Getting an album or song ready for mastering isn’t terribly difficult, but it’s easy to mess up. Using effects like compression and EQ on the master output/bus/track can really “limit” what a mastering engineer can do for your music. By giving you mastering engineer some headroom to work with, a good mastering engineer will be able bring a song to life in ways that are nothing less than amazing.

The things you want to look out for when making your final bounce are as follows:

1. Make sure that none of your individual tracks in a mix are clipping either on the track it’s self or in a plugin.

2. Don’t put any effects on the master output/bus/track.

3. Make sure your master output/bus/track isn’t clipping.

4. Bounce mixes down at the same resolution that you recorded in. (ie: If you recorded at a sampling rate of 48k and a bit depth of 24, make sure you bounce at 48k and 24 bit.)

It is has been widely held in the music industry for a long long time that whoever mixed your album should not also master it. One of the main reasons for this is that mixing and mastering are a totally different skill set and require totally different tools. In addition, an audio mix engineer won’t have fresh ears or perspective if they have already listened to a song or album a million times.

Mixing is the process of adjusting the individual tracks/individual instruments in of a song, and mastering typically only deals with the stereo output of a mix. Mastering comes after mixing and is the last creative musical process before releasing a song or album. Mastering also makes a collection of songs feel like an album, glueing them all together with a common thread.

Yes, IF your mixes are reasonably well done. Mastering is the final “polish” or “sheen” on a song or album, but it’s not a substitute for good mixing. That being said, I’ve worked on many CD’s that have had bad mixes that have turned out sounding pretty good after mastering.

Payments must be made in full before mastering can begin. After payment is made, files can be uploaded or mailed. Once mastering is complete, 16 bit 44.1k WAV files are sent online via FTP and if approved, those files can be released, or if needed, a DDP 2.0 disc image can be sent online or physical masters can be mailed for an additional fee. Payments can be made with credit card or PayPal account. Shipping prices, if applicable, vary by location.

There are a few things to keep in mind when getting a mix ready to send off for mastering. Here’s a list of pointers that will help keep your audio sounding it’s best:

i) Send me your mix bounce in the same sample rate and bit depth you recorded it in. (If you recorded it at say, 48 Khz/ 24 bit, don’t convert it to 16 bit or 44.1 Khz.)

ii) Don’t put any effects (compression, limiting, EQ, etc) on you master buss/main out/final bounce.

iii) Make sure the master output isn’t clipping, and that your individual tracks are not clipping either. Leaving me some headroom will help get the audio to respond the best to when mastered.

iv) Listen to your mixes on as many sets of speakers as you can to make sure you’re happy with how they sounds in different environments. Good audio recordings generally sound good everywhere, and the better your audio sounds before mastering, the better it will sound after mastering.

v)If there are songs by other artists that have a certain quality that you would like yours to have, please let me know. Sometimes, this can help communicate how you want your music to sound.

6. Do you charge extra for revisions?

In the unlikely event that you feel my mastering doesn’t sound amazing, I will certainly make mastering revisions at no additional cost. If you ever aren’t satisfied for any reason with my work, please, please let me know! I pride myself on having the best customer service in the industry and want to make sure your mastering experience is the best it can possibly be.
If you hear any small mixing mistakes in your mix after having it mastered, you may re-upload a new mix for mastering at a discounted rate of $25 per song, so long as that mix has only very subtle changes (1-2 db) to one element in the mix (Slightly lower vocal, fixed edit, slightly louder snare drum etc).

Mastering audio is a very very specialized skill. When you go to a local “mastering engineer” or someone who does it “on the side,” often you’ll find that this person isn’t really a mastering engineer. You’ll typically get a part-time sound from a part time mastering engineer. When you hire someone who isn’t local, you can usually find someone who is better at what they do than anyone you could find locally simply because there’s more talent to choose from online.

Before I began my career as a mastering engineer, I was full time audio engineer/producer and musician. I eventually began to occasionally master some of my own client’s album projects due to their time or money constraints, and soon was being asked to master albums by other producers and engineers as well. Eventually, more and more people began asking me to master their songs and albums and I grew to really look forward to the reactions I would get after sending a final master back to someone. I soon realized that I enjoyed working with artists as a mastering engineer much more than I ever had enjoyed producing, engineering or even playing my own music professionally. As the mastering projects kept coming in, I decided in 2008 to devote all my efforts to mastering, and to stop accepting work as an audio engineer or producer.

The choice just felt right in my heart, and I couldn’t be more pleased with where that decision has taken me. Few things give me more satisfaction than the feedback I receive from people about how excited they are that their recordings are finally “coming to life.”

I still occasionally find the time to get out on the road and play my own music, but I prefer to stay home with my wife and son and master. Me and my family live just north of Columbus, Ohio in Westerville, and have a cat that thinks it’s a dog and like to go on long walks.

If you’d like to get to know me a little more before sending your project my way, please give me a call!

Local friends in Columbus, Ohio, USA:

Flash & Graphic Designer – RC Nelson

Graphic Designer – Brandon Rike

Small Business and Entertainment Lawyer – Matt Crumpton

Friends elsewhere, the United States and beyond:

3 Elliott Studio & Josh Antonuccio