Mastering FAQs

Mastering FAQs

Audio Material Delivery?
– Format: WAV, Aif, FLAC, OMF(for your Protools, Cubase, Logic etc. Sessions)
– Bitrate: 32bit float, 24bit, 16bit
– Samplerate: 44khz (higher rates are possible)
– Delivering: via e-mail on a storage medium or as a link to Download
as *.zip oder *.rar package via  wetransfer.com, sendspace.com, your dropbox account or through your own ftp server
– Storage: DVD-R, CD-R, SD-Card, Hardrive, MD
– all Files and storage mediums should be marked with your name, title, band or artist etc

How long do you need for a Mastering?
It depends on the  order situation, but most of the time no longer than 2 working days.

How long do you need for a typical Mixdown.
It depends on the  situation of order, but most of the time no longer than 2-3 working days.

How will it sounds after you worked on my song?
feel free to hear some examples on our soundcloud page:
http://soundcloud.com/digital-audio-mastering

Can I send you my own “Pre-Master” as an Example?
Yes. In most of the cases a 192kbps MP3 file or higher bitrate is enough.

What should I do or not with the Rough-Mix of my Song?
– please do not use limiters, compressors or stereo fx on the main, sum, master bus / channel

– please use low- and highcuts/ passes on mixing your single tracks/ channels
–> usefull free Equalizer plugins are: brainworx cleansweep, Bootsy BootEQ MKII, Bootsy Baxter EQ, electri-Q,MEqualizer

– please make sure your bus / sum is always under 0 dbFS. If you want to normalize your song, do it to -1db

– if you use high resonance sounds like rocking filter sweeps use a limiter on that channel to avaoid peaks
–> usefull limiter plugins are: W1(Waves L1 clone), Loudmax(best sounding limiter i know so far!),  

– the RMS level should not be higher than -15dbFS
–> usefull free metering plugins: Voxengo SPAN, Sonalksis FreeG, TT Dynamic Range Meter)

– at bouncing / rendering / saving your Songs please make sure you have enough silence in the beginning and the end of the Song to avoid clicks and crackles

– bouncing in 24bit and 44Khz is the best compromise between enough headroom and the filesize

– At bouncing out of the DAW / Sequencer(with internal 64bit or 32bit floating point processing) to 24bit final Wav or Aiff make sure you dither, cause it is a bitrate / wordlength reduce

Can you do a Test Mastering for me? / Kann ich ein Testmastering bekommen?
Yes. I can do a test mastering between 1:00min – 1:30min. This should show you if its cool or not.

How long will you archive my songs?
Normally I keep your songs 3 months in archive before I delete them. But…
Feel free to tell me If you wish a regular preserve of your songs, I will burn it on DVD then and put it into my little studio Safe.

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other useful Mixing Tips & Tricks