What is mastering?
Mastering takes your mixes and finishes them off and, assuming the recording and mixing has been done well, is often the missing link between how your recordings sound and what you want them to sound like!
The mastering engineer offers a fresh pair of ears in an acoustically accurate environment. This is useful because, after recording and mixing, the artist, producer and engineer may have become so involved with the recordings that it is almost impossible to be objective. As a result, it is partly defeating the object to have your producer or mix engineer perform the mastering.
This is why we have tied in with Sterling Sound. If we have mixed your recordings and you would like us to provide a mastering service, we can offer you a one-stop solution where we present you with the finished work, completed by “THE” mastering studio in New York. We are also happy to accept recordings that we haven't worked on for mastering by Sterling Sound, and in this role we can submit the files and manage the transaction for you.
Mastering involves a variety of techniques, for example:
Applying equalization techniques
Adjusting volumes
Peak limiting
Dynamic expansion
Dynamic compression
Removing unwanted sounds such as hum, hiss, clicks and pops
Adjusting stereo width
Adding ambience
Converting the audio to the required format (eg. for a CD this would be 16 bit 44.1kHz wave files)
Applying dither
The list represents a set of possibilities – what each recording needs is very individual and it is most unlikely that all tasks will be carried out on a single piece.
We also offer two levels of in-house mastering utilizing our accurate room.