MikeRoePhonics Mastering Services

INTRODUCTION

MikeRoePhonics Digital Audio offers high-quality audio mastering at competitive rates.

Mastering will add life to your music by enhancing the stereo image, adjusting the tonal balance, and maximizing the loudness of the recording.

Proper mastering will create a product that stands out from the "demo cd" crowd, and places it in league with professional commercial releases, increasing the potential for higher sales of your music. Your music will be radio-ready, with a sound you can be proud of.

MASTERING SESSION WORKFLOW

Although every session will be different from the next one, the following steps are usually made.

Initially, the music is played back unchanged from the source mix. Nothing is altered in any way unless the music requires it. Automatically slapping a compressor, equalizer and limiter on the master bus before listening to the source does not qualify a mix as being mastered. This would be much like adding loads of spices to chili without tasting it, or painting a masterpiece while wearing a blindfold! You have to start with a reference point.

If the music needs some "spices" a variety of effects processors will be used.

Compression is applied to add "punch" or "slam" to the music. (This is usually done in small amounts)
EQ may be added to enhance clarity, add warmth, brightness, or fatten up the bass.
An occasional touch of reverb can add space to an otherwise "dead" recording.
Audible "clicks" and "pops" are listened for, and removed when possible.
Noise removal is performed to eliminate "hiss" and other unwanted sounds.
Stereo Image adjustment (This can create a dramatic improvement to the sense of spaciousness in the recording.)

Aside from the usual effects processing, the following are also checked and corrected:

Channel Balances
DC Offset
Channel Polarity (sometimes confused with "phase")
Volume levels are adjusted if needed, and are carefully set to avoid digital clipping.

During the final stage of mastering, these steps are performed:

Track start times are carefully placed to ensure audio will not be cut off when played back.
Fade-Ins and Fade-Outs are set to provide ultra-smooth fades with no "jumpy" characteristics.
The spaces between songs are adjusted to create a feeling of continuity with the album. (Versus a default 2 second gap.)
The audio sample rate is converted to 44.1kHz to conform with Red Book standards.
The audio is dithered to 16-bits. (This is the last step during editing.)

After the mastering is completed, a Red Book compliant CD is burnt at 4-speed (4X), in Disc-At-Once (DAO) Mode with buffer underrun protection disabled. High-quality media is used to minimize disc errors. The combination of high-quality media and proper burning modes ensures a reliable burn. It also promotes long-lasting achival life, and compliant consumer discs. With properly implemented quality control, everyone wins.