Mastering Specifications

We can make your music more vivid and lively with that extra delicate touch. Mastering can be done analogue or hybrid and is done in one of the most spectacular studios in the north of the Netherlands. Analog tape and restoration is also an option.

Our master engineer excels in recognizing the boundaries where mastering meets cutting and cutting meets vinyl pressing for an optimized result at the highest level possible. The final product of vinyl is essential with an ace sound of mastering! All mastering issues can be discussed with our master engineer so your sound will be beyond your imagination. Please feel free to contact us for more information.

Analogue Mastering Specifications

• Formats: WAV, AIFF, FLAC (lossless) or DDP Image.
• Bit Rate:  24 bits (16 bits works too) 32 bits is overkill.
• Sampling Rate:  44,1 kHz or higher, we prefer 48 khz.
• Tracklist:  Tracks with sensible hi end frequencies sound better at the beginning of each side, the highs can sound slightly more distorted and less clear near the end of each side due to less playback speed.
• Compression/Limiting:  Slight mixbus compression/limiting is not a problem if you know what you do, otherwise don’t use it (recommended).

Reference Tracks

It can be good to send a reference track along, but only AIFF, WAV or FLAC (uncompressed). MP3 is not a good reference because of the data compression, so links to youtube or soundcloud neither.

Maximum Side Lengths 12″ Records for optimized sound

• Maximum levels, approx +6 dB: 6 min at 45 RPM, 8 min at 33 RPM.
• Sufficient levels, approx +4 dB: 8 min at 45 RPM, 11 min at 33 RPM.
• For dj use, approx 0 dB: 11min at 45 RPM, 15 min at 33 RPM.
• Maximum playtime albums for optimized sound, approx -6 dB and lower: 18 min at 45 RPM, 24 min at 33 RPM.
  (keep in mind this is not possible or recommended with more bass heavy music, a record with just speech might be even longer then 24 min but not recommended).

* Longer playtime is possible but not recommended.

Tips

• Try to use de-essers on vocal tracks in mixing, it’s better then solving these issues in mastering.
• Don’t go wild on stereo width enhancers for loud cuts!Keep the stereo content at least lower then half of the mono content, so at least 6db lower (in M/S coding). We use an elliptical filter to transform the lowest stereo information to mono. For loud cuts at least 9 dB difference is nice. Stereo cuts vertical and modulation get’s much more limited, which means less hard cuts.

Extra digital masters

It’s possible to order extra digital masters for online distribution. This is what you get by default:

• Streaming Ready Master (iTunes) – 1dbfs, 24 bits (for sending to iTunes) Minimized clipping, better for data reduction and reduced loudness for streaming, so dynamic range before loudness
  Conversion will be done by iTunes. With possibly slight adjustments in sound to reduce issues caused by data reduction.
• MP3 320 kb Normalized Master – minimized clipping, for sharing with MP3 data reduction. With possibly slight adjustments in sound to reduce issues caused by data reduction.
• 16 bit WAV Masters – extra conversion from the original Vinyl master for normal DJ use and digital distribution.

* More formats with different specs on request, price will be customized in that case too.