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Mastering your song
What is mastering?
Mastering is the last step in the music production process before it is send out to your audience (through streaming services like Spotify) or to the factory for pressing CDs, Vinyl, or Cassettes. Therefore, it is the last opportunity to have your music sounding as good as possible on different playback systems.
Generally, mastering works on the stereo file produced from your final mix. It may involve further audio processing of the audio (but only when necessary), but also involves quality control (e.g., to ensure there is no noise, clicks, etc), embedding of metadata and CD-text (e.g., song, album, artist name, ISRC code), determining the layout and spacing between songs on an album or EP, and rendering to different formats for CD, streaming platforms, mp3 for reference, etc.
Since mastering works on a stereo audio file it is not possible to change individual elements or instruments. This can only be done on the multitrack during mixing. For example, we cannot change the tone of an individual instrument during mastering. Any equalizing (or other audio processing) applied will affect all elements of the mix. Therefore, in some cases, during the mastering process it might be advised to first change certain aspects of the mix before continuing with the mastering process.
Prepare for mastering
- Render your mix to a 32-bit or 64-bit floating point WAV or AIFF stereo file at the same sample rate as your mixing session. Mention the bit resolution and sample rate in the email you send to me.
- Do not apply any peak-limiting or loudness processing on your stereo mix to ensure full dynamic range. However, if this part of your sound then provide a stereo mix with and without that processing.
- Make sure your mix has at least about 5dB headroom to ensure sufficient space for the mastering. Every DAW has a True Peak loudness meter, make sure to check if the True Peak level of your mix is below -5 dB (Full Scale).
- Ensure that your rendered file(s) have some space before the actual audio starts, and have sufficient space at the end to ensure that the audio (e.g., reverb tails) are not abruptly ended. During the mastering these empty spaces will be adjusted as part of the mastering process.
- Send the exported stereo file(s) to me by email (preferably in a zip file and if necessary using WeTransfer). Include your full name and contact details. In addition, specify the metadata (see below) you want to have embedded in the mastered audio files.
- If you provide me with (album) cover art (jpg or png file) then I will embed this in the mp3 reference file.
- Let me know if you have an ISRC code or if you want me to provide you with one for a small additional fee.
It is strongly advised to carefully listen to your rendered stereo audio file for any artefacts (noises, clicks, etc) before sending them to me to avoid delays and iterations.
Vocal Up and Vocal Down mixes
If available provide me with two additional mixes in which the vocal is (typically) 1 – 2 dB louder and softer. Although, the vocal might be well-balanced in the mix, after master processing the vocal might become too loud or soft relative to the other instruments.
Stem mastering
I prefer to avoid stem mastering since if this is necessary it is likely that a re-mix is necessary. However, if this is not possible you can supply me with individual stems
- Stems are generally wet (i.e., contain reverb and other processing).
- Each stem should contain unique elements with no overlap with other stems to prevent comb-filtering or unintended balances.
- The stems should start at exactly the same time-stamp.
Sending your mix
Send me the unmastered tracks and a reference track if available. I recommend using WeTransfer to send the audio file(s).
Metadata
- Artist/band name exactly as it should appear in the CD-Text and/or metadata (info embedded into the CD master and/or mp3 and WAV files)
- Album title or release/project name (please don’t use ALL CAPS unless it’s truly part of the name/title)
- Song titles and order (note where side A and B are split for vinyl and/or cassette releases). Make sure the spelling and capitalizations are exactly as they should appear. Make sure that the stereo file(s) you send me have the same name as on the song title(s) to avoid confusion.
- Any other metadata you want to embed in the mastered audio files such as song style, composer, text write, producer, release year, artist webpage, etc
- Cover art (front and backside). Will only be embedded in the mp3 reference file since cover art sometimes gives problems with Wav files (unless you insist).
- ISRC codes are optional and can be provided for a small fee if you do not have your own. You will need them for online distribution. If you don’t have them, online distribution services will automatically provide them for you. However, having the codes in advance allows to embed them in all the mastering formats that will be produced.
- Note that distributors like Distrokid assign an ISRC code automatically. It depends on the type of subscription if you are able to provide your own ISRC code
Note that streaming services like Spotify don’t extra metadata from the audio files. However, in case streaming services will do this in the future then your audio file has been prepared for this. In most cases you need to supply your metadata also directly in a webform of your distributor (e.g., Distrokid, TuneCore) during submission of your song(s).
What do I offer?
If you have further questions then drop me an email to inquire about the possibilities. I will make the final improvements to your mix to get it ready for distribution.
I will provide the final master as a 16 and 24 bit / 44.1 kHz uncompressed Wav file and as a a high quality 320 kbps reference mp3 file. On request I supply different formats (e.g., DPP for CD production, 48kHz Wav for video). Metadata will be added to the Wav and mp3 audio files. Artwork will be added to the mp3 audio file.
Pricing:
- Single mastering (one song, stereo mix): 30 euro (1 revisions)
- Stem mastering: 50 euro per song (1 revision)
- EP/Album mastering:
- 1-5 songs: 30 euro per song (1 revision)
- 6 or more songs: 25 euro per song (1 revision)
- Mastering for CD: 40 euro per song (1 revision; delivered as DDP)
- ISRC codes: 10 euro
Allow for a 2 day delivery for a single song. Delivery time for EP/Album mastering will be agreed upon prior to the start.
Notes:
