Audio Mastering

Masters will be sent back to you as industry standard 16-bit or 24 bit .Wav files, depending on the project. CDs are always 16 bit by default.
We will embed the Track Title, Artist Name, Album Title, etc. and ISRC codes into the .wav file (if you provide the codes which can be procured from PPL). These ISRC codes are identifiers for your tracks when played on radio, tv, films and so on.
If you would like to book in and attend the audio mastering session please get in touch for a quote.
If you need CD replication, we can send a DDP file or a Red Book production of the CD master if required.

We can liaise with the pressing plant on your behalf for a small fee.

Mastering your tracks brings out the best in your mix, optimises the volume and adds a sense of space to the sound. If done properly it also unifies your sound across all your tracks, and prepares them for distribution on all platforms.
We can’t fix a bad mix during the mastering process, so please make sure that your mixes are 100% finished before you bring us your tracks for mastering. We can offer help on mixes separate to our mastering services so get in touch to find out more!
It can be expensive to have your tracks mastered to studio quality, and this can make it difficult for new bands to get their tracks sounding like the releases you can find in the shops, and hear on the radio. We believe that all artists and producers deserve a professional quality finish to their tracks. 

Sometimes very good recordings and mixes can be destroyed by bad mastering. The fashion for being the loudest track on the block can be bad for your music. It’s been demonstrated that tracks which are over compressed or heavily limited can actually sound ‘quieter’ on Radio and TV. This is because radio stations employ their own fairly heavy compression and limiting to stay within the limits of the radio stations bandwidth. Adding heavy compression on top of a heavily compressed master can actually squash the sound and creates unpleasant audio.

Obviously you will want your track to be as loud as possible but it’s important to be aware of the limits of audio mastering. Electronic music gets away with being louder in general due to the nature of the sound. Guitar music, which tends to be more 'middley' by nature, can also compete favourably volume wise, but dynamics in other styles of music are important to maintain. Over compressing and limiting can spoil these dynamics so the approach taken to audio mastering differs wildly depending on the style of music being presented to us.