. . . . Do I need Mastering?

Doesn’t everyone? Not everyone will be listening to your CD on a stereo like you have at home. What about car radios? Radio play adds heavy broadcast compression, and sometimes (as in the case with AM) reduces your mix to mono. Proper mastering improves the dynamic range without compromising the musicality of your performance to help anticipate this. Your work will invariably be compared with big label recordings, acts that have budgets for the major mastering houses. Our mastering service helps you compete.

. . . . Just what is mastering anyway?

Adjusting your volumes without adversely affecting your dynamics. Adding a final bit of sparkle on top without bringing up noise. Perhaps adjusting your low frequencies to add a bit of feel without muddying up your mix. We achieve this through a variety of techniques with a variety of gear. Tube compressor / limiters and tube parametric EQ provide a warm touch. We use a combination of analog and digital techniques to bring you the best of both worlds.
Perhaps you need noise reduction for a master that was wasn’t tracked with optimum gain structure. We have several choices on noise reduction techniques to apply. Or maybe your master is a live to two track performance, in which case you may need not only noise reduction but a tightening of dynamics and some editing between songs. A bit of ambience can make a dry performance sound more natural.

. . . . Mixing Formats

The ideal mixed format for us is a stereo DAT, 44.1 or 48 kHz. It’s a great idea to keep things first generation. Don’t worry about giving us a tape with the songs in exactly the right order or with exactly the right silence in between the songs.
Just bring the master tapes, a list of the tape contents (program numbers or real-time numbers), and a list that shows us the final order you’d like. Try to time things out a bit beforehand so that if you get cassettes, the lengths of side one and two will closely match.
If your masters are on cassette - Since cassette counter numbers don’t match up from machine to machine, you should be present at the editing session to help us find our way around.

. . . . OK, I’m sold. What’s it gonna cost me?

Mastering is booked by the hour. For a full length album mastered from mixed DAT tapes, two to three hours is pretty standard. If you require noise reduction and dynamic adjustment (such as for a live to two track mix), you may need some more time. It always depends on the state of your masters and how the original mixes sound.

. . . . Wow, you people are awesome. What do I do next?

Give us a call. We’ll talk you through the final details about preparing your order and book the time for the work. Feel free to ask us any questions you may have about the mastering or duplication process.

. . . . “We sent our last CD off to (Joe’s CD Cloning) and they mastered it for free.”

No they didn’t. They just set it up for the CD replicator by making a Glass master. And nobody charges for that anymore, anyway. Actual mastering takes time and concern toward the final product. In mastering you really do get what you pay for. One national CD duplicator actually charges more if you want to personally attend the mastering session. That should tell you what they think about your opinion.

. . . . “It came back from (Joe’ Clones) sounding just like the tape we sent.”

It shouldn’t. It should be better. Even the best artists and engineers know that the mix tapes they create could use help transferring to CD. Mastering is the added value of being able to bring up the levels, EQ the low end, or change the order of the songs. It’s about having a professional care about your sound concerns. It’s about going beyond what you were able to do alone.

. . . . “Well, it did seem a little quiet, though.”

There is more to mastering a CD than simply copying your DAT to the disk. Levels are critical. We understand what commercial standards are. We apply those to every project we work on. We’ve produced well over 250 albums at Surreal Studios, mastering over 100 of those. We consider that an endorsement of our services.

We also make our mastering available to non-Surreal clients. If you recorded your tape (analog or digital) anywhere else and think it may need a little objective “tweaking”, come talk to us. In fact, bring your tape and we’ll show you how much more you can get out of your final mixes.

We know you don’t want to re-do everything. That’s certainly not necessary. Mastering is about pushing the energy up the last few steps without remixing your tracks. It takes great ears as well as great equipment to excel in this business. We are committed to providing the last bit of sonic excellence for you in the only dedicated mastering facility in Alaska