Mastering

If your mix is already finalised and you’re just looking to add that extra level of polish to bring your song up to release standard, or to attain the audio cohesion that transforms a collection of songs into a fully-fledged album, we are here to help. Our mastering service is primarily intended as a cost-efficient, effective alternative for musicians lacking the budget or means to employ the services of a dedicated mastering studio. But rest assured, the end sound is anything but ‘budget’.

We master projects in Pro Tools and use a combination of high-end hardware and speciality plugins to add extra punch, width and sheen to your mixes. To see our full list of software and hardware, please click here.

We favour the preservation of dynamics over maximum loudness in our approach to mastering but we can always cater to your specific needs to ensure the right outcome for the song.

Mastering Pricing

We are happy to offer our mixing and mastering services together in a single package for a reduced rate. Please refer to the Mixing page for details.

Single Song

£40

5+ Songs

£38 each

10+ Songs

£36 each

Mastering FAQs

It will typically depend on the size of the project. Before work starts on your project we will both agree on a deadline for completion that takes into account the above factors and our current workload.

Absolutely. We want you to be completely happy with the end master and so if there is a commercially released song or album that you particularly like the sound of, please let us know and we will do our best to capture a similar feel in our master.

All we ask is that the reference tracks are in the same or at least in a comparable genre to your own songs, as trying to master an acoustic folk song like a hip hop song, for example, might not work out for the best…

Unfortunately not. We find that we work best when we work alone, as it allows us to fully “get in the zone” when mastering. If you have particular ideas about your songs and how you would like them to be mastered, then we are more than happy for you to provide us with detailed notes before we begin working on the project.

Please supply each song as a stereo audio file, in WAV or AIF format – please do not send us any MP3 files.

The audio files should be exported at a bit depth of 16 or 24 bit, with a sample rate of 44.1, 48 or 96 kHz. We would strongly suggest avoiding 16 bit audio however, as 24 bit will ensure a better quality master.

If you would like to send us stem files for mastering, this is also fine but it may incur some additional charges, which we will discuss with you before starting work on the project.

Files should be submitted to us via a secure digital file transfer system.

Ideally we would prefer it if the files that we work from are free from distortion, clicks and pops etc, but we appreciate that anomalies do happen from time to time.

With this in mind we will spend up to half an hour per-song on error correction, free of charge. If additional time needs to be spent on error correction it will be charged at £12 per hour, but we will always contact you first to find out how you would prefer to proceed.

During the mastering process we will use the file(s) that you submit to create a polished final product that translates well over a variety of playback systems.

In the case of an album, we will balance the overall levels of and transitions between each song to ensure a smooth, cohesive listening experience.

Each mastered song will be summed to a single stereo audio file, in a format of your choice (eg WAV, AIF, MP3 etc).

Yes, we understand that your songs are very personal projects and we want you to be completely happy with them. So as part of our aftercare service, once you have received the first completed master, we allow up to 5 reasonable revisions per-song, free of charge. Examples of reasonable individual revisions could include:

  • Lowering the overall volume of the song
  • Adjusting the fadeout time at the end of the song
  • Boosting the amount of low end in the song
  • Increasing the time gap between two songs

The only caveat is that the free revisions should take no longer than one hour to implement per-song. Any further time that needs to be spent on revisions will be charged at a rate of £12 per hour, but we will always contact you beforehand to make sure you are happy to proceed.

To hear examples of our mixing work, please check out the Past Projects page.