Stem Mastering - $50 per song
Stem Mastering
Prices include Priority Mail delivery and our full Custom Mastering services as described below.
We use Taiyo Yuden and Mitsui (MAM-A) Media burned at optimal burning speeds on Plextor burners to guarantee you a high-quality Premaster, just like you would expect from any high-end Mastering Facility in the world.
Overnight delivery also available
at an extra cost. Ask about our Online Delivery methods as well.
CD
Mastering:You got your tracks mixed just the way you want
them, but when you burn a CD, they don't sound as loud & crisp
like other CDs you bought at a store. We will make sure your project
sounds as professional as anything out there. Mastering
is a creative process as it is a technical one, and you should have
someone who knows what your music is supposed to sound like work with
your project. Prices include 2 high-quality, Red Book-certified PMCD
(Pre-Master CD) which you can use to send to any replicator on the planet, or use
as your master copy source if you're going to burn your own CDs.
Not sure
if you want to spend your hard-earned money on us? You might want to take advantage of our free test master offer. Send us one of your tracks and let us try to earn your business by showing you our level of quality with one of your own joints.
Mixing/Mastering: We mix in a hybrid Pro Tools 7 environment (using high-end analog tools to spice up the digital environment). You can send in your Pro Tools sessions (Mac or PC, LE or HD sessions, up to 24 bit/96kHz resolution). If you are working on another platform other than Pro Tools, you will need to export each individual track with consolidated regions, in .wav or .aiff formats (all audio files should be the same length from beginning to end of session). We then import your audio files into a Pro Tools session.
Preparing your project for Mixing & Mastering
The rate to Mix and Master a song is a flat $250. This includes full custom mastering of the song after mixdown. If you need alternate mixes, such as an instrumental version, acapella version, or a radio edited version (which involves muting or reversing cuss words), these are done at small extra fees:
Instrumental (Mixed & Mastered) - $20 extra
Acapella (Bounced with effects, not mastered) - Free (make sure you ask for them!)
Radio Edit (Mixed & Mastered) - $50 extra
(for radio edits, we require a lyrics sheet with specified words that you want us to mute or reverse).
For questions
regarding our Digital Services, and mastering questions in general,
check the FAQ or send an email to: mastering (at) redsecta.com
Digital
Mastering Frequently Asked Questions:
Why
should I have my music mastered?
Because
your music will sound louder, warmer, clearer and tighter; people
who don't work with music and just like to listen to it can intuitively
hear the difference between a good mastering job and a bad one. The
average head that buys CDs once in a while is ACCUSTOMED to hearing
a good-quality recording and doesn't even realize it. Mastering is
the final step in the production process; it's what polishes all your
tracks and makes them sound like they were all recorded in the same
place and time.
Is
"Digital Mastering" just as good as getting my tracks mastered
at a Mastering House with all that analog equipment?
In one
word: NO. The most important thing to consider when getting your music
mastered is the actual human being involved, more specifically, their
ears. Many Mastering Engineers have hundreds of hours of experience
in manipulating sound with the purpose of creating a product that
is ready to be heard on the radio and sold in stores, the goal is
to get that "commercial" sound. At the same time, they have
gear not easily available to the average consumer, like customized
analog & digital processors that cost a lot of money to repair
and maintain.
Another aspect to consider is that certain analog tools add an "unpredictable" amount of noise during the mastering stage, which can be perceived as "warmth" because the noise that some of these analog tools reproduce in their circuitry is actually pleasing to most of us subconsciously, and with high-end analog tools, this 2nd & 3rd order harmonic distortion is not the same type of harsh, obvious noise that is heard from lesser-quality "prosumer" gear. Digital is like space, it's flat, which isn't as nice as some analog noise. Some Digital Tools have been modeled after classic analog processors by to give digital recordings that sought-after analog sound and feel, and can improve the sound of your digital tracks and the best combination seems to be a combination of both high-end analog processors and high-quality DSP effects that don't sacrifice quality for a low amount of system usage (which is typical of a lot of native plugin effects on the market).
Getting
your project mastered at a top-notch commercial mastering house with
some really nice, preferably customized analog gear is still king. Keep in mind, however, that you will be paying a lot more on overhead and hourly charges on this type of facility, when there are other facilities such as ours, that offer similar high-end gear from a "freelance" standpoint that will cost considerably less since the projects are handled on our time. The last thing to consider is the first mentioned here; who is mastering your music and what other projects have they been involved with? No analog processor on earth is going to make a difference in the quality of your music if all they do is squash the material to death, which is the current trend for commercial releases these days.
What
type of mastering should I go for?
If you
can afford it, and have the material to warrant the kind of processing found in customized analog mastering, always go with a high-end professional mastering facility
that uses the best analog and digital gear, who has experience in
mastering retail-ready projects, and has reputable engineers that
have experience working with the type of music you're making and who
can answer any questions you might have about the process. As you're
probably aware, this is the best way to go but it is also a lot more
expensive than having a freelance mastering facility do the work for
you.
If you
decide to go with a freelance mastering facility such as ours, make sure they work
on the type of music you're doing and if possible, ask for samples
of their work. There are some digital tools out there that are very
good and don't cost nearly as much as some analog tools used by high-end
mastering studios. The problem with this is that anyone can purchase
them, dial up a few presets and call themselves "Mastering Engineers",
so before you go with a digital facility, make sure you are satisfied
with their work. A good facility will give you A/B examples to show
you before and after results and will offer to do "one-offs"
for you to gain your trust and business. Here are a few things to
consider in choosing:
Go to
a commercial Mastering House if:
- You have your mixes on media other than CD-R or DVDs, such as 2" reels, make sure the mastering house you will be going to has a 2" machine available for this that is calibrated and well-maintained
- You plan on being part of the mastering session
- You
have the budget to afford it
Go to
a freelance Mastering Engineer if:
- You have your mixdowns on media that easily transfers to most studios (DATs, CD-Rs, DVDs)
- You're
on a tight budget and will consider not paying more for being at the session, while expecting the same professional results that you would from a high-end studio
Why
should you master my music?
First
of all, we only work with hip hop. we got started DJing, making beats, and finally mixing rap projects. One suggestion any professional engineer will give you is to
have someone else besides you master your recordings. Professionals
will always tell you that a set of fresh ears is a good thing for
your music; the best thing is to have a fresh set of ears that specializes
in the same type of music you're creating (if experience means anything,
we've been working with Hip Hop since 1992). If you're an independent
hip hop artist, who just can't afford to sell your car in order to pay to master
your project, we're the Mastering solution you're looking for. If
you like what the final product sounds like, and the money that you
saved, we believe you'll come back and give us more work, and probably
refer your friends. If you're grinding like a lot of independent artists are these days, having a good quality CD that you will sell at shows and other functions will pay back for the cost of mastering down the line, and we know this from experience in working with artists that have done just that. The opposite is true, however. If you sell CDs that are squashed to death (poorly mastered), you can be sure you won't be getting the same cat buying your CDs again.
We work with a combination of excellent analog & digital tools to meet today's digital music demand. Our analog tools give your digital recordings a life that you don't get from mixing with only digital effects. We are a freelance service, which basically means you save a lot of money because you don't have to pay hourly fees or for many of the things commercial facilities have to pass on to you (like tacking on the cost of say, an XBOX 360 and a Plasma screen for a lounge room). The drawback to using our service is that you have to wait to receive your mastered project usually around a week afer you've sent it in.
What
exactly would you do to my project?
Even
if you don't let us master your project, you should always ask the
mastering facility you go with to break the process down for you.
If you don't understand what certain terms like "Dithering"
mean, don't be afraid to ask! A professional mastering engineer should
understand that your project is extremely important to you, and should
answer any questions you might have about the process.
This
is what we would do to make your project sound its best:
- Listen
to each of the mixes you submit and check for mixdown issues (things
like distortion, too much compression or too much processing like
reverb or delay will be things that no amount of custom mastering can fix, so huge
problems like this will need to go back and be fixed at the mixdown
stage).
- Trim
Tops & Ends of each track. Fade ins/outs at your discretion;
they can be gradual or dramatic. In other words, any way you want
them.
- Noise
Reduction (when needed).
- Hum
Removal (when needed).
- Click
& Pop Removal (when needed).
- Equalization
- Compression
- Limiting
- Dithering
- Track
Spacings*
- Insertion
of PQ & ISRC codes for CD Duplication*
- UPC
Bar Code if available
- Artist
Name, Project Title & Track Titles at your request (CD-TEXT).
*We can
insert the standard 2 second gap between each track, or if you want
to get more creative, we can add crossfades between tracks (for example,
inserting an interlude between two tracks that fades in at the end
of the first track and fades out somewhere in the beginning of the
next track). Do you want the next track to start after the interlude
or during the interlude? We can insert the PQ & ISRC (Industry
Standard Recording Codes) if you have them, for the tracks in your
project.
At the
very beginning, if we find problems that we feel are bad enough to
consider another mixdown, we will let you know before we proceed.
There's no point in you wasting your money on mastering if the end
result is not going to be satisfactory; mastering a mix with serious
problems will only enhance those problems.
These
days, any replicator will make the glass master from a red book CD-R,
but if the replicator you're working with prefers the master source
to come to them on DAT, we can digitally transfer your project to
DAT also.
How
much?
One flat
fee, no hidden costs. 1 week turnaround for projects up to 20 tracks
long. Two week turnaround for projects that are longer than 20 tracks.
In most cases, your project will be done sooner (keep in mind that
we may be working on other people's projects at the same time as yours!)
1 - 5 Songs: $35 per Song
6 - 10 Songs: $30 per Song
11 Songs & up: $25 per Song
If you've
shopped around for mastering, you probably know that rates vary from
studio to studio. Some places charge by the hour, some charge per
audio minute, etc. We choose to charge per song for a few reasons:
First of all, you don't have to worry about us charging you a couple
of extra hours here and there on the basis that one or more of your
tracks needed "extra treatment" or something like that.
Each song is different. We don't dial up some presets on our processors
and call it done; we treat each song individually. What we do ask
for is a reasonable amount of time to give you a professional master.
One week for 20 track projects and two weeks for projects over 20
tracks. This gives us plenty of time to treat each song individually
without worrying about the clock and later take a step back and listen
to the entire project as a whole and make sure it's cohesive. Mastering
as you know is different than Mixing; there's a bit of patience and
creative process involved. There are people out there who treat mastering
jobs like engineering jobs, much like a drive-thru at McDonalds and
they'll tell you they can have your project done in a few hours...watch
out!!!
GUARANTEE:
We guarantee that we will do our best to make your material sound similar in loudness and clarity as any commercially-purchased CD. In many cases, our clients have reported that their CDs sound better than some of the major label releases they've purchased, but this all depends on the quality of the mixes, first and foremost, and all projects are unique.
We start our mastering services by evaluating your mixes and will work with you towards making your mixes sound as good as they can before mastering. If you forfeit this evaluation phase and ask us to work on your project "as is", we will master what you have sent in and do the best we can, so please be sure to allow us the time to evaluate your mixes before we begin.
There are no refunds on mastered projects that have been delivered. All fees are due upon submitting your project for mastering. If you decide that you don't want your project mastered while we're in the middle of mastering it, you will be refunded 50% of all fees.
If you are unhappy with the quality of the masters, we will do our best to work with you and will do a reasonable amount of revisions on your project to get it to sound as best as it can, as long as they are reasonable. You have 5 days from the day you receive your masters to ask for any revisions. If you have any questions as to what we consider "reasonable" revisions, please contact us.
I
have bad mixes, can Mastering fix them?
NOPE.
What can fix your bad mixes is better mix engineering and a detailed
analysis of what went wrong in the first place. There's a huge difference
between Mixing and Mastering. When you Mix, you pay attention to the
individual tracks in each song. When you Master, you pay attention
to the overall sound of the song and figure out how to make it as
loud as possible while maintaining the punch and subtleties of the
track. For free, we can give you our 2 cents as to how to improve
your mixes. If you send us the cuts in question, we're willing to
help you out by pointing out the problem areas and point you in the
right direction to getting your mixes to sound tighter. The way we
see it, if you decide on having us master your projects at a later
time, it only makes our job easier (and more fun to work with).
When
you mixdown your tracks, don't have your master level peak at zero,
instead mix the tracks to peak at -5db to -3db (or get it as close
to zero without hitting 0db); sure you want to have your mixes sound
loud, but mastering takes care of that, and hitting digital zero gets
rid of the headroom needed to make your tracks bump and sound better
at the mastering stage.
What
formats do you take?
You can
send in your tracks on DAT, CD-A, CD-R, CD-ROM, DVD, even audio tape
if that's all you got (we prefer DAT or CD-R/CD-RW) and digital transfers
(hit us up about how to do that). DON'T NORMALIZE THE TRACKS (if your
tracks have a bit of noise, hum or any other unwanted elements that
need to be removed with our restoration tools, you will only make
those problems louder when normalizing without having us get rid of
them first). If you feel you must, always save the normalized file
as something else to keep the original mixdown intact.
For
Mastering: Stereo files up to 24 bit/96kHz are accepted.
For Mixing/Mastering: Any version of Pro Tools either on Mac
or PC format, 24 bit/96kHz. If you do not work with Pro Tools, we'll
need individual audio files for each track with consolidated regions,
either .wav or .aiff (all audio files should be the same length from
beginning to end of session).
Can
I be there when you work on my project?
No. To
be able to have the low prices we do professional mixing and mastering
work for, we have to do what is known as "unnattended" services.
We are
typically working on 5 or more projects at any given time and if we
were to have clients present, we would have to charge by the hour,
since having clients around usually involves answering a lot of questions
they might have about the process.
Most
of the high-end commercial mastering houses that charge hourly allow
clients to sit in on sessions. It's probably a good business opportunity
to bring clients in, give them soft drinks, fire up the PS3, give
vague answers about mixing and mastering while the clock is running,
but that's not our business model.
We figure you are paying
us to mix and master your project for you, so let us concentrate and
do our job. If we are doing both mixing and mastering for you, we
will keep you involved by providing mixdown CDs before mastering,
in case you want to change something in the mix before we master it.
We work with a lot of clients all over the U.S. and a few Internationally
and this way of working usually has a fast turnaround. We are also
capable of online delivery.
The most
important thing you should understand about paying your hard-earned
money on our services is this: We are a legitimate business in the
county of Los Angeles. We are very dedicated to customer service as
much as we are to doing professional audio work. To date, we have
not had any complaints from our customers regarding our quality of
work and our turnaround. The secret behind this is a commitment to
high-quality work, our understanding of the importance of your projects
and honesty.
If you feel you absolutely have to sit in on the mastering session, we respect that. For that kind of service, check out your local mastering studios; the best advice we can give you is to ask what the rates are and to give you an approximate estimate of how long it will take to complete the project, as well as making sure they have experience in your type of music.
Our services are geared towards independent artists and record labels that are ultimately concerned in having a pro-quality facility, with high-end analog and digital tools work on their material at a fraction of the cost that they would pay at a high-end facility, while expecting the same, pro-quality results and who understand that overheard costs are passed on to the client.
How
do I start?
We like
honesty, and if we can't work with what you want us to master, we
will tell you, and why. Reasons for us not being able to master your
tracks would involve really bad mixes, distorted levels, digital pops
& clicks or tracks that have been already "mastered"
(meaning the levels have been pushed up to or near 0db but the sweetening
before normalizing the track was not done right, i.e., over-compression,
bad EQing, etc.) The last thing we'd like to remind you is to think
of Mastering as the final "enhancement" stage to your project.
If your mixes are no good, Mastering will only "enhance"
the problems. So, if you're at a stage where you're happy with your
mixes, then you're ready to have the project mastered. Get your tracks
together, in the order that you want them, do not normalize your tracks
or add any more compression or eq to them, and go ahead and proceed
to give us as much information as possible about your project by sending
us an email to: mastering (at) redsecta.com,
or call L-ROX: 323-574-5008.
Confidentiality
Policy
We are
professionals who understand how important it is for our clients to
protect their music. We don't share your music with anyone; only the
people who are involved in working on your music will hear it, and
your files will never leave our lab. We do not keep backups of any
projects we work on. When we're done with a project, and have sent
the material to our clients, we ask that they back up the files we
send them, then let us know when they've done that so that we can
remove the files from our drives.
Before
you send us your material to work with, make sure you have your material
copyrighted (you should have your material copyrighted before giving
it out to anybody for that matter). We copyright our own works regularly,
and know that sometimes it takes months to receive the certificates
back from the Library of Congress, so here's a tip: ALWAYS mail your
copyright submissions via Certified Mail, which returns you a signed/stamped
slip letting you know when the LOC received your package. The Library
of Congress acknowledges the date of receipt as the date of registration,
so you don't have to wait the 6-8 months it takes sometimes to receive
the certificate. If you have any questions regarding our confidentiality
policy, don't hesitate to contact us at (323) 574-5008 or email: help (at) redsecta.com.
For copyright-related questions, check the Library of Congress' Copyright
Web site.
Updated Without Bull On
7/9/08
