Mastering is the final step that will ensure your mixes sound the very best they can. Working with the final stereo mix ensuring that it is balanced and it’s over all volume is one that competes on a commercial level. We will be adding depth, width and warmth making your recordings sound like a record.
There is no voodoo in mastering, no "magic," no "silver bullet." It is merely based on the proper use of Compression, EQ, Saturation, Limiting and possibly some sort of Clipping, but most importantly, it's the use of an unbiased ear in a well tuned and understood listening environment. The sonic treatment of the mix is just part of the mastering process.
Preparing the actual CD is the other essential part of the mastering process. Deciding on the "flow" of the record song to song, the spacing between the songs, the order of the songs. All of these come into play when turning your music into a record.
Creating the replication/duplication ready master: You'll be making hundreds if not thousands of copies of your master CD. Lets make sure that it is an error free properly functioning master.
An mp3 is only as good as what it was encoded with. Proper high quality encoders can make 256kbs mp3s sound like the original CD track. All mastering projects include multiple bitrate conversions.
