Q: What is mastering?

The purpose of mastering is to transfer the mixes to a duplication-ready format and check everything in order to find out any errors that might affect the quality of the recording. The sound of the tracks is also often slightly tweaked for better.

Mastering is mostly about listening. Any kind of processing of the sound is only an outcome of listening, and it is done with a good taste, respecting the original sound of the recording. A change doesn't always mean it's better.

Q: Why is it a good idea to use a professional mastering engineer?

The mastering engineer offers you a pair of fresh ears and accurate listening conditions. A professional understands the sound of various styles of music and is capable of preparing the material to the final format without the fear of unpleasant surprises in duplication or distribution. Most of all, the value in hiring a professional is in the final checking of the project and in the accurate, careful work, which is absolutely essential for this last step in the process.

Q: What happens in a mastering session?

In a typical mastering session, the tracks are arranged to the correct order and any non-delibrate level variations between the tracks will be fixed. If the sound of the tracks is going to be altered, it is done track by track, keeping the big picture in mind.

After the processing is done, the heads and tails are cleaned up and specialties like fade-ins or fade-outs are done. The pausing of the tracks will be built up and at the end some digital processing might take place, such as raising the overall level.

The final master will be sent out for duplication in the required format - usually either as an audio CD or as a DDP image.

Q: Can I attend the mastering session?

Sure. Your presence could be helpful, especially when we're editing and building up the pausing between the tracks. However, I do appreciate if a certain silence is kept in the room. This is because my work is mostly careful listening, so any unnecessary noise keeps me distracted from the project. Comments, ideas and such talk related to the project are of course allowed.

Many of my customers join in at the editing phase. This is also a good way of working because the mixes will tell me anyway where the sound is heading to. Also, the sound of my monitoring chain isn't probably familiar enough to everybody, and the final judgement needs to be done with a familiar system anyway.

Q: What do I get from the mastering session?

From the first version I like to give out reference copies to go, either as an audio CD or as uploaded files. After you have listened to these, changes can still be made to the project if required.

When everyone is happy and the project is finished, I'll make a proper master for duplication. This will either be an audio CD or an uploadable DDP image. In the package of the audio CD master there is an exact analysis of the contents of the disc along with an error check report. This disc is not meant to be listened at home - for this I give a final reference copy along with the master, from which it is wise to do the last check before duplication.

Q: What should be kept in mind when mixing?

You should be happy about the quality of the mixes before the mastering, and it's not usually useful to think of how mastering might affect the mix. A professional mastering engineer will take care of not altering the balance of the mix too much.

Mixbuss processing is often more harmful than useful unless you really know what you're doing. Especially multiband compression, limiting or clipping the mix can make the mastering session very tricky. Traditional mixbuss compression is of course allowed if it's done for the sound and not for the sake of pushing up the levels. Don't try to "help the mastering engineer".

Adequate headroom improves the quality of your mixes and also makes my job easier. There are no rules, but a few dB's of headroom from peaks to zero is always a good thing. If your mix is clipping at the output, don't fix it by taking the master fader down - take the levels down at all faders. Having enough headroom is a good way of working, and it's good to take care of it from the beginning. While a majority of the DAW's use floating point calculation in the mixbuss and the 2-track output should be the only place where you can actually go clipping, you can never be completely sure how your plug-ins act up when you're working near the top of their dynamic range. However, too much number crunching can't be a good thing, so if it sounds good, it is good.

The final mixdowns should be saved as a 24 bit or bigger WAV/AIFF files and the sample rate should be kept at the same rate the project was mixed at. Changing it at this point may affect the quality of the sound. It's also nice to have the files at "stereo interleaved" format, both left and right channels included in the same file.

Please check that the files actually work before you send the to mastering!

Q: How do I send the material to you?

You can either upload the material or send it through the mail.

When uploading, you can use my Yousendit account or I can download it from your server or other services (such as Sendspace and Dropbox), as long as downloading from them doesn't require me to register into anything. Please do not send audio files as e-mail attachments. Making a ZIP or a RAR package out of the files is good as it might prevent random clicks and pops entering the audio if something happens during the upload or download.

CD's and DVD's are fine if you want to send the material by post. Please check the condition of the discs before sending them, and pack them well.

With the material, please include a text file or a letter with all the necessary info such as the track order, ISRC codes, track names and anything you think might be useful for me to know. You can also e-mail this data to me.

If you bring the material with you to the session, I accept CD's and DVD's, USB memory sticks and external hard drivers (with the necessary cables included).

Q: When do I book the session? What if I want to cancel or postpone it?

Booking the session well in advance is always a good thing to do. Most likely I will be able to do an album within two to three weeks and shorter projects I can probably do at a relatively short schedule.

Cancelling or postponing the session should be done, at minimum, three working days before the booking.

Q: What are the ISRC codes?

From the IFPI website:

"The ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the international identification system for sound recordings and music videorecordings. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording which can be permanently encoded into a product as its digital fingerprint. Encoded ISRC provide the means to automatically identify recordings for royalty payments."

Q: Does mastering for vinyl require any special treatment?

You do need to keep a few things in mind when doing a vinyl master, but usually this does not mean that you need to do any special compromises. I have done a lot of masters for cutting and the only difference compared to the parallel digital release has been a lower overall level and a pause between the sides of the record. Occasionally I have done some additional adjustments to the low or high frequency ranges.

Sometimes you need to re-arrange the track order to make the side lengths more equal. The physical limits of the vinyl format are very real - maximum running time of the side directly depends on the overall level, the amount of bass and its dynamics - and of course the RPM and the physical size of the record. Cutting a laquer is a very three-dimensional job to do.

Cutting Engineer Paul Gold of Salt Mastering answers quite a few common questions at his website, check it out.

Q: What kind of tools do you use?

I use both analog and digital tools. I like simple equipment because mastering is a very simple job by nature and less usually tends to be more.

My analog tools are mostly built by myself, but I do use some commercially available equipment that I like. The tools used in mastering are never just a collection of equipment - it's a complete chain that slowly finds it form and suits the mastering engineer's taste and working methods.

Because the signal chain I use is thought up as a system from the component level, I have a very deep understanding at how it works. Many of my tools are completely unique and use parts of extremely high quality, not available in any commercial product.

No answer to your question? E-mail me and I might answer it in this FAQ.