender" with the reference tracks you wish to sonically be aligned with, I will be upfront and will not proceed with mastering until the mix quality is achieved. This is normal, I want to ensure we all start with the best possible mix!
Yes I can provide that service to you. However, mixing and post-production work is generally more expensive to start with than mastering a quality final mix. Just let me know upfront if this is your intention so that I can quote you accordingly.
I usually share proofs via an online service called Samply. This allows you to hear the final work in high quality but cannot be downloaded until we agree the work is complete and you have paid for the work.
Alternatively, I can send you a low bitrate MP3 file back to get an idea of the sonic achievements your track(s) can score. However, I like to work with you to achieve professional standards both for yourself and for myself. I would therefore ask you to not upload the file anywhere or share with third parties without my prior consent.
Yes, that is the idea of mastering: to finalise your music to be comparable in loudness to other artists. However, whilst I fully comply with newer and stricter audio mastering guidelines, I do not believe in competing in the "loudness wars" of a couple of decades ago. Those "wars" are now seen as detrimental to music quality and resulted with many leading artists re-mastering their releases because they felt their music lacked dynamics and was way too compressed so that it could be pushed to be incredibly loud! After a lot of debates following complaints by leading artists, the music industry is now backing away from "loudest is best" and many streaming sites will reduce your track(s) volume to comply with their general guidelines. The future for artists and music producers is finally looking brighter!
For more information on the "loudness war" please look here.
How do you ensure streaming sites do not impact my music?
I master your track(s) to be slightly louder than the expected level. This means that once they are sent to the streaming outlets, they may reduce it in volume, which is fine, as that process does not impact your product. On the other hand, supplying a master at a loudness level that is way below their expectations, may result in them bumping up the gain of your music and that is where your music may end up sounding compromised!
A proud member of:
