Audio Mastering Faq And Information On Audio Mastering

Being a mastering engineer meeans I experience a lot of questions on a daily basis. Many of these questions could be very useful to musicians and producers who are considering mastering.

1)Shall I remove the limiter from the master bus of my DAW? Yes this is a good plan as it resticted the headroom available for the mastering engineer to process the audio. However when you take the limiter off the stereo master bus always double check to make sure that the file does not have clipping (exceeding digital 0dBFS).

2)Can you make my music loud? Yes this is possible though there are trade offs you should be aware of. At all times these trade offs are minimized but the comprimises of very loud masters will be distortion, lack of dynamics, lack of punch. of course the skill of the mastering engineer will attempt to delay the onset of these issues when working with any given piece of music for online mastering.

4)What can I expect from mastering? Mastering will improve the frequency response of the mix and ensure that it translates better across many reporduction systems. It will also identify and correct any specific sonic problems such as clicks and glitches in the audio files. The mastering engineer will use analogue and digital processing in order to enhance, clarify and thicken your sound to ensure it is at it's optimal quality for release to your listeners. Some mastering engineer also offer mix feedback if requested as this is a valuable service for musicians an producers who are not 100pct confident with their mix balance. This feedback is good for the mastering engineer and the artists alike as the results will be better.

3)How can I send the files to you? Files are best sent using an internet online file transfer website. In the first instance zip up the file or use winrar/stuffit as this will protect the integrety of the audio file during transfer as it will use a CRC32 check (checking mathematics). This will ensure the file is exactly the same when downloaded as when you uploaded it.

5)What format shall I send my files in? The best format for audio files for mastering is 24 bit .wav or .aiff files at the sample rate of the project (i.e. do not sample rate convert) Please do not send MP3 files, Ogg Vorbis or wams files as they are low quality compressed audio file formats.

6)How long does mastering take? This will depend on a number of factors, how busy the studio is, how many tracks, whether there are revisions to the online mastering work, if there are substitue mixes supplied. As general rule, 48 hours for a single track, 7 days for an album of course dependent on the above factors.

So when you check the websites for audio mastering services you can normally find a page that is a FAQ. Check through to see what requirements your mastering engineer has.