FAQs

Most asked questions about mastering

Have a few questions and not too sure where to start? I’ve compiled some of my most often asked questions about the mastering process below. Take a look and get in touch with me if you have any other questions.

Mastering FAQs

I will take the music to a loudness level that will make it listenable amongst commercial releases but I am not interested in crushing the life and dynamics out of a piece of music to get an extra couple of dbs; that’s what the volume control on a playback device is for.

Of course, if you bring coffee.  Joking aside, I am more than happy to have people attend the session however the way a mastering engineer listens to a song can be a little frustrating for an artist!

I don’t have an equipment page on my website.  This is not an oversight or a way of hiding the fact that I may have bad equipment.  This is because I don’t believe it to be relevant. If anyone is interested in my equipment and or processes I will gladly divulge.

I will say that I work in a well treated studio with very accurate monitoring that I know inside/out and the tools I use to master and just that, tools.  

“Nobody judges a joiner by what brand of saw he uses they judge his work”  I can’t remember who said this but it is comparison I enjoy.

Before starting the master I need a running order for the songs.  With the way I work I like to lay the songs out in order so I can get an idea of the flow of your album.  Before sending out the masters I need any metadata that’s to be embedded into the tracks.