Mastering, in a Nutshell:
The mastering engineer's job is to help make a record sound to the rest of the world as it does to the artist. Sometimes that means making a careful transfer from one medium to another. Sometimes it is appropriate to get aggressive with the tools of the trade. Either way, mastering is the final step in the recording process, and it can really help to bring a record to life.
Rates:
$15 per minute of music (30 min = $450)
$50 flat fee for vinyl prep. (This is relevant only if you are pressing vinyl and would like to have a high resolution version of the mastering with no brickwall limiting.)
$50 flat fee for Apple Digital Masters version of your record: high resolution (the same sample rate and bit depth as the mixes) prepared for iTunes proprietary dithering codec.
Process:
You can either email a link to digital files or send materials via snail mail. Please include the desired sequence and any other notes you feel may be useful. (Specific requests for song spacing are best conveyed with a mockup mp3 of the whole record as one track.) A link to reference files will be sent to you after payment has been received. After the mastering has been approved, the final record will promptly be uploaded or mailed in the desired format(s).
Turnaround time is within two weeks of receiving the mixes. Deadlines are welcome.
Mastered for iTunes aka Apple Digital Masters:
iTunes asks the engineers on their ADM providers list to monitor for digital clipping to ensure as clean a conversion as possible to their proprietary format. They also require the masters to be in high resolution: at least 24bit and at whatever sample rate the mastering was done at. So although your record will still be dithered down, the preparation and high res delivery should make for a digital version that is truer to the source.
The mastering engineer's job is to help make a record sound to the rest of the world as it does to the artist. Sometimes that means making a careful transfer from one medium to another. Sometimes it is appropriate to get aggressive with the tools of the trade. Either way, mastering is the final step in the recording process, and it can really help to bring a record to life.
Rates:
$15 per minute of music (30 min = $450)
$50 flat fee for vinyl prep. (This is relevant only if you are pressing vinyl and would like to have a high resolution version of the mastering with no brickwall limiting.)
$50 flat fee for Apple Digital Masters version of your record: high resolution (the same sample rate and bit depth as the mixes) prepared for iTunes proprietary dithering codec.
Process:
You can either email a link to digital files or send materials via snail mail. Please include the desired sequence and any other notes you feel may be useful. (Specific requests for song spacing are best conveyed with a mockup mp3 of the whole record as one track.) A link to reference files will be sent to you after payment has been received. After the mastering has been approved, the final record will promptly be uploaded or mailed in the desired format(s).
Turnaround time is within two weeks of receiving the mixes. Deadlines are welcome.
Mastered for iTunes aka Apple Digital Masters:
iTunes asks the engineers on their ADM providers list to monitor for digital clipping to ensure as clean a conversion as possible to their proprietary format. They also require the masters to be in high resolution: at least 24bit and at whatever sample rate the mastering was done at. So although your record will still be dithered down, the preparation and high res delivery should make for a digital version that is truer to the source.
