Frequently Asked Questions:

Why should I have my music mastered by you?
Do you do Analog or Digital Mastering?
What sets you apart from other mixing/mastering services?
How much?
Do you have a Guarantee?
What formats do you accept?
Can I be there when you work on my project?
How do I start?

Why should I have my music mastered by you?

Once you've recorded and mixed your songs to your satisfaction, you can then get the additional perspective of someone who has many hours of experience in listening to projects like yours, and who is able to make them translate well on most systems. All projects are different and they all pose different challenges. You want someone who has dealt with many artists and projects that range from the most minimal setups to high-end studios, and you definitely want to work with someone who also has experience in working with other mix engineers to get your mixes ready for mastering. This is the level of experience, knowledge and skill that we bring to your project.

Do you do Analog or Digital Mastering ?

I use a combination of Analog as well as Digital tools. I'm constantly trying different processors and if they don't improve the sound or workflow, I send them back. I can honestly say I'm set with the amount of processors I currently own.

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.

What sets you apart from other mixing/mastering services?

I choose to work primarily with Hip Hop, and have experience working on a wide variety of releases. If you're reading this, chances are you're already familiar with some of the projects I've worked on. An important part of the process involves having the best mixes possible, and I have years of experience in working with many artists & engineers making sure the mixes are optimal for mastering.

How much?

Please check our Services Page for the most current rates. If you have a large volume of songs, contact us so we can discuss a discounted rate.

GUARANTEE: 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.

You can expect your project will be sonically comparable to anything commercially released. Initially, the goal is to make the music as impactful as possible without distorting it. If you have a specific vision on what the material should sound like after mastering, please let us know and we would discuss it with you after listening to the mixes.

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. We don't keep the masters, sessions and other files much longer after delivery, so please back up your files in multiple places.

          

What formats do you take?

We can work with any format, analog or digital. Analog formats would be transfered into our DAW at 24/192k. Digital formats are processed in their native sample rates, at 32-bit float point precision. We prefer .wav, .aif (uncompressed), but also accept DAT or CD-R/CD-RW) and digital transfers (hit us up about how to do that). Please don't normalize your mixes. 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). If you feel you must, always save the normalized file as something else to keep the original mixdown intact.

For Mastering: Digital files up to (32-bit float) 24 bit/192kHz are accepted. Contact us regarding analog sources.
For Mixing/Mastering: Consolidated audio tracks at your native resolution, up to 24/192kHz. Files can be 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.

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 with having a pro-quality, experienced engineer 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.

       

 

Updated 6/10/15