MASTERING RATES 2022

SINGLE 7” EP LP DBL LP TEST*

Download + Streaming $200 $300 $400 $700 $1000 $150
Download + Vinyl Premaster ➀ X $350 $475 $800 $1200 $200
Cassette Add-On ➁ X X $25 $50 X X
Direct to Cassette Only ➂ X X $100 $200 X X

* Test Masters are full resolution, but rendered unusable for release.
➀ Any Vinyl Premaster may be used as a Streaming Master, but not vice versa.
➁ Equalized & printed to Super Chrome for home & short-run dubs. Some commercial duplicators can use these; most prefer digital masters.
➂ Direct to Cassette is a relatively simple mastering job with necessary tweaks and loads of character. No revisions. Two copies. Bring your dupe stock.

WAIT…WHY SO LOW? IS IT AS GOOD AS BIGNAME MASTERING?

Try us and see. Our rates are lower than other quotes you may receive because A) We want to enable access for low income musicians, and B) We disagree with the industry-standard perception of mastering as wizardry. This is the most anti-capitalism we are able to insert into this niche skilled labor tradition.

Every master is fully custom – no presets ever. We know what a big decision it is to choose a mastering engineer, we make a personal investment into your music, and we take great care in shepherding it into its ultimate form.

Mastering sessions are generally unattended. Expectations are agreed upon in advance. Please plan to attend your session (in person or remotely) if we are doing crossfades or stem mastering.

Ensure that your mixes are prepared for mastering by sending them to us for review. We’re happy to consult for free in advance of any booked session. Scroll to the bottom of this page for mix tips!

Submitting Music: Final mixes may be submitted in any digital format, on 1/4” or 1/2” tape, or on cassette. We also accept 4- or 8-track cassette, on your machine or ours. Submissions must include full titles, album order, song spacing, and fade notes. Any web-based transfer method is fine. Let us know if you would like your digital mixes transferred to our Ampex ATR-102 as part of the mastering process. Tape can be an excellent polishing tool, but is not universally applicable.

Streaming Masters and Vinyl Premasters maintain an average level of -16 to -14dBFS, and may be gently peak-limited. Vinyl Premasters are ready to cut to lacquer, metal, or short-run media, and may be used for all streaming services. Both file types sound similar to the casual listener, but vinyl premastering requires more detailed equalization and dynamics control. Both file types achieve a wide dynamic range with maximum punch and detail, and offer significant flexibility with equalization.

Download Masters (aka “Pushed” or “Competitive” masters), are nowadays used primarily for Bandcamp download, in order to maintain a consistent perceived volume in a listener’s digital library. During the Loudness Wars of the ‘90s and ‘00s, similar dynamic range was used for submission to radio stations and CD duplicators. Competitive masters require average levels of -9 to -7dBFS, may be firmly peak-limited, and are treated with highly technical equalization and compression. When we produce a Download Master as part of a release package, we retain the sound and feel of the Streaming Master or Vinyl Premaster as much as is realistically possible.

Curious about how we might work with your music? Submit a representative song for a Test Master. 100% of the cost will be credited to the resultant session.

TERMS

Mastering sessions are booked with a 50% non-refundable deposit, and may be rescheduled with total flexibility. Please give as much advance notice as possible if rescheduling is necessary.

Completing your payment at any time prior to your mastering session allows us to send you full resolution versions for review. Sometimes, we opt to send an unfinished version to make sure we’re on the same page regarding song timing, fades, or overall vibe. It is easiest to evaluate choices in full resolution, but without payment in full, we can only release versions as mp3. Full resolution masters are releasable upon completion of payment.

Revisions are included within reason.

MIX TIPS FOR DAW-BASED ENGINEERS

Turn everything down, and stay out of the red from the beginning. Never hit Full Scale at any point in the chain, even virtually, even if you can’t hear distortion. Structure your gain so that things get louder as they approach the master buss. If you’re making distortion on purpose, do it on individual sources in a flexible way while listening to the rest of the mix. Apply subtractive EQ to heavily distorted or other broad/thick sources to avoid veiling important mix elements.

Use corrective EQ prior to compression, whether that compression is for dynamic control or for effect. After compression is where you put EQ designed for sweetening or cutting through a mix. In other words, generally speaking: Cut > Compress > Boost. EQ your tracks before you EQ the groups, but don’t get so particular with track EQ up front that you lose your ability to make big changes with a subtle move on a group EQ.

Whether your drums are real or synthesized or atypical percussion, pay close attention to your drum buss compressor. If you’re slamming for fullness and texture, try parallel compression instead. This works on individual drums too. Bounce a drums-only stem if you want to see what you’re hearing. Your transients are crucial, they have huge impact on other sources that you can’t fully predict until mastering, and nobody should be paying a mastering engineer to bring them back.

Reverb & delay do not go on tracks. Reverb & delay do not go on groups. Reverb & delay go on aux sends, fed by tracks and groups. This is a traditional approach based on common analog studio signal flows. Internalizing this as a rule is a big step for nascent engineers. If a source is strictly textural/background, you can ignore the rule, but understand that there will be only so much clarity that can be brought to that source in mastering.

Never put anything on the master buss other than a very high quality tape simulator, calibrated in a realistic manner, at about unity gain. Adding even mild EQ, spatial tricks, compression, limiting, or distortion to the overall mix significantly impacts your mastering engineer’s ability to bring something even nicer to the table, whether by instinct or request. If you are committing to a song-wide effect or are reproducing a particular time period in musical history, do so in the tracks, the groups, and the auxes. Then, communicate with your mastering engineer to achieve your overall sound.

Test your mixes with Loudness Penalty to see how they might fare against each streaming service’s volume algorithm. If iTunes would have to turn it up by at least 2dB, and Spotify by at least 4dB, you’re still within range for submission to a mastering engineer. If you have access to a meter plugin that displays Loudness Units in real time, shoot for something like -20db to -18dB LUFS short term in dense song sections, with long term measurement at least 2dB down from there. Digital VU meters in those same dense sections want to hover around -22db to -16dBFS, with more open sections shifting around the -28dB to -18dBFS range.

Be aware of peaks hitting above -4dBFS, avoid peaks above -2dBFS if possible, and stay the hell out of the last dB. You don’t have to peak limit to get loud and stay loud; fatten the transients at the source, and you’ll be able to turn that source down. Once more for the folks in the back: parallel compression.

Dynamics measurements are more open to interpretation, and the related plugins more spendy. Become attuned to what mixes sound like on lockdown vs. with breathing room, and you’ll make intuitive choices that have measurable results. Err on the side of greater dynamics to allow someone to carve out anything you missed. Give the mastering engineer the flexibility they need to decrease dynamic range gracefully, while highlighting all of the best mix elements you worked so hard to craft.