» Mastering has been described as the last step in the creative process, and the first step in the manufacturing process. Both descriptions have their merits. In the creative realm, mastering is the last chance for you to make broad sonic changes to your material using compression, eq, limiting, stereo expansion and sometimes even reverb. It is also the time to balance the levels of each song and to sequence and edit the record to sound cohesive and flow well.

» In relation to the manufacturing process, it is the time to create a RedBook PMCD (pre-mastered CD) that the manufacturer will use to replicate or duplicate thousands of CDs from. This "classical" idea of mastering is very important because the CD that is created must play back error free on a variety of systems and must have all the pertinent info for the manufacturing plant.

» Samples: The samples below are 16bit/44.1k wave files that contain identical song clips that are unmastered and mastered.

The New Atlantic (this song was recorded/mixed by Vince Ratti @ Skylight and mastered by Dave)
Gunna Vahm (this song was recorded/mixed here by Steve and mastered by Dave)

» What we need from you (all info should be written as you want it to appear)
1) band name
2) album title
3) a list of all songs in album sequence
4) ISRC code(s) (if you do not know what this is you probably do not have one)

» What you get from us
1) a Red Book CD with PQ sheet that is ready for manufacturing
2) a CD that is CD-Text and CDDB (see iTunes) compatible
3) a CD that will play back consistenly on a variety of systems
4) a CD that sounds better, not just louder

» Rates: Mastering is $50 per hour. On average we can master 2-3 songs in an hour. If your project has unusually long or short songs then this estimate goes out the window. Shoot us an email and we can get you an estimate.

» Extras:

Enhanced CD- We have the ability to author Enhanced CDs so you can add videos, photos or weblinks to your cd that can automatically launch when your cd is inserted into a computer cd drive. This is also known as CD-Extra or E-CD. Enhanced CD authoring is an additional $50. Feel free to email us if you have any questions.

Digital Transfers- We can also create RedBook transfers for CDs that are mastered but need to be prepared for manufacturing - this includes CD-Text embedding, PQ sheet, sequencing and editing.