Mastering isn't about gear (though some gear does make the process easier), it's about critical listening and then having the know how to balance what you're hearing between commerce and art while being relatively 'invisible' in the process as to not take attention away from the music. In my opinion, good mastering should focus your music to where it flows effortlessly, so that the listener can have a more enjoyable experience at first listen.
You've mixed your project to the best of your ability and you're almost ready to release it, but you need an opinion from an unbiased party to see if your project will be competitive with other projects released by other artists.
You may have recorded at; different studios, with different mics, different producers, and a few mix engineers. Or you may have done it all yourself in the span of a few months. I'll then listen to what you've come up with and using critical listening give my opinion on the project from a sonic standpoint. Maybe the kick drum sounded great on your speakers, but perhaps won't translate on other systems. I'll either help you address it within your mix or using specialized tools, tackle those areas myself to enhance your music to it's fullest potential.
This means...
Using specialized tools to remove clicks/pops and noise within your recordings you didn't know were there, balancing the audio levels between tracks, bringing up the overall level to a competitive place, balancing each track's frequencies, adding correct spacing between tracks, correctly tagging each master so your information appears correctly within iTunes and car stereos, among other processes.
If you're interested or just want to see if your track is ready for mastering, send your mix (as a .wav or .aiff) to chris@chrisgala.org.
Here are a few of the most recent projects I had the pleasure of working on...
Contact me about your project. We'll then speak about the direction of your project and afterwards I'll review your mixes and recommend any changes that may need to be made. After payment has been received, please fill out THIS form and send it to the above email with your final mixes through using We Transfer.
How to prepare your files for mastering...
- I accept .wav or .aiff files (any sample rate). I prefer multi-mono bounces of your mixes, but stereo interleaved is fine if that's all your DAW will export.
- Please don't limit your mix and make sure there's no clipping or accidental distortion within the files.
- Please don't dither or sample rate convert your mix. Leave your mixes in their original bit depth and sample rate.
- Don't concern yourself with loudness too much. That's my job. Concentrate on crafting great compelling mixes.
- Leave 2-3 dB of headroom on your mix master bus for me to work. If you need help understanding this I'd be glad to explain in an email or phone call.
- Label each audio track as such...
- 01_Song_Name.wav
- 02_Song_Name.wav
- 03_Song_Name.wav
- If you include two different mix versions of the same song please indicate which is which like so.
- 01_Song_Name_mixbus.wav
- 01_Song_Name_no_mixbus.wav
PLEASE CONTACT ME FOR CURRENT RATES.
What's Included
- One Revision
- 24 bit or 16 bit digital WAV files.
Additional Elements Prices
- DDP file for CD replication: $100
- CDR Master: $100 plus shipping per disc.
Payment
I prefer payment via PayPal, but will also accept check or money order. There's a deposit minimum of 50% for new clients. Full payment must be received before any materials are delivered.
