Online Mastering - Free Sample Masters Help You Choose.

With the wide variety of mastering services that are available online at various price points it can be complex for a band , musician or record label trying to dissect which service to use. You have worked out that the studio has some nice analogue equipment, you can see a long recent clients list and you trust the engineer has good audio engineering experiencs. And there should be some photo's of the room where the music will be mastered. One of the most useful tools for a potential audio mastering client to use when searching for the right online studio is a free mastering example. Some studios will receive one of your tracks and create a 3 minute sample file for you. This a great way to find out what the skills of the mastering studio are. I have a few suggestions to help you decide on what a good mastering preview is. This will assist in making an informed decision as you can hear the mastered audio for yourself.

1)Try to level match with the original mix - louder files are generally more impressive to the ear but you do not want to let higher perceived levels be the sole decisive factor, there is much more to mastering than simple level increases. Bear in mind the overall level when your receive your preview back as one single factor in the mastering whole and then pull the clip level of the preview down and align the original file and newly mastered version in your DAW (digital audio workstation) if possible.
2)Listen carefully for distortion, loss of transient details on snares etc. and loss of dynamics.
3)Listen for an overall improved tone in the mix.
4)Listen for an improved mix balance.

The goal is to have a mix that will translate as well as possible across as many different playback systems as possible. of course it may be that the artist has requested a specific sound which will also factor in. Of course each one of these elements will factor more or less dependent on what was the required processing to get the mix to be a master. When requesting a free mastering example it is helpful to provide some basic details about the music, any specific problems and any bands you like the sound of and anything else that might assist in getting the master preview just right. Such as whether high perceived levels are very important to you or not. With the above in mind you will be better equipped to choose your online mastering and hear changes other than just the extra level of the music. I suggest getting a free audio sample (time permitting) as a strong aid to making a good choice in online mastering.

As with complete mastering the most appropriate files to send are 24BIT .aiff or .wav files at 24 bit resolution at the sample rate of your project (the mastering engineer will sample rate convert if required).MP3, AAC, Ogg vorbis and .wma files are not normally optimal for mastering purposes as they are already a compressed file format and some of the quality of the original audio has been lost when it was made smaller.