Mastering

Another primary service of Great Mix is Mastering. Mastering has been referred to as the Black Art of the audio business. Although to most, it may seem that it is, it is quite simple once you understand the principals of audio. Mastering, or as it should be more properly called Pre-Mastering, is the final processing step in the recording chain between the studio and manufacturing of the product. Why do we call it Pre-Mastering? Because Mastering is actually done at the CD plant when they make the Master for replication. Pre-Mastering doesn't sound very sexy, hence the general term Mastering.

Jacques Sewrey has been mastering projects for over 15 years. Being a Mastering Engineer requires many years of listening and experimenting with how to get great sounding recordings. To master recordings you need to understand how they are recorded, mixed and arranged. Without this knowledge you would have no idea on how to make a recording sound as best as it can be. Jacques had over 14 years of experience recording before he started mastering songs.

If you would like to know what mastering can do for your project we will Master 1 song for you, at no charge, to compare with, this way you do not need to commit the whole project to mastering if we cannot make it better for you.

A bit of history, years ago, between the 50’s and 80’s after you mixed your songs they went to the record plant where the “Mastering Engineer” cut the master acetate that would be used to make the stampers that were then used to press vinyl records. Starting in the late 60’s some engineers got their own cutting lathes and did their own mastering. They became well known and producers started using this new breed of mastering engineer to cut their records because they got a better sound than from the factory guys. In the middle 80’s when the compact disc came along the industry called upon the vinyl mastering guys to “Master” the CD’s and for a short while it was not good. But life goes on, and now we have “Mastering Engineers” who do a bang up job of making sure the songs sound as good a possible before the project gets delivered.

One last thought, Mastering is part art and part science, surprising results can be done creatively to make your project sound awesome. Please contact us with any questions regarding the Mastering process and what we can do for your project.

Rates: A typical rock/pop project is $475.00 This includes processing the material and "Master CD".
Smaller projects and other types of projects are done at $65.00 per hour.

Formats accepted:
Audio files: wav, aiff, sd2, Masterlink CD24. These should be interlaced stereo files. Call for other formats not listed.

TIPS before you Master your project:
Know who you are going to master with before you are done mixing. Many times a mix engineer will have the mastering engineer take a listen to his mix to make sure there are no problems that should be fixed before it goes to mastering. The mastering studio uses very high quality playback and processing systems and can spot problem areas in the mix. These should be addressed during mix rather than in mastering. Mastering is not meant to be a surgical process, rather an overall polishing of the entire project. Have the order of the songs figured out. Leave room at the beginning of the audio file and do not fade the end of the song. It is much better to let the mastering engineer do this as it can be modified shorter or longer to fit the song as it moves into the next one. Do not alter your sample rate or bit depth of your raw tracks. If you recorded at 24bit by 48k do not dither down to 16bit by 44.1. The mastering engineer should do this.

Recording

Great Mix primarily does location recording. This can be a simple 2 microphone stereo recording of live performances or multiple microphones recording on many channels. We have a wide selection of professional microphones to capture any sound source. We also work with many local studios and can record in a studio atmosphere if the project requires it. Please visit the discography page for a listing of the artists we have worked with. We are very interested in discussing with you, your recording project.

Rates: $185.00 for a typical 2 hour concert performance using a stereo mic and includes a edited CD. This is considered an archival type of recording.

$265.00 for a 2-3 hour recording session, performance or non-performance, includes 2 hours editing, best quality Mastering and finished CD. This would be used for doing a professionally released project.

$365.00 starting rate for a multiple microphone/ multiple tracks project. Maximum channel count at any one time is 44.

Mixing

Mixing is usually a part of the recording process, in a contemporary project, in which we take all the individual tracks/instruments/vocals etc. and mix them to create a stereo mix. This process can be very straight forward or quite involved and creative. I listed this separate as there may be times when an artist has recorded on his own and is looking for someone who is better experienced or has a different slant to mix their project. If you are in need of mixing services we would be ecstatic to assist you in getting your project mixed so that the music reflects your persona/style.

Rates: $60/hr plus any special needs. Contact us with any questions.

Production

Many artists choose to produce themselves. While this may seem logical, most of the time it does not work out well. Why not? As a musician you need to concentrate on your playing and working with the rest of the band. As a producer you are listening to the band as a whole, making sure tempo, tuning and arrangement are working together to create the proper experience. I don’t know many artists that can pull this off, producing their projects the first couple of times or even at all. That’s why there are producers. Even the Beatles had a producer.

I have produced many bands and projects, helping the artist achieve their vision while taking care of the more mundane background tasks. My style is not to impose but rather guide the artist through the recording/project process. Give me a call and find out what I can help you with.